Unspecified Error, word/document.xml, Line:2, Column: 0

Dear Jeeped,

I have the same problem with a document that I need to submit my doctoral dissertation in the next days. I tried what you suggested, but I was clearly unable to fix it.

I have put a copy of the original document (without correction attempts) on the following location. I really hope you can find where the problems lay.

http://1drv.ms/1fGgp6J

Thanks a lot!

Alejandro

Thanks for the tip. 

Another poster reported 2 more causes for this error:

**Unspecified Error, word/document.xml, Line:2, Column: 0** – end tag

<snip>

This last DOCX Unspecified error had to do with the <m:num> XML tag and I’ve had a few of those lately. Often, the <m:num></m:num> pair contains absolutely no content and can be removed without any damage to the DOCX at all. In this case, it was wrapping the lettersBH which were the numerator in a formula. The malformed section looked like this,

<m:num>

   <m:r>

      <w:rpr>

         <w:rFonts w:ascii  …. “Cambria math”/>

      </w:rpr>

      <m:t>

         BH

      </m:t>

   </m:r>

   <m:ctrlPr>

      <w:rpr>

         <w:rFontgs w:ascii*”Cambria math” … “cambria math”/>

         <w:1/>

      <w:rpr>

   <m:ctrlPr>

</m:num>

Now that XML code sequence passes syntax muster but Word still chokes on it. This can be proven by extracting the word\document.xml and opening it in Excel (or some other XML editor).

I first tried to delete the lower <m:ctrlPr></m:ctrlPr> section as it seemed empty of any actual contribution to the content of the DOCX but that still did not allow Word to open the document. Failing that, I noted other surrounding text so I could locate the problem area within the document at a later time (e.g. within Word) and snipped out the entire the <m:num></m:num> block. This allowed Word to open the DOCX.

I searched for the surrounding content I had noted previously and recorded the page number. I zoomed to 10% and took a screenshot of the first four pages and wrote my reply.

</snip>

Here is another cause for this error:

<snip>

here’s what caused my problem: Where you found the error, I had a checkbox (legacy form field) inside of a plain text content control field.  It didn’t cause any problems when left alone, but when I altered only that field (i.e., checked the box), saved the doc, and reopened it, presto, there was the error.  I guess Word doesn’t like form fields inside of form fields...which is maybe an obvious thing...  I’d done it based on a suggestion I found online, because putting the checkbox inside the plain text content control field allowed the user to actually tab to the checkbox -- Word won’t tab to it otherwise (apparently due to the mix of legacy fields and 2007 fields).  Oh well, I guess I can live without that :-)  I took the checkbox out of the plain text field and now the form works fine.

</snip>

Yes I agree that is the way to proceed. Opening the word\document.xml file with Notepad++ and then opening the Replace function window, you can put each XML tag on its own line and get a line number for your error, instead of "line 2, column 0". Apparently putting the tags each on their own line and then rezipping the document.xml file with its fellow XML subfiles, does no harm, but obviously helps a great deal pinpointing the problem.

However one should note, there is a trick to putting each tag on its own line in NotePad++...you have to be sure to move the radio button in the Search Mode section of the Replace Window from "Normal" to "Extended" and use "\n" to indicate a new line to the program. See step number 5.

So here are the steps for recovering manually from Unspecified Error Line 2, Column 0. Credit for this algorithm should go to .

1. Add a zip extension to your docx file or unzip it with your favorite zip program that doesn't care if the extension is docx and not zip.

2. Open the document.xml file found in the "word" folder of the zip in a text editor with line numbers. Try using the freeware NotePad++. Many expert users agree NotePad++ is the best software for this kind of thing. I have turned on word-wrap from the View menu, so that why the text fills the screen instead of the normal case where line 2 runs off the page to the right almost ad infinitum I'm sure it seems...

3. Hit Ctl-A to select all the text. 4. Hit Ctl-H to open the Replace window. 5. Move the radio button in the lower left hand corner under "Search Method" "Normal" to "Extended". See the image below.

6. Replace "><;" (without the quotes of course), with ">\n<" (or ">\r\n<" as Daniel seems to prefer). This will put each tag on a new line. Don't forget to save the changes by clicking on the blue floppy disk icon in the upper left corner of NotePad++.

