Word document changed to random letters!

I have been working on an outline for many weeks now on Microsoft Word, continuing to 'save as' with new file names. I last modified a version last night. I had not shut off my computer since last night, nor exited out of the saved document; the document was minimized since the modification. Today, I was scrolling through the document and typed something when the entire document turned to hieroglyphic/random characters. I tried to "undo" my typing, but the hieroglyphics would not alter. I tried to change the font, copy-paste to a new document; no change. I clicked another document which I also had open which also turned to hieroglyphics.
My computer froze, and I "forced quit" for all things open. After the force quit, when I opened Word, 50-60 random documents I opened the past month all started opening. My file is nowhere to be found. The other document that also changed into hieroglyphics recovered, the one I need, did not. (I should add that the one that recovered was a document I opened from an email attachment). The only file with the file name I am looking for is an "autorecovered" file which does not open on my computer. I emailed this autorecovered document, and it does open on other computers, but only with the same document.
Under recent documents, it shows "0" for "Yesterday."
Please help! This is an outline for my law school exam which is an open-outline exam!

Better post on the Microsoft Mac forums, as it's their software youre having issues with:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

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