In our daily work and study, Microsoft Word documents is one of the file formats we often use, however, due to a variety of reasons, Word documents sometimes appear damaged or can not be opened normally, which undoubtedly gives us work has brought trouble. In this article, we will popularize the causes of Word document corruption and how to repair Word documents effectively.
Common Causes of Word Document Corruption
Understanding the causes of Word document corruption can help us quickly locate the problem, and a better choice of how to
Understanding the causes of Word document corruption can help us quickly locate the problem, and a better choice of how to repair Word documents. There are many reasons for Word document corruption, the most common are the following four kinds:
. There are many reasons for Word document corruption, the most common are the following four kinds:
- Hardware failure: Problems with storage devices such as hard disk drives can lead to loss or corruption of Word document data stored in them.
- Software conflict or error: Such as a sudden power failure, system crash, or abnormal closure of the program during the Word document editing process, may lead to incomplete preservation of the document.
- Virus infection: Computer viruses or malware may damage the structure of the document so that it cannot be read normally.
- File format problems: Word documents have a complex internal structure, if the header information, index section or other key parts of the document have been tampered with or damaged, the document may also be unable to open.
How to Quickly and Simultaneously Batch Repair Word Documents
For Word documents, if the original data is seriously damaged, the most effective repair method may be to use a dedicated Word document repair software, such as MTM File Recovery. The software is specifically designed to solve the problem of Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx) files due to a variety of reasons for corruption or can not be opened.
MTM File Recovery for Word features a powerful scanning engine that deeply analyzes the structure of damaged documents and recovers as much of the original content as possible, including text, formatting, images, tables, hyperlinks, and elements such as headers and footers. What’s more, MTM File Recovery supports batch repair of damaged Word documents at the same time, saving time and effort.
To use MTM File Recovery for Word to simultaneously batch repair Word documents, the following is the specific operation procedure:
Step 1. Install and launch MTM File Recovery for Word.
Step 2. Click the “Add” button on the top of the software to batch select damaged Word documents. Tip: You can also select individual Word documents that need to be repaired.
Step 3. The software automatically starts the scanning process. At that time, the software will display the contents of all the recovered documents.
Step 4. After the scanning is complete, you can view the successfully recovered damaged Word documents as per the preview feature provided by the software.
Step 5. On the left side of the software, check all the Word documents that need to be repaired and then specify a safe destination to save the recovered files, be careful not to save the original file to the location where it is located to prevent overwriting the data that has not been fully recovered.
Alternatives: How to Repair Corrupted Word Documents
Use Word Built-in Repair Tool
Microsoft Word comes with an “open and repair” function, which can effectively repair Word documents as well. Open Word, click on “File” – “Open”, find the document you need to repair, right-click the mouse, and select “open mode” – “open in recovery mode”, Word will try to automatically repair the document. Recovery Mode”.
For newer versions of Word (such as Word 2016 and later versions), the use of the “open and repair” function of the detailed steps are as follows:
- Start the Word program: Open the Microsoft Word application.
- Click on the “File” menu: Find and click on the “File” tab on the top menu bar, which is the main menu entry for Word.
- Select the “Open” command: In the drop-down menu, click “Open” or directly press the Ctrl+O shortcut key on the keyboard.
- Browse to the location of the damaged document: In the pop-up “Open” dialog box, through the left navigation pane or address bar to locate the folder containing the damaged Word document.
- Select the document that needs to be repaired: Click to select the Word document to be repaired and make sure that it is damaged and cannot be opened properly.
- Click on the arrow next to the Open button: Instead of clicking directly on the Open button, hover your mouse to the right of the button and a drop-down arrow will appear.
- Select the “Open and Repair” option: Click the drop-down arrow, in the pop-up menu, select “Open and Repair” (in some versions of the direct display may be “recovery”).
- Wait for Word to automatically repair: Word will now try to detect and repair errors in the document. When this process is complete, it usually restores as much of the document’s content and formatting as possible.
Recovery from Word Document Backups
If you have previously backed up your document (including automatic backups from cloud services such as OneDrive), you can restore an undamaged version from the backup. It is an crucial way of how to repair Word documents.
To restore an older version of a document in Microsoft Word via OneDrive (for files that have been synchronized to OneDrive):
- Open OneDrive: Sign in to your Microsoft account and go to the web version of OneDrive or launch the desktop client.
- Find the location of the document: Find the folder where you need to recover the Word document in the OneDrive file list.
- View File History: Right-click on the Word document and select “Version History” or similar option (in the web version it may be “View Version History”).
- Select the version to be recovered: In the pop-up window, browse through the individual version records and select a version corresponding to the date and time point that you think is not damaged.
- Download or Replace Existing File: Usually, you can choose to download this old version locally, or just click the “Recover” button to set this version as the current one, which will replace the existing corrupted file.
Detailed steps to recover a specific version in OneDrive web version:
- Open OneDrive Web (https://onedrive.live.com/).
- Find and click on the target document to open the preview page.
- Click on the “Version History” option in the menu at the top of the page.
- Browse through the different versions with the modification time and user information displayed next to each version.
- Select the version you want to restore and click the “Restore” button. The system will set the selected version as the current version.
If the files are synchronized with OneDrive on your local computer:
- Right-click on the file and look for version-related options in the context menu.
- Again follow the above method to select an old version and restore it.
Manual Repair through Binary Code
For mildly corrupted documents, such as those with only corrupted header information, users with some technical knowledge can attempt to repair them by modifying the document’s binary code, but this needs to be done with extreme caution and is usually only considered when all other means of repair have failed.
Here is the basic process of how to repair Word documents using binary editors such as WinHex:
- Get the normal file header as a reference: find a Word document with the same version of the damaged document and normal structure. Use a binary editor (such as Winhex) to open this normal document, view and copy the header section.
- Open the damaged document: the same binary editor to open the damaged Word document.
- Locate the file header location: Determine where the file header begins according to Microsoft Office Open XML (.docx) or earlier .doc file format specifications.
- Replace the header information: Copy the header information from the normal document and paste it into the corresponding position of the damaged document to cover the original wrong header content.
- Adjust the parameters: For some specific parameters, you may need to make appropriate adjustments according to the specific conditions of the document to ensure that the new header matches the actual content of the document.
- Save changes and verify the results: Save the modified file, and then try to reopen the Word software to see if the document can be successfully read.
- Step-by-step investigation of other damaged areas: If only repairing the file header is not enough to solve the problem, you may also need to check whether other critical areas (such as directory flow sector, etc.) is damaged, and try to repair.
Be sure to note that direct modification of the binary file may further damage the file. If you don’t have full confidence and expertise, it is best to create a copy of the corrupted Word file first and operate on the copy to avoid irreversible damage to the original file. At the same time, for most users, a more secure and effective practice is to use specialized document repair tools or use the above mentioned “open and repair” function and other conventional methods.
Measures to Prevent Damage to Word Documents
Develop the habit of regular backup of important documents, either local backup or cloud backup, can effectively prevent the loss of documents due to unforeseen circumstances.
At the same time, keep the operating system and Office software up to date to avoid problems caused by software bugs.
You also need to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date to prevent virus attacks from destroying your documents.
Final Words
These are the quick ways to repair Word documents effectively. In the face of Word document corruption, we need to understand its causes, and master certain repair strategies. At the same time, do a good job of daily document protection and backup, in order to minimize the impact of such problems.