Fix hyperlink issue in Word-to-XML conversion

Question

We use a two stage process to convert a client's Word documents to XML. The first stage uses upCast to create XML files, then a custom XSLT is run to convert the output to the client's DTD. This process has run successfully on thousands of files.

I've got a few files now (a source document and translations of that document) in which footnotes will not link properly. The footnotes are superscript cross-references to a numbered list at the end of the document. During validation, I get this:

SXXP0003: Error reported by XML parser: An element with the identifier
"d878e2235" must appear in the document.

The cross-reference is pointing to that identifier, but the numbered item at the bottom does not have it. I've tried replacing the cross-reference and replacing the entire numbered list; the error persists. I'd think it was a problem with the code, except that other documents with references of the same vintage (i.e., likely originally created in the same version of Word, which is likely 2003) work fine. How can I fix this issue?

Answer 1

The problem was that there was a text box from a much older version of the document (containing a copyright date of 1996) that was not visible and underneath the references table, therefore interfering with the document styles and hyperlinks in that section. I'd been focusing on the section of the xml that was causing the error and hadn't looked at the context.