Cannot open microsoft word 2007 file

[Lee]

when attempting to open a document I am presented with the following message:

The Office Open XML file '(file name)' cannot be opened because of there are
problems with the contents.
Details:
Semicolon expected

Location: Part: /word/document.xml, line: 2, Column: 807252

Any help on how to retrieve this file would be very helpful and much
appreciated, Even not in its complete form so to help with the document being
re-written. Thanks

 

[Tony Jollans]

It seems pretty unusual for Word to actually tell you what it thinks is
wrong, even if it is of little help to ordinary mortals. If you are able to
crack open the file and find position 807252 you may be able to spot the
error; if not, I can take a look if you send me a copy of the document.

I find the message slightly interesting as there are few places Word itself
would require a semicolon (mostly as a delimiter in regions that use comma
for decimal point) but xml may require a semicolon as an end of token
delimiter. None of that explains why it's missing, of course, and the error
may be a result of something else being wrong.