'Some' Word files suddently corrupted

[Dale8994]

Just today, when I attempted to open some older MS Word (2003) files (in MS
Word 2003), a dialog box appeared requesting the type of encoding required.
The text appeared all jumbled and included numerous meaningless characters,
rather than the original English text.
I had recently installed OpenOffice 3.1 in an attempt to open some older
OpenOffice documents. I uninstalled OpenOffice but the problem remains?
What has happened and is there a reasonable 'cure?'

 

[CyberTaz]

Do the file icons appear to be different than what they were before? It may
be that the file association has been changed as a result of using Open
Office ‹ I've seen that OO assumes the right to change the file association
& Word doesn't recognize the file type once it's been changed. Right-Click
one of the files then select Open With, then browse to select Word. Be
certain that the box is checked for "Always use...". See if that helps.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac