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Office Assistance

First Aid for Office Files

Problem: All of a sudden you can't open a file in Word, Excel, Outlook, or another Microsoft Office application.

Quick fix #1: Click Help, Detect and Repair to launch a file-repair utility. Make sure 'Discard my customized settings and restore default settings' is unchecked, and click Start. If a file has been corrupted or something else is out of place, the program fixes the damage. Have your Office installation CD handy before you begin.

Quick fix #2: If an Office application won't start, open Control Panel and click or double-click Add or Remove Programs. Select the entry for Microsoft Office and then choose Click here for support information. Click Repair to reinstall all the apps (see FIGURE 4).

Word File Saver

Problem: Sometimes your Word file opens but contains gibberish, and other times it doesn't open at all.

Quick fix: In Word 2002 and 2003, select File, Open, click the down arrow next to the Open button in the bottom-right corner, and select Open and Repair. If these steps don't repair the document, cut all its contents except the last paragraph mark, and paste them into a blank document. If this also fails, select File, Open, and in the 'Files of type' box, click Recover Text from Any File (*.*). Then click Open. This recovers only the text without the formatting. If Word still can't open the file, click Tools, Options, General, check Confirm conversion at Open, click OK, and use the 'Recover Text' option again.