Error message: The document cannot be processed since it contains unexpected contents.

Question

This is a mystery I'd like to solve if anyone has an idea: this .docx cannot be processed in Studio 2017 and there is no other explanation other than this error message. Someone else had a similar problem, I saw, and was able to process the document in Studio 2015, so I tried the same solution. It worked! After converting the file into .sdlxliff in Studio 2015, I was able to open it in Studio 2017 and continue processing it with no problems. 
 But I'd like to hear any ideas as to what might be causing the problem and what to do in the future if using Studio 2015 doesn't work? It's frustrating not knowing what kinds of issues are involved with this error message. 
 (By the way, I tried copying and pasting the contents of this file into a new .docx file but that did not work. I don't see any formatting issues in this .docx that aren't in its other 6 companion files, all created on the same day using the same methods and computer.) 
 Cheers and thanks! 
 Zakiya

Paul · Answer

Hello Zakiya, 
 
Can you share the file with us? Quite hard to know what the problem might be without being able to investigate the file. If you can then email it to pfilkin@sdl.com 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Zakiya, 
 Thanks for sending in the file. I don't know why it has this problem yet but will look at it in more detail later. However, you can process it if you change the filetype being used before processing the file. So make sure you are set up like this in your File -> Options -> Filetypes: 
 
 So uncheck the default and check this one. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Zakiya, 
 The filetype you make default here is exactly the same as the one being used by 2015. So if this is not working for you my guess would be you are not really using this filetype. Make sure of the following: 
 - change this in File -> Options and then open the file for translation 
 - if you created a project then make sure you change this in the project templates you are using 
 The way to see if you are using the right filetype is to check the File Type Identifier in the files view. So you should see this: 
 
 The new filetype (that is causing you this problem) is called WordprocessingML v. 2 and not Word 2007 v 2.0.0.0 
 Regards 
 Paul

Tyler Snow · Answer

Instead of trying to fix it in Trados, I ended up fixing it in Word by copying the content to a blank file and then clearing all formatting. Immediately that imported fine. I then worked my way backwards by adding back in formatting and eventually found there was an issue with some bullet point characters that were not even rendering right in Word itself. I then went back to my original file with all the formatting still in place, changed the weird character bullet points into standard ones that Word recognized, then Trados was happy to import the file.

Trados Studio > 1. Trados Studio

Error message: The document cannot be processed since it contains unexpected contents.