Opening the parcel, she saw...

[englishhobby]

1) Opening the parcel, she saw a box of pencils.
2) Having opened the parcel, she saw a box of pencils
Can we say that in 1) she opened the parcel completely when she saw the box of pencils? Or was it only during the process of opening the parcel that she saw a box of pencils?

 

[jutfrank]

In 1) it doesn't matter whether the parcel was opened completely. That's not the point.

I do see where you're coming from, however: you're interpreting sentence 1) as something like While opening the parcel, ... Right? If so, then no, it doesn't necessarily mean that. It could also mean that she'd finished opening the parcel completely before she saw the pencils. In other words, the logic of a sentence with the form of sentence 1) may be that the clauses are co-temporaneous (happening at the same time) or sequential (happening one after the other). The logical connection here is simply causative, which means that she couldn't have seen the box without opening the parcel at least partly.

The logic of Sentence 2), though, is that the clauses are sequential only. In fact, that's what the grammatical form (-ing + -ed) does: emphasises the sequence of events. I can't see much cause to use this form here since, as I said, it doesn't matter whether the parcel was opened fully.