Choose an encoding standard when you open a file

If, when you open a file, text appears garbled or as question marks or boxes, Word may not have accurately detected the encoding standard of text in the file. You can specify the encoding standard that you can use to display (decode) the text.

  1. Click the File tab.
  2. Click Options.
  3. Click Advanced.
  4. Scroll to the General section, and then select the Confirm file format conversion on open check box.
    Note: When this check box is selected, Word displays the Convert File dialog box every time you open a file in a format other than a Word format (Word formats include .doc, .dot, .docx, .docm, .dotx, or .dotm files). If you frequently work with such files but rarely want to choose an encoding standard, remember to switch this option off to prevent having this dialog box open unnecessarily.
  5. Close and then reopen the file.
  6. In the Convert File dialog box, select Encoded Text.
  7. In the File Conversion dialog box, select Other encoding, and then select the encoding standard that you want from the list.
    You can preview the text in the Preview area to check whether all the text is readable in the encoding standard that you selected.

If almost all the text looks the same (for example, all boxes or all dots), the font required for displaying the characters may not be installed. If the font that you need is not available, you can install additional fonts.

To install additional fonts, do the following:

  1. In Microsoft Windows, click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Do one of the following:
    In Windows 7
    1. In Control Panel, click Uninstall a program.
    2. In the list of programs, click the listing for Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word, depending on whether you installed Word as part of Office or as an individual program, and then click Change.
    In Windows Vista
    1. In Control Panel, click Uninstall a program.
    2. In the list of programs, click the listing for Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word, depending on whether you installed Word as part of Office or as an individual program, and then click Change.
    In Microsoft Windows XP
    1. In Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs.
    2. In the Currently installed programs box, click the listing for Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word, depending on whether you installed Word as part of Office or as an individual program, and then click Change.
  3. Under Change your installation of Microsoft Office, click Add or Remove Features, and then click Continue.
  4. Under Installation Options, expand Office Shared Features, and then expand International Support.
  5. Select the font set that you need, click the arrow next to your selection, and then select Run from My Computer.
Tip: When you open an encoded text file, Word applies the fonts that are defined in the Web Options dialog box. (To reach the Web Options dialog box, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Word Options, and then click Advanced. In the General section, click Web Options.) You can select the options on the Fonts tab in the Web Options dialog box to customize the font for each character set.

Choose an encoding standard when you save a file

If you don't choose an encoding standard when you save a file, Word encodes the file as Unicode. Usually, you can use the default Unicode encoding, because it supports most characters in most languages.

If your document will be opened in a program that does not support Unicode, you can choose an encoding standard that matches that of the target program. For example, Unicode enables you to create a Traditional Chinese language document on your English-language system. However, if the document will be opened in a Traditional Chinese language program that does not support Unicode, you can save the document with Chinese Traditional (Big5) encoding. When the document is opened in the Traditional Chinese language program, all the text is displayed properly.

Note: Because Unicode is the most comprehensive standard, saving text in any other encoding may result in some characters that can no longer be displayed. For example, a document encoded in Unicode can contain Hebrew and Cyrillic text. If this document is saved with Cyrillic (Windows) encoding, the Hebrew text can no longer be displayed, and if the document is saved with Hebrew (Windows) encoding, the Cyrillic text can no longer be displayed.

If you choose an encoding standard that doesn't support the characters you used in the file, Word marks in red the characters that it cannot save. You can preview the text in the encoding standard that you choose before you save the file.

Text formatted in the Symbol font or in field codes is removed from the file when you save a file as encoded text.

Choose an encoding standard

Recover Text Converter Office 2010

  1. Click the File tab.
  2. Click Save As.
    If you want to save the file in a different folder, locate and open the folder.
  3. In the File name box, type a new name for the file.
  4. In the Save as type box, select Plain Text.
  5. Click Save.
  6. If the Microsoft Office Word Compatibility Checker dialog box appears, click Continue.
  7. In the File Conversion dialog box, select the option for the encoding standard that you want to use:
  8. If you receive a message that states, 'Text marked in red will not save correctly in the chosen encoding,' you can try to choose a different encoding, or you can select the Allow character substitution check box.
    When you allow character substitution, Word replaces a character that cannot be displayed with the closest equivalent character in the encoding that you chose. For example, three dots replace an ellipsis, and straight quotation marks replace curly quotation marks.
    If the encoding that you chose has no equivalent character for a character marked in red, the character marked in red will be saved as an out-of-context character, such as a question mark.
  9. If the document will be opened in a program that does not wrap text from one line to the next, you can include hard line breaks in the document by selecting the Insert line breaks check box, and then specifying whether you want the line breaks to be delineated with a carriage return (CR), line feed (LF), or both, in the End lines with box.

Look up encoding standards that are available in Word

Word recognizes several encoding standards, and it supports the encoding standards that are provided with the system software on your computer.

The following list of writing systems shows the encoding standards (also called code pages) associated with each writing system.

Writing system
Encoding standards
Font applied
Multilingual
Unicode (UCS-2 little-endian and big-endian, UTF-8, UTF-7)
Default font based on the Normal style for your language version of Word
Arabic
Windows 1256, ASMO 708
Courier New
Simplified Chinese
GB2312, GBK, EUC-CN, ISO-2022-CN, HZ
SimSun
Traditional Chinese
BIG5, EUC-TW, ISO-2022-TW
MingLiU
Cyrillic
Windows 1251, KOI8-R, KOI8-RU, ISO8859-5, DOS 866
Courier New
English, Western European, or other Latin script
Windows 1250, 1252-1254, 1257, ISO8859-x
Courier New
Greek
Windows 1253
Courier New
Hebrew
Windows 1255
Courier New
Japanese
Shift-JIS, ISO-2022-JP (JIS), EUC-JP
MS Mincho
Korean
Wansung, Johab, ISO-2022-KR, EUC-KR
Malgun Gothic
Thai
Windows 874
Tahoma
Vietnamese
Windows 1258
Courier New
Indic: Tamil
ISCII 57004
Latha
Indic: Nepali
ISCII 57002 (Devanagari)
Mangal
Indic: Konkani
ISCII 57002 (Devanagari)
Mangal
Indic: Hindi
ISCII 57002 (Devanagari)
Mangal
Indic: Assamese
ISCII 57006
Indic: Bengali
ISCII 57003
Indic: Gujarati
ISCII 57010
Indic: Kannada
ISCII 57008
Indic: Malayalam
ISCII 57009
Indic: Oriya
ISCII 57007
Indic: Marathi
ISCII 57002 (Devanagari)
Indic: Punjabi
ISCII 57011
Indic: Sanskrit
ISCII 57002 (Devanagari)
Indic: Telugu
ISCII 57005
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