Microsoft document full of little squares

[Kathryn M Rogers]

Hello Listers,

A family historian has sent me an attachment, supposedly a work document,
but when I try to open it, it is all little squares, no typing. Has anyone
an idea of how I can adjust this document so that I can read it?

Regards
Kathryn Rogers

[Lesley Robertson]

"Kathryn M Rogers" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Hello Listers,

A family historian has sent me an attachment, supposedly a work document,
but when I try to open it, it is all little squares, no typing. Has anyone
an idea of how I can adjust this document so that I can read it?

Two possibilities - are you trying to read it in the right text editor? eg
is it a Works ms you're reading in Word? Or do you have version differences?
Is it set for a font that your printer doesn't do? Try selecting the whole
thing and chaning the font.

Alternatively, ask your contact to send you a text or rtf (rich text)
version that can be read by anything.
Lesley Robertson

[Kathryn M Rogers]

Thanks Lesley but no luck with your suggestions as yet.

Regards,
Kathryn Rogers
"Lesley Robertson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

"Kathryn M Rogers" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Hello Listers,

A family historian has sent me an attachment, supposedly a work
document,
but when I try to open it, it is all little squares, no typing. Has
anyone
an idea of how I can adjust this document so that I can read it?

Two possibilities - are you trying to read it in the right text editor? eg
is it a Works ms you're reading in Word? Or do you have version
differences?
Is it set for a font that your printer doesn't do? Try selecting the whole
thing and chaning the font.

Alternatively, ask your contact to send you a text or rtf (rich text)
version that can be read by anything.
Lesley Robertson

[Dave Hinz]

On Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:52:42 GMT, Kathryn M Rogers <[email protected]> wrote:

Thanks Lesley but no luck with your suggestions as yet.

Sounds to me like you don't have the right fonts loaded to see it. Do
this - edit -> select all - this will highlight the whole doc. Then go
into formatting or wherever you change font, change it to something your
system has, and you may have everything right there.

Dave Hinz

[Paul Blair]

Kathryn M Rogers wrote:

Thanks Lesley but no luck with your suggestions as yet.

Regards,
Kathryn Rogers
"Lesley Robertson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
"Kathryn M Rogers" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Hello Listers,

A family historian has sent me an attachment, supposedly a work
document,
but when I try to open it, it is all little squares, no typing. Has
anyone
an idea of how I can adjust this document so that I can read it?
Two possibilities - are you trying to read it in the right text editor? eg
is it a Works ms you're reading in Word? Or do you have version
differences?
Is it set for a font that your printer doesn't do? Try selecting the whole
thing and chaning the font.

Alternatively, ask your contact to send you a text or rtf (rich text)
version that can be read by anything.
Lesley Robertson

This is probably an older file, and Word, when it opens it, tries to
convert it to a more modern (or compliant) format. The problem that
sometimes occurs is that Word opens the file, converts it (badly) then
writes the bad conversion back over the original. At that stage, you
have no options.

To prevent this, in Tools | Options | General, set the option to always
confirm the conversion when opening a file. (everyone should do this!!!)

If you now open the text file, Word will ask you what format it is
(select Encoded text), and you should get a dialog where you can
specify the code page that was used for the text file.

The dialog also has a preview window. If neither "Windows text" nor "MS
DOS text" does the trick, check "other encoding" and scan through the
offered code pages until you find one that shows the text correctly.

A bit hit and miss, but it usually works.

Paul

[Zev]

I have never been able to open an MS Works document in Word.
Try this:
- Save the attachment on your Desktop.
- Click the Start button and click Programs->Accessories->Notepad.
- At the top, click File->Open and open the attachment you saved on the
desktop.

You will see gobbledygook in the file, but you should also see the text
mixed in. You probably want to copy the text into another document, or
just read it as is.

If this doesnt work, you can probably send it to one of us to have a go
at it.

Zev Griner

Kathryn M Rogers wrote:

A family historian has sent me an attachment, supposedly a work document,
but when I try to open it, it is all little squares, no typing. Has anyone
an idea of how I can adjust this document so that I can read it?

[john]

Zev wrote:

I have never been able to open an MS Works document in Word.
Try this:
- Save the attachment on your Desktop.
- Click the Start button and click Programs->Accessories->Notepad.
- At the top, click File->Open and open the attachment you saved on the
desktop.

You will see gobbledygook in the file, but you should also see the text
mixed in. You probably want to copy the text into another document, or
just read it as is.

If this doesnt work, you can probably send it to one of us to have a go
at it.

Zev Griner

There is a Word add-in to convert Works documents so they can be opened
in Word. You can download it at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en