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

Anonymous
2010-10-28T11:18:41+00:00

I too am having the problem many people seem to be having on this forum. I have created a fairly large and important document which includes a lot of maths equations and some graphics. Now every time I try to open it it says there is an error with a mismatch between the start and end tags. I have never worked with XML but have tried to find what feels like a needle in a haystack and can't really see how to proceed. Is there any chance you could help? I have uploaded the document to:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0ecfpu

Many thanks,

Andrew

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-11-01T19:04:17+00:00

Hi Andrew,

The fixed file is at http://www.wordarticles.com/temp/AH%20Statistics%201%20Notes%20-%20Outcome%202.docx

To try to answer your questions:

There is no easy way to do it in Notepad - I generally use Visual Studio; Yves Dhondt - the only other person here, AFAIK, who fixes these documents - has some tool he wrote himself. It isn't very difficult but there is no guarantee of what you will find when you look. Usually - and I'm sure you're right - it happens when equations and graphics are together and an oMath end tag, and perhaps part of the equation it ends, gets misplaced within a structure that is meant to enable the equation be correctly displayed in earlier versions of Word that do not support the new equation engine.

The structure should be:

<mc:AlternateContent>

<mc:Choice>

<m:oMath>

Start of equation

End of equation

</m:oMath>

<mc:Choice>

<mc:Fallback>

Probably some graphics

</mc:Fallback>

</AlternateContent>

but ends up as:

<mc:AlternateContent>

<mc:Choice>

<m:oMath>

Start of equation

<mc:Choice>

<mc:Fallback>

Probably some graphics

</mc:Fallback> </AlternateContent>

End of equation

</m:oMath>

This is a bug so nothing is for certain, and I don't know what circumstances trigger it, or what you can do to avoid it. I also don't know if Microsoft are working on it, although I have informed them and they have replied that 'it has been passed to the appropriate team' or some such.

For my own amusement I am working on an AddIn that will attempt to mend these documents but I don't know how well it will work, yet.

Enjoy,

Tony

www.WordArticles.com

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-12-02T10:08:49+00:00

    Although it seemed rather slow, my rebuilder did rebuild this - please try it for yourself.

    Download it from http://www.wordarticles.com/temp/Rebuilder.dotm and copy it to your Startup folder ("%appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup"). When you next start Word it will have an extra tab on the Ribbon: "Broken Documents"; click the button on this tab, select your document, and, wait.

    Enjoy,

    Tony

    www.WordArticles.com

    I just tried it with the above file and I got an 'Run-time error '3002': File could not be opened.' (Tested on a WinXP with Word 2007)

    I checked out the file and noticed that there is some serious damage there. It's not an oMath issue, there are actually errors inside some of the compressed blocks that form up document.xml. The beginning and end of the file are correct, the damage seems to be mostly in the middle.

    I could retrieve about 3 pages: http://www.mediafire.com/?ko2mr7xya81gc3b

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-12-02T10:08:43+00:00

    You are right: it is a bit of a mess, and my AddIn can't deal with it :(

    I don't know if it will help, but I have managed to recover the first part of it, and a couple of lines at the end, but I fear most of it is gone. Seehttp://www.wordarticles.com/temp/ENP702.docx for what I managed to get.

    Enjoy,

    Tony

    www.WordArticles.com

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-12-02T09:13:12+00:00

    Although it seemed rather slow, my rebuilder did rebuild this - please try it for yourself.

    Download it from http://www.wordarticles.com/temp/Rebuilder.dotm and copy it to your Startup folder ("%appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup"). When you next start Word it will have an extra tab on the Ribbon: "Broken Documents"; click the button on this tab, select your document, and, wait.

    Enjoy,

    Tony

    www.WordArticles.com

    Was this answer helpful?

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