Sonia del Couz 

Have you tried opening the same document again in Trados Studio?

If still the same errors, you can open the XLIFF in Notepad++ and go to the line 305,886, position 2,162,275 and check if there is anything suspicious. In the status bar you can see the line and position of the cursor in real time:

I know that suspicious may mean nothing, but this is a tip: If you see some readable text in the XLIFF around those 2 positions shown as errors, search for that text in the Word document because there may be a weird character (a white square [□] or a character that shouldn’t be there [⬥︎], for example). If so, delete that character in Word (note that there may be a second weird character in the second position), and open the edited document in Trados Studio. Does is open now without errors?

If nothing works, please come back and I’ll let you know how you can try to find the culprit. Also, your screen-shot doesn't show the full error, you can try to post the full error here, although it maybe too cryptic…

Thank you so much Jesús. I've tried to open it with notepad (do not have the ++ version) but it does show the status bar you mention and cannot locate such line, so I am doing something wrong for sure...

Please find below the full error just in case it helps. Thanks!

Sonia del Couz 

Sonia del Couz said:

I've tried to open it with notepad (do not have the ++ version) but it does show the status bar you mention

I know… FYI: Notepad++ is a free software.

I know! But I need admin permits. I'll try to have installed, but not sure it is allowed in the office.

If not, I'll come back to you, Jesús. Thanks for your help!

Sonia del Couz

While you check if you can install Notepad++, could you post the full error?

is a screenshot enough to see it?

Sonia del Couz 

Indeed very cryptic!

I guess you have tried opening the same document in a separate project and you still get the same errors, right?

In Word try to add a small edit to the document (for example, add a space, then press backspace key to delete it, and save as with another file name). Try opening the new saved document in Trados Studio. If this does’t help either, you can go on reading…

If you can install Notepad++, fine, because then may speed up the following process:

Probably there are a couple of places in the Word document with weird characters. Finding those characters can be a daunting task if the document is big, but splitting the original document in 2 (doc1 and doc2, having each approx. the same amount of pages of the original content). Then open both in Trados Studio and you’ll know which half has the issue. In my experience, with this procedure I found the culprit characters in less than 30 minutes in a 100-pages long Word document.

For example, if doc1 shows no errors in Trados, then it’s fine and you know that errors muct be in doc2. If doc2 shows errors, you split it again in 2 (doc2a and doc2b, for example), and open both in Trados. If you do it like that, you’ll quickly have the paragraph(s) with the offending characters. Then delete those chracters in the main document and it should be fine in Trados Studio.

With the XLIFF opened in Notepad++ you may speed up the procedure if there is readable content in the positions shown in the error messges (the offending characters should be close to that text in Word). But it’s not guaranteed and as I said, you can do it in Word.

Sonia del Couz 

Indeed very cryptic!

I guess you have tried opening the same document in a separate project and you still get the same errors, right?

In Word try to add a small edit to the document (for example, add a space, then press backspace key to delete it, and save as with another file name). Try opening the new saved document in Trados Studio. If this does’t help either, you can go on reading…

If you can install Notepad++, fine, because then may speed up the following process:

Probably there are a couple of places in the Word document with weird characters. Finding those characters can be a daunting task if the document is big, but splitting the original document in 2 (doc1 and doc2, having each approx. the same amount of pages of the original content). Then open both in Trados Studio and you’ll know which half has the issue. In my experience, with this procedure I found the culprit characters in less than 30 minutes in a 100-pages long Word document.

For example, if doc1 shows no errors in Trados, then it’s fine and you know that errors muct be in doc2. If doc2 shows errors, you split it again in 2 (doc2a and doc2b, for example), and open both in Trados. If you do it like that, you’ll quickly have the paragraph(s) with the offending characters. Then delete those chracters in the main document and it should be fine in Trados Studio.

With the XLIFF opened in Notepad++ you may speed up the procedure if there is readable content in the positions shown in the error messges (the offending characters should be close to that text in Word). But it’s not guaranteed and as I said, you can do it in Word.

Great! I'll split it up then to see where the problem might be. No response from the IT team yet...

Sonia del Couz 

I suggest you uncheck this option:

and then reopen your document to see whether you still get the error.

Thank you so much, Walter! I'll certainly do