I forgot how to do something in MS Word - text coding

[gunhilltrain]

I decided to repeat this question in Tech Support. It is also in the Author's Hangout.

I haven't worked on anything since November, and I left some stories unfinished. Now that I'm back, I don't remember how to change the text coding. I used to use plain text, UTF-8, but the documents now appear on my screen not as text, just symbols. I know I'm missing something simple here, I used to do this many times, but now I can't figure it out. I got a new computer just before I stopped in November. The documents seemed okay then.

One response:

A series of questions: excuse the devil’s advocate ones

1. Are they .doc or .docx files?
2. Is Microsoft Word opening up on the new computer, or something else?
3. If Microsoft Word is what opened:
   
   1. See above comment, do control-a to select all text and change the font to Ariel for starters. (Too lazy to fix what autocorrect did there. There’s probably no font for Sebastian or king triton. )
   2. Are you being nagged for registering or logging in to use word?
4. If not ms word opening up
   
   1. Open MS Word and use file/open from inside Word. It might do a better job of detecting the file type if something somehow went wrong

Send screenshots to help diagnose.

My reply:

Thank you for your help.
1. As far as I can tell, it's a Word Text document. I don't see any indication of whether it's a doc. or docx. file.
2. It's opening up on the new computer. Originally, it looked okay in Courier, but now it doesn't.
3. I tried changing to back to Courerier, but that didn't work.
4. I'm not being nagged to register Word.
5. I am trying to open it within Word.

I found these instructions online, and I tried changing the coding to UTF-8 of the entire document in the code dialogue box, but that didn't work. It must have something to do with the file type? There are several different sets of instructions on how to do it,

https://www.google.com/search?q=wor...yBwE1uAfCAsIHBTAuNC4xyAcLgAgB&sclient=gws-wiz

 

[TheWritingGroup]

You could try downloading LibreOffice and opening it there. I've seen reports that LO is actually more compatible with Word files than Word itself.

LO is free, so unless you have a metered internet connection you aren't risking anything.

 

[gunhilltrain]

You could try downloading LibreOffice and opening it there. I've seen reports that LO is actually more compatible with Word files than Word itself.

LO is free, so unless you have a metered internet connection you aren't risking anything.

Thanks, I guess I could try it. I just don't understand why I can't do this in Word when I used to do it all the time.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Thanks, I guess I could try it. I just don't understand why I can't do this in Word when I used to do it all the time.

It isn't possible to understand Microsoft products, by design.

 

[gunhilltrain]

They used to be much easier to use. The version I was using was over eleven years old.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I also have the problem that, in this state, the document has no text to copy, just symbols. It's the only copy I have.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

If you have a Google account, you could try uploading it to Drive and opening it in Google Docs, too.

 

[gunhilltrain]

If you have a Google account, you could try uploading it to Drive and opening it in Google Docs, too.

Thanks. I do have Google Drive, and I must have experimented with it a couple of years ago because there are some files in there. How do I navigate to the folder I need to access? There doesn't seem to be a way to open the document directly in Google, even though I can see it.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Thanks. I do have Google Drive, and I must have experimented with it a couple of years ago because there are some files in there. How do I navigate to the folder I need to access? There doesn't seem to be a way to open the document directly in Google, even though I can see it.

If double-clicking on it doesn't open it, I believe that means your entire problem is: you somehow changed the file extension. Google doesn't know what it is. Change the extension of the file in Drive to end in ".docx" and see what happens.