.docx doesn't open after updating to AOO 4.1.6

Discuss the word processor
Post Reply
sergpetrov
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:19 pm

.docx doesn't open after updating to AOO 4.1.6

Post by sergpetrov »

Hi,
the new version seems not to open the docx files. When I click on the file it opens the AOO window but nothing happens. Tried with different files, .doc work fine. The previous one worked with docx's fine.
Mac, OS X 10.10.5
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on MacOs 10.10.1 (14B25)
User avatar
robleyd
Moderator
Posts: 5055
Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:47 am
Location: Murbko, Australia

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by robleyd »

I can't replicate the problem with the few docx files I have available; they are all but one small files - less than 60 kb - and contain text only; no images or other embedded items. Are your documents large, or contain images etc?

I do have a 17mb docx which won't open in LibreOffice but AOO opens it, although doesn't display all of the 51 images it contains.

I am using AOO 4.1.6 on Slackware 64 bit when opening these files..
Cheers
David
OS - Slackware 15 64 bit
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15
LibreOffice 24.2.1.2; SlackBuild for 24.2.1 by Eric Hameleers
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by John_Ha »

1. Download the .docx file to your desktop
2. Start AOO.
3. File > Open ..., and navigate to the file.

Does it open?
Attachments
test.docx
(1.87 KiB) Downloaded 149 times
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by RoryOF »

I found (on a later pre release of AOO4.2.0) that small .docx might open (~20KB), or crash and then recover and open, some large .docx would just crash and not recover.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
sergpetrov
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:19 pm

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by sergpetrov »

John_Ha wrote: Does it open?
Nope. The AOO's window opens but nothing happens.
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on MacOs 10.10.1 (14B25)
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by RoryOF »

Then, as a short term fix, revert to an earlier version you know works.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
sergpetrov
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:19 pm

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by sergpetrov »

robleyd wrote:Are your documents large, or contain images etc?
No, they are different .docx, but not too big and not containing any images or tables etc.
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on MacOs 10.10.1 (14B25)
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by RoryOF »

I expect there will be no immediate fix pending detailed investigation by developers. Revert to an earlier version that you know works.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
sergpetrov
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:19 pm

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by sergpetrov »

Ok, I will do it. Do you need some extra info?
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on MacOs 10.10.1 (14B25)
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by John_Ha »

sergpetrov wrote:Nope. The AOO's window opens but nothing happens.
You will appreciate that AOO does open .docx files so there is something wrong with your installation which has become corrupted probably because of a PC crash or hang.
 Edit: It appears that while AOO 4.1.6 opens some .docx files, it does not open other .docx files which is causing rather a lot of confusion.

I can open every .docx file on my PC but I have now been sent a .docx file which AOO 4.1.6 will not open thiough LO does open it. 
Can you open a .odt file? See test.odt file below. Both the .docx and .odt file are extremely simple - just a few words of text.

Have you tried File > Open ..., and navigate to the .docx file on your desktop. Does it now open?

1. Reboot. Does that fix it?

2. Uninstall AOO
3. Delete the profile at C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user
4. Download and reinstall AOO 4.1.6.
Attachments
test.odt
(11.71 KiB) Downloaded 122 times
Last edited by John_Ha on Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by RoryOF »

On some small sample .docx files which had previously failed to open, a fresh OO User Profile allowed them open without problem; however one large (380KB) .docx would not open either with old or fresh profile.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
User avatar
RusselB
Moderator
Posts: 6646
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:31 am
Location: Sarnia, ON

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by RusselB »

Similar problems have been reported recently, all from Mac users, with a suggested work around of going back to OpenOffice 4.1.5
OpenOffice 4.1.7, LibreOffice 7.0.1.2 on Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate & Windows 10 Home (2004)
If you believe your problem has been resolved, please go to your first post in this topic, click the Edit button and add [Solved] to the beginning of the Subject line.
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by John_Ha »

I now have a .docx file which AOO 4.1.6 does not open with AOO under Windows 7 - AOO just crashes.

