Hi All,
Got this nasty problem where OpenOffice 3.1.1 has stopped being able to save .odt files. Earlier this morning, things were saving fine, but now I get:
Error saving the document $document_title: error in writing sub-document styles.xml
I have googled for a bit and some other people have had similar problems, where it seems that some files are corrupted.
I have tried this:
1) opened ODT file -> save to another dir = fail with same message 2) Opened ODT file -> save as .doc = success 3) open the saved .doc file -> save as .odt = fail with same message 4) close all openoffice instances, fire up soffice from command line, new Writer document, type a few words -> save as .odt = fail with same message 5) Open the ODT file I had originally created and saved earlier -> error message "Error reading file" 6) moved ~/.ooo3/ to a different location, start openoffice and save new file = error as before about styles.xml 7) find /usr -iname styles.xml returns nothing 8) Inspected the styles.xml file in the odt file and seems ok, but is too long for me to inspect properly.
What to do now? Seems the original file is now borked, and no one in #Openoffice.org has been helpful.
Can anyone please suggest something I can do? Or should I start using the Word format?
Thanks, Srdjan
On 19/07/10 14:04, Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
Can anyone please suggest something I can do? Or should I start using the Word format?
Is it just this file that is a problem, or can't you create a new .odt file either?
If you can create a new file, try doing that and copy+pasting into it selectively from the .doc to see at what point it breaks. (Try copying the whole contents first, maybe that will just work anyway.)
My guess is that there's something in the styles which is causing it not to be able to turn it into valid XML, maybe an invalid character or something. You could try looking at the styles you have set up for anything that sounds like it might cause a problem (I'd say any style with non-alpha characters in its name would be a good starting point). Also look for anything that you changed this morning, eg using a new font that has a weird name or similar.
If you can't create .odt files at all then a re-install would be the obvious next step... Have you tried the same steps on a different PC (and/or different O/S or OOo version)?
Hi,
On 19 July 2010 14:23, Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
On 19/07/10 14:04, Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
Can anyone please suggest something I can do? Or should I start using the Word format?
Is it just this file that is a problem, or can't you create a new .odt file either?
I cant create a new ODT file now.
My guess is that there's something in the styles which is causing it not to be able to turn it into valid XML, maybe an invalid character or something. You could try looking at the styles you have set up for anything that sounds like it might cause a problem (I'd say any style with non-alpha characters in its name would be a good starting point). Also look for anything that you changed this morning, eg using a new font that has a weird name or similar.
Which styles file is this? the one in the ODT or some kind of system style? The ODT style file is some 18000 characters long, and splitting it into lines and checking things will take far too long.
If you can't create .odt files at all then a re-install would be the obvious next step... Have you tried the same steps on a different PC (and/or different O/S or OOo version)?
I will try to re-install OOo.
Thanks, Srdjan
Hi,
On 19 July 2010 15:12, Srdjan Todorovic todorovic.s@googlemail.com wrote:
On 19 July 2010 14:23, Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
On 19/07/10 14:04, Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
Can anyone please suggest something I can do? Or should I start using the Word format?
Is it just this file that is a problem, or can't you create a new .odt file either?
I cant create a new ODT file now.
I tried a reboot only, and OOo works fine now. Thanks for helping.
Srdjan
On 19/07/10 15:12, Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
Which styles file is this? the one in the ODT or some kind of system style? The ODT style file is some 18000 characters long, and splitting it into lines and checking things will take far too long.
I'm a bit confused, in that I thought you were unable to save the .odt with the problem therefore looking at the styles.xml would be problematic. Was the file saving but then erroring, or are you talking about the styles in the original document (pre-problem)?
If in doubt I tend to view .xml files in something like Firefox that will tell me if it doesn't parse correctly and tell me where it went wrong. (I'm sure there are better tools, I rarely do XML.)
I tried a reboot only, and OOo works fine now. Thanks for helping.
All the more odd! Did you have OOo open for the duration of your tests (eg with other files open)? I don't expect problems to persist between separate program invocations on Linux but still be solved by a reboot. Maybe an update in the background had caused some OOo files to be patched, although restarting OOo should still have been enough.
Hi,
On 19 July 2010 15:34, Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
On 19/07/10 15:12, Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
Which styles file is this? the one in the ODT or some kind of system style? The ODT style file is some 18000 characters long, and splitting it into lines and checking things will take far too long.
I'm a bit confused, in that I thought you were unable to save the .odt with the problem therefore looking at the styles.xml would be problematic. Was the file saving but then erroring, or are you talking about the styles in the original document (pre-problem)?
The ODT file operated on was pre-problem. This was copied to /tmp and extracted. The original ODT file then developed the problem of not being able to be open by OOo.
Since reboot, the original ODT file can and has been opened by OOo without problems.
If in doubt I tend to view .xml files in something like Firefox that will tell me if it doesn't parse correctly and tell me where it went wrong. (I'm sure there are better tools, I rarely do XML.)
Yes, but Murphy's Law would dictate that Firefox would be taken out ;)
I tried a reboot only, and OOo works fine now. Thanks for helping.
All the more odd! Did you have OOo open for the duration of your tests (eg with other files open)? I don't expect problems to persist between separate program invocations on Linux but still be solved by a reboot. Maybe an update in the background had caused some OOo files to be patched, although restarting OOo should still have been enough.
I had OOo open for the duration of some of the tests. At one point, I had closed all of OOo before finding out that the files still could not be saved.
I don't know about updates - should have warned me about any updates.
Thanks, Srdjan
Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
/snip/
Yes, but Murphy's Law would dictate that Firefox would be taken out ;)
May I, through the courtesy of these august columns, point out that Murphy's Law does not apply?
Murphy was a US aeronautical engineer who spotted that a particular and vital) engine component could be fitted either way round, but would only work when correctly done.
Murphy's Law states that if a component can be fitted incorrectly, one day it will be.
I think the honourable gentleman is thinking of Sod's Law, which has an altogether greater scope.
HTH
<hides>
On 19/07/10 16:45, Anthony Anson wrote:
May I, through the courtesy of these august columns, point out that Murphy's Law does not apply?
<pedant mode="childish">A pedant, eh? Well it's only July, so ha!</pedant>
On 19-Jul-10 15:56:30, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 19/07/10 16:45, Anthony Anson wrote:
May I, through the courtesy of these august columns, point out that Murphy's Law does not apply?
<pedant mode="childish">A pedant, eh? Well it's only July, so ha!</pedant>
Anglia readers, especially those located at or below sea level, may appreciate:
The March March March http://people.bath.ac.uk/masgks/march.html
The May Manea Mania http://people.bath.ac.uk/masgks/manea.html
(As hosted at the August University of Bath).
Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Jul-10 Time: 17:44:18 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Mark Rogers wrote:
If you can't create .odt files at all then a re-install would be the obvious next step... Have you tried the same steps on a different PC (and/or different O/S or OOo version)?
That would be my reaction - plus re-install an earlier version...
-
Anthony Anson -
Mark Rogers -
Srdjan Todorovic -
Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk