Opening E-mail attachments


Did you ever receive an email attachment you couldn’t open or that opened in the wrong program? If you double-clicked the attachment icon on a PC, you may have seen the message that “No program is associated with this file.” It is possible that whoever sent you the attachment sent a file that your computer cannot read, but, most often, you just need to give your computer a little help.

Opening Attachments Using Windows:

  1. In the email message, right-click the attachment icon and select “Save As…”
  2. At the next box, save the attachment to your Desktop. To do so, at the upper left where you are prompted “Save in,” click the down arrow next to the location and, at the very top of the list, select “Desktop.” Keep the same file name in the box below (or rename it, if you find that easier), and hit “Save.”
  3. Open either Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. If you know which program originally created the file, open that one. If you don’t know, either program may work. We’ve found that WordPerfect sometimes does a better job at opening unknown files than Word, but, with all the proper conversion tools installed, Word should do just fine.
  4. Go to the “File” menu and select “Open.” Browse to the Desktop (at the top of the drop-down list next to “Look in”), find the file you just saved, select it and click “Open.”
  5. If you get the message that the file is in an unknown format, try opening it in the other word processing program. If that still doesn’t work, find out from the person who sent you the file what program he/she used to create it. (If that person saved the document in Word format, for example, you might try adding “.doc” at the end of the file name.) If that program still won’t open the file, you will probably need to get a different copy of the attachment – that copy could be damaged.

Opening Attachments Using a Macintosh System:

  1. In the email message, click once on the attachment, go to “File” on the top menu and select “Save As…”
  2. At the next box, save the attachment to your Desktop. To do so, select the “Desktop” under “Save As,” keep the same name (or rename it, if you find that easier), and click “Save.”
  3. Open either Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. If you know which program originally created the file, open that one. If you don’t know, either program may work. We’ve found that WordPerfect sometimes does a better job at opening unknown files than Word, but, with all the proper conversion tools installed, Word should do just fine.
  4. Go to the “File” menu and select “Open.” Browse to the Desktop, find the file you just saved, select it and click “Open.”
  5. If you get the message that the file is in an unknown format, try opening it in the other word processing program. If that still doesn’t work, find out from the person who sent you the file what program he/she used to create it. If that program still won’t open the file, you will probably need to get a different copy of the attachment – that copy could be damaged.

*BONUS* TIP: How to Send Easy-to-Open Attachments

Using both WordPerfect and Word, you can save a document in Rich Text Format, something both programs across platforms (Windows and Macintosh) can typically read accurately. To save a document in that format, go to the “File” menu and select “Save As…” There, in the “Save as type” or “File type” box, select “Rich Text Format,” or “.rtf.” Then, send that Rich Text Format document as your attachment.

Last revised on 01/14/03

Back to Top

 


Google