How to Fix a Corrupt Word Document

Restore From Backup
1.
Windows has a built-in 'Open and Repair' feature. In Word 2007, go to the office button, and then click 'Open.' In earlier versions, go to File > Open. Select the file, but do not double-click or click open. On the 'Open' button, there is a drop-down arrow. Click the arrow, and options to open the document appear. Select 'Open and Repair.' This will fix most files.
2.
Unless the option is turned off, every time Word documents are saved, a backup file is created. The files are typically called 'Backup of <file name>.wbk' and are stored in the same folder with the original file. Opening the backup file delivers the file as it was prior to the last time it was saved. This means some work may be lost, but it's better to have to recreate a small portion of the file as opposed to the whole file.
3. When the cause of corruption is an interruption to the Word program, such as a power failure, software crash or improperly powering off the computer, Word will normally open a recovery panel. This panel will show all of the files saved, the time of the save and whether it is a 'normal' or 'recovered' file. Selecting the newest date and time of the save can return the file to a state close to its pre-corruption self.
4.
Fixing corrupt files was a regular occurrence in latter versions of Word Perfect for DOS. The same trick, however, can work with Microsoft Word. Open a blank document. Hit 'Enter' twice. In Word 2007, go to the 'Insert' tab, then 'Object'; click the drop-down arrow and select 'Text from Document,' and browse to the corrupt file. In earlier versions, go to menu command Insert > Object > From File and browse to the corrupt file on the disk. In most cases, it will open in the new document. Delete the two paragraphs created, and save the document to a different name than the original corrupt document. Custom formatting for the corrupt document will likely be lost in this scenario, but the content, graphics, tables and captions will be preserved.
Fixing Corruptions on the Fly
5. When the file acts unstable during editing, something has caused a corruption. Use File > Save As to give the file a new name. The quick fix is to delete any section breaks. Most data causing file corruption is stored invisibly in a section break. Even though section break removal will cause formatting headaches, it will remove the corruption. After deletion, save as a new name. This ensures there is a pre-deletion version of the file available if needed.
6.
Save the file to a different format. Saving the file to a web format (MHT or HTML) forces Word to reprocess all invisible data. In most cases, this will remove the corruption and still retain graphics and some formatting features. Reopening the file and saving to a new file name under the 'Word Document' option saves text and graphics but may lose some formatting features.
7. When serious corruption problems occur in an open file, it may be necessary to save what can be saved. Normally, the most important feature to save is the text. Using the File > Save As command, save the file as an ASCII Text (TXT) file. All formatting, graphics, table formats (not the data) and text boxes will be lost.
8.
Open a new document and press 'Enter' twice. Then go paragraph by paragraph in the original document cutting the text, graphics, tables and text boxes and pasting into the new document. In theory, only design formatting and fonts will be lost.