Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello - OpenOffice novice here, I've spent a sleepless night trying to retrieve a file with error message 'format error discovered in the file in sub-document content.xml at 2,4310 (row,col). It was a doc with text and a table and I was using the apple z control at the time to go back a few steps when everything froze, disappeared and then the file locked. Other .odt files still open (the last save of this is three days old). I had AutoSave on but when I got a bit of Apple support we found nothing in the backup file and one temporary folder, around the time of the lockdown, that can't be opened either. I know my tech limits and I've surpassed them on every front. I'm posting my doc here and the temporary doc in the hope that someone can give me some support around whether to carry on eating easter eggs in desperation/start again/give up home. Many thanks, Tan ps. Ah, the extension tmp is not allowed. Turns out. Any help much appreciated.

Try the attached. There were several corrupted comment links all together; I deleted all but one of these. Please check that content and formatting are as you require.

Hello Rory, Saint Rory of the retrieved files. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can read this. It's not recovered the whole lot but it retained 80% of what I've written and stopped me swearing off technology forever and getting out a nail and a piece of slate. You sweet, smart person. Thank you so much you have saved me a world of pain. All best, Tanis

This might get the other 20% but you have to work to dig it out.

(Rory - I stripped all XML tags with a reg ex search of <[^>]+>).

You guys are magicians. Thank you for kindness and your expertise. My faith in technology and humanity are restored in one.

I have identified the exact error and fixed the file.

It was the same problem as Re: [Solved] Read-Error. In this case, the first style definition in the file is for Table1 and it has been corrupted with multiple office:name definitions. I merely deleted all the office:name definitions underlined in blue below and got back to the original Table1 definition.

The file then opens.

Thank you John, I'm going to see if I can find the .tmp file (presuming this was a later doc) and see if I can apply your rigorous repair there. Thanks so much for the support of the community. Best, Tan

tantaylor wrote:I'm going to see if I can find the .tmp file

See [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete Writer temporary files for

a) detailed instructions on how to recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery.
b) how to find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted.
c) how to un-delete the temporary files Writer wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. This will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it and is probably your best hope.