My OpenOffice file displays "#" instead of letters.

Laune1312 Posted messages 3 Status Membre -  
OOoForum Posted messages 3871 Registration date   Status Membre Last intervention   -
Hello,

I am currently working on writing a fiction, and while I was writing my last chapter, my computer crashed and shut down. Since then, whenever I try to open my file, the letters have turned into "#" and a window appears before it opens, asking me to select the language, the font, the character set, and the paragraph break.
Can anyone help me? I am really at a loss, I don't know what to do...
Here is the link to my file; https://www.cjoint.com/c/GBvd3MLdd1N

Configuration: Windows / Chrome 56.0.2924.87

3 réponses

NitramO_YT Posted messages 230 Status Membre 84
 
Hello,

before your computer crashed, did you back up your file? If yes, in what format? Otherwise, when you restarted OpenOffice, did it ask you if you wanted to recover the file?
Then make sure to know if your OpenOffice file is in ANSI, UTF-8, or Unicode.
Have you tried creating a new empty file to see what OpenOffice wrote instead of your letters? (because it might be an OpenOffice configuration issue)
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Laune1312 Posted messages 3 Status Membre 1
 
I had saved everything before the computer crashed in (.odt) format. I'm not prompted to recover the file; as soon as I click on my document, I'm taken directly to the "ASCII filter options" window where I'm asked for the language, character set... Even in Unicode or UTF-8, nothing changes; I still see "#" replacing the letters... :s
I just tried, and if I open a new blank document, it works perfectly.

Thank you for your reply.
1
NitramO_YT Posted messages 230 Status Membre 84
 
I think that as shunesburg69 said, the file is corrupted.
There are several ways to recover the file.
Have you enabled automatic backups? If so, you can recover your file like this:
Windows key + R
%appdata%
search for "OpenOffice"
Version>user>Backup and there you should normally find your file (unless it has been too long since your file has been there) (replace "Version" with your OpenOffice version (for me, it's "4"))

If this solution didn't work,
Do the unwanted characters form some kind of alphabet? (for example: A > #, B % ", C > @, etc...) or are they a bit random? (for example: A > #, A > %, B > #, A > #, etc...) or are all the letters replaced by the same character (or several)?
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