Problems with word document...HELP!!!!

[splendra]

Hey ya'll

I am writing a book....I am very excited about it but I have this one problem....In typing some how my document has changed to a "Normal Template" and when I add to the document the words I have written change to these unreadable symbols I am completely overwhelmed trying to understand what has happened. I have tried many different things to try and get my words back to just words instead of symbols...

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do? Any and all feed back is welcome...I will try them all thank you very much in advance.....

[lynn41068]

Try to change the style - located next to the font type.

[BigSis]

Open a new document that you will paste into at the end

Now open the icky Word document

Turn on SHOW/HIDE button (the paragraph icon next to the zoom box that shows what percent you are viewing the page - the SHOW/HIDE icon is shaped like a backwards "P"). When this is turned on, you can see all the invisible marks like paragraph spacers, tab marks, and paragraph marks.

Go to Edit
Choose Select All

(all the text will be highlighted)

Now hold down the SHIFT key and press the LEFT ARROW key ONE TIME.

(this "deselects" the very last paragraph mark which holds MUCH of the formatting information for an entire document).

Go to Edit
Select COPY

(the entire document is now copied to the "Clipboard" - an invisible file space on your machine)

Look down at the bottom of your screen for the taskbar and click the button for that empty document you opened at the very beginning. This will switch you over to that document.

In the new, blank document:

Go to Edit
Select PASTE


Did this help? If not, when you highlight any of the crazy characters - what "font" does it show on the toolbar? (standard fonts are Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana...). It might be possible to highlight the entire document and select the correct font.

Let me know how you are doing....

[splendra]

thanx ((((Big Sis))) I printed this out and am going to try it right now.....I will let you know...