Word - text turned into square boxes

[rach_17]

 Well after spending hours working on a document, saving regularly, while it was open something went very, very wrong (no viruses according to Sophos or F-secure). After two pages, suddenly all my lovely text turns into square boxes (or not defined characters??) This is in Times New Roman and whatever font I change it to, it stays that way. Tried opening in WordPad or Notepad but no joy, also tried Word's recovery options......
Any ideas? I can't help feeling the text is somewhere under all those square boxes. Really don't want to have to type all that in again   (can't remember it for a start). Please help!
thanks so much x

[Rob Pomeroy]

What happens if you cut all the text and paste it into Wordpad?

Sometimes font errors will self-correct after a reboot.  Have you tried that?

[rach_17]

thanks but no as I said wordpad and notepad are no good. Have rebooted in fact am opening the file on a completely different machine but no joy. Oh well I have another problem to deal with now as have lost the video card on my PC...

[Rob Pomeroy]

thanks but no as I said wordpad and notepad are no good.

Do you see the same square boxes in notepad?

If you're willing to email the document to me, I would be happy to have a look and see what can be rescued.  PM me for my email address if you'd like to try this.