If you emailed them from the Mac to the Windows machine, the problem may be
attachment encoding, but that's not fixable if you already deleted them on
the Mac machine.
Suzanne pretty much said this, but did you specifically try using File |
Open in Word and navigate to the files? It that doesn't work, you may at
least be able to use File | Open with type set to Recover Text from Any File
to recover the basic text.
For future reference, investigate flash drives. And note that you shouldn't
use periods in filenames *except* for extensions, it confuses the computers.
Try an underscore or simple capitalization instead--e.g.
MitchellChapter7Final.doc.
If on the Mac, you only moved them to the trash, they may still be in the
trash and resending them might help--preferably control-click on the Mac and
Create Archive to save them as .zip files which are less likely to get
corrupted in transit. And check the attachment encoding:
There's no difference in the Word file format (since Word 97), it's a
question of how the attachment is encoded by the email program.
A Mac email program, Entourage, has this to say in Help:
About attachment encodings
When you choose an encoding format, it is helpful to understand how
Macintosh files differ from files created on other computers. Macintosh
files include additional resource information that files created on other
types of computers do not. If you are sending a data file, such as a
Microsoft Word document or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, such resource
information may not be necessary. However, if you are sending something more
complex, such as a program, to another Macintosh computer, you must choose
an encoding format that preserves all the data.
The AppleDouble encoding format preserves the additional resource
information, and can be read by both Macintosh and other types of computers.
AppleDouble is a good choice for your default encoding format; it works most
of the time with most computers. However, if AppleDouble fails, you can
choose a different encoding format depending on the type of computer you are
sending the attachment to:
€ To send an attachment to a Macintosh computer, use BinHex, which
preserves the Macintosh resource information and data.
€ To send an attachment to a Windows-based computer, use MIME/Base 64,
which preserves the data only.
€ To send an attachment to a UNIX computer, use UUEncode, which preserves
the data only.
Try sending this explanation to your correspondent, asking them to change
their encoding. The help on any Mac email program will tell them how.
If you see something about "application/x-macbinary" when trying to open the
doc, sounds like they encoded it for Mac computers.
DM
Mac MVP for Word
On 1/5/05 4:55 PM, "vic" wrote:
> I can't open several chapters of my dissertation, this is a
> crisis.
>
> I was working on a Mac, OS X. Don't know which version of
> Word, but recent. I am at home with my PC, Windows XP.
>
> I sent myself, then deleted, several chapters that were
> named like this:
>
> myname.chapter7.final
>
> Now I have a bunch of attachments that I can't open. They
> give me gibberish. I went in and added the extension ".doc"
> but it doesn't make any difference, still garbage.
>
> A few files I sent, such as titlepage.doc, I can open with
> no problem.
>
> Is there anything I can do to open these?
--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ:
http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
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