Formatting lost, symbols appear when you open document (291180)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
Microsoft Word 2000
Microsoft Word 2002
Microsoft Word 2003

This article was previously published under Q291180

This article is a consolidation of the following previously available articles: 186435, 211227

For a Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition version of this article, see 186436.

SYMPTOMS

When you open a document in Microsoft Word, no formatting is displayed, and square boxes and symbols may be interspersed throughout the document. Also, you may see text that describes the formatting that was stripped out. This text appears at the beginning and end of the document.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur when the Files of type setting is Recover Text from Any File, so that when you open your document, only the text is recovered, not any of its formatting.

To see the Files of type setting, click Open on the File menu.

RESOLUTION

To prevent only text from being recovered when you open your files, and to open your documents in the format of Word documents, follow these steps:

On the File menu, click Open.
In the Files of type list, click Word Documents, or click All Files.

MORE INFORMATION

The Recover Text from Any File setting will remain until you change it back either to Word Documents or All Files.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290946 How to recover text from any files by using the "Recover Text from Any File" converter of Word 2002 and Word 2003

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	8/25/2006
Keywords:	kbprb KB291180