Software

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Document full of garbage-what format?

0 helpful
7 replies

by pbtoms 2 views

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I have a user who has several documents on CD from his former employer. A few of them, with .doc extensions, appear to be junk. They open in Word with just lines and lines of little boxes, with the occasional random letter. WordPerfect doesn't recognize it at all to convert. Is there any way to determine if the document might be in another format, or if it is just corrupted? They were sent to him, so he has no idea what format they might have been, and doesn't know where they orginially came from. I'm guessing that if Word (2000 and XP) and WordPerfect (10) can't convert it, that it's just corrupt...

7 replies

by albert franco ii

Word Perfect .docs and MS Word .docs are not the same.

Try MS Word format. .doc is the most common document format extension. Several programs use it. But being the most used, MS Word is a good place to start. Remember to try Word 95 and Word 97/2000 formats as they are different.

by pbtoms

Maybe I should have clarified a bit. I am using Word XP and WordPerfect 10. Both of these have fairly extensive conversion filters, and can convert from many other formats, including each other's. WordPerfect can convert and open Word, and Word can convert and open WP files. Both can open a wide variety of others. Which is why I'm thinking this is a corrupt file, not a different format, because I haven't seen files that one or the other can't convert...

by john_wills

I suspect that the documents are in an alphabet for which you have no font. That would explain the boxes. If you know what language the former employer might have used (Chinese? Hebrew?) you can then search for afont.

by pbtoms

No other language involved, but a good idea. It was resolved, but I don't remember how. Just thought I should close the question. :-)

by juergen hartl

there are amny other programs out there that save their files with a doc extension. Without knowing what program generated the files there is no telling. You could use a hex editor to open these files and see if there are any clues in it about their origins.

by pbtoms

Hex editor is a good idea, if I thought I'd be able to make any sense of it. We figured it out, but it's been so long I don't remember what it was. Thanks.

This discussion is closed to new replies.