Re: THe Office Open XML file...cannot be opened

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Based on the error message you cited there may have been a bit of corruption
in the schema declaration at the beginning of the file. MS may have either
corrected the error in the line and position noted in the error message
(document.xml, Line: 2, Column 91482) or they may have copy/pasted another
schema declaration from a working file. If you were still having difficulty
the latter was going to be my suggestion.

As for how it happened, I don't know. But what I do know is the new XML file
format makes data recovery more successful than the binary format. As you
noted, you can crack the file open which allows you to make the necessary
modifications. So if anything, saving in the new file format will increase
your chances for recovery. IOW, I'd covert the .doc they sent you to a
..docx. If there is something on your system that is causing the corruption
you definitely don't want to be using a binary format.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Ted M H" <TedMH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CC1D2239-77BD-4616-AFD5-2D20BEDF130A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Terry,

Thanks again for your efforts. That Zip file thing you had me do was very
interesting. I just heard back from MS and they recovered the file and
sent
it back to me as a Word 2003 doc, and I'm able to recover all of the work
I
thought I'd lost. I asked several times what the cause of the corruption
was, what I can do to prevent it and what I can do if it happens
again--especially if my 90 tech support option has ended. No answers
whatsoever to these questions. Just fixed my file and sent it back to me.
Very Scary.

One thing I started doing on my own is to set the Always Create Backup
Copies option in Word 2007. I think MS gave us this option because of
problems like mine....wish me luck!

Thanks again,
Ted

"Terry Farrell" wrote:

At least the file structure seems intact. I've not played any more with
the
structure at XML level: my level of expertise stops at that level. I
expect
someone that really understands XML may be able to help.

Terry

"Ted M H" <TedMH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8849B8BE-0D09-4269-8A2F-21F3DCE3671F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Terry,

Thanks again for your reply, and for the empathy. I renamed the file to
*.zip and my winzip program opens it. THere are 18 files in the zip
archive,
with names like app, comments, core, document, etc., all with xml file
extensions. Further, I can open these files and view what looks like
some
sort of code (gibberish to me) along with snippets of my text. There's
also
an image file (image2.png) that I had inserted in the original
document,
and
that image is still intact.

Does this mean there's hope that I could recover this data?

I'd be almost happy if I could just get the raw text that I entered
into
this file. Then I can paste it into a new document and format it
again,
etc.
The loss I'm facing now is several hours of original thinking that
would
be
hard to duplicate -- the formatting and images and comment, etc. aren't
really that important to me. Is there a way to do this?

Incidently, in desparation I sent a description of this problem to MS
tech
support this morning, as a last ditch effort to recover my work before
I
start redoing it. They need 24 hours to respond, so I don't expect to
hear
from them until tomorrow.

Really appreciate your help...

"Terry Farrell" wrote:

Ted

It is horrible and I don't know why it happened. Saving a newly
created
document and regular saving is what I recommend (and practice). It is
a
bit
worrying that Word seems to have trashed the file completely.

Check to see if the structure has been totally trashed but renaming
the
document with a .zip extension and then open it in either WinZip or
WinRAR.
This should display all the separate components of the file (which
should
be
just a collection of zipped components). Is the structure totalled?

Terry

"Ted M H" <TedMH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C4A32A67-1450-4045-AD2C-8A36D5DB1498@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Terry,

Thanks for your reply. I guess I should have referrred to the post
from 2
Oct 2007 to avoid confusion...

Dawn's suggestions included Open and Repair and Recover Text from
any
file.
Neither of these worked for my file. Open and repair just results
in
the
same error message about not being able to open the file. Recover
text
seems
to work, but the result is just several pages of gibberish inserted
into a
new document.

I tried your additional suggestion this morning and the result is
still
a
blank document. When I insert the file (Insert/Text/Object/Text
from
file)
nothing happens--I still have a blank new document.

I'm sort of in a state of shock about this. I don't recall ever
losing
a
significant amount of data before through no fault of my own. With
this
problem I now realize that just having good work habits (i.e. save
the
file
early and often) is not enough. How can I prevent this from
happening
again?
THis is horrible!

"Terry Farrell" wrote:

Being unable to go back to February to read Dawn's posting, have
you
tried
Insert File in a new blank document? Have you tried the Open and
Repair
option? Have you tried the Recover Text from Any File option?

--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP

"Ted M H" <TedMH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9A5088E2-7827-4C0E-83C5-FCACA4677CDF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Word 2007 WinXP Pro
I've got a really scary problem. An important file that I've
worked
all
day
on can't open all of a sudden. When I try to open here's the
message:

THe Office Open XML file XXX.docx cannot be opened because there
are
problems with the contents.

When I take the option to display details it says:

Location: Part: /word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column 91482.

I've tried all the suggestions in Dawn Crosier's response to a
similar
problem dated 10/2/2007, but I get the same result--either
nothing
or
just
gibberish.

Have I just lost all my data? Is that possible?





.

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