Open XML office format glitch with Pages.

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Level 1

1 points

Open XML office format glitch with Pages.

I use Google Drive to collaborate with others on group projects. However, when I download the document in .docx, it cannot open in Pages. I recieve the message "Some errors occurred while importing this document. The data might look different." Pages would not even display anything. I have never had a problem opening docx files generated by users using actual MS Word. Also, xlsx and pptx downloads work just fine from Google Drive. I tried opening the corrupt file in Microsoft Skydrive. I was able to view and edit the file normally, but when I tried to redownload from Skydrive, I had the exact same error. I can download and view docx, pptx, and xlsx file generated in Skydrive with no problems, the only issue is docx from Google Drive. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Pages '09

Posted on Feb 4, 2013 10:47 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 4, 2013 11:26 AM in response to shamrock7355

Plenty of hits on Google: “Google Drive .docx file corruption”

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2013 12:10 PM in response to shamrock7355

I just sent a text only .doc file exported from Pages to Google Drive. Downloaded from Drive as .docx format. Pages v4.3 on Mountain Lion 10.8.2 opened it without a whimper.

When I downloaded the original .doc file from Drive used to create the above .docx file, and opened this original .doc file in Pages again, I got the import warning dialog that “character borders aren't supported and were removed.” The doc file was not edited in Drive, nor did this import message exist prior to upload.

When I added a scaled image to the end of the previous .pages document and exported to .doc format, the image survived. After uploading this file to Google Drive and downloaded as a .docx file format, the image had been stripped from the document.

These were deliberately simple tests where normal file content and integrity were not preserved, or the original .doc file was quietly stepped on by Google.

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Answer 3

shamrock7355 Author

Level 1

1 points

Feb 4, 2013 2:26 PM in response to VikingOSX

So I did some testing and it turns out that a gdoc containing text only exports to docx just fine, but as soon as I add any sort of graphic, the docx version becomes unreadable. Do you think this is a problem with Pages, or Google?

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Answer 4

Feb 4, 2013 2:44 PM in response to shamrock7355

Pages is finickly about .docx content, but I am leaning toward Google as the contributing factor. If you looked at any of those search results from my initial post in this thread, Pages isn't the sole plaintiff.

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