Word files opens as Wester European

I save all my office files as office 97-2003 now when I try to open the files it shows encoding as western European (Windows) and I am unable to read the document. Is it possible to correct this or have I lost all my files?

Hello,

Have a read here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101212491033.aspx

Thank you for the link.