Donate SIGN UP

Attachments Won't Open ...

Avatar Image
StretchyLegs | 00:10 Sat 30th Apr 2016 | Technology
6 Answers
Hi everyone,
Just this last week of so people have had trouble trying to open attachments I send.
Nothing has changed on my set up, and I'm just sending the same type of things. One friend managed to open them but had to save and copy and all sorts of fiddling around.
I have Windows 10
Thank u for reading this. Advice greatly appreciated.
Gill
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 6 of 6rss feed

Avatar Image
As others have suggested, you need to ensure that you send files in a format which is recognised on other people's computers. While the whole point of the .odt format is that it's meant to be common across all modern word-processing programs, Microsoft detest the idea of people using non-Microsoft programs and have only belatedly allowed their own software...
16:32 Sat 30th Apr 2016
We might need some more information:

Are you using the Windows Mail app, another email client (such as Thunderbird) or web-based email? Are you creating a new email and then adding an attachment or right-clicking on a file and using 'Send to' to create a new email with the attachment already appended? Which email service are you using? Have you tried emailing an attachment to yourself, to see if it will then open on your own computer?
Question Author
Hi Buenchico. thank you for replying. I'm using Windows Live Mail 2012.
I'm creating a new email and adding an attachment. From info I got back this morning, the same from 7 people, the document (an ODT File) will not open, but a 2nd attachment which is a JPG will open. This is on a mixture of devices.
Yes it all opens when I send it to myself, using Libre 5 (the same format I created it in).
Gill
Do all the receivers have an application installed that is capable of opening OpenDocument, preferably at the latest version ? If so do they have it set as the default 'open with' for .odt files ?
Resave the office file into MS format ie doc then most people can open it if you send it again.
As others have suggested, you need to ensure that you send files in a format which is recognised on other people's computers.

While the whole point of the .odt format is that it's meant to be common across all modern word-processing programs, Microsoft detest the idea of people using non-Microsoft programs and have only belatedly allowed their own software (such as Microsoft Word) to work with .odt files. Recipients of your attachments who're using Microsoft Word 2010 (or later) should be able to open them but users of older versions of Word can't. (Confirmation here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-Word-to-open-or-save-a-document-in-the-OpenDocument-Text-odt-format-77adca05-9543-45c7-a079-b344493c4776 )

To get around the problem, you need to save your documents into a Microsoft format. You can either do that for each document individually (by using 'Save As', instead of 'Save') or, probably better, by changing the default 'Save' option within LibreOffice. Instructions for both methods can be found here:
https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Using_Microsoft_Office_and

(PS: I mystified as to why the problem should only recently have occurred. Perhaps you were using .doc, rather than .odt, in the past?)
Question Author
Thank you all for your great replies. They're really helpful. I'm going to try and change the settings in Libre 5.
Enjoy the bank holiday everyone.
Gill

1 to 6 of 6rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Attachments Won't Open ...

Answer Question >>