Can't see existing zip files when saving attachments

[Bob]

I'm a college teacher and my students submit their
homework via zipped email attachments. I save the
attachments to each student's folder on my C: drive.
About 1/3 of the time, when I attempt to save the zip
attachment to an existing folder which already contains
zip files, the existing files are not visible in the
Outlook Save As dialog box. Other file types (e.g. rtf)
display fine. Exiting and re-entering Outlook
usually 'fixes' the problem. All of the files are then
visible when I save the attachment.

This problem was occuring in Outlook 2002 and has ported
to 2003 when I installed 2003 as an uprade. I've tried
to find anything about this problem in the MS
knowledgebase... no success. I'm running Outlook 2003 on
an XP machine with all SP's and patches. This problem
doesn't happen in any other program that I'm aware of.
Anyone out there have a suggestion?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Hi Bob,

Is the file type set to all show *.*? Also note that Windows XP sees
zip-files as folders as well so they could be listed directly under the
folder list. Do you use an extra program to create zip-files or are you
using Windows XP for this?

I wasn't able to reproduce your problem with either Outlook 2002 or Outlook
2003. In both situations Windows XP is my default zip-file handler so not
WinZIP, WinRAR or any other file compressing program.

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[Bob]

Hey Roady,

Yes, the file type is set to *.* so the files show just
fine normally. This is an intermittent problem and I've
not been able to make it happen or put anything else I've
done together with times when it occurs. It goes away
reliably as soon as I shut Outlook down and open it
again. It doesn't happen on any of my other machines
(six on a P2P) or on any of the machines at school. It's
not a big problem but I've always been a dog with a bone
for anomolies like this.

Most of my students are using WinZip but some are using
Windows XP native, and a few are using a variety of
WinZip clones. I'm suspecting some interaction between
Outlook and some other program I'm running. I'll have to
start keeping a bloody log <sigh>. I was just hoping
someone else might have bumped into this and had a flash
of inspiration. It would be a heck of a lot easier to
fix if it would just happen consistently.

I can tell you that at the same time I'm not able to see
the zips in a folder while trying to save an attachment
from Outlook I can load Explorer and see them there just
fine.

C'est la vie... thanks for taking another crack at it.

Bob

 

[Mark]

I have seen this twice on two different machines running XP and
Outlook 2003.
The only way I've been getting around it, is uncheck the "Use
Microsoft Word 2003 to edit email messages" This is Under
Tools|Options|Mail Format.