I suddenly find existing documents distorted by all the text being jammed 
over to the left side and the characters all overstriking one another, as if 
on a typewriter the carriage jammed and all the keys you press typed onto the 
same spot.  For example, a full page of single-spaced, formatted text in an 
existing document has become 7 double-spaced blocks of just two to twelve or 
so characters (columns) wide.  
It first happened when I was trying to "Print" a new page of text I entered. 
 The page displayed correctly on the screen, but printed wrong, as described. 
 Then the view on the screen also began to display the text wrong, as 
described.  Now pages of text previously typed and saved on other days are 
doing the same thing--sometimes partway through a page, sometimes completely. 
 Help!  I can no longer access my saved Word documents!  What is going wrong? 
Thanks

Restart Windows. Then delete temporary files as described at
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm. Does that help?

-- 
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP



"Gregory" <Gregory@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C2FE59A8-6DC0-43EF-A10B-9B2181FF1DFC@microsoft.com...
>I suddenly find existing documents distorted by all the text being jammed
> over to the left side and the characters all overstriking one another, as if
> on a typewriter the carriage jammed and all the keys you press typed onto the
> same spot.  For example, a full page of single-spaced, formatted text in an
> existing document has become 7 double-spaced blocks of just two to twelve or
> so characters (columns) wide.
> It first happened when I was trying to "Print" a new page of text I entered.
> The page displayed correctly on the screen, but printed wrong, as described.
> Then the view on the screen also began to display the text wrong, as
> described.  Now pages of text previously typed and saved on other days are
> doing the same thing--sometimes partway through a page, sometimes completely.
> Help!  I can no longer access my saved Word documents!  What is going wrong?
> Thanks