Word 2016 xml parsing error

Anonymous
2016-11-14T16:16:18+00:00

Hello, I'm having an issue with one workstation producing this error opening a docx file:

Details

Xml parsing error

Location: Part: /word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column: 2595814

I can open this file on two other workstations with no problem. I've done a reinstall of Office and I tried copying the file locally to eliminate any access issues. I've read other posts about this error but they pertain to the document being corrupted in which case it wouldn't open on any workstations.

Thanks!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2017-05-24T22:56:37+00:00

There may be an issue with Figures 7 and 8 on page 5 of the document as I can get a MS XML Validation - Unspecified Error with I believe it is Figure 8 and I cannot modify the size of the text box that I assume is supposed to display "Plugs No firegum" that is overlaid on Figure 7 without screwing up the layout of the document.

Note, if wanted to display two images side by side, I would insert a two column table in the document and insert the images in-line with text, one to each cell.

I believe it is best to avoid inserting images in any way other than in-line with text.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-07-06T17:35:41+00:00

    Hi Doug,

    I'm having similar problems with my file. Would you be so kind and try to repair?

    Here is the link: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Arc-d4jblnMJanu1pQgbqj9ZJ9I

    Many thanks,

    Chuck

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-06-29T23:27:58+00:00

    I use various methods, depending upon what I find in the document.xml file.

    However, there is a document XML Tag Repair.pdf written by John Korchok, a regular here, that you can download from the following folder of my  OneDrive

    https://1drv.ms/f/s!AmuIXmFDy-1azRlX2JBMPPp\_Nb1x

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  3. Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2017-06-29T19:58:01+00:00

    Ronalene, this thread is not about anything that can be fixed by repairing Office applications. It's about repairing Office documents that contain XML errors. That is an entirely different issue.

    Chris, the technique usually starts by making a backup copy of the file. Then change the extension of the document from .docx (or whatever it is) to .zip, because the Office 2007-2016 file format is really a zip archive. Open the archive and extract the document.xml file from the word (or other) folder. Open that xml file in a text editor (not Notepad) and replace every occurrence of the two characters >< with the same two characters separated by a paragraph mark. Place the edited xml file back into the same place in the zip archive, and change the archive's extension back to .docx. Open the file in Word, which will show the error message but now with the correct line number instead of "line 2". Reopen the edited xml file and go to the indicated line. You may find there a malformed xml node, or nodes in the wrong order -- this is where you need an understanding of XML syntax and structure rules. Fix the problem, optionally remove the extra paragraph marks, put the file into the zip archive again, and rename it to .docx again. If you made the correct fix, the document will open without the error.

    Good luck!

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