Solve Word Cannot Open This Document Invalid Characters Error

“I had edited few Word documents on my cousin’s laptop recently. After moving these documents to my desktop, as I try to open them, I keep receiving error message like “Word cannot open this document: Invalid Characters”. I verified that there are no invalid characters in filename or with its path. I am worried what caused this error with my Word documents and how to resolve this situation.”

Word documents may display error message like “Word cannot open this document. The document might be in use, the document might not be a valid Word document, or the file name might contain invalid characters (for example, \ /).” This error might usually occur to Word documents that are saved on shared network. Users from all computers that are connected to specified network can open / edit such Word documents if admin has not set any access permissions for those documents. Thus, since the file will be edited on different computers, chances of file corruption are more that results to above mentioned error.

Apart from sharing Word documents over network, few other factors due to which Word document may show invalid characters error message are presence of unknown symbols in the Word filename and intrusion of harmful viruses during Word file transfer over network. However, when Word cannot open any file due to invalid characters error, one can save this document with different name in new location on system hard drive, so that document can be accessed without trouble. Or you can make use of ‘Open and Repair’ option provided by Microsoft to resolve minor faults of Word documents. If these options are not handy then try using some valid third party Word file repair software to fix the issue.

Software to fix Word document:

Make use of Yodot DOC Repair tool to easily fix Word cannot open this document - invalid characters error message. This utility can repair files that show Word could not launch because of shared library error, Word found unreadable content error, file format cannot be recognized, document not showing pictures, linked file not available and other different error messages. It is very helpful in resolving Word documents that are unreadable, damaged or frozen due to various reasons. This utility can fix both Doc and DocX files created on Word 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013 versions. Computer users who have Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 and 2003 operating systems can use this tool to repair corrupted Word documents.

Guidelines to fix error showing Word document:

• Download and install Yodot DOC Repair tool onto your Windows computer in which damaged Word file reside
• Run the installed software and follow onscreen instructions
• Next, in main screen click on ‘Browse’ button and search for error showing Word file
• Choose the file that needs to be repaired and hit ‘Repair’ button
• Software starts to scan the file for irregularities and completes repair process within few seconds
• Later, examine the fixed Word file by clicking on ‘Preview’ option
• At last, save this repaired Word document to desired target location on system drive