Get back your impaired MS Word documents into seamless functioning

Though all of us are well aware about the basic know-how on MS Word, I will just brush up on this popular Microsoft office suite that is widely used globally for the past two decades now. Microsoft word traversed a long path since it was first launched in the year 1990. Computer usage is maximized with loads of official work that is carried on Word file in a secure and safe manner. Microsoft is making the work of millions of users simple and effortless by releasing new versions of MS Office with added features which make the work on this application really interesting. MS Word is an application that enables the users to digitize document by sharing and creating text documents that can be consumed and shared over network for wide number of usage.

This suite comes handy with many goodies which are preferred widely at corporate and enterprise level to maintain the workflow with ease. The best part of this office suite goes to its enhanced beneficial features for increased productivity and collaboration at workplace and it is now deemed to be the most recognized productivity suite at enterprise and corporate level. MS Word facilitates creating both content and layout template sand offers a good platform that allows users to create letters, flyers, resumes and more making it indispensable suite that dominates the market of Word processors.

Let’s get into the basic of different file extensions:

1. DOC (.doc): This is the default file extension of MS Word file that was/is used in the earlier versions of MS Office, i.e. 2003 and earlier. The Doc file extension is basically used in MS Word binary file format storing data in single binary form.It can also be created in MS Word 2007 and any later versions.
2. DOCX (.docx): This extension is a Microsoft Word Open XML document format comprising of text, images, drawn objects, formatting, styles and other file object.
3. DOCM(.docm): This file format is a Word open XML Macro enabled document containing macros executed within the document.
4. DOTX(.dotx): The DOTX file extension is a part of MS Word application, a popular document or text editor. This file is created by the 2007 and later versions of MS Word. Versions prior to 2007 save these templates with .dot file extension. Dotx file extensions are the template files of MS Word. It is an amalgamation of ZIP compression and XML architecture for size reduction.
5. DOTM(.dotm): DOTM is a word open XML Macro- enabled document template containing the default layouts, settings and embedded macros for a document.

Microsoft Word documents can be impaired in some common scenarios like considering a situation when the document is lost or corrupted if an error occurs that forces Word to quit. In more cases like you experience any sort of power interruption while editing, or if you abruptly close the document without saving the changes. 

Have you ever encountered any of these errors?

• “The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.”
• “Word was unable to read the document. It may be corrupt.”
• “The Office Open XML file file name .docx cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.”
• “Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges.”
•   “The document name or path is not valid.”

Some common factors which can impair the Word file:

• Accidental deletion – We encounter many situations that can lead to an accidental deletion of MS Word file due to human error, as considering Office 2007 documents that can be easily deleted by a mistake operation. While working on MS Word our work gets jumbled up that can lead to accidental deletion and overwriting of the word file and counts to be the main reasons of data loss. Computer work is so complex that even an IT professional can do silly mistakes accidentally and in one of the event we some time overwrite any existing data or empty the recycle bin and delete by pressing "Shift".
• Virus attacks – We can defy all kind of technical glitches but fighting off a malware infection is beyond any person until and unless you have to safeguard your system by antivirus software. So as a routine daily interaction with computer word files you are at an ever-increasing risk and verge of getting word document becoming infected with a virus, especially when you haven't installed an Anti-virus program on your system to prevent yourself against a viral threat.
• Hard drive formatting – Now whenever we are having any computer glitches related to the hard drive malfunctioning we resort to Formatting and in real terms this is the greatest fighting plans that can provide us some sort of respite from computer malfunctions so by half heart we need to format our hard drive to restore its proper functioning. When the hard drive is formatted we lose our important data in the form of MS Word files.

We can resort to some manual process to repair the corrupted MS Word.

Manual process #1: Open and Repair feature provided by Microsoft

With the help of this built-in repair tool in MS word we can repair MS Word file to some extent.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word Program on your PC.

Do not open the Word file you want to repair.

Step 2: Go to the File tab > click Open.

Or, you can press Ctrl+O for the same

Step 3: In the Open window, browse the location where the impaired Word file is saved.

Now you can click the file once to select it, but do not open it. Click the drop-down arrow button shown next to Open.

Step 4: Click Open and Repair in the list to let the Word program attempt to repair Word document.

Within a few seconds the selected Word document will be repaired and opened in MS Word program. This trick may fail if corruption is severe. In that case, you can switch to another trick.

Manual process #2: “Recover Text from Any File” Converter of Word

Another built-in feature is the Recovery converter of word program. This feature is also accessed by the open dialog box. Follow the similar steps as in “Open and Repair” process.

Step 1: Instead of clicking the drop-down button next to Open, this time click the arrow shown next to All Word Documents.

Now select Recover Text from Any File (*.*) from the list.

Step 2: Now click Open, and the Word program will attempt to recover text from the file (if possible).

If this trick also fails due to severe corruption, you can try another manual trick.

Manual process #3: Insert Corrupt Document into a New One

Another useful option is to insert the data from corrupt word document to a new document. This can be considered to be an effective and easiest ways to fix corrupt word file.

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word on your system. Don’t open the corrupt Word document. Instead of this, create a new Word document.

Step 2: Now the newly created document is opened in your Word program.

On the Insert tab, click the drop-down button shown next to Object (in the right side). Click Object….

Step 3: In the Object dialog box, click Create from File tab.

Click Browse… to select the corrupt Word document here.

Step 4: In the Open dialog box, locate the Word document.

Click it once to select it, and click Insert.

Step 5: You will come back to Object dialog box.

The selected Word document will be shown here. Click OK to insert the corrupt Word document into a new one.

In order to perform flawless recovery of MS Office word document you can resort to any third party tools that can ease out the whole process of seamless restoration in one shot. You need Microsoft Word document/file recovery software to retrieve the lost file and you can get solution for corrupt MS Office files restoration from here: MS Office Recovery Suite