# URGENT: Cant open an important word file(encoding problem i guess)



## mani1 (May 22, 2007)

I need to open this word file urgently. Whenever i try to open it, the following window pops up in MS Word 2007 and if I click OK strange characters appear in the word file. The document is in 97-2003 word format and Ive tried opening it on different PCs and even MS Word 2003 and MS Word XP but no luck. 
I remember that Ive come across such files in the past(and I am sure most of u have too) but whenever I clicked OK the document would open. I guess this word file/document uses some other encoding. Please help me open this file. Will any other software work? any other solution...


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## Jack.Sparrow (Jan 22, 2007)

MS word 07 is backwards compatible and because it also gives you an error message, it's possible that the file itself is corrupt.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

I would agree with JS, but you might want to try opening it with Wordpad or Notepad and see if anything shows up.


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## mani1 (May 22, 2007)

tried opening it with wordpad and notepad but still no luck
and this is not just 1 file. There are atleast 30 other word files and this problem is with each one of them.


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## Jack.Sparrow (Jan 22, 2007)

Did you create the files, or download them from somewhere?


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Have a look here and work through each suggestion.

http://www.officearticles.com/word/recover_a_corrupt_microsoft_word_document.htm


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