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If you get an error message in a document such as 'This document may be corrupt...' or 'A table in this document has become corrupt...' -- don't panic! But most important, don't necessarily listen to the error message's instructions either!

Some data corruption error messages instruct you to use the 'Recover Text From Any File' option in the Batch Conversion Wizard -- which you can find on the Other Documents tab of the Templates dialog box (accessible through the On My Computer option under Templates in the New Document task pane). Please don't do this!! Recover text from any file will usually get most of your text, but no formatting whatsoever, and lots and lots of excess junk to wade through in order to find your original text.

The instruction from the table corruption error to '...convert the table to text...' is also leading you where you don't need to go. Table corruption (particularly in tables that come from the Web) is often caused by the table's content rather than its structure -- so converting to text might get rid of a bunch of work you did but not get rid of the problem at all!

Most important in both of the above cases: you probably don't need to go to those extremes anyway!

Though troubleshooting problem documents can sometimes take more steps and some detective work, most common causes of corruption error messages (as well as documents that crash or exhibit other unstable behavior without throwing error messages) can be fixed with the Open And Repair feature.

Open And Repair was introduced in Word 2002, but it does a better job in its second generation in Word 2003. This feature fixes most common causes of document integrity problems automatically, and lets you know what problems existed and where they were in your document. To use this feature, start with your problem document closed. Then:

1. In Word, go to File, Open.
2. Browse to and select your problem file. However, instead of clicking Open, click the drop-down arrow beside the word Open and select Open And Repair from the menu that appears.

Now, when your document opens -- if Word found errors, it will show you a dialog box that list the errors it was able to correct. Just save the document to save the corrections. While this doesn't fix all errors -- and occassionally, errors will recur ... it will get most documents out of a jam in a hurry.

Certainly, there is much more to document troubleshooting than this --but it's an excellent place to start and a phenomenal timesaver. If you create long or complex documents or frequently use content from the Web in your documents, Open And Repair will absolutely change your life. If you tried this method on a problem document and it didn't resolve the issues, post a comment here or drop me an email and I'll try to help.

And please, don't underestimate the value of prevention! It's easy to blame the software, but document problems are often user error. Despite all the fun some writers have trying to make themselves sound smarter by bashing Word -- there is almost always a logical reason for the software's behavior. There are amazingly few actual bugs in this application. Make sure you understand the feature you're using, and save yourself time by taking the time to learn the feature correctly rather than using some convoluted workaround ... you'll be astonished at the time you save and how much better your document both looks and behaves!

Posted by Stephanie

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