Trouble opening Word Attachments

[Joe McGuire]

Here's a weird one. Maybe it is not a Word question, but this seems like the
place to start. My wife composed 2 different Word documents on different
computers at one of her offices and e-mail them home to her laptop as e-mail
attachements. She uses Outlook Express. When she or I try to open either
on her laptop by clicking on them in OEX a window opens asking if I want to
open the document and of course I do. A Word window opens but a split
second later a File Conversion Window opens and the Preview segment is pure
garbage. If I start over in OEX and save the document to disk instead of
opening it in OEX the same thing happens when I then try to open it in Word.
I verified in Folder Options that Word is the default for opening *.doc
files. Word attachments to older e-mails open fine. So did a Word
attachment I sent her from my computer as well as one I sent her from her
computer. On the other hand, she insists she sent herself a Word document
and had the same trouble opening it in OEX, but did not save it.

Even stranger, she can also access her e-mail on the Comcast website
(Comcast.net). The same e-mail attachments that would not open the OEX
route now open just fine--in Word. When I saved them from the Comcast site
there is no problem opening them. Any ideas or suggestions? Am I
overlooking something obvious? Did Outlook Express do something nasty?

 

[Jezebel]

Some email systems are inclined to scramble Word documents. One work-around
is to zip them before emailing.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It's best not to open Word document attachments directly, for a variety of
reasons. If the correct file type was selected in the File Conversion
window, the document should open correctly, but there is still always the
possibility that it will open in Reading Layout view if your wife hasn't
disabled that option.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Joe McGuire]

Thanks, Sue. I had no idea one should not open Word attachments directly.
Anyway, as the to correct choice in the File Conversiion window, it seems to
make no difference which I select. Its all garbage. To be sure, the
garbage looks slightly different depending on the 3 choices, but it is still
garbage.