diff --git a/nw/constants.py b/nw/constants.py
index 92c693dc..51bde4e5 100644
--- a/nw/constants.py
+++ b/nw/constants.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ class nwFiles():
 
     APP_ICON   = "novelWriter.svg"
     PROJ_FILE  = "nwProject.nwx"
+    PROJ_COUNT = "projCount.txt"
     PROJ_DICT  = "wordlist.txt"
     SESS_INFO  = "sessionInfo.log"
     INDEX_FILE = "tagsIndex.json"
diff --git a/nw/gui/winmain.py b/nw/gui/winmain.py
index ec9635db..872e9c66 100644
--- a/nw/gui/winmain.py
+++ b/nw/gui/winmain.py
@@ -611,7 +611,7 @@ class GuiMain(QMainWindow):
         """
 
         if isinstance(theMessage, list):
-            popMsg = "<br>".join(theMessage)
+            popMsg = " ".join(theMessage)
             logMsg = theMessage
         else:
             popMsg = theMessage
diff --git a/nw/project/project.py b/nw/project/project.py
index 23e46e9e..00f31177 100644
--- a/nw/project/project.py
+++ b/nw/project/project.py
@@ -197,10 +197,15 @@ class NWProject():
         if not self._checkFolder(self.projMeta):  return
         if not self._checkFolder(self.projCache): return
 
-        nwXML = etree.parse(fileName)
-        xRoot = nwXML.getroot()
+        try:
+            nwXML = etree.parse(fileName)
+        except Exception as e:
+            self.makeAlert(["Failed to parse project xml.",str(e)], nwAlert.ERROR)
+            return False
+
+        xRoot   = nwXML.getroot()
+        nwxRoot = xRoot.tag
 
-        nwxRoot     = xRoot.tag
         appVersion  = xRoot.attrib["appVersion"]
         fileVersion = xRoot.attrib["fileVersion"]
 
@@ -709,7 +714,7 @@ class NWProject():
         file gets corrupted.
         """
 
-        countFile = path.join(self.projCache, "projCount.txt")
+        countFile = path.join(self.projCache, nwFiles.PROJ_COUNT)
         projCount = 0
 
         if path.isfile(countFile):
@@ -718,7 +723,7 @@ class NWProject():
                     projCount = int(inFile.read())+1
             except:
                 projCount = 0
-        
+
         if projCount > 9:
             projCount = 0