Text showing as #### on Windows 10 OS when opening a doc.

[Apolloniam87]

Hi there

I have been using Open Office for a number of years with no issues. Unfortunately, last week I tried to open a document, and the content was ###### I just assumed that I'd leaned on the # key.

This morning when I tried to open another document, I got exactly the same thing. It is also showing a pop up box asking for Character sets, Default fonts, Language and Paragraph breaks. I filled them in every time, and inputting different things, but it hasn't rectified the problem. Todays document is extremely important for my son's school, and a huge amount of work has gone into it.

Can anyone help ? I read there has been issues after installing Windows 10 updates. I would really appreciate if someone could shed any light on what to do.


Thanks in advance.

Cheers

[RusselB]

Welcome to the Forums.
See The Dreaded Pound Key for more information regarding your situation

[RoryOF]

Have these files been moved from an older computer, or perhaps removed from the present one and reinstalled after a Windows upgrade to Windows 10?

[John_Ha]

The file is beyond repair and has no user data in it. See Why is my file full of #####? for an explanation.

See [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO temporary files for detailed instructions on how to

a) use Previous Versions (W7 and later) to recover previous versions of the file (is there something similar on MacOS and Linux?);

b) recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery;

c) find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted;

d) find any temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file but which have not yet been deleted;

e) un-delete the temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. d) and e) will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it.

If you cannot follow the instructions ask someone with more PC skills to help you. Act quickly - the longer you wait the more likely any temporary files are to be deleted.

[Apolloniam87]

Have these files been moved from an older computer, or perhaps removed from the present one and reinstalled after a Windows upgrade to Windows 10?

Hi there

No, they haven't been removed at all. I've tried all of the suggestions, except looking on the hard drive ! Slightly above my tech knowledge unfortunately ! Going to try and get a friend who works in I.T to look at it. Anyway I can avoid it in the future ? I've set up the Load/Save in Tools, so hopefully it'll help.

[RoryOF]

Often such file corruption occurs because file(s) have been transferred from one computer to another without regard to the USB stick removal protocol. If you can upload to Forum a small sample file (under 128 KB), we'll check it to confirm that it is actually damaged, and that you are not getting a spurious message.