BUG: You receive a "The document may be in the incorrect format" error message when you try to restore AutoCorrect entries in Word

When you attempt to restore your AutoCorrect entries by using the AutoCorrect utility, you may receive one or more of the following error messages: After you click OK, only part of the AutoCorrect entry that you wanted to restore is actually restored.

This problem can occur when the AutoCorrect entry that you want to restore consists of several paragraphs. When the AutoCorrect entry was backed up, the second and remaining paragraphs of the AutoCorrect entry were separated incorrectly in the table structure of the AutoCorrect backup file.

An incorrectly saved AutoCorrect backup file may appear similar to the following example, for an AutoCorrect entry that consists of more than one paragraph.

Name	Value	RTF
Myquote	The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.	True

To prevent this problem when you have an AutoCorrect entry that consists of several paragraphs, follow these steps before you restore your AutoCorrect entries:

1. Open the AutoCorrect backup file in Word. By default, the AutoCorrect backup file is named AutoCorrect Backup Document.doc and is saved in the My Documents folder. However, the location may vary on your system or if you saved the file to a different location (for example, a floppy disk).
2. Find the AutoCorrect entry in the table that is similar to the example in the "Cause" section of this article, and modify the entry so that all of the text is contained within the same table cell, as in the following example.
   
   

   Name	Value	RTF
   Myquote	The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.	False

3. After you rearrange the AutoCorrect text into the correct table cell, several blank table rows may remain. Delete these blank table rows. To delete the table rows, follow these steps:
   1. Click into any table cell contained in the blank table row.
   2. On the Table menu, point to Select and then click Row.
   3. On the Table menu, point to Delete and then click Rows.
   Repeat steps a through c for each blank table row that remains in the AutoCorrect backup file.

NOTE: If you do not delete the blank rows, Word displays a 5941 error message similar to the error message listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article when you restore your AutoCorrect backup file.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

The AutoCorrect utility creates a document that contains a three-column, multiple-row table to back up AutoCorrect entries. The three columns are titled Name, Value, and RTF.

The Name column contains the name of the entry (for example, abbout).

The Value column contains the actual text that you want (for example, about).

The RTF column contains either a True or a False entry. The only time this column should be True is if the Value is in the Symbol or Wingdings font.

If all of your AutoCorrect entries are in the AutoCorrect Backup Document.doc document but are not in the correct format, the best method to restore the entries is to change the document to conform to the correct format for the utility.

For additional information about the AutoCorrect Utility, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about moving AutoCorrect entries between computers, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: