"file cannot be opened because there are problems with contents"

[tooolnut]

I have Word 2007 running on Windows Vista. I need to know how to repair a
".docx" file Word can't open or repair: the error details say,

"Unspecified error ... Location: Part: /word/document.xml, Line: 2 Column:
69311"

I am able to open and edit the /word/document.xml part, but can't guess
where "Column 69311" is. Could you please direct us to online info on how to
interpret and respond to these error messages?

Thanks.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

IN the File>Open dialog, try opening it with the Recover text from any file
option.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Jim Baker]

Hello, my MS Word 2007 doc in Win 7 is getting an unspecified error at
opening. The error message is a problem is with content - Location: Part:
/word/footer4.xml, Line 2, Column: 583.

I do not see File > Open. Where can I find the Recover option in Word 2007?


Thank you in advance for your time.


Regards, Jim

 

[Terry Farrell]

Click the little arrow attached to the large OPEN button.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Word, itself, can not recover broken Word 2007 format documents. You need to
(somehow) edit the xml inside the file yourself.

For what its worth, my experience has been that the real error will not be
in the footer xml part at all - and the most likely culprit is probably a
TOC in the main body of the document. I do realise that probably won't help
you very much, but if you send me a copy of the document I would be happy to
attempt to repair it, or recover as much of it as I can.

 

[Jim Baker]

err - Office Button > the little arrow attached to the large OPEN button
opens the File Open dialog. Not the File Recover control. Right?

 

[Jim Baker]

I do have a TOC with two levels, so that might be an issue.

Here's a related issue: the file corrupted from yesterday has today's date.
I just opened it. I'm not an expert, but that does not appear to be an XML
issue?!

 

[Tony Jollans]

Here's a related issue: the file corrupted from yesterday has today's
date.
I just opened it. I'm not an expert, but that does not appear to be an XML
issue?!

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here, but file dates are completely
unreliable as indicators of anything - don't let them distract you from real
problems!

 

[Jim Baker]

See below. There does not seem to be a fix for. Customers should not be
required to work in xml.
http://www.alternativesoho.com/reviews/word-xml-error.html

So I am saving in two file formats: .docx and .docm.

Hope this works. Jim

 

[Tony Jollans]

.docx and .docm.

No! No! No! That won't help.

It is really very bad that Word does this, and I have every sympathy for
users caught by it. You are right to say that customers should not be
required to work in XML, and that is one reason why I offer to try to
recover documents when I see problems reported.

The suggestion to save a copy in a different format does offer one way of
playing safe, but it requires a lot of discipline, and if you do it, one of
the formats must be a non-Word 2007 format - HTML, perhaps, as suggested by
your link.

I wish I could offer a better solution, but I don't know one. I will repeat
what I said before that, in my (limited) experience, TOCs are a potential
source of this kind of problem and I would recommend taking especial care
when adding a TOC to a document.

 

[Lanes]

I have the exact same issue.

I am to deliver this 100 page document in a week, and the last backup is two
weeks old:s

There must be a fix for this...

 

[Terry Farrell]

If you read the whole thread, you would have seen this link

http://www.alternativesoho.com/reviews/word-xml-error.html

 

[Lanes]

I have found a fix (sort of)!

Although I do not have the details, I got a programmer to open the file with
some specific settings in OpenOffice and save it as a .doc file.

The repaired .dox file contains some minor issues, but these can easily be
solved.
- All citications are disabled (I suppose that might be because the original
source file was a docx, and .doc does not support this 2007 feature.)
- Lost some styling (also possible due to the rollback to .doc)
- Word dies whenever I try to save the file as .docx
- Got some strange boxes and figures at the start of the document.

But these issues can easily be solved. I now have all my original text,
images and sections intact. My heart rate can finally drop back to a normal
value=)

 

[Lanes]

I did read the whole thread (and countless others), and there is not a fix
posted in that link you just provided. It is more a statement that "MS should
create a fix"... which I really did not need to be told.

I was looking for a solution, and considered a bump on this thread a
possible source. That said, I did find a solution somewhere else, and I have
posted what I know if it below.