7. Now we move up one level in the folder structure and rezip the all the folders and files. Don't stuff the files and folders into a new folder. The [Content_Types].xml file and the _rels, customXml, docProps and word folder should all be in the root of your rezipped file, not within another folder. Also add a docx extension. It's silly not to remove the zip while adding the docx extension, but I kept it to symbolize that the docx is an ordinary zip file too.

8. Now when we open the docx file in Word we get a line number location where the error is near.

9. Now we should go back to the document.xml file hopefully still in NotePad++. Your error is most likely due to something wrong with a set of <m:oMath> tags. My suggestion is to remove the whole equation from the starting <m:oMath> tag to the ending </m:oMath>. If you know what you are doing and can see where Word is hanging up and correct that without removing the equation, all the better, but my piece of freeware which works on these files, just removes the whole equation, but it does so displaying what it has removed so you can examine it.

10. After removing my offending XML form the document.xml and saving the file, move up one level to the root and rezip the folders and [Content_Types].xml file again and change the extension back to docx.

11. Thankfully, this strategy works for the file I was using as a demonstration. I blurred out the title page information to protect the user whose file I got from this forum as publicly shared.

12. Also as should be obvious, it's often a case of more than one set of bad tags. So if the first attempt fails, try again to remove the offending additional tags. One of the things I'm working on with my freeware is to build in automatic multiple removals of bad tags. 13. Note, I'm aware of three other patterns of bad XML which will lead to "Unspecified error - Location:  Part: /word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column: 0". They are:

• Something wrong inside a <w:tbl> and </w:tbl> tags. Removing the tags and everything in between, sometimes cures the problem.
• Something wrong inside of <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="begin"/> and <w:fldChar w:fldCharType="end"/>. These are tags that surround the Table of Contents. Removing the tags and the content in between allows these files to sometime open. That is a bit drastic but it is what chrima  reccommends here: http://help.wugnet.com/office/open-docx-file-content-error-ftopict1081932.html. It could come down to some tags that shouldn't exist in the TOC. You might experiment to remove some odd looking tags within the TOC to see if you can save it although recreating it may be better. This blog post suggest an easy way to get rid of the TOC is to open the corrupt Word file in Office Docs/Office365/Office Online, which have apparently lower standards as to what is corrupt in this regard, and apparently you then easily remove the TOC there and save it and then download it again for TOC recreation on your Desktop version of Word: http://problemswiththecontent.blogspot.com/2011/03/file-cannot-be-opened-because-there-are.html.
• Problems with Word files which have been edited with the EndNote add-in active, and providing automatic formatting, while concurrently tracking changes or maybe making comments in the Word document. - See: http://community.thomsonreuters.com/t5/EndNote-General/Endnote-X1-quot-Unspecified-Error-quot-when-Word-2007-comments/td-p/476. The problem may be confined to Word 2007 and X1 and the X2 version of EndNote.
• There are probably other causes of unspecified errors.

My freeware is here:

http:/hostedfiles.wherehaveibeen.info/savvy_corrupt_DOCX_setup_2.0.4_without_adware.exe

I removed my adware offers for this version of the setup file. I'm working on an update of the program and will be posting here soon. Also my webpage of corrupt Word DOC and DOCX advice might be useful although it could use updating: http://directory.s2services.com/word_repair.htm. The "S2SERVICES" coupon for free online recovery (usually $39) from Recoveronix' Online FIle Recovery, has been kindly extended by Emil Sildos Recoveronix' owner, until Nov. 1, 2014.

Finally, as Jeeped repeatedly points out, most of these issues are fixed for future problems by installing Service Packs and/or Hotfixes. The ones I know about effecting these issues are below:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970942 - Hotfix for Word 2007. Fixes issue to prevent Unspecified errors for future files.
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817583 - Hotfix for Word 2010. Fixes issue to prevent Unspecified errors with Line 2, Column 0 indicated as the error location. Works for future files.
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528942 - Mr. Fixit application will directly fix present Word files that won't open and manifest the error: "The name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag." Office 2013 and Office 2010 Service Pack 1 resolves the issue for new files.
• http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office-service-packs.aspx - As mentioned Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 and 2013 fixes math end tag not matching errors for future files.

Apparently EndNote X1 and X2, does not work well when track changes is turned on in at least Word 2007 as the fields used by Tack Changes/Commenting have similar names to EndNote ones. The solution for future documents is to turn off EndNote's Word plugin's "Instant Formatting"

http://community.thomsonreuters.com/t5/EndNote-General/Endnote-X1-quot-Unspecified-Error-quot-when-Word-2007-comments/td-p/476