If the damaged document does not open, you may receive one of the following error messages: 'This file cannot be opened by using Microsoft Word. Method 2: Open the file with the text recovery converter If the strange behavior persists, restart Windows, and then go to method 3. Verify that the strange behavior no longer occurs. Step 3: Confirm that repairing the document can solve the problem. Step 2: Click the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open and Repair. In the Open dialog box, select the corrupted file that you want to open. Step 1: On the File tab, click Open > Browser. If you can open the damaged document, use the followings steps to force Word to repair a damaged file. Method 1: Open and repair damaged Word document Repair a corrupted Word file with a third-party tool Open the file with the text recovery converter Open and repair a corrupted file in MS Word

This article contains step-by-step methods that may help you partly or fully restore your document. Guess you want a secure way to repair/recover text from a damaged Word document. When attempted to open a damaged Word document, you might come across the corruption error message like ' Word experienced an error trying to open the file', 'Incorrect document layout and formatting', 'Unreadable characters on the screen', etc. How to Recover Text from a Corrupted Word Document

Text recovery converter