I managed to delete the content of a valuable directory today, when using the Import DOCX addon. (Fortunately, I believe I have a copy of most of the content.)

At first, I blamed the add-on. Then I blamed myself. But finally, ended up concluding that the Import DOCX add-on has a serious design flaw. At first I thought the design flaw was only related to multipage output, but it appears to be related to any output.

To repeat my experience, do this (using XMLmind XML editor version 8.3 and Word to XML version 1.5.1_01 for XMLmind XML editor vefsion 8.3):

1. Place a DOCX file in a folder. (Make sure that its content is not very valuable ...)
2. Select Import DOCX from File menu and selected the file to import.
3. Opted 'Multipage XHTML' as output format
* Note that by default, the output directory is the same as the import directory!
4. Press the Convert button
5. Result: The add-on now displayed a dialog Window telling me the output folder was not empty, asking me whether I wanted to empty the output before proceding - with the option Yes (default), No and Cancel. 6. Out of neglect and business, answer 'Yes' (by pressing the Return key). 7. Result: Voila! The content of the folder - including the file to be converted(!) - becomes deleted ... ! 8. Because even the file to be converted gets deleted (before conversion starts), the conversion fails with an error message

* Expected behavior(s):
  1. The default action should NEVER be to delete files ....
2. That the very conversion process DID NOT delete by the very file to be converted 3. If the output should go in a clea folder (and not be mixed with original file), the the default output directory ought to be a new - to be created - empty folder. (E.g. if converting the file './foo.docx' to multipage XHTML, the output files (file1.xhtml, file2.xhtml etc) ought to be place inside the foler './foo/file1'. 4. If there already is a 'foo' folder (from an earlier converstion, for instance), the conversion should place its output files inside an enumerated folder such as 'foo-1' 5. At least as long as the Add-on cannot avoid deleting even the file to be converted, the option to empty the folder before conversion, should not even exist. BUt even if that oversight can be handled, it should not be as easy as it is now, to accidentically delete the conten of the output folder!

Leif Halvard Silli
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