Can't open LibreOffice Word file: get message file format error found at 6520,7. How can I salvage this document please?

[Neill1]

I was working on the document on my old XP machine using an old version of MS word.

I moved it to my new machine, Windows 8, with LibreOffice and loaded it okay, then added several portions and saved the file. It was quite big - about 200 pages of text. It was in rich text format when I loaded it, and when I saved it as I was adding information.

Then I saved the file, which was and is on a USB stick. LibreOffice can’t open it, giving the message: File format eror round at 6520,7 (row, col).

I tried to reopen it on the first (XP) computer and MS Word can’t read it.

I would really like to salvage as much of the document as possible. Can anyone please suggest a file repair program that might help, or any other tool that might able me to rescue most of my work.

Thank you!

[Neill1]

Whoops folks! Have continued working on the problem and seem to have solved it by starting new Writer file and inserting the old file I couldn’t open. It seems to have worked! I then resaved as new ODT file, and can open it.

A clever friend suggests that for some reason my installation of LibreOffice is trying to open the Writer file as a spreadsheet file.

In the meantime, I’ve salvaged my afternoon’s work, so have time to work things out.

[GrandpaDave]

Similar to my experience, Writer was unable to open the RTF document I was editing. It said “File format error found at 154,7(row,col)”. Fix was to open a new Writer window, choose menu INSERT/TEXT FROM FILE and point to the sick document. It displayed correctly so I save as ODT. (LibreOffice 6.2.3.2 x64)
Thx to Neill1