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 Before spending money on a program for opening corrupt Word documents, try recovering your file first using the tips discussed in an earlier post titled, “Is it possible to open a corrupt Word document?”

If those tips don’t work, try opening the document using a different Word processor or WordPad. If you are on a network, try opening the document from a different computer. If the document remains stubbornly corrupt and un-openable, it’s time to consider a program for the task. First, make sure that you haven’t overlooked the obvious - your backup system. Do you have a recent backup? If so, try restoring the Word document from the backup.

Microsoft Word also has an option where it will automatically create a backup copy of each of your Word documents. However, this option must be enabled. To enable this option for future use, go to the Office button (in Word 2007) and click on Word options. Go to the Advanced link and scroll down to the Save section. Click “Always create a backup copy.”

Programs for opening corrupt Word files include specialized data recovery programs designed specifically for recovery Word documents. However, you still have a few options before you buy. For example, when working on Word documents, Word creates temporary files which are used for auto-recovery purposes. What if you could access those old temporary files? You can!

First, you must find out where Word stores these temporary files. In Word 2007, go to the Office button and click on Word Options. Next, click the Save link. Find the Auto Recover File Location. Word usually defaults to:

C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\

Now, open Windows Explorer by going to the Start button, right-clicking it, and choosing Explore. Navigate to the Auto Recover File Location that you just identified and see if you can find a temporary file of your current corrupt Word document. These files may be hidden so make sure to set your folder options to show hidden files. Do this by clicking on Organize, Folder and Search Options, View, Show Hidden Files and Folders.

These temporary Word files begin with a “~” mark and don’t generally have descriptive names. Look at the modification date for clues. If you try opening the temporary file and receive an Unknown File Type or Windows Cannot Open this File error, choose Select a Program from a List of Installed Programs and then choose Microsoft Word. Keep opening files until you find your corrupt document’s temporary file. Keep in mind, if you find one, it may be of an earlier revision of the document and may not have all of the latest changes.

Temporary files are designed to go away after time. When this happens, a data recovery utility for recovering corrupt Word documents may be your last resort. Many of the tools on the market allow you to try a free scan to make sure your document is recoverable before you buy. This way, you won’t have to pay for a product that might not be able to recover your document.

 Can’t open a Microsoft Word document? File corruption affects files of all types including Microsoft Word documents. Fortunately, you may be able to open that damaged file.

A couple of different techniques are available for opening your Word documents as well as products that you can buy if these techniques don’t work. First, try opening the document using Word’s built-in repair tool. To do this, open Word and then go to the Open dialog box. In Word 2007, you’ll go to the Office button followed by Open. In other versions, you’ll go to File > Open. Find the corrupt Word document and highlight it but don’t open it just yet.

Down at the bottom of the Open dialog box, you’ll see the File Name as well as text boxes that labeled Tools and Open. Click the arrow next to Open and choose Open and Repair. This option is available in Word 2002 and above.

Another option is to try to recover the text from your corrupt file. This option will only recover the text. All formatting, graphics, and other features will be lost. To do this, go into the Open dialog box and look at the bottom right portion of the box. See the drop down arrow box next to the file name box and just above Open? This box dictates the types of files to list. Generally, this will default to say “All Files.” Click the arrow and select “Recover Text from Any File” and select your corrupt Word document.

You can also trick Word into loading the corrupt document by embedding it into a new document. In Word 2007, do this by opening a new, blank document and then going to the Insert tab. Go to the Text area and click the arrow next to Object. Click Text from File and then find the corrupt document. In earlier versions of Word, go to Insert > File and select the appropriate file.

Similarly, you can try inserting the actual Word document as an Object. This time, instead of clicking Text from File, choose Object and choose Create from File.

If you can manage to open the document before it crashes your system, try saving it as a different format such as RTF. The Rich Text Format (RTF) preserves your formatting but eliminates many of the Word document codes that could be causing the corruption.

If the document opens for a short time before crashing, you might also try copying all but the last paragraph mark into a new Word document. The final paragraph mark contains hidden formatting and section breaks and is often the cause of Word corruption. By eliminating it, you may eliminate the problem. To copy the entire document except for this mark, hit Control + A followed by the Shift Left Arrow key. Now, use Control + C to copy the selected text. Open a blank Word document and hit Control + V. Save the new document.

