Error- the name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag

Anonymous
2018-01-14T04:12:40+00:00

Hi, never really posted in one of these things before I this is sort of an emergency, I have an important document due in a few days for uni and all was going good until I encounter the error 'the name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag' which is preventing me from opening my document.

Naturally when I encounter this error I googled and attempted many fixes and have been attempting to edit the document.xml file for around 4 hours now to no avail.

I would greatly appreciate some help in how to overcome this error, I've linked a google drive folder with both the entire word document as a .rar file and the document.xml file as well as a screenshot of the error below.

I really don't know how to use this site but any help would be appreciated tremendously due to the importance of me resolving this error quickly.

Thanks in advnaced for any help anyone can offer 

:)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19zeLbff\_RpBTZlhBdXn3FliQap19kNwI?usp=sharing 

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

306 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2019-07-09T08:48:16+00:00

    A repaired copy of your document has been uploaded to the following folder of my OneDrive

    https://1drv.ms/f/s!AmuIXmFDy-1azRlX2JBMPPp_Nb1x

    or

    https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21APdGmCdgen7nNco&id=5AEDCB43615E886B%2114707&cid=5AEDCB43615E886B

    Let me know when you have retrieved it so that I can delete it from that folder.

    The xml tag error in the document was in the area of the images shown in the following screen shot

    and, after making the necessary repairs to the xml code, and re-zipping the document, and attempting to open it, the following message appeared

    After clicking on Yes, the document opened, but when trying to find the text "well fed dingo pup", in an attempt to locate the area in the document where the error had occurred, that text could not be found.  It turned out that all of the text that I have outlined in red, while present in the document.xml file, was not present in the recovered Word document and, in its place, there was merely an empty paragraph.

    As far as the cause of the original error, it is unfortunately a relatively common occurrence with documents that contain images with text wrapped around them, and the error seems to occur when the image is moved.

    My choice would be to always insert images so that they are in-line with the text, but if that is not possible, all that I can recommend is to use a revolving file naming system so that if an error occurs, it is possible to revert to the previous version without the loss of too much data.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-09T03:18:58+00:00

    Hi Doug,

    My parents have another file with the same error. Ive tried looking at the xml and think I can see some errors but I have no idea how to fix them. Can you take a look please?

    Also, if you could, can you let me know what went wrong so that it doesn't happen again. Mum makes this style of documents a lot to document their trips.

    Thanks so much for your time.

    Paul

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/5fyy8nlusqp2g2r/2019%20Story.docx?dl=0

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-02T23:04:30+00:00

    Hi Doug,

    I've been unable to open one of my PhD thesis chapters. I have the same problem as the other posters with the following error: 

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

    Please could you help me, this document is extremely important to me, the link to my file is below:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Uuk6boR3mcF9eA87MVMkjzNAWb5sFzLv

    Thank you and best wishes,

    Nathaniel

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-06-28T02:13:50+00:00

    Thanks Doug!  I have downloaded the file.

    And thanks for the advice.

    Cheers.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2019-06-20T08:28:15+00:00

    A repaired copy of your document has been uploaded to the following folder of my OneDrive

    https://1drv.ms/f/s!AmuIXmFDy-1azRlX2JBMPPp_Nb1x

    or

    https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21APdGmCdgen7nNco&id=5AEDCB43615E886B%2114707&cid=5AEDCB43615E886B

    I have re-created the cover page of the document so that it no longer contains any elements that have a layout that is not "in-line with the text" as it was the compound nature of the image on the original cover page that was the cause of the error.

    Let me know when you have retrieved it so that I can delete it from that folder.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments