Document is ### problem

[AADA7A]

I want to try the solution which involves compressing and extracting as outlined below:

" Copy (don't rename) your file to the file name test.zip. Use one of the many unzip programs to unzip your OO.o file into it parts. One of these parts is the file called content.xml. Look at this file with any generic file viewer (edit, notepad, writer, kate, vi, emacs, etc.) and you should see your data in XML format. You can extract your data from this XML file."

Problem is, when I compress, there is only one file, and when I try to unpack that file, it only becomes one file yet again. How do I extract it into parts? I use 7zip.

[Bill]

I don't know where those instructions came from, but you don't need to compress the file, it's already compressed. You should be able to open the file directly with 7-zip and extract the parts. If you were using the Windows Compressed Folders, you would have to change the file name extension to .zip in order to open the file with Compressed Folders and extract the parts.

[AADA7A]

Using 7zip it doesn't want to be opened, says it cannot be opened as an archive. Opening with windows folders it just says it's invalid. So I guess it's a lost cause?

[RoryOF]

Yes, if the archive is damaged then you can recover nothing from it. To try and recover your file, you should look in the backup and temporary directories pointed to by /Tools /Options /OpenOffice : Paths. Rename any files in those to type .odt (or whatever file type you were using) and see if they contain your data. Download Recuva or PhotoRec (only one needed) and let it do an indepth recovery of deleted files on your computer. You may get a file containing some or all of your data (or not).

[floris v]

If the documents opens filled with # signs, as the title suggests, it means that the contents have been completely lost. See 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.

[AADA7A]

Alright. Sadly, I didn't realize what had happened until some time afterward so there was no temp files according to Recuva. But now I will backup files better, I made so that open office does backups with every save. By the way, using dropbox can maybe be a good idea for open office documents, since as I understand it dropbox has a bunch of backups of all files. But don't quote me on that one, see it more as a question from my side.

[floris v]

It appears that this problem only occurs when OO doesn't get the time to properly write a file to disk - in case of a power cut or if you shut down the computer too quickly.