Broken SIMS report (won't open in word)

[cheaptonersucks]

Hi,
I have been asked to look at a SIMS XML report that is broken! I have opened the SIMS report in Dreamweaver and have validated the XML file and according to DW there are some 'expected end of tags'! I have checked the lines where apparently the closing tags are missing as highlighted by DW but the relevant closing tags seem to be there?? I am not that familiar with broken SIMS reports and wondered if anyone can shed some light as the closing tags are there?? The opening and closing tags are in the same case. It's driving me nuts as I have looked at the XML file so many times and I can't see any missing 'ending' tags!!! 🤪

 

This is the output from Dreamweaver

 

I also pasted the report into an online XML validator and this was the output. 

 

 

Thanks for any advice!

Edited July 8, 2025 by cheaptonersucks

[3s-gtech]

Can you show us the XML in some context?

[cheaptonersucks]

Thank you for responding so quickly 3s-gtech. It's a very large report and I would really like to show you the XML report but it contains sensitive data. Is there any way that I could send or upload it confidentially?

Edited July 8, 2025 by cheaptonersucks

[cheaptonersucks]

Is there any software that will show me where to add the missing 'end' tags so that I can just add them? I have looked though the XML but cannot see any missing end tags!! It's driving me crazy!!

[cheaptonersucks]

This is the first one that is highlighted as missing 'end tags' but I have searched through all and there are starting and ending tags. It is odd that there are 35 though!

[bknaggs]

How old is the report?

 

Are you able to try and open it in an older version of Word?

 

We had a report coming out in RTF format that wouldn't open in Word 365 but opened fine in Word 2016. That report has since been rewritten.

[3s-gtech]

50 minutes ago, cheaptonersucks said:

Is there any software that will show me where to add the missing 'end' tags so that I can just add them? I have looked though the XML but cannot see any missing end tags!! It's driving me crazy!!

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/xml-formatting-in-notepad-how-to-format-xml-files/

[cheaptonersucks]

Thanks for replying bknaggs. Its a report that's only been generated very recently. I tried opening the report in Word 2016 but it still won't open sadly. I have also tried Word 365. When I attempt to open the SIMS report in word 2016, the error shown in the uploaded image.

[cheaptonersucks]

I can find 'Line: 15402' in an XML validator but the columns are not listed so how do I find 'Column 146779'?

[cheaptonersucks]

Thanks 3s-gtech!! I will have a look at that web link.