When I create a new, empty document and go Insert > File ..., and pull in the .docx, I get the following error message about Java being defective being defective though my Java is fine.

The file opens with LO.

So, the failure to open seems to be content dependent.
Attachments
Clipboard01.gif
Clipboard01.gif (20.65 KiB) Viewed 2716 times
Last edited by John_Ha on Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
User avatar
robleyd
Moderator
Posts: 5055
Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:47 am
Location: Murbko, Australia

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by robleyd »

@John_Ha
Can you share that file so others can try it in different 4.1.6 environments?
Cheers
David
OS - Slackware 15 64 bit
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15
LibreOffice 24.2.1.2; SlackBuild for 24.2.1 by Eric Hameleers
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: .docx doesn't open after updating to aoo 4.1.6

Post by John_Ha »

robleyd wrote:@John_Ha
Can you share that file so others can try it in different 4.1.6 environments?
I am sorry but the files are confidential and cannot be uploaded in public.

I tried opening the file with LibreOffice to see whether I could obscure the content and post the file. When I saved the file as a .docx file I was offered the Confirm file format ..., message saying it has content which LO could not save in .docx format. When I went ahead and saved the file, the saved file then opened with AOO.

The conclusion is:

1. This file was created using MS Word. Its creation date is January 2019.
2. This file has content which LO cannot save. The content is probably enclosed with <mc:AlternateContent> tags and therefore not part of the OOXML standard.
Clipboard01.gif
3. When the content which LO cannot save is excluded, the file opens with AOO.

There is another general conclusion. LO obviously does not support all the features available in a .docx file so LO is not a panacea for working with .docx files.
 Edit: Further analysis of the document.xml file shows that the code which LO cannot save as a .docx file is associated with two "drawings". The first is coded as

Code: Select all

<w:drawing>
               <wp:anchor behindDoc="0" distT="0" distB="0" distL="114300" distR="114300" simplePos="0" locked="0" layoutInCell="1" allowOverlap="1" relativeHeight="3">
                  <wp:simplePos x="0" y="0"/>
                  <wp:positionH relativeFrom="column">
                     <wp:posOffset>-1905</wp:posOffset>
                  </wp:positionH>
                  <wp:positionV relativeFrom="paragraph">
                     <wp:posOffset>158750</wp:posOffset>
                  </wp:positionV>
                  <wp:extent cx="3609975" cy="2325370"/>
                  <wp:effectExtent l="0" t="0" r="0" b="0"/>
                  <wp:wrapSquare wrapText="bothSides"/>
                  <wp:docPr id="1" name="Grafik 1" descr=""/>
                  <wp:cNvGraphicFramePr>
                     <a:graphicFrameLocks xmlns:a="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/main" noChangeAspect="1"/>
                  </wp:cNvGraphicFramePr>
                  <a:graphic xmlns:a="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/main">
                     <a:graphicData uri="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/picture">
                        <pic:pic xmlns:pic="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/picture">
                           <pic:nvPicPr>
                              <pic:cNvPr id="1" name="Grafik 1" descr=""/>
                              <pic:cNvPicPr>
                                 <a:picLocks noChangeAspect="1" noChangeArrowheads="1"/>
                              </pic:cNvPicPr>
                           </pic:nvPicPr>
                           <pic:blipFill>
                              <a:blip r:embed="rId3"/>
                              <a:stretch>
                                 <a:fillRect/>
                              </a:stretch>
                           </pic:blipFill>
                           <pic:spPr bwMode="auto">
                              <a:xfrm>
                                 <a:off x="0" y="0"/>
                                 <a:ext cx="3609975" cy="2325370"/>
                              </a:xfrm>
                              <a:prstGeom prst="rect">
                                 <a:avLst/>
                              </a:prstGeom>
                           </pic:spPr>
                        </pic:pic>
                     </a:graphicData>
                  </a:graphic>
               </wp:anchor>
            </w:drawing>
When I delete all the code starting with <w:drawing> and ending with </w:drawing>, LO can then save the file as a .docx file.

However, AOO still cannot open the file so this is not the reason AOO fails to open it. 
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
Post Reply