I can't open a file

The file may be damaged

The file you are trying to open may be damaged. Your Microsoft Office program may let you try to recover the text from the damaged file, or if recovery doesn't work, you can delete the damaged file and open a backup copy.

How?

1. If the Microsoft Office program you are using is not responding, recover the program.

   How?

   1. On the Microsoft Windows Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office Application Recovery.
   2. In the Application list, click the program or document that is not responding.
   3. Do one of the following:
      • To attempt to recover the files you were working on, click Recover Application or Restart Application.
      • If you just want to close the program, and lose recent changes to the files, click End Application.
   4. The error that caused the problem can be reported to Microsoft for use in improving future versions of the program. Click Report problem or Don't report problem.

      If you want to see what information is sent, click Details.

2. Open the Office program.
3. Review the files listed in the Document Recovery task pane, and decide which to keep.

   How?

   • If a file has [Recovered] in the title it is usually more worth saving than a file with [Original] in the title.

   • If you want to view what repairs were made to a file, point to the file in the Document Recovery task pane, click the arrow next to the file's name, and then click Show Repairs.
   • If you want to review the versions that were recovered, open all of the versions and save the best one.
4. For each file you want to keep, point to the file in the Document Recovery task pane, click the arrow next to the file's name, and then do one of the following:
   • To work with the file, click Open.
   • To save the file, click Save As, and then enter a name for the file. By default, the file is saved in the same folder as the original file. If you use the same name as the original file, the original is overwritten. When you see a message asking whether you want to replace the existing file (with the changes you made up to the last time you saved the file), click Yes.
5. When you have opened or saved all of the files you want to keep, click Close in the Document Recovery task pane.

The file name may be too long

The file name or the path name may not exceed 223 characters. Do one of the following:

• Shorten the file name.

• Move the file to another folder that is closer to the top of the folder hierarchy.

Try to open the file again.

The disk the file is on may be too full

Try moving files to another disk to make more space available.