We are all familiar with the programs in the Microsoft suite to a greater or lesser extent. What is almost certain is that at some point in our lives we have had to use the services of Word, Excel or PowerPoint , and not a few people use them on a daily basis.
For this reason, many of you may be familiar with the typical situation of editing a file of this type and closing it without having saved the changes, either due to a technical problem with the computer or due to unconsciousness. Or even worse, trying to open a saved document and getting the typical message that the program cannot open the file because it is damaged .
We know that in such a situation, you want to jump out the nearest window. But don't worry, because (almost) everything is a solution, and here it was not going to be different. The tools that Office offers us offer the possibility of recovering a damaged or corrupted document . Although there are also third-party solutions that are well worth taking a good look at.
Next, we will tell you how it is possible to recover that valuable work without too much work. You never know when you are going to have to use the following instructions, so take good note. We started.
Recover Excel files
We started with the Excel spreadsheet software. The first resource that we have at our disposal in this case is included in the program itself. When opening it, we must press the "Open" option within the "File" menu, to open the Windows explorer window and find the Excel file we want.
Once we select them, we click on the drop-down tab where it says "Open" and, among the multiple options that will appear, click on "Open and repair" . From this moment on we will have to cross our fingers and see if Excel is indeed capable of repairing the damaged file. If so, the document will open normally and we will have the problem resolved.
Recover Word files
In the same way as Excel, from Word we can also restore the corrupt file through the File> Open sequence to access the explorer window . We select the document in question, and in the "Open" button, press the drop-down and click "Open and repair."
Also, there is a second option when trying to open a corrupted document with Word. When doing so, a dialog window will appear that explains that there is a problem with the file's content. If we click "OK", a new window will ask us if we want to retrieve the content of the document .
If we click "Yes", Word will get to work to try to save the content of the file. Unfortunately, this second route doesn't work most of the time , so it's not worth getting your hopes up either.
Another recovery option B, if you no longer know what to do, is also within Word itself in the "Open" dialog box. If we select the option "Choose the format" in the drop-down tab, we will have the option to choose "Recover text from any file", which will open any type of document and try to recover the damaged content.
Online tools
There are a good handful of online services that will help us to recover damaged Word and Excel files, and that work on any device, as well as on all operating systems (iOS, Android, macOS, Windows). Among others, we can highlight “Online File Repair”, “Online Office Recovery” or “Online File Repair”, and they will serve us both for Excel and for Word indistinctly.
Its operation, in general, is very simple . It will be enough to load the damaged files, follow the instructions that are indicated (usually it is a process of 2 or 3 steps) and finally check if the results are satisfactory.
As for the collection, this will not be made unless the file has been repaired. Of course, you must pay for each document separately, in addition to the risk involved in sharing sensitive information with third parties.
Other tools
We can also use a series of specific programs to recover corrupted Word and Excel files. This is the case of ExcelFIX, one of the best known to repair Excel documents , which can be obtained from its own web page. Of course, it also has its own version of WordFIX, and it is compatible with all versions of Word: 365, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 (XP), 2000, 97 and 95.
Those responsible for both programs ensure that the repair of the file will be carried out locally on our computer and in a totally confidential way to avoid that especially sensitive data can be captured by third parties . Of course, both ExcelFIX and WordFIX are payment tools, although they will return the money in the case of not recovering our files.
Another highly recommended tool is Recovery Toolbox , both in its version for Excel and Word, which allows us to analyze the damaged document at no cost to see how much data can be recovered. If the result is satisfactory, we will proceed to pay for the license and export the information obtained.
Both programs are really useful for repairing Word and Excel files damaged by a virus or antivirus, and the operation is not difficult. We just have to carry out the recovery process by following the instructions of the wizard through five simple steps.
So far we have told you everything you can do to recover your work in Office . Keep in mind that these resources are there for when there is no other alternative. That said, we must also not lose sight of the fact that sometimes, just sometimes, there is simply no solution.
However, we encourage you to try all the options that we have described in this article. Who knows if any of these solutions is the answer to your prayers.