ARCHIVED: In Microsoft Word, how can I recover text from a damaged file?

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You can recover text from a damaged Word file in two ways: Open and repair, and Recover text from any file.

Of these, the first method is best because it tries to recover good text from a document. The second method recovers all text; if, for example, a Word document contains a picture, the "recover all text" option will interpret the picture as code (i.e., text). Thus while the second method can recover more material, the text recovered will also probably be less recognizable and require a considerable amount of subsequent editing by hand.

On this page:


Open and repair

  1. Open Word.
    • In Word 2010, click File, select Open, and then browse to the file you want to recover.
    • In Word 2007, from the Office Button menu, select Open, and then browse to the file you want to recover.

  2. Click the file you want to recover. Select the downward arrow on the Open button, and then choose Open and Repair.

Recover text from any file

This method requires you to make a setting change in Word before actually trying to recover text from your damaged document.

  1. Open Word.
  2. Enable the Confirm file format conversion at Open option:
    1. In Word 2010, click File; in Word 2007, click the Office Button.
    2. Select Word Options at the bottom, and then choose Advanced from the sidebar.
    3. Scroll down to the "General" section. Check Confirm file format conversion on Open.
    4. Click OK to return to the main Word window.

  3. In the main Word window:
    1. In Word 2010, click File; in Word 2007, click the Office Button.
    2. Select Open.
    3. In the drop-down box next to the "File name" field, choose Recover Text from Any File(*.*).
    4. Click to select the file you want to recover, and then click Open.

Remember that this method will likely recover more text, but will also require some hand editing to restore formatting.

For more, search Microsoft Help and Support using the terms recover text from any file.

This is document afrq in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 12:19:12.