How to Deal with MS Word Corruption?

A corrupt MS Word document shows abnormal behaviors after you open it. In many cases such a Word document does not open at all. In both the situations, the user will not be able to access and use the document as per his requirements. Microsoft recommends some methods for repairing the corrupt Word documents, depending on whether you can open it or not. Also, you can use some professional-third party tools for repairing them.

Some Microsoft recommended methods for repairing MS Word 2007/2010 documents are listed below.

How to repair a Word document if you can open it?

• Change the template used by the Word document
• Start Word using its default settings
• Change Printer drivers
• Use safe mode of Windows OS
• Repair Word document using Open and Repair command
• Change the format of the document, and then change it back to Word format
• Copy the entire Word document contents to a new document
• Copy the undamaged parts of the affected document to a new document
• Change the document view and remove the damaged content

How to repair a Word document if you cannot open it?

• Open the damaged Word document in draft mode without updating its links
• Insert the damaged Word document into a new one
• Create a link to the damaged Word document
• Use the ‘Recover Text from Any File’ converter

Repair the Word Document by Changing its Template

Here we will show you to repair the Word document by changing its template. It involves three steps:

• Find the template used by the Word document.
• Rename the template if it is the global template; if it is not, change it to the global template.
• Finally, check if the issue has been fixed.

But if you fail to repair the document using this method, you need to proceed to the remaining methods mentioned above.

Note: The screenshots shown here are for MS Word 2010 in Windows XP.

Find the template used by the Word document

1. Open the damaged document, click File>Options on the Ribbon.
   
2. Click Add-Ins, select Templates in the Manage box, and click Go.
   
3. The Document template box of the dialogue box displays the template that is used by the document.
   

Rename the template if it is the global template; if it is not, change it to the global template

The Document template box of the dialogue box displays the template used by the Word document.

If the template is Normal -

1. Exit MS Word.
2. Click Start > Run; type %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates in the Open box. Press ENTER.
3. 
   
   Note: If you are using Windows 7/Vista, click Start , type %userprofile%\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates in the Start Search box and press ENTER.
4. Right-click on Normal.dotm; click Rename.
   
5. Type Oldword.old, and press ENTER.
6. Finally, close the Windows Explorer.

If the template is not Normal -

1. Open the damaged document using MS Word.
2. In MS Word 2010, click File>Options on the Ribbon (In MS Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office button> Word Options).
3. Click Add-Ins, select Templates in the Manage box, and click Go (refer to the diagram in the beginning).
4. Click Attach.
   
5. Select Normal.dotm, from the Templates folder; click Open.
6. Click OK (to close the dialog box).
   
7. Finally, exit MS Word.

Check if the issue has been fixed by the change of the template

Now open the damaged document using MS Word to check if the damage has been rectified. If not, you need to proceed to the remaining methods. Also, you can depend on professional-third party tools to repair the Word documents quickly, visit here : http://www.repairdocfile.com/