Word 2003 XML Files Error Message When Open

Question

One of my users has many Word 2003 XML documents. Some have been created in Word 2003 itself, others in Word 2007 saved as a Word 2003 XML document. All has been running sweetly for 6 months.

Now suddenly, some of the documents won't open in their copy of Word 2003 SP3. As far as I can tell there have been no software updates. The files themselves have not been edited. The same files open with no problem in my own copy of Word 2003 SP3 - build numbers are also the same 11.8169.8172.

The files that won’t open have a tag in the <w:wordDocument section at the beginning of the XML file

 xmlns:ns0=http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006

The files that do open have

xmlns:wsp=http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml/sp2 instead

Word does not give a useful error message - just the standard screen that asks if you want to send an error report.

The application log in the event viewer gives an error

Faulting application winword.exe, version 11.0.8169.0, stamp 465f2a40, faulting module winword.exe, version 11.0.8169.0, stamp 465f2a40, debug? 0, fault address 0x00801c66.

But when I look this up it says it's related to bullet points in Outlook - clearly not where I'm having the issue.

But they opened fine last week. And they open on my own copy of Word 2003. Any help appreciated as after 8 hours I’m now at a loss.

Answer 1

Microsoft got me to rename a couple of registry entries:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Office, 11.0, Word

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Office, Word

Renamed both of these to WordOld (well - anything other than 'Word')

Restarted Word and it reinitialised and then everything is now fine.

Answer 2

Did you disable the add-ins as documents opened in Word safe mode?

If you have not disabled, then disable the add-ins and check the result.

When you state ‘This now is a desperate situation as my users can't actually use their application’ do you mean that this issue is across multiple computers with multiple users?

Answer 3

A little bit more information. Yes the files open when in safe mode. It also opens if I run Wod with the /a switch.

The Startup folder is empty.

There are no Autoexec macros.

I have tried renaming Normal.dot. As expected, a new one gets created.

When viewing the file in safe mode, the properties say that the template is Normal.Dot.

If I open the file in Safe mode, then save it with a new name, still as an XML, it still won't open.

What can I do next? This now is a desperate situation as my users can't actually use their application.

Answer 4

Thanks for trying to help. It's very frustrating and has so far taken almost 2 days of my time.

The machine is on a network. It only has 1 user.

We have done a system restore back to a point where it was all working - and it's still not working.

We have uninstalled Office 2003 and reinstalled, done numerous reboots and it's still not working.

We have backed out every change we can think of and it's still not working.

Creating a new XML file from Word 2003 on that machine is fine - those XML files will open. They do not have the xmlns:ns0=http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006 tag.

We have tried taking the XML files, bringing them back to another machine, opening them with Word 2003, saving them as Word 2003 doc, then saving the doc as XML in Word 2003 - but the compatibility tag is still in the Word 2003 file. Seems like once it's there you can't get rid of it and the users machine won't open the file if it's got this tag.

They have several hundred existing XML files that are now unreadable on their machine.

I'm not on site, and the systems guy has had to go out so haven't had chance to try the Word safe mode - but not sure what this might show me?

No idea what to do next.

Answer 5

Is the computer connected to a domain or a network?

As the files are working fine on another computer, check if you can save the file in a different name and then try to access the document on this computer and check it opens.

Verify if a different user logs into this computer and can open the documents.

If this does not help then you may start Word in safe mode and then try to open the documents in Word safe mode to check if this helps:

• Hold Windows key + R.
• Copy and paste, or type the following command in the Open box, and then press Enter:

WinWord /safe

Note: There is space between WinWord and /

If Word safe mode does not help then start the computer in clean boot and check the result.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Note: Ensure to restart the computer in normal mode once troubleshooting is completed