Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

PLEASE, I need help ASAP.

I have a final paper due in 5 hours. I just now finished it, all 12 pages, and here's what happened:

I have a Digital Audio Converter (ProTools Mbox 2) that has been having driver problems with Windows 8. So I leave it unplugged, because if I plug it in, the computer crashes. Hard.

Well, paper was all done, ready to print, so I went to plug in my printer to my laptop, and guess what: I grabbed the wrong USB cable. Blam, computer crashed. I boot back up, open OpenOffice, and it's asking me to re-register...almost like it's reset or something.

Now when I try to open my paper, some weird dialogue box opens saying "ASCII Filter Options". When I go with the recommended settings, the whole paper is nothing but # signs, like this: ####################.

I tried finding the backup in the backups folder, but the folder is EMPTY. So I'm stuck with just the broken file. What is going on here!?!? How do I fix this file??

Calam wrote:... the whole paper is nothing but # signs, ...

Sorry, if all you get are #s, there's nothing to be done. The document is completely lost. If you have no backups or copies in the temp folder, there's nothing to do but start over.

If you have time it is worth downloading and running something like Photorec to see if it finds a deleted copy or a deleted temp file, but it may take overnight to run.
Twelve pages of doublespaced text is about three hours work typing if the image is in your mind. Get typing.

Sadly, quite nothing to do, see: 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.
The file seems indeed empty.

Check the temporary folder of the system (see in OOo Tools>Options>OOo>Paths). If there are folders like sgmlf.tmp with a file having the same name inside, make a copy of that file, rename it in .odt and cross your fingers. If you have not rebooted, you might have those files still there.