Avoiding Word Document Corruption

Good corruption is an oxymoron. Where Microsoft Word is concerned, we’re talking about document and template corruption, of course. Though some might say that, given how Word’s perceived to be random anyway, it’s nigh on impossible to determine if this new misbehaviour is different to the other, old misbehaviour! But there is a difference. Quite a big difference, actually. There are also some clear signs that things have gone wrong, and it’s time to change while you still can.

You need to rectify it, too. As soon as you can because Word document corruption will cost you in both time and money. Not only will it stop you in your tracks here and now but also because you’ve now got to either fix the document (if you can) or go back and redo/rebuild it. Either way, it’s not a good situation to be in. However, when you also don’t know what’s caused that very corruption, that going to heap a whole lot of what you’re already suffering and struggling with.

Fortunately, there are measures you can take to both prevent document corruption and to recover from it when it does occur. First off, we’ll look at how to tell if your document is corrupt, then some of the causes of document corruption in Word and what you, as a business, can do to avoid it.

How to Tell If Your Word Document Is Corrupt?

There are a number of ways to tell whether your Word document is corrupt. For many, unfortunately, the first they see is when they document can’t be opened. By then it’s a little too late of course, but there are ways to mitigate against this. However, the good news is that you catch it earlier:

• If your document is behaving strangely, check out the file size. Corrupt documents can be many times the size of the original file – this is one of the most common ways of telling a document is corrupt.

(Here you can see the corrupt template's file size versus the non-corrupt template's file size.)

And again, here:

1. Is the original Word file that this client purchased from a well-known book designer (the sold template was corrupt when shipped. I did email the seller and tell them).
2. The Word file after I’d reformatted it – still corrupt (4,110 KB).
3. The Word file after I’d fixed it (non-corrupt - 842 KB).

Very often, the file size can be 40 or 50 times the size of the non-corrupt document.

• Strange fonts – with this one, you need to know what's going on in your document to work out if something's amiss:

There are other ways to determine if a document is corrupt, but for that you need to know when Word’s operating correctly in order to know when it’s not (if that makes sense?)

Common Causes of Document Corruption

The list of what causes document corruption is long and [not so] merry…

It must be said that in older, pre-2007, versions of Word (Microsoft switched to the current xml-based documents then), corrupt documents were prevalent—they happened a lot. (If you ever had the ‘pleasure’ of needing to use Word’s ‘master/subdocument’ functionality, it was a case of when, not it.)

Though the Master/Sub-doc functionality is still there, thankfully, I haven't used it for over 15-years, now.

However, one important point to note (and contrary to popular belief), it’s document corruption is not always the user’s fault (though the user can cause it, too).

Here are some common ways corruption can occur:

• Power-loss/system incorrectly – as with any loss of power, if you’re in the middle of saving something, you’re going to lose ‘something’. Word has an auto-recovery feature to mitigate this but having a UPS or similar will always help your pc. It’s not so much on an issue with a laptop, as it has its own power supply, but without a UPS, you could lose data.
• Large files – Word can handle huge documents. By that I means hundreds and hundreds of pages. But only if the document is setup and used correctly. (see Rebecca’s story further down). This means the design, the build, plus the author(s) know what they’re doing.
• Use Word’s Styles correctly – yeah, I know, I harp on about styles all the time. But there’s a good reason for that – they work.
• Maintain Your Document’s Integrity – what do I mean by this? Well, we setup our document’s and templates a certain way. As part of this, and the previous point, we have to use styles in our documents and templates. So, when we design our style-set we don’t then start importing other styles and formatting from other documents – that’s a no-no. The main problem here is, out of the box/default install, Word won’t ever stop you doing this–so you need to change the settings yourself (see Change Word’s Default Settings, below)
• File location – if you’re saving to media that is intermittent, albeit because of an interrupted power supply or connection, then this can cause problems with saving your document.
• Word trying to do too much/complex functions – track changes is one of the worst offenders here. I appreciate that if you have to use track changes you have to use it, but don’t do it on a stormy electrical night where the Internet keeps dropping out and you’re saving it in the cloud somewhere (If you get what I mean!).

(Most of the above are from my own knowledge, but as part of my research, some have said moving images and the like can be problematic and could be classed as a complex function. With that in mind, make sure your images are the correct size for your document and inserted correctly.)

• Normal.dotm – ah, the old favourite. If you don’t know what this is, it’s Word’s default template. You know when you open Word and get a blank document? That’s Normal.dotm. You know when you create a new, blank document? That’s Normal.dotm. It’s also critically important to Word. So much so that if you deleted Normal.dotm, Word would create a new one.

The 2 biggest problems with Normal.dotm are:

1. Everyone has one (again, Word must have it)
2. Word will let you change it. What that means is, if you change your own Normal.dotm (you redefine the template to make it more ‘you’), then it could cause problems with other documents created with Normal.dotm, especially if they’re from someone else. Not always, but it can happen

• Normal style – When you create a new, blank document and start typing Word automatically selects, by default, the Normal style. Unless you’ve changed it, this is Calibri, font size 12, left-aligned, etc. Everyone uses the Normal style. It is the default style, after all.

Want to know something important?

Don’t use the Normal style directly in your document (shame on you Microsoft!).

Every style in your default document is based on the Normal style. If you subsequently change the Normal style, you run the risk of changing everything in your document and losing control.

So, you decide to change the Normal style… you then save the document and Word asks you if you want to change the Normal.dotm template, too. You say ‘Yes’… find sand, dig hole, bury head and pray.

Again, don’t use the Normal style directly in your document. Use a ‘Body’ style that’s based on the Normal style (there’s a big difference).

• Multiple authors – this is one of the biggest problems. Everyone’s a Word user, but the number who actually know how to use it correctly is rather low. F you work with a team of authors and they’re all doing something different, then you’re in for a whole heap of grief (at some point). If they all know what they’re doing/have to do, it’s a different story, but IME that rarely happens.

As a result, most of the bullet points above can be exacerbated when every author’s doing their own thing.

Can you imagine a team of builders or plumbers or electricians turning up to a site and all doing their own thing? No, it’ll never happen. But, where documentation’s concerned, it does.

• Poor [user] document practices – again, this ties in with what’s already been said. You hope your team know what they’re doing. But do you really know? If the answer’s no, it’s already costing you. If the answer’s yes, then are they doing it right? (See my article on the Document Map to see if your base setup is right).
• Is Word configured correctly? – Out of the box I guarantee it won’t be (see Change Word’s Default Settings, below). But if you don’t know, then it’s something you can change quickly.

There are other causes of Word document corruption, but that’s enough to be getting on with. In all honesty, reading through the above, you’d think Word was a minefield and you’re just waiting for something to go wrong.

Kinda, yes, and no.

When we author documents, any kind of documents, we follow certain practices. Likewise, when we use software, we expect to use it in a certain way–the way it’s been designed. If we don’t, then the consequences of using that tool incorrectly are anyone’s guess. With Word, at the very least it’s going to be loss of time, money, and work.

More Things To Prevent Document Corruption

• Setup your Word templates correctly – this is where it starts. You could have a crack team under your command, but if the foundations aren’t there, then they can only be so effective.
• Train your team on how to use Word – seriously, do it. You’re not only investing in them (and they’ll be thankful for it: have you every worked with software that you prefer to avoid? It really makes you want to come to work in the morning!) but in your work, too.
• Style and document guidelines – if you haven’t already, establish a style guide and document guidelines. They’re useful documents that they help keep your author’s and company on track and are worth their weight in gold.
• Change Word’s Default Settings – as mentioned, you need to maintain the integrity of your documents and templates. Go to File > Options > Advanced > Cut, Copy & Paste and change the settings to the following:

When you copy and paste (or cut and paste) in the same document, the styles are already defined. It’s when you’re doing the same from an external source that the problems occur.

Word will allow you to copy and paste styles from other documents, too, but don’t do it. Paste the text in and then apply the style to it.

• I mentioned don’t use the Normal style. Use the built-in body styles (there are several). Go to Manage Styles > Recommended and enable/show the number of body-type styles you need. Then you can hide the Normal style. (Word will still use the Normal style – it has hidden hooks into the program, but you don’t want to be using it directly in your documents).
• Resize your images – this not only reduces bloat and keeps the file size down but, when your document’s setup correctly and you use styles it makes your document easier to manage.

My wife’s thesis was 316-pages, almost 52,000 words, contained 28 images, 83 tables, and the total file size was 732 kb.

There are a number of other practices you can do, but those are a good start and will make a difference.

One final practice I always do is as follows. This isn’t preventing corruption, rather making sure that I don’t have to roll-back too far if corruption does creep in.

• Save your document regularly plus save new iterations of the document – for my own files, I use a naming convention of _yymmdd.docx. If I’m working on long or complicated documents, I’ll append a letter to the end of dd so I save regularly throughout the day.

If I’m working on the same document all day, I could quite easily have _190422a.docx, _190422b.docx, _190422c.docx, _190422d.docx, and so on.

Word is stable but, as a freelancer, my time is money. The fact that I have instigated the above as a work practice shows that things have gone wrong. I don’t ever lose too much now, though.

But what can you do if your document corrupts/is already corrupt?

How to Fix a Corrupt Word Document

So, how do you fix a corrupt Word document.

One of the good things is Word will perform an autorecover every few minutes. Depending on how you’ve got this set.

Go to File > Options > Save and configure your autosave and autorecover options:

However, if things have gone wrong, your document is corrupt, and you can’t recover, then:

ALWAYS MAKE A COPY OF THE DOCUMENT YOU’RE TRYING TO RECOVER AND THEN WORK ON THE COPY NOT THE ORIGINAL

1.     Recover Unsaved Documents – this is your Autorecovery, above. There are a number of ways to do this, but go to File > Info and take it from there:

2. If that doesn’t work, then I’d seriously recommend Paul Pruitt’s Quora article. I did write 3 or 4 things you can do, but I can’t beat his article. Seriously, if your document is corrupt, read his article. It will walk you through most of what you need to consider/do:

Conclusion

Prevention is far better than cure. No-one’s seriously going to argue with that. It’s especially true of the Word documentation in your business. You’ll be very lucky if you never suffer a corrupt document, and if you do, I hope it doesn’t inconvenience and cost you too much. However, there are steps you can take to prevent it happening. These include using the software correctly, training your team on how to use it, instigating good practices, plus many more. Always make copies of your important information and, as shown, perhaps instigate a new saving process to minimise any potential losses. Naturally, it’s better to address these soonest, but if things do go wrong, there are a number of steps you can take to recover your data. Word is stable, when used correctly. But things do wrong. In business, we need to plan for the worst.

==========

If your business needs help with Microsoft Word then reach out. I guarantee I can turn your business around in under 2 weeks.

Here are 3 case studies of how I’ve helped clients save a small (and not so small) fortune: click here to view the case studies.