A variety of software utilities are on the market that may be able to open your corrupt Word document if these tips don’t do the trick.

 The short answer is to use the word processor’s Print command. However, it depends on whether or not you want the comments to print out along with the document’s text. I often print documents with the comments included so that I can edit the text offline. Sometimes you just can’t beat editing with a pencil (or red pen) and paper. Having the comments print out alongside the text is useful.

At the same time, I’d never print a document with comments when I was planning on presenting the document to someone else. For example, if I had a manuscript that was filled with comments and I wanted to send it to a publisher, I’d make sure that the comments do not print with the document. These are notes to myself - and not meant for others to see.

When you do want to print comments with your text, you’ll need to set your document up to display the actual comments on screen. This usually means that you will need to set up “Balloons.” For example, if you don’t have Balloons set up, then your comments will appear as your initials inside brackets. When you click the initials, either the reviewing pane opens or you’ll see your comment in a floating menu. While this is handy for onscreen editing, it isn’t so great for printing because your document only shows the initials - not the comments. When you print out the document, you’ll have your standard document text along with brackets containing your initials - but no comments.

To get around this, you’ll need to set up to Balloons. Doing so puts your comments into balloons which are placed in the page’s right hand side margin. This usually makes the margin larger than normal and bunches up the body of the text a bit but you’ll at least be able to see your comments on the page.

To set up Balloons in Word 2007, go to the Review tab and find the Tracking area. See the Balloons icon? Click the down arrow and select “Show revisions in balloons” or “Show only comments and formatting in balloons” depending on your preferences. If nothing appeared to happen, you will need to select Final Showing Markup in order to see your comments.

Once you can see your comments displayed in balloons on your page, you can print and they will be printed alongside your text.

By default, when you create a new Microsoft Word document, what you see is what you get. However, if you are working with a document that has “Track Changes” turned on, you may see something that looks like this:

This sentence is was an sample example.

The crossed out text indicates words that have been edited out of the document while a red underlined letters or words represent insertions. In addition to the edits, you may also see comments, formatting changes, and other information.

While useful when reviewing your document and collaborating with others, leaving your document in this state isn’t desirable. You can easily change the view by going to the Review tab in Word 2007 and finding the Tracking area. In earlier versions of Word, you will need to open the Reviewing toolbar by going to View and selecting Toolbars > Reviewing Toolbar. The four choices for viewing your Word revisions are: Original, Original Showing Markup, Final, and Final Showing Markup.

Choose Original when you want to look at the document as it originally appeared without any editing. Choose Original Showing Markup when you want to see the original document with edits. The option that you choose is also the option that will be printed should you print in the current view. To make the edits disappear and display the clean, edited text, simply choose Final.

Even if you are working with a document that has been marked as “final,” you may still see the revision marks and tracked changes. For example, you can mark a document as final which then turns off editing and “locks” the document. To do this in Word 2007, go to the Office button and click Prepare. Next, click Mark as Final.

However, even after marking the document as final, it may still display the Final Showing Markup. Once again, go to the Review tab or toolbar’s Tracking area and choose “Final.” 

Another option when working with changed documents is to set the Tracking view to Final but open the Reviewing Pane. This allows you to see the final text on the page yet also see any comments and edits in the Review Pane. You can set the Reviewing Pane to display either vertically or horizontally. This gives you the best of both worlds. You can read the text and get a sense of its uninterrupted flow yet also see where changes have been made or comments entered.

 Like many Word 2007 users, the new Ribbon interface is slowly driving me insane. Yes, it’s pretty. Yes, it makes it easy for new users. But everything is completely rearranged and nearly impossible to find!

One of my most commonly used commands in Word 2002 was Edit > Paste Special. Guess what? In Word 2007, there’s no Edit menu option or tab. Where oh where was my Paste Special command? Only recently did I discover that Paste Special was right in front of me all along. However, I didn’t know this a year and a half ago. I solved my problem by customizing the Quick Launch bar.

