It is a frustrating news that you have to repair a corrupted Word file if you see one of these symptoms: error messages, messed up formatting and layout, Word stops responding, unreadable characters, or worst an inaccessible document. Don't worry. The main purpose of this article is to help you repair your corrupted document and restore it to the best quality. You'll find out more on how to repair Word documents and the Word document repair tool we are going to use.
In this article
Part 1: Repair Corrupt MS Word file with Professional File Repair Software
1. An overview of Wondershare Repairit
After your Word files are corrupted, the easiest way for you is to find a Word repair tool that can help you address this problem in seconds. Wondershare Repairit is a professional tool that uses a completely safe algorithm that extracts data even from the most corrupted documents.
This tool can repair Word document and at the same time keep the initial text, images, fonts, headers, footers, and so on. It has 2 versions: Online version and desktop version, with distinguishing features of each type. Here is a table to help you choose the product.
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Accessibility: Repairit Online is accessible from any device with an internet connection, allowing users to access them from anywhere at any time. |
Offline Access: Repairit for Desktop can be installed directly on your computer, allowing them to work without an internet connection, which can be beneficial in areas with limited connectivity. |
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Automatic Updates: Repairit Online are regularly updated by the provider, ensuring users have access to the latest features and bug fixes without the need for manual installations. |
Data Control: With desktop products, users have more control over their data since it is stored locally on their computer, reducing concerns about data privacy and security. |
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Free Trial Offered: If you just have several Words and each is smaller than 5 MB to repair, users can directly repair word file online. |
More You Can Repair: The desktop version can fix more Words larger than 300MB, and it can also fix videos, photos, and audio. |
Here I will show you how to repair Word files using Repairit for Desktop.
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Repair damaged files with all levels of corruption, including blank files, files not opening, unrecognizable format, unreadable content, files layout changed, etc.
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Perfectly repair corrupted word .docx files without modifying the original file.
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Provide an easy fix option for text, images, font, hyperlinks, header, footer, etc.
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Support Office 365, MS Word 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, and earlier versions.
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Support Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022, and macOS 10.10~macOS 13.
The interface is designed for any user both advanced and amateur, and the support is complete and comprehensive. If you need reports and logs, you can do that with this Word document repair tool.
2. Step by step to repair MS Word files
Before proceeding any further with this tutorial please download and install this program by accessing this link. After everything is set follow us through:
Step 1: Launch Wondershare Repairit, in the dashboard area, it displays the file selection interface. From the "Other Types Repair" drop-down menu select the "File Repair" and click the "Add" button;
Step 2: Select a folder, and tap the "Repair" button to continue. After you have selected a file from the results table, and hold on a few seconds;
Step 3: The system shows the repaired file; you can preview it and choose to save; In the saving window that has just appeared, select a destination file by clicking the "Save" option;
If you want to learn more about how to repair Word file online，please check this guide.
Part 2: Other 10 Common Methods to Repair a Word File
You can easily lose your temper when an important file gets damaged in a way you cannot access it by any means. There are a couple of things you can do to repair a Word document. If however, none of these seem to help, then go directly to Part 3. We'll discuss there a professional Word document repair tool that will eventually help you repair corrupted Word files with no fuss and no muss.
1. Stop making hasty assumptions
You should never rush into assuming your document is corrupt. Perhaps your system or Microsoft Word itself causes the failure. Good advice would be trying to open the suspected document from another computer even before thinking to restore data or attempting a repair operation to check the document's integrity.
2. Make copies of afflicted documents
I am not teaching you a trick here, but rather giving you a safety stock tip. If I were you, I would surely make a copy of the corrupt document and save it on removable device media, just in case something worst happens to that file. No matter what happens next, you can rest assured, and have a peaceful sleep at night.
3. Check for online copies
Sometimes if you have sent an email containing that particular file to one of your colleagues, you'll hopefully be able to retrieve that copy. All you have to do is access the Sent mail folder and look for the email, or simply use the search feature to find it.
4. Use CHKDSK
Press "Windows" + "R" keys simultaneously and type "CHKDSK". Doing this will check your system for possible errors. You need to know that sometimes your system is the one causing errors. If anything is found, the system will try to fix it. Some even say that CHKDSK can even fix your corrupted files. Do it and find out yourself.
5. Export to different formats
Exporting your damaged file to a different format will most of the time help you fix the problem. The explanation is pretty simple: using an "RTF" or "TXT" file will remove document dependency upon Word components that may cause errors.
6. Raw text reformatting
The previous method is quite effective. However, if the document is inaccessible, you'll be incapable of exporting it to a different format. What you could do is use any other text processor to open the corrupted document. Now you should be able to save the text to a "txt" format.
7. Make use of the Word's built-in tools
Microsoft Word has a build-in text convertor that could recover your document. Follow this path: File> Open> Select your document>Select "Recover Text from Any File" within the "Open" button drop-down menu. Please note that you'll lose text formatting and that you can only apply this method to old Word documents (MS 97-2003)
8. Launch auto-repair manually
Microsoft Word has an auto-repair protocol that launches when a corrupted file is detected. However, you can force the auto-repair function by launching it manually. Click File>Open> Click "Browse">Select a file> Click the "Open" little arrow button> Select the "Open and Repair" option from the drop-down menu.
9. Find the shadow copy of your document
Windows Vista, 8, and 10 have a nice feature called "Shadow" copy which saves copies of your files. Right-click on any document and click "Properties". Navigate to the "Previous Versions" tab and select any version. Click the "Restore" button.
10. Fix the file header
They say one of the most common Word errors is related to the header of the document. Replacing the header of the corrupted document with one of a document of good integrity will most probably solve your problem.
Tips:
1. When you want to repair Word documents with Repairit, please close any Word session, so this Word file repair tool programs will not interfere with each other and create conflicting situations;
2. If you are using external devices to store your documents, make sure you are always safely removing the cord when trying to disconnect it from the computer;
3. Never remove a USB while transferring a Word document form the computer, or to the computer. This could produce data corruption;
4. If you don't want to ever have to repair corrupted Word files you need to back up your data regularly.
