File Associations

[Helen Arnoldus]

How do I create a file association for .xls files? My husband received a
..xls file from his son, but he got a message saying there is no file
association. I know it's an Excel file. My husband has Word on his computer
so I created an association for .xls opening up in Word. It works if I
download the file to the computer, but I can't open the attachment from
Outlook Express. I changed the association to MS Works. The file opens in
Outlook Express and the saved file, but it opens in Works and the formatting
is different. Why can't I get it to open the attachment from Word when in
Outlook Express?

 

[Tim Slattery]

How do I create a file association for .xls files? My husband received a
.xls file from his son, but he got a message saying there is no file
association. I know it's an Excel file. My husband has Word on his computer
so I created an association for .xls opening up in Word. It works if I
download the file to the computer, but I can't open the attachment from
Outlook Express. I changed the association to MS Works. The file opens in
Outlook Express and the saved file, but it opens in Works and the formatting
is different. Why can't I get it to open the attachment from Word when in
Outlook Express?

Check here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...F4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displaylang=en
for a free Excel viewer.

 

[Cooler Dude]

How do I create a file association for .xls files? My husband
received a .xls file from his son, but he got a message saying
there is no file association. I know it's an Excel file. My
husband has Word on his computer so I created an association
for .xls opening up in Word. It works if I download the file to
the computer, but I can't open the attachment from Outlook
Express. I changed the association to MS Works. The file opens
in Outlook Express and the saved file, but it opens in Works
and the formatting is different. Why can't I get it to open the
attachment from Word when in Outlook Express?

Excel is a spreadsheet application. Word is a word processing
application. Both are components of Microsoft Office.
If you manage to open an .xls (Excel) file in Word, it will look
really weird! (and vice versa).
Generally you can't satisfactorily open an Excel file with MS
Works.

You could a) Ask whoever created the .xls file to let you have
another copy saved as a Works file. b) Download the Excel
viewer (which would allow you to view but not edit the file)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN
or c) obtain a copy of Excel.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

How do I create a file association for .xls files? My husband
received a .xls file from his son, but he got a message saying there
is no file association. I know it's an Excel file. My husband has
Word on his computer so I created an association for .xls opening up
in Word. It works if I download the file to the computer, but I can't
open the attachment from Outlook Express. I changed the association
to MS Works. The file opens in Outlook Express and the saved file,
but it opens in Works and the formatting is different. Why can't I
get it to open the attachment from Word when in Outlook Express?

Word cannot open an Excel file, you can, however, insert an Excel file into
a Word document, all you need to do is open a blank Word document and then
drag and drop the Excel file to the Word document.

You will not be able to edit the Excel data and you may have to play around
with the page orientation and paper size to see all the data. I can state
that this does work for Office 2003 (I just tested it).

 

[R. McCarty]

Microsoft offers free viewers for some Office 2003 components.
You can download the Excel viewer here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Microsoft offers free viewers for some Office 2003 components.
You can download the Excel viewer here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN

I am aware that MS offers free viewers to Word, Powerpoint and Excel files.
I was just pointing out that the Excel file could be viewed in Word if the
OP did not want to download the viewer as was suggested by Tim Slattery.

Another alternative is to down load Open Office, this would allow editing of
the Excel file.

 

[Paul Johnson]

How do I create a file association for .xls files? My husband received a
.xls file from his son, but he got a message saying there is no file
association. I know it's an Excel file. My husband has Word on his
computer so I created an association for .xls opening up in Word. It works
if I download the file to the computer, but I can't open the attachment
from Outlook Express. I changed the association to MS Works. The file
opens in Outlook Express and the saved file, but it opens in Works and the
formatting is different. Why can't I get it to open the attachment from
Word when in Outlook Express?

If MS Works can't read Excel files, you might try removing MS Works and
installing OpenOffice.org from http://www.openoffice.org/ instead. It
seems to have an easier time with different versions of MS Office documents
than MS Office or MS Works does.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Please don't quote backwards as it reduces context for your comments.
http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices

Microsoft offers free viewers for some Office 2003 components.

That would be no-charge, non-free viewers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

You can download the Excel viewer here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN

Why solve only half the problem with non-free software when you can solve
the whole problem with free software?
http://www.openoffice.org/