[Solved] Which character set to use for document recovery?

[PontiacKiller]

I'm sure this has been asked many times before, so my apologies for globbing up the board but I couldn't locate my problem. The closest I came was the [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to #### topic. I am trying to rescue a spreadsheet that got lost to AOO after an unexpected power-off. Been renaming temp files as ods files. I'm wondering what the correct character set to pick is when I get the text import screen. Choosing the choice that is there already results in hieroglyphics to me. I don't know what character set is/means. With whichever one I choose the results are unintelligible. Which should I use? Is there something else I need to do? This is a long and very important spreadsheet which I fear may be lost forever. But you've never heard that before, right?

Thanks for the help.

[MrProgrammer]

I am trying to rescue a spreadsheet that got lost to AOO after an unexpected power-off.

There must be a hundred topics in the forum about spreadsheets which contain nothing but garbage after a power outage. Read section 6. Saving your data and making backups in Ten concepts that every Calc user should know.

Been renaming temp files as ods files.

If the temp file is really a copy of an ODS file, after rename Calc will open it with no assistance. The dialog which you received is presented to allow Calc to open non-spreadsheet text files which might have been created in various formats. None of the options in the dialog will recover your data if a spreadsheet is damaged. Here are similar topics and explanations:
Filter selection dialog when opening ODS file
Unable to open spreadsheet: ASCII Filter Options
ASCII Filter Options
Unable to open file, shows ASCII Filter Options dialog
Corrupted file?
Everything has turned into hashtags!

This is a long and very important spreadsheet which I fear may be lost forever. But you've never heard that before, right?

I'm sure there are lots of topics here about a spreadsheet which is important to someone, but they have no backups of it which could be used to recover the data if the spreadsheet is damaged, either due to a hardware problem, a software problem, or just because the owner made some critical mistakes during editing. People frequently learn about the need for backups the hard way: once burned, twice shy.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Sorry, your file is lost.
All is said in that topic about the ### issue.

[RoryOF]

When the file shows as all ###, forget recovery. Use an undelete utility to find deleted files of the correct date/time, and see if any of these contain all or part of your information.