Knowledge Base

Formatting lost and symbols appear when you open a document in Word for Mac

Article ID: 186436

Article Last Modified on 1/23/2007

Microsoft Word 2001 for Mac
Microsoft Word X for Mac
Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q186436

SYMPTOMS

When you open a document in Microsoft Word 98, Microsoft Word 2001 for Macintosh, or Microsoft Word X for Mac, no formatting is displayed. Instead, text that you did not type and symbols appear throughout the document.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when Word is configured to use the "Recover Text from Any File" setting. When you turn this setting on, only the text in the file is recovered without any of the formatting.

WORKAROUND

To prevent this behavior, follow these steps:

Start Word.
On the File menu, click Open.
In the Open dialog box, use one of the following procedures:
- In the List Files Of Type list, click Word Documents, or click All Files.
- In the Enable box, click All Documents.
Click the file that you want to open, and then click Open.

MORE INFORMATION

The "Recover Text from Any File" setting remains the setting until you change the setting back to "Word Documents" or to "All Files."

For additional information about this behavior, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

180871 How to recover text from any file

Additional query words: convert conversion format formatting missing lost gone stripped squares corrupt damaged

Keywords: kbprb KB186436