Microsoft word trouble!!?

I wrote a couple of pages with the Beta version of Microsoft word 2007 but it eventually expired and when I tried to open the doent with Word 2003 all I got was an endless string of herogliphs. I tried everything I thought it would work but nothing did. I tried changing the font, changing the encoding but nothing. Can you help me? Give me some suggestions cause that project was for the university and i'm screwed if I cant get it to work!