error after sharing Zotero-files in Word and LibreOffice Writer ("word found unreadable content" )

stroom · January 29, 2024

If I open DOCX-files (made in Word, including Zotero entries, stored citations: As Bookmarks) I can use in LibreOffice. Also editing Zotero entries generates no issues. But on re-opening the then saved DOCX in Word, a message appears:
"Word found unreadable content in Filename.docx. Do you want to recover the contents of this document? If you trust the source of this document, click Yes "

If clicked Yes: all Zotero-entries are flat text, connection with Zotero is broken. If clicked No: will not open the document.

Is there searchable issue in my document? In Writer all seems fine. Is it fixable?

adamsmith · January 29, 2024

Can you reliably replicate this -- i.e. if you create a new docx in Word and roundtrip it as you describe, does this also happen?

stroom · January 30, 2024

No. It turns out I cannot. Tried several options, e.g. with or without Zotero plugin in Word. In the document I encountered several messages:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2362511/a9a2o3a7ibiacl9ftiwq.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2362511/6nus3kxotlpkpvd0a52a.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2362511/ylxh27zpobbzm7367z07.png
But I cannot replicate..

dstillman · January 31, 2024

The original problem wouldn't be from Zotero — Zotero doesn't save files, so it can't corrupt them — but for the second and third messages in your last comment, you can see that you deleted the trailing parenthesis (and the number "5" in one of them) by mistake, so it's just checking that you want to keep your edits. You don't, so you should say no.

adamsmith · January 31, 2024

I'm wondering if the "you have edited" messages could indicate corrupted bookmarks? That is the reason we caution against bookmarks after all.

dstillman · January 31, 2024

@adomasven would know more, but I think that would be corrupted in the sense of their content being incorrect, not invalid in a way that would cause a message like this. Word/LO save the file and shouldn't be able to save unreadable content.