RTF Conversion Error after adding symbols

[tomtt2]

I have a sizable Word doc that I've been saving as an RFT format, loading into Calibre and then converting it to an Epub with cover.

This morning I did some minor editing and added some music note symbols using the Microsoft Word 'Symbol" menu.

When I saved the file as RFT, the symbols were properly saved. I loaded the RFT into Calibre again and attempted to convert. I got a lengthy failure error which I have no idea how to read or interpret.

I removed the symbols from the original work doc, saved as RFT and loaded into Calibre. Again I got the failure error even without the symbols.

At this point I'm at a loss about how to fix this problem. Help?

[PeterT]

I think without seeing the error message it's going to be well nigh impossible to help you

[stumped]

as it is a "sizeable word doc" , maybe create a small test file via the same workflow, which is basically just a collection of music note symbols you want to use.
then
1) you can test if that converts
2) you can upload the test file here for others to experiment with

[kovidgoyal]

save as docx and convert that

[tomtt2]

Okay, morning spent trying one thing then another. Started deleting pages and attempting to convert. I deleted the pages that had previously had the music notes and saved as RTF.

Loaded and attempted to convert. Still got an error.

I then deleted the table of contents which had hyperlinks to chapters in the document.
Saved and tried to convert. Worked Great!

Trying to figure out what was going on, I re-loaded the version with the table of contents then carefully checked each hyperlink in the TOC. Found two hyperlinks pointing to the same place in the document (the chapter name was a hyperlink and the page number was a separate hyperlink to the same spot). I deleted the hyperlink on the page number (actually two different page numbers) and tried it. Problem fixed.

Don't know the internal workings of Calibre or Epub format, but I'm guessing it doesn't like mixed up hyperlinks.

So...
I thank each of you who took the time to read my plea and post a response. I'm sure you know a lot more about how this all works. Thanks for sharing.

For anyone interested, there is the error message in total.

Spoiler:

calibre, version 4.8.0 (win32, embedded-python: True)
Conversion error: Failed: Convert book 1 of 1 (River into Madness V2 No Pg 1)

Convert book 1 of 1 (River into Madness V2 No Pg 1)
Conversion options changed from defaults:
read_metadata_from_opf: u'C:\\Users\\Tom\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre__t phib\\ijgr5d.opf'
cover: u'C:\\Users\\Tom\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre__t phib\\azhkeg.jpeg'
output_profile: u'generic_eink'
verbose: 2
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 4.8.0
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 0.0,
'book_producer': None,
'change_justification': u'original',
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\\s+)|((prolog|pr ologue|epilogue)(\\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': u'C:\\Users\\Tom\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre__t phib\\azhkeg.jpeg',
'debug_pipeline': None,
'dehyphenate': True,
'delete_blank_paragraphs': True,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'dont_split_on_page_breaks': False,
'duplicate_links_in_toc': False,
'embed_all_fonts': False,
'embed_font_family': None,
'enable_heuristics': False,
'epub_flatten': False,
'epub_inline_toc': False,
'epub_toc_at_end': False,
'epub_version': u'2',
'expand_css': False,
'extra_css': None,
'extract_to': None,
'filter_css': u'',
'fix_indents': True,
'flow_size': 260,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'format_scene_breaks': True,
'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4,
'ignore_wmf': False,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x00000182C6D8F748>,
'insert_blank_line': False,
'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'italicize_common_cases': True,
'keep_ligatures': False,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'markup_chapter_headings': True,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'minimum_line_height': 120.0,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_default_epub_cover': False,
'no_inline_navbars': False,
'no_svg_cover': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.GenericEink object at 0x00000182C6D95388>,
'page_breaks_before': u"//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']",
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'preserve_cover_aspect_ratio': False,
'pretty_print': True,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': u'C:\\Users\\Tom\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre__t phib\\ijgr5d.opf',
'remove_fake_margins': True,
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'renumber_headings': True,
'replace_scene_breaks': u'',
'search_replace': '[]',
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'smarten_punctuation': False,
'sr1_replace': None,
'sr1_search': None,
'sr2_replace': None,
'sr2_search': None,
'sr3_replace': None,
'sr3_search': None,
'start_reading_at': None,
'subset_embedded_fonts': False,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'toc_title': None,
'transform_css_rules': '[]',
'unsmarten_punctuation': False,
'unwrap_lines': True,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
InputFormatPlugin: RTF Input running
on C:\Users\Tom\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre__tphib\h0e z2d.rtf
Converting RTF to XML...
Parsing XML...
Python function terminated unexpectedly
Opening and ending tag mismatch: field line 1 and para, line 1, column 151662 (line 1) (Error Code: 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site.py", line 114, in main
File "site.py", line 88, in run_entry_point
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\worker.py", line 209, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 43, in gui_convert_override
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 28, in gui_convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 1110, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 246, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\rtf_inp ut.py", line 274, in convert
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\xml_parse.py", line 31, in safe_xml_fromstring
File "src/lxml/etree.pyx", line 3222, in lxml.etree.fromstring
File "src/lxml/parser.pxi", line 1877, in lxml.etree._parseMemoryDocument
File "src/lxml/parser.pxi", line 1765, in lxml.etree._parseDoc
File "src/lxml/parser.pxi", line 1127, in lxml.etree._BaseParser._parseDoc
File "src/lxml/parser.pxi", line 601, in lxml.etree._ParserContext._handleParseResultDoc
File "src/lxml/parser.pxi", line 711, in lxml.etree._handleParseResult
File "src/lxml/parser.pxi", line 640, in lxml.etree._raiseParseError
File "<string>", line 1
lxml.etree.XMLSyntaxError: Opening and ending tag mismatch: field line 1 and para, line 1, column 151662

[BetterRed]

Do as Kovid Goyal (the creator of calibre) suggested, save as DOCX and convert that.

BR