Word doc will only open 17 pages of 30 page plus reports.

Dear @Matthew Baxter,

This issue usually occurs when a document contains a corrupted section break, table formatting error, or a broken page layout element right after page 17. Because Print Layout relies on the display driver and section formatting to render pages (unlike Draft view), a corrupted layout element forces Word to stop rendering subsequent pages visually.

Here are the most effective, step-by-step solutions to fix this issue:

Solution 1: Change to Draft View and Remove the Corrupted Break

1. Switch to Draft View (View tab > Draft).
2. Go to the end of page 17 / top of page 18.
3. Turn on formatting marks by pressing Ctrl + Shift + 8 (or click the ¶ icon on the Home tab).
4. Look for any Section Break, Page Break, or large table structure at that transition point.
5. Select the Section Break line and press Delete.
6. Switch back to Print Layout View (View tab > Print Layout) to see if the full document renders.

Solution 2: Save as Plain Text or Unformatted Copy

If copying and pasting all text into a new document still reproduced the issue, the hidden formatting error was copied along with it.

1. Open a new, blank Word document.
2. Go back to your original document in Draft View, select all text (Ctrl + A), and copy it (Ctrl + C).
3. In the new document, right-click and choose Keep Text Only (or Paste Special > Unformatted Text).
4. This strips away the corrupted layout code while preserving all your text. You can then re-apply your styles/headings.

If the solution above doesn't work, you can try these other official troubleshooting steps:

• Run a Quick Repair: This can fix underlying problems with the Office program itself without changing your documents. Go to Start > Settings > Apps > Installed apps (or Apps & features), find your Microsoft 365 installation, select Modify, and choose Quick Repair. If that doesn't work, try the Online Repair as a second step. Please refer to this document: Repair an Office application | Microsoft Support
• Try the 'Open and Repair' Feature: Word has a built-in tool specifically for this. Go to File > Open, select your file, click the down arrow on the "Open" button, and choose Open and Repair.
• Update or Roll Back: Check if your Word is up to date (File > Account > Update Options). If the problem started recently, it could be a bug introduced in the latest update, as some users have reported. In that case, you might consider rolling back to a previous version or waiting for a patch.

For more details on troubleshooting damaged or corrupted documents in Microsoft Word, please refer to the official Microsoft documentation: How to troubleshoot damaged documents in Word | Microsoft Learn

I hope one of these solutions works for you. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you need further assistance.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".   

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.