Developer Troubleshooting

This document contains a small list of know-how related to dealing with the OOXML format.

XML namespace aliases

Problem: XML files must not contains xml namespace aliases starting with xml prefix.

Example: Bad alias: xml123, good alias: a123.

Solution: Use different alias names.

• LibreOffice: OK
• Word: will not open file.

Ignorable attribute

Problem: The Ignorable attribute must contain valid XML namespace aliases.

It is a problem because many XML processors hide the aliases after parsing the XML document.

• LibreOffice: OK
• Word: will not open file.

Solution: keep track of and reuse the xml ns alias names.

See also: Requires attribute of the Choice tag.

XML space attribute

Problem: space symbols disappear from the document.

Solution: Use the xml:space="preserve" attribute consequently.

Wrong relationships file

Problem: LibreOffice will not open an OOXML file if the relationships file contains an XML namespace alias.

Solution: Generate relationships files without XML namespace aliases (enforce the use of default XML namespace alias).

• Word: unknown effect
• LibreOffice: will not open file

Invalid zip entries

Problem: The zip entry paths mut not contain a ../ part.

• LibreOffice: OK
• Word: will not open file.