Right, before you try a system recovery, reboot your computer. Sometimes this works.
This is from one of the support websites
There are several ways to recover information contained in a data file from within Word. You can sometimes recover information in a Word document by inserting the file into another Word document. To do so, create a new Word file using the Normal.dot template by going to File | New | Blank Document. When the blank page appears, click Insert | File. When the Insert File dialog box opens, select the troublesome Word document and click OK. The file should appear in the new document. You can then save the file to a new file name and continue.
If this doesn?t work, you can try to open the file by using Word?s linking feature. You?ll start by creating a dummy Word document and then going to File | New | Blank Document. Type any text you want into the new document. Select the text and then click Edit | Copy.
Next, create another dummy Word document. In this new dummy document, click Edit | Paste Special. When the Paste Special window appears, click the Paste Link radio button and select Formatted Text. When you click OK, the information you copied from the first dummy document appears.
After that, click Edit | Links. This displays the Links window. Select the first link and click Change Source. When the Change Source window appears, select the troublesome Word document, click Open, and click OK. The document should appear in your second dummy Word document. Then, break the link by clicking Edit | Links | Break Link. Click Yes when Word asks you if you?re sure you want to break the link.
Another way you can recover documents inside of Word is to use Word?s text converter. Click File | Open. When the Open dialog box appears, select the troublesome Word document. But, instead of clicking OK, first select Recover Text From Any File from the Files Of Type drop-down list. This filter will import straight ASCII text from any file, including your damaged Word document. You will lose Word formatting, but you should at least be able to extract most of the text information from the file.