What you describe is exactly how a Word (or other marked-up or rich-text
document) would display in an Access text box (at least prior to Access
2007)... The markup characters typically are not in the character set of the
actuall fonts and default to some symbol.
To display your saved documents in Access, you will need an ActiveX control
that handles rich text (of the type used in your documents). I do not know
the limitations on rich text in Access 2007 Text Box Controls.
The various Developer Editions of Office used to have a Rich Text Box
Control, some third parties had them, but, provided it supports the document
format you are using, my choice would be the freely downloadable ActiveX
Control created my MVP Stephen Lebans, and available from his website,
http://www.lebans.com.
Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP