Word 97 Saving Wierd Stuff

[Mary]

Starting about a week ago, I began to experience two annoying problems with Microsoft Word 97. I checked for viruses, but there are none. I was wondering if anyone could help me with this.

1) Now when I retrieve any word file (.doc), the format is changed - font, spacing, columns, etc.

2) Also, I see garbles at the end of any file, such as the following:

Normal
Heading 1
Heading 1
Default Paragraph Font
Default Paragraph Font
C:\My Documents\Inez.docÿ䀁老v
Times New Roman
Times New Roman
Symbol
Symbol
Lucida Calligraphy
Lucida Calligraphy
August 18, 2000
August 18, 2000
Danny Matsumoto
August 18, 2000
Normal
Microsoft Word 8.0
Dell Computer Corporation
August 18, 2000
_PID_GUID
{3934D816-74C9-11D4-B0A8-809D8BF7036B}
{3934D816-74C9-11D4-B0A8-809D8BF7036B}
Root Entry
1Table
1Table
WordDocument
WordDocument
SummaryInformation
SummaryInformation
DocumentSummaryInformation
DocumentSummaryInformation
CompObj
CompObj
Microsoft Word Document
MSWordDoc
Word.Document.8

[Son of Zeus]

Mary,

surely the length of that posting places it in the category of an epistle!

Never come across those sort of problems myself in Word 97. Starting with the basics: have u update your Word to SR2B & installed all the other latest patches & updates? Any changes u made to your system at or about the same time as it began to occur?

Cheers.......Son of Zeus.

[ixl]

If it's any Word file, it does sound like a virus. Sure you are using the latest definition files?
Another possibility is file system corruption. Try running scandisk. Otherwise, are there any files where this does not happen?

------------------
Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

[Mary]

Thanks guys for your suggestions. I just found out what the problem was, though. When I went to open up a file, apparently, I changed file format unknowingly and opened it with a text format. When I changed it to a word document file, it fixed the problem. Phew! It wasn't a virus, although that had crossed my mind, and my husband purchased and ran the most recent virus scan. Well, anyway, I'm all straightened out now, but I truly appreciate your interest.

Thanks!

Mary