Can't open Word File because of end tag/start tag mismatch error...need XML help!

Anonymous
2010-06-09T00:42:38+00:00

I get the following message when i try to open a word document that i desperately need

  The name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag

Location: Part: word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column: 96760

I know how to "unzip" the docx files and get to the main document.xml file, but i know nothing about xml programming. Any suggestions? i got an xml editor and found that there are 6 mismatch errors, but i don't know how to fix them. I also don't know how to rezip al the files back into a docx format. I would love any help. Thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-04-25T16:26:25+00:00

You're welcome Catherine.

Going forward if you or anyone else comes across this issue again, we have a FixIt solution created that should address this problem.  You can go to the following KB article and it should give you the details about how you can correct these documents.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528942

Brandon

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-09-01T19:32:56+00:00

    I got to my house and unleashed my entire Linux arsenal on the file to attempt a recovery (Felt like I was hunting squirrels with nukes). I don't know a lot about programing but I guessed in the repair process the file got truncated at that point. I thought it would be possible to repair the XML file so I could get it to open in Word and not have to deal with manually reading endless code and picking out the text part which is what I was worried about.

    About three paragraphs were lost if the file ends there, but rewriting three paragraphs is nothing compared to rewriting fifteen pages.

    Can it be fixed? It would save me a buttload of trouble.

    Off-topic: The sentence in english would be:

    "The princess opened her eyes and blushed when she found herself in the arms of Max. "Can you walk?" He asked, worried".

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-01T19:17:39+00:00

    I'm curious about where this version came from. The document.xml appears truncated as it ends in

    Preguntó preocupado. </w:t </w:

    ... which shows a couple of faults right there despite not ending in </w:body></w:document>. I am at a loss as to how much has been lost and whether a recovery should even be attempted. How did you provide a repaired DOCX archive?

    Edit: the last sentence is,

    "La princesa abrió los ojos, y se sonrojó al encontrarse en los brazos de Max. “¿Puedes caminar?” Preguntó preocupado."

    ... or,

    "The princess opened her eyes and blushed when being in the arms of Max. "Can you walk?" She asked worried."

    How much has been lost?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-09-01T17:42:22+00:00

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/u8gld3

    I managed to fix the file so the document.xml could be extracted. But I have no knowledge of XML. Is it posible to fix this file? Someone help.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-09-01T14:14:40+00:00

    That was the original document. Any other repair attempts I made were with a copy of the file.

    So in other words, I just lost my document. My editor is really gonna have a fit.

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