Though Microsoft Office and its programs are great ways to create and store data, the files that contain this data can be damaged. Luckily, there are build-in tools in Microsoft Office that allow you to locate and repair damaged files created using their application.
Microsoft Office offers a variety of programs that make work easier. You can create reports on Microsoft Word or enter important data in a spreadsheet with Microsoft Excel. You can create and share data with Microsoft Access or by creating a great Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
What you can do is almost endless. That’s why, when a Microsoft Office file is damaged it can be a huge setback for an organization, representing time and productivity lost.
How are Microsoft Office Files damaged?
- Sudden power interruptions or shutdowns due to hardware or software problems
- If you accidently saved a file under the same name as an existing file
- If you installed an update or file extension that’s corrupted
- If there was a network interruption while you were downloading the file
- If there is a virus or malware.
How to repair Microsoft Office files?
There are a few methods, that use in-built applications that can retrieve or repair office documents. Here are two things you should try.
1. Repair the files using the Open and Repair Utility.
- Open the program where the Office document was created. For example, Word if it’s a .doc/docx file or PowerPoint is it’s a .ppt/.pptx file.
- Go to the File menu. Click “Open”
- You should see a dialog box that says “Open File”
- Choose the file you are trying to repair by clicking on it.
- At the bottom-right corner, you should find the “Open” button. Next to that you will see a button with a little arrow pointing downwards. Click on the arrow to open the drop-down menu
- Look for “Open and Repair”, then click on it.
2. Repair the file from MS Office installation
Sometimes, the issue is a problem with MS Office’s system and registry files. You will need to repair the MS Office installation by taking the following steps.
- Go to your computer’s “Control Panel”
- Choose the option “Uninstall a program”
- Find the Microsoft Office program on the list and select it.
- Click “Change”, a new dialog box will open.
- Click “Repair”. You will be asked if you want to “Continue”, click yes.
3. Remove any add-ins that were installed
If everything was fine till you installed a new add-in, the add-in might be the problem. Try removing it first by taking the following steps.
- Launch the Office program used to create the faulty file in safe mode to disable the add-ins.
- Open the file and check the data. If it’s now fine, it is an add-in that caused the problem.
- Start enabling the add-ins one by one. If, when you enable an add-in the file acts up again, it’s that add-in that’s the problem.
When you’ve suddenly lost data in a file it is important to act quickly to restore it. A quicker and more reliable option to the ones provided by Microsoft might be to install a data recovery and repair program. A good one to install is DataNumen Office Repair; it allows you to recover data from files made by all the Office applications.
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