How to Corrupt a Word File

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Want to corrupt an Office document to prank your friends? Or is it because it has confidential information that needs to be destroyed? Well, this wikiHow will teach you how to corrupt a Microsoft Office document (or anything else) so it cannot be opened!

Using an Online File Corrupter

Go to https://corrupt-a-file.net in a web browser. Corrupt-a-File is a free tool that will corrupt any document you upload.

Click FROM YOUR COMPUTER . It's under "Select the file to corrupt." This opens your computer's file browser.

Select the Word document and click Open . The name of the file will appear under "Select the file to corrupt."

Try opening the file in Word. If you have Word on your computer, double-clicking the file should attempt to open it in that app. You'll see an error saying there's a problem with the content. Click Okay to proceed, and then Word will try (and fail) to repair or recover the content.

Using a Notepad for Windows

Select All Files from the drop-down menu. It's at the bottom-right corner of the file browser—the one set to Text Documents (*.txt) by default.

• You can use any Office document you wish—the content doesn't matter since nobody will be able to open the file.

Delete several lines of text. Seven or eight lines should be enough. However, do not delete all the text as this will prevent the file from being corrupted properly.

Try opening the corrupted file in Office. If you have Office on your computer, double-clicking the file should attempt to open it in that app. You should see an error message saying there is a problem with the content. Click Okay to proceed, and then Word will try (and fail) to repair or recover the content.

Changing File Extensions in Windows

• Open the Windows search bar and type file options .
• Click File Explorer Options in the results list.
• Click the View tab at the top of the window.
• Remove the check mark from "Hide extensions for known file types" under "Advanced Settings."
• Click OK.

• Since you'll be corrupting the file, be sure to choose one you don't care about. You can also make a copy of the file before changing its extension if you wish to preserve it.

Right-click the file and select Rename . This highlights the file name, which means it's now editable. [2] X Research source

Replace the current extension with .docx or .doc for Word, .xls or xlsx for Excel, and PPT or PPTX for Powerpoint . For example, if you're working with a file called file.jpg , replace ".jpg" with .docx . [3] X Research source

• If you want to hide file extensions again, return to the View tab in File Explorer Options and check the "Hide extensions for known file types" box.

Changing File Extensions on a Mac

Open Finder

• Since you'll be corrupting the file, be sure to choose one you don't care about. You can also make a copy of the file before changing its extension if you wish to preserve it.

Click the file once to select it and press ⏎ Return . The file name should now be highlighted in blue, which means its' editable. [6] X Research source

Replace the current extension with .docx . For example, if you're working with a file called file.jpg , replace ".jpg" with .docx .

Press ⏎ Return . You'll see a message asking you if you're sure you want to change the file extension. [7] X Research source

• If you want to hide the file extensions in Finder, return to Finder > Preferences > Advanced and remove the check mark from "Show all filename extensions."

Community Q&A

If you are known to dislike school work, always 'forgetting' to do your homework, and you happened to turn in a corrupted document, then it is obvious you corrupted it to avoid doing schoolwork. However, if you always do your schoolwork without complaining, have no history of 'forgetting' homework, and have good grades, you might get away with it, as the only way the school can know is if you tell them, or if it is obvious as described above.

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Tips

Do not use files you might need later on, as corrupted files are pretty hard to recover. Always create a dummy file or use a copy of a real document.

If you want to corrupt a file to excuse yourself from an electronically submitted school or college assignment, be very careful. Schools are becoming much more aware of this trick and some classes will give you a zero right away for turning in a corrupted document. Read your school's policies on the matter before you go ahead with this.

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