I have undertaken some analysis of errors of this kind and some time ago created a bug report for it, namely
Issue 127745 - Read Error: Format error discovered ... at n,nnnn (row,col).
I have conducted some more tests and I have now come to the following conclusions:
1. The error arises when an AOO user sends a .odt file to a person who uses MS Word to add edits and comments to the file using Edit > Changes.
2. I am not sure how the corruption happens. Does MS Word corrupt the original .odt file and return a corrupted file to the AOO user? Or does MS Word not corrupt the file, but AOO cannot handle what MS Word sends back, and AOO corrupts the file?
3. If I correct a corrupted file by deleting the repeated attributes I then get different behaviours with AOO and LO:
When AOO saves the corrected file under another name,
AOO corrupts the corrected file. Hence the corruption is now introduced by AOO.
When LO saves the corrected file under another name,
LO does not corrupt the file.
@ACW100
It would be a great help if you could send me the file
exactly as you received from the reviewer and before you opened it. I expect you received the file by email so would it be possible for you to forward that email to me? Or ask the reviewer to send the file to me? I need to see the file
after it has been edited and saved by MS Word but
before you open it with AOO. I have sent you an email and a Message with my email ID.
After I analyse the file I hope to be in a position to give a recommendation for how to avoid errors of this kind in the future.
Many thanks.