Unable to open Word 2007 doc with Word XP

[Guest]

2nd enquiry. When other party sends a Word2007 doc file as atch using Cox.net
I receive it as winmail.dat file on my AOL.com mail and unable to open with
Word 2002. It seems I am the only one having this problem from same source. I
have downloaded the Word2007 converter and tried the wmdecode utility but
never was able to make it work. Any good ideas?

 

[Guest]

You either need Outlook (not Express) or else a winmail.dat decoder, of which
several freeware ones exist. Winmail.dat is a proprietary type of atatchment
used only by Oultook.

Also, tell the sender to change theit Oultook settings so as not to use
richtext format, otherwise they will be sending unopenable attachments all
over the place.

http://www.gpc.edu/~jbenson/resource/winmail.htm#solution

 

[PA Bear]

Ask the Sender to use only Plain Text when sending to you, especially if
there's an attachment.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Anteaus, to you & PA Bear for the clue to my problem. I had sender to
resend mail w/.doc file atch to my cox.net service, instead of my AOL
service, and using associated Outlook Express atch opens as normal .doc file.
Now, could you explain why, after all these years, this is now an issue?

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

2nd enquiry. When other party sends a Word2007 doc file as atch using Cox.net

I receive it as winmail.dat file on my AOL.com mail and unable to open with
Word 2002. It seems I am the only one having this problem from same source. I
have downloaded the Word2007 converter and tried the wmdecode utility but
never was able to make it work. Any good ideas?

Have you tried the Office 2007 compatibility pack? Works great and is
free:
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads...70-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[Guest]

Yes I did but still had problem. Turns out problem due to sender using
richtext format in Outlook. It worked okay when I used Outlook Express and
now okay in AOL after he changed format to HTML. The big clue was that
Outlook is only program to automatically convert atch to winmail.dat file.
Apparently, had nothing to do with Word2007.

 

[AJR]

Not exactly sure about your problem. I routinely send and receive Word 2007
documnets as attachments - you cannot send ".doc" in the body of the E-mail
as text - it's nothing new.

Word 2007 uses the suffix ".docx" - Previous versions used ".doc". Word
2007 provides a "Save As" option to save a 2007 document in previous (97,
2000, 2002) formats.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

Yes I did but still had problem. Turns out problem due to sender using

richtext format in Outlook. It worked okay when I used Outlook Express and
now okay in AOL after he changed format to HTML. The big clue was that
Outlook is only program to automatically convert atch to winmail.dat file.
Apparently, had nothing to do with Word2007.

Hm, that is pretty odd actually. Richttext or HTML shouldn't have any
bearing on the file extension but in your case you've got some
wackiness going on. Is your Office XP up to date in terms of service
packs? SP3 is the last one that was released for Office XP. Do you
have that one and all the other updates released through Office
Update? The Winmail.DAT should have any bearing on the actual
attachment. It's kind of like people attaching a CSV file with their
e-mail. Last I checked, winmail.dat it was some proprietary thingy
Microsoft uses with Outlook for rich HTML pages and stuff between
sender and recipient with the same client. I would hazard a guess to
say that the way your sender has their Outlook configured is not quite
right. It should not ever be converting an attached file to anything
for any reason.

Take a peek at these KB article as they might help you or the sender:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138053

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278061

This might also help too:
http://www.kopf.com.br/winmail/

Hope it helps.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[Guest]

Yes, weird situation but sender says he changed from Richtext to HTML format
and problem disappeared. I've never had this problem with anyone else but he
was using Word2007 and Charts feature. Go figure. No, I don't see Service
Pack 3 installed - only Service Pack 2 and a gazillion security updates. I'm
on automatic MS updates but will check it out. Thanks for all the info And a
special thanks to you and all the other techies out there who can address our
weird problems.