MS Word unable to read this document. it may be corrupt

[gmantic]

I have had this problem previously and it remains unresolved.

I have saved a number of documents (with many endnotes) in AOO as 97/2000/XP.doc files, with the expectation that I could later make these files available in MS Word (both for myself and other readers).

But when attempting to open these files saved (over a long period of time) as 97/2000/XP.doc I have the following message:

"Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt.
Try one of the following:
*Open and repair the file
*Open the file with Text Recovery converter"

It appears that files saved without endnotes, or few endnote can be opened in MSWord.

Copy and pasting data from AOO as 97/2000/XP.doc files into a new Word .doc file converts standard numbered endnotes to roman numeral endnotes (and they then cannot be altered back!). This would not be an issue if there weren't between 50-100 endnotes by file, which means reconstructing the endnotes from scratch is awfully time consuming.

What am I doing wrong?

How can I open these files in MS Word? Do i need to repair the files? If so, how?

What is Text Recovery Convertor and is it relevant to this?

Help appreciated!

[RusselB]

Please note that the code for saving in .doc format was reverse engineered and is not guaranteed.
Later versions of MS Word will work with Writer's default format of .odt
What are you using to open the files when you get those messages?
Can you open the file(s) with MS Word Viewer?

I don't know what Text Recovery Convertor is, but it sounds like a program to recover lost/damaged text files.
It's not a program I've heard of, so I'm leary to recommend it.

As to the standard/roman numeral problem, you should be able to just edit the endnotes to make the required numeric corrections.

Did you save the files in .odt format, or just .doc? If you saved them in .odt format, try opening the .odt file and see how things look... as I said before, current versions of Word (I have a copy from 2010) do work with the .odt format.

[gmantic]

HI RusselB

to try to open these AOO 97/2000/XP.doc files in MS Word, I am using MS Word for Mac 2011 (14.2.0).

Attempting to open these files from the Word viewer, I get the same message.

I do not have a problem opening AOO 97/2000/XP.doc files that have been saved without endnotes (or with only a few endnotes).

You say "As to the standard/roman numeral problem, you should be able to just edit the endnotes to make the required numeric corrections." I wish it were that simple. In the AOO 97/2000/XP.doc files, i have saved the endnotes in standard numerals. When copy-pasting text to a Word file these are converted to roman numerals, that I am unable to convert back by any standard process - In fact in MS Word for Mac they are not even recognised as "roman numerals" when they are in fact roman numerals. Regarding "editing",as far as I can tell, this can only be achieved one at a time (by copying, placing a new endnote, and pasting). There must be a way....

I saved the files ---over a long period -- as .doc. I can save these files back to odt. but these files cannot be read by MS Word for Mac 2011 as far as I can tell (ie they are greyed out in the viewer).

[RusselB]

Have you tried opening the .doc files in Writer? If so what, if any, differences were there? If not, please try it.. worst case scenario is that they won't open in Writer either.

[gmantic]

stupid q but what's "Writer". I run a Macbook Pro with Word for Mac 2011. Do you mean Text edit?

[RoryOF]

Writer is the text processing section of OpenOffice.

[gmantic]

Yes all files can be opened in Writer, and I have had no difficulties there. i have been working on these files for months, saving them as .doc files in Writer with (quite stupid now I realise) understanding that I may also be able to open and read them in MS Word and share them with others using MS. But thats not the case. The endnotes are the problem.

[RoryOF]

When you open one of these files in Writer, position yourself near a foot/endnote reference figure. Then turn on /View /Field Shading. Does the reference character now sit on a grey square? If not, it is no longer a live link to the foot/endnote and you will have to remake the foot/endnotes by reinserting the anchor and then by careful cut and paste of the relevant note from the existing amalgam of note text. Using /View /Field shading once more turns off the shading (which doesn't print - I always leave it on while editing).

[gmantic]

Yes RoryOF, Field shading has always been on. It is more than likely that I do not understand you, but I do not see how this would cause or be implicated in the problem I have.

[RoryOF]

Are the notes working correctly? i.e., if you click on a note anchor, are you taken to the note and if you click on the note number when in the note do you return to the correct location in the text?

I'm asking this to establish if the notes are working (more or less) correctly. If they are, we ought be able to guide you to reformatting the note anchor and reference, but if they are not then its a case of reinserting the notes one at a time.

[gmantic]

Ok yes I am able to move correctly in and out of note anchors. There is no issue with that.

[RoryOF]

Have you tried /Tools /Footnotes\Endnotes, Endnotes tab, and select i, ii, iii (or your desired option) on the autonumbering dropdown ? This certainly works for me. Note that you must use the Footnote or Endnote tab depending on the type on notes in use.

[gmantic]

Yes that works, and i have it configured to standard numbers.

I've mostly been using insert -> footnote/endnote - its set to "automatic" and i select "endnote", but more recently I discovered and use the "insert endnote directly" button.

[RoryOF]

It can happen in OpenOffice that some settings are sticky. The way around this is to unset them by selecting something else, close the file and restart OpenOffice, then adjust the settings as required. If that doesn't work for you, we would need to have hands on a short sample file, perhaps of one page with accompanying foot or endnotes.

[TheGurkha]

If people don't need to edit the files that are shared with them, you could share them as PDF. That way anyone can open them and they can't (easily) change them.