Forum Discussion
Word Help
My word application kept defaulting to an old version that is no longer active. With the help of one of your technician's, I was able to erase that and sign in to my microsoft word account. However, I cannot restore my dissertation document with all the formatting, charts, maps, etc. Thankfully I saved it on my OneDrive through my university, but when I try to download it back onto my computer, it scrubs all the formatting, charts, maps. I've tried to pull it off my icloud but it only has the scrubbed version. The technician suggested I post here to see if anyone can help me.
1 Reply
Your dissertation formatting loss is likely due to compatibility issues between Word desktop and Word Online/OneDrive sync:
- Restore Previous Versions in OneDrive
- Right-click the file in OneDrive → Version history.
- Select a version saved before the formatting loss.
- Open in Desktop Word
- Download the file and open it in the full Word for Windows/Mac desktop app, not Word Online.
- Word Online cannot render advanced formatting, captions, or embedded charts properly.
- Check Embedded Objects
- If charts/maps were linked from Excel or other sources, ensure those files are still accessible.
- Use Insert > Object > Links to verify connections.
- Repair Corrupted Files
- In Word: File > Open > Browse > select file > arrow next to Open > Open and Repair.
- This attempts to recover damaged XML parts (figures, captions, maps).
- Restore Previous Versions in OneDrive
