Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi All,

I am beside myself. I am working on my dissertation and spent 12 hours on a section. I closed the file...and now that I've tried to open it, it shows this: File format error found at SAXParseException: '[word/document.xml line 2]: Attribute w:eastAsia redefined', Stream 'word/document.xml', Line 2, Column 76172(row,col). Can someone PLEASE help me to recover this. I feel nauseous having lost this document. I did search this forum (and online). I've tried to recover it from a backup, but no backup exists (despite this being revision #35 or something). I tried to open it in Word (on another computer) and couldn't. I tried to convert it to a PDF, but there are about 5 pages of work missing. I'm going to admit that I probably f*cked myself over by telling LibreOffice to open the file after it identified an error. Is there any way to recover all my missing work?

Thanks.

Jennifer

Please PM me an email address to which I can send the repaired file.

Edit: I'll be offline now for several hours.

PMed you, Rory.

For future reference, don't save in .docx format unless you absolutely need to, and set up a backup strategy for important - read any - documents on your computer. The Time stamped backup extension is handy for saving multiple time stamps backups of your documents.

Never work with foreign file formats. Edit Word documents with MS Word, ODF documents with LibreOffice or OpenOffice, Photoshop pictures with Photoshop etc.

You may try to convert your work to some other file format at any stage with varying results (such conversions will never be perfect) but when you continue editing the document, always edit the original file in the native file format of the application you are using. When you receive such files from somebody else for co-editing, the first thing you should do is saving your own copy in the native file format of the application you are using.

Writing long (and important) docx with any application other than MS Word is careless, particular when you don't have a decent backup strategy.

Repaired file sent. It looks to me as if it starts in media res; there are about 8 pages and 2800ish words.

I have carefully inspected the innards of the submitted file and am confident that _all_ text contained in it is in the repaired file, so if there is missing text, it is not available for extraction from the submitted damaged file.

If one has a failed file, which Villeroy's suggestions above will help avoid, it is essential _not_ to Save over that file; the earliest instance of a failed file is the best one to send for fixing.

Rory, you are a lifesaver. Thank you so much. I think you did recover everything!

Villeroy, agreed...I need to have a better backup strategy. I was just about to email the file to myself (my usual half-assed backup strategy) so I could save a copy on another computer (that does have Word on it)...and that's when I discovered the error.

The timestamped backup to which robleyd points can be a lifesaver.

jennifersita wrote:I was just about to email the file to myself ... so I could save a copy on another computer (that does have Word on it)

It is best never to edit a file with different programs - see [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for the reasons and for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

If the other computer has Word on it, you can install LibreOffice in addition at no cost and without risk. When the installer prompts you about handing MS Office files, you can uncheck all document types related to Word, Excel etc since you already have the right program for these file types. By default (by double-click) MSO files will be opened with MSO and ODF files (odt, ods, odp etc) will be opened with your ODF suite. Nevertheless, you are free to open any office document with any office suite via right-click>OpenWith or via menu:File>Open in your respective application.