How to recover text from any document in Word 2000

This article describes the "Recover Text from Any File" converter and how to use it to recover damaged documents in Microsoft Word 2000.

What Is the "Recover Text from Any File" Converter?

The "Recover Text from Any File" converter in Word allows you to extract text from any file. The file does not have to be a Word document.

What Are the Limitations of the "Recover Text from Any File" Converter?

The "Recover Text from Any File" converter has its limitations. Document formatting is lost, along with anything that is not of a text nature. For example, the converter does not convert graphics, fields, and drawing objects. However, headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, and field text are retained as simple text.

How to Recover Information from a Damaged Document

To use the "Recover Text from Any File" converter to recover the text from a file, use one of the following methods, as appropriate to your situation.

To Open a Word Document

To use the "Recover Text from Any File" converter to recover text from a Word document, follow these steps:

1. Start Word.
2. On the File menu, click Open, and then select the document that you want to recover.
3. In the Files of type box, click Recover Text from Any File (*.*), and then click Open.
   
   Note When you change the selection in the Files of type box (on the File menu, click Open) to Recover Text from Any File (*.*), Word retains this setting and uses it the next time that you open a document. To avoid this behavior, reset the Files of type box to Word Document (*.doc) after you finish recovering your damaged document.

To Open a Non-Word File

To use the "Recover Text from Any File" converter to recover text from a non-Word file, follow these steps:

1. Start Word.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Click to select the Confirm conversion at Open check box, and then click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Open.
6. Select the file that you want to recover, and then click Open.
7. In the Convert File dialog box that appears, click Recover Text from Any File, and then click OK. Word converts and recovers text from the document.