Dear all, Last week I received a worried email message from my grandmother that all here Microsoft Word documents suddenly showed weird signs instead of the text. As I looked into it I found that this was indeed the case. All the symbols in the documents were replaced by  (squares). And it wasn't just one document, but all the *.DOC files in her My Documents directory were suddenly corrupted. Does anyone have a clue about what happened or what to do? Some extra's - I know for a fact that these are genuine word files. - Newly created word files are fine, so no corrupt fonts or templates. Cheers, Christiaan MOV EAX EAX

Hi, A couple of things to check. What font are the documents now showing as being in. If you grandmother has accidently changed font(s) she could have all sorts of strange things happening. Do search for and delete the MS Word template file named normal.dot You could rename it if you wish, but it is not necessary. When you restart MS Word the blank template file i.e. Document 1 will be recreated. The template file normal.dot can and does become correpted and does ead to all manner of problems in MS word. You also need to run anti virus and spyware scans with up to date DAT files. Spyware, install AD-Aware, MS spyware Spybot, CW Shredder, Spywareblaster. hth Ceri