diff --git a/oletools/msodde.py b/oletools/msodde.py
index c5b7bfb..90d8501 100644
--- a/oletools/msodde.py
+++ b/oletools/msodde.py
@@ -565,20 +565,21 @@ def process_docx(filepath, field_filter_mode=None):
             continue
 
         # have a TAG_W_P
-        elem = None
         for curr_elem in subs:
             # check if w:r; parse children to pull out first FLDCHAR/INSTRTEXT
+            elem = None
             if curr_elem.tag in TAG_W_R:
                 for child in curr_elem:
                     if child.tag in TAG_W_FLDCHAR or \
                             child.tag in TAG_W_INSTRTEXT:
                         elem = child
                         break
+                if elem is None:
+                    continue   # no fldchar or instrtext in this w:r
             else:
                 elem = curr_elem
             if elem is None:
-                logging.warning('this should be an error condition')
-                continue
+                raise BadOOXML(filepath, 'Got "None"-Element from iter_xml')
 
             # check if FLDCHARTYPE and whether "begin" or "end" tag
             attrib_type = elem.attrib.get(ATTR_W_FLDCHARTYPE[0]) or \
diff --git a/oletools/olevba3.py b/oletools/olevba3.py
index 2f83979..546b47b 100644
--- a/oletools/olevba3.py
+++ b/oletools/olevba3.py
@@ -2878,7 +2878,9 @@ class VBA_Parser(object):
                 self.vba_code_all_modules = ''
                 for (_, _, _, vba_code) in self.extract_all_macros():
                     #TODO: filter code? (each module)
-                    self.vba_code_all_modules += vba_code.decode('utf-8', 'ignore') + '\n'
+                    if isinstance(vba_code, bytes):
+                        vba_code = vba_code.decode('utf-8', 'ignore')
+                    self.vba_code_all_modules += vba_code + '\n'
                 for (_, _, form_string) in self.extract_form_strings():
                     self.vba_code_all_modules += form_string.decode('utf-8', 'ignore') + '\n'
             # Analyze the whole code at once: