Troubleshooting Files

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Because Word files fall under these General File Troubleshooting rules, I include the rules as they apply to any kind of file and not just to Word files.

General File Troubleshooting

One trick that might work with any of the files is to hold down the left shift key while you double-click to open the file. Why? This keeps automatic Visual Basic code from running and certain other auto-commands, which may be causing the error.

Similarly, this sometimes works if you're getting an error starting a program . hold the shift key down while you launch the program.

Another trick that works is to open a file from a higher version of a SIMILAR program. You might not always get the results you want, but you'll be able to edit it and save it back. Sometimes, a different program doesn't 'interpret the corruption' of the document. For instance, try opening a Word 97 file with Wordperfect 8; try opening an Excel 97 file with Lotus 1-2-3 Millenium.

If you're at work and store your files on a network drive, you can always retrieve a copy of your file from the previous network backup. Depending on the size of your company and the response time of your helpdesk, this can take anywhere from one to twentyfour hours or even longer.

If your file resides on a floppy, always try the following, no matter how ridiculous they sound:

Take the floppy out and blow on the areas (I hear you laughing, but it's true!) around the openings.
Try copying the file from the floppy to a location on the hard drive.
Try running scandisk and defrag on the floppy drive.
Lastly, take it to another PC and attempt to open it. If the latter works, you might want to have your floppy drive checked out.

If none of the other troubleshooting helps, look for temporary files on your hard drive as discussed in Step 2 on page 24-4. See if any of these files are of significant size, even similar in size to your original file.

If you crashed your PC and lost your file/changes, check these temporary files for a date and time near to the time of your crash. If you find a likely candidate file, you can rename it to the appropriate file extension, i.e., DOC for a Word document, and attempt to open it. I have seen a lot of work recovered using this method.

Word Document Troubleshooting

If you open a file and, while scrolling or printing, Word locks up or gives a protection fault:

Open the file and hit the Show/Hide button on your standard toolbar.
With your cursor at the beginning of your document, hit Ctrl+End.
Hold down the left shift key and use the right arrow key to deselect any extra paragraph markers at the bottom of your document. If there is only one, you may want to go ahead and deselect the last sentence of your document-you can always retype it.
Hit the copy button or Ctrl+C to copy the document. Paste it into a new, blank document and save it.

Generally, if the file size has reduced considerably, you've probably gotten rid of the corruption. You may need to reset certain formatting, such as landscaped pages. Hit File → Properties and then the General tab to view the file size in the original document, and then in the new document; or just go to Windows Explorer to compare sizes.

If your document still throws errors, most likely there is a graphic or other object in the document that is corrupt. You can copy and paste pieces of your document to a new document, saving the new document each time, until you get the error. Then you can copy the rest of the document-all but that portion-into the new document.

Another trick is to open a blank document, hit enter at least once, then hit Insert → File and insert your 'bad' file into the new file. This method also removes protection from a document that has been protected using Tools → Protect Document, even if it's got a password. It does not work to open a password-protected file.

If all else fails, you can always try using 'Recover text from any file' option under the file types. This generally recovers only the text of your document, as well as some metadata.

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