The Quick Launch bar is that set of tiny icons located next to the Office button just above the Ribbon’s tabs. By default, it has Save, Undo, Redo, and New Document icons. You can add and remove your favorite functions to this area like I did with Paste Special. To do this, simply click the nearly-invisible down arrow located to the right of the Quick Launch bar. If your favorite command is not in the sub-menu, click on More Commands.

More Commands lists all popular commands such as Insert Hyperlink, Paste Special, and Print Preview by default. Simply drag and drop the command you want into the pane on the right. You can switch from Popular commands to All Commands, Commands Not on the Ribbon, Macros, and by individual Ribbon tab.

You can also customize keyboard shortcuts from this screen by clicking the Customize button next to the words “keyboard shortcuts.” This is useful if you prefer a simple keyboard combination for your favorite commands.

While one of the first things I did with Word 2007 was put Paste Special up on my Quick Launch bar, the next thing I did was change the default font. It was hard enough getting used to a whole new interface without also having my documents look different. Word 2007 defaults to the Calibri font which is a nice enough font. However, I like the plain old familiarity of Times New Roman - 12 point.

Changing the default font is simple. On the Home tab you will find an area dedicated to fonts. Find the word “Font” and look to the right of it toward the corner of the Font area. See the tiny little box with an arrow? Here’s yet another barely-perceptible icon that is actually quite useful. Click this icon, called the Font Dialog Box Launcher, and the Font Dialog Box will open. Choose the font and any attributes you’d like such as style, size, or color and click the Default button. Confirm your choice. Now, all future documents will be ready to go with your favorite font.

If you like creating or running macros, you can customize Word 2007 to display the Developer tab which is hidden by default. To do this, go to the Office button, choose Word Options > Popular and place a check mark in the box next to Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.

While in Popular, you can enter your name as you’d like it to appear in the document’s properties as well as the color scheme of Word. Is the blue simply too much for your eyes? Silver is a little less intense while black is kind of cool looking.

Still can’t get used to Word 2007? You can also buy add-ins such as Toolbar Toggle that adds a Word 2003 style menu system to the Ribbon. You can either use it as a tab in the Ribbon or hide the Ribbon altogether.

Is your My Documents folder a disorganized mess? You don’t have to live with My Documents as a default folder for storing your Microsoft Word documents. In fact, I highly recommend that you get organized by creating your own folder system and then telling Word where you want your files stored.

For example, do you use your computer for business or pleasure or both? I use mine primarily for business but I also use it for personal use as well. I do use the My Documents folder however I have dozens upon dozens of sub-folders. Since I have Windows Vista, the My Documents folder is actually called Documents. Inside this folder I have the following sub-folders:

• Financial
• Recipes
• School
• Travel
• Writing

The Financial folder is where I store all of my financial matters such as Microsoft Money data, tax returns, estate planning documents, and insurance documents. The Recipes folder is fairly obvious, right? Inside Recipes are sub-folders for main dishes, appetizers, desserts, casseroles, drinks, and so on. The School folder contains documents related to my daughter’s school such as enrollment packets, school calendars, etc. The Travel folder contains travel-related documents such as itineraries and an emergency contact list for my pet sitter. And alas, the biggest folder of them all: my Writing folder.

As you can probably tell, I am a writer. I write for fun as well as for profit. Within this folder, I have sub-folders for each major market or customer. For example, I have a folder dedicated to Fiction as well as one dedicated to Filetonic articles. Let’s say that I wanted to change my default folder to the Writing folder since I spend most of my time with this folder and its sub-folders. It’s easy to do.

First, I am going to go to the Office button and click on Word options. Next, I’m going to choose the Save link in the left. Once opened, I’m going to find the Default File Location section. Currently, it says:

C:\Users\Celeste Stewart\Documents

I’m going to click Browse and find my Writing file. There it is. Click. Once I click OK, it’s done. Now the Default File Location says:

C:\Users\Celeste Stewart\Documents\Writing

You can easily do the same thing by creating a workable folder and sub-folder system and then telling Microsoft Word to default to your favorite folder.

The downside of assigning a default file folder too deep is that when you go to save a general document, you’ll have to back track a little to save the document in the appropriate folder. In Word 2007, you can click on the folder name in the bar across the top of the Save As dialog box as a short cut. For example, just click on Documents and you’ll be able to save the file in the Documents folder rather than your specified folder.