word document saved with no words

Question

I saved a document with a lot of bullet points, numbers, underlines on thursday, i opened it up saturday and only the bullet points were there, none of the words i typed. I looked at version history and there is a blank page and the version i have now. I'm wondering if there is a way to recover all the typing i did, it seems extremely weird the way it looks now looks nothing like how i left the document

Answer 1

I saved a document with a lot of bullet points, numbers, underlines on thursday, i opened it up saturday and only the bullet points were there, none of the words i typed. I looked at version history and there is a blank page and the version i have now. I'm wondering if there is a way to recover all the typing i did, it seems extremely weird the way it looks now looks nothing like how i left the document

Is the document missing pages, or does it appear to have invisible content?

For example, if you select all with Ctrl+A, does something gets selected (although possibly unreadable)?

Answer 2

Hi @Tasha Martin,

Before making any further changes, I'd recommend saving a copy of the current document so you have a backup to work from.

A couple of things that may be worth checking:

• When you press Ctrl + A to select all content in the document, do you see any text highlighted, or only the bullets and numbering?
• Could you also try pressing Ctrl + Shift + H after selecting all content? This shortcut toggles the Hidden text formatting and may reveal text if it was accidentally hidden.

You may also want to try repairing the document using a copy of the file: Open Word > File > Open > Browse, select the file, click the arrow next to Open, then choose Open and Repair. Microsoft recommends this option when a document may have become corrupted.

Regarding Version History, you mentioned that you've already checked it. Does that mean the file is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint? If so, please try opening the document's location in a web browser, locating the file, and selecting Version History to see whether an earlier version still contains the missing content.

If you have any updates, please feel free to share them. I'd be happy to discuss the findings with you and, if possible, suggest additional troubleshooting steps based on what you discover.