How to recover corrupted word file on Mac OS X? Run Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac and choose the file format. After launching Cisdem DataRecovery on your Mac, you need to choose a Recovery mode according to your need. Select the hard drive where your corrupted word files in.
HomeProductsYodot DOC RepairOpen Corrupt Word Document
Microsoft Word is a word processor application developed by Microsoft Corp to write documents, synopsis, articles and so on. This application is compatible to run on almost all operating system such as Windows, Mac, IBM PC’s, SCO Unix and many others. MS Word application comes as standalone or bundled with Microsoft Office suite. However just like other applications MS Word users often come across numerous error messages while opening their Word document file. These errors mostly arises due to logical or physical factors such as improper system termination when writing your Word document, Word template corruption due to software malfunction, storage media failure where your Word files were stored, macro virus infection on Word file, using of complex nested tables etc.
So if you ever had an important document file got corrupted due to any of the reasons mentioned above and you are not able to open them, no need to despair. The best solution to deal with such corruption issue is to keep appropriate backups of important document files on some reliable external storage drives. However, only few peoples follow this precaution. In case backup is not available, then here are few things which you can try when dealing with corrupt Word document.
Use Open and Repair Feature
Microsoft Word 2003 and later versions offers an option called “Open and Repair”, which allows users to repair their corrupt Word document file. A user just needs to select a file using Open dialog box, and choose “Open and Repair” option from the Open drop down list (from bottom right corner). This option fixes your corrupt Word file and opens the file, but this feature isn’t necessarily foolproof i.e. Open and Repair feature doesn’t work on severely corrupt Word files or problematic documents.
Save file in another format
You can make use of this method, if you are unable to fix Word corruption from first method, this method will recover your Word contents as much as possible. To do this, just “Save” your document in .txt or .htm or .html. After which you can open your corrupt Word document on notepad or on web browser, from where you can retrieve contents from the Word file.
![Blackboard Blackboard](http://help.sset.jhu.edu/download/thumbnails/12288027/My%20Courses%20Plus%20Tool%20Pad%20-%20Access%20Course%20Tasks.png?version=1&modificationDate=1454351028287&api=v2)
However the only disadvantage with this method is that, you lose all Word formatting such as bullets, font style, font size, numbers, and indention etc of your Word document.
Third party repair utility
If after following the above mentioned procedures, if you are still not able to open your corrupt Word document then you need to make use a third party utility such as Yodot DOC Repair to repair and open your Microsoft Word file. This repair utility effectively fixes and opens your Word document file; the best thing about the software is it doesn’t modify the source Word file during the repair process. The tool uses powerful mechanism which provides assured recovery of normally or severely corrupt Word document files. Furthermore opens corrupt file created on any Microsoft Word versions like Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010.
Using the software:
- Download the software and install the software to your Windows desktop / laptop
- Use “Browse” button to select your corrupt Word document
- Click on “Repair” button to start the repair process
- Monitor the repair process by looking at the progress bar
- After completion the application shows a confirmation message saying, file repaired successfully
- Use “Preview” option to open and view your repaired Word file
- At last, use “Save” button to save your repaired document file to your desired location
Things To Remember
- Terminate Microsoft Word application before starting the repair process
- Use antivirus software to remove macro viruses from Word file
- Make your important Word file read-only
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Last updated: Apr. 24, 2017
For those who are early adopters of Microsoft Office Suite, you should have used (or still be using) Word to make documents, it doesn't matter whether you have a Windows PC or have already switched to the Apple Mac family.
Somehow, you might face situations when you couldn't open a Word doc because it's corrupted. Even worse, you couldn't find the desired file either because you might have deleted it or it's lost due to other reasons.
The question is - how to recover the Word document?
In this article, we'll be sharing a few quick tips and tricks. Hope you find them helpful in assisting you to get back the content or the entire Word file.
If you deleted the Word file or couldn't find it
First of all, check the Recycle Bin (for Windows) or Trash (for macOS). Usually, when you deleted a word file, they will go to the Recycle Bin or Trash. If it is there, just highlight it and click the Restore or Put Back option to restore it to its original location.
Pull Back a file from Mac Trashbin
If that doesn't work out for you, you probably need to try third-party data recovery software.
- If you use a Windows PC, see our reviews of the best Windows file recovery tools;
- For Apple Macs, check out this list of Mac data recovery software we recommend.
Note: you can only retrieve a deleted or lost Word file provided that it is not written over yet, so ideally the moment you realized your file is missing, it's best not to save additional items to the same disk drive.
If your Word file is corrupted or damaged
If you are on a Windows PC, try this tool — Remo Repair Word, a professional program to restore the original content and formatting by repairing a problematic MS Word document. Below is a screenshot of the software. It claims to support all version of MS Word including 2013, 2010, 2007 and 2003.
If you are on a Mac, a typical symptom of Word corruption is this error message 'this file may be corrupted. Open file with text recovery converter'. In fact, there is no such text recovery converter. But you can often rely on the 'Recover Text from Any File' feature to recover the content. How to do that? Follow these steps:
- Launch the Word application (if you haven't done so).
- Move to the main menu > File > Open.
- Find the drop-down menu titled 'Enable:' (in some Word versions, it might be 'Show').
- Select the option 'Recover Text from Any File'.
- Locate your damaged or corrupted Word file.
- Follow the rest instructions to finish the recovery process.
- Done. Note: you may need to clean up the formatting a little bit.
Final words
It can be annoying even devastating to lose a Word document either because it's corrupted or missing. Chances are you might still be able to get it back or at least retrieve the content you've worked and saved, by using a word repair tool or the tricks we've shared above.
I would also like to remind you the significance of backup — therefore, make several copies of the Word docs to an external hard drive or simply email yourself by adding the files as attachments. Also, desktop software is less reliable than online tools. If you can, switching from Office Word software to Office 365 or Google Docs (both are excellent online word doc options). I've been using Google Doc for a while, and I'm quite happy about it, though it did take me a while to get used to some of its advanced features.
Andreas is an Apple and Microsoft fanboy who works with his Mac and lives with a PC at home. While he is not reading technology journals, you’ll probably find him playing online games with friends or hiking in the wild.