atf3doc
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docx e-mail attachment opens with ascii language
On a workstation with MS Office 2000 and Microsoft compatibility pack for Office installed several e-mail attachments .docx open with ascii language. Any suggestions for being able to read this would be appreciated.
ASKER
This workstation is using Outlook Express. OS is Windows XP Pro. The problem happens even when right clicking and saving the attachment to open later. The text is just gobbledegook.If it were opening in readable text, I wouldn't have a problem. There was no "file format conversion" prompt offered.Since I posted this, I went back in and was going to copy the problematic e-mail attachments to a flash drive to see if they would open in Word 2007; once I had copied to the flash drive and tried to open the document from the flash drive, the document opened normally. I removed the flash drive and opened the document on the computer that had been having problems; it opened normally as well. Any ideas on why this would suddenly start working normally.
atf3doc
atf3doc
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I have a suggestion that might resolve the issue.
MS Word > Tools menu > Options > General tab.
Tick the "Confirm conversion at Open" option.
Apply change > close Word.
See if that now shows the conversion prompt when the attachment is double-clicked or is first saved out then double-clicked.
If that doesn't help, then I suppose we will have to compare registry entries for the file association.
Just for completeness, here's the processes involved when an email containing such an attachment is opened and then the attachment is opened.
On opening email:
Randomly named folder BA28TIPL is created as sub-folder of Temporary Internet Files folder and populated with:
CAZAK2KX (random name - zero bytes)
wbk176.tmp
They both remain even when the message is closed, but would be deleted if Outlook Express was closed.
On reopening the email, another *.tmp file is created with a new number: wbk178.tmp. These *.tmp files are the HTML content of the email message. The number is randomly generated.
On double-clicking an attached *.docx file from the attachments field I get a "Mail Attachment" security prompt as shown in the second screenshot below. The attachment is simultaneously extracted with its proper name to the same Temporary Internet Files folder as the other files.
New zero-byte files with random names, eg. CANY97DD and CAHXORUW are generated each time the email is closed and reopened, but they aren't significant.
If I accept the security prompt and allow it to open, Microsoft Word launches with the format conversion prompt I showed in my previous comment, and simultaneously a Word temp file is created. The naming of this will be the first 2 characters of the file name being replaced by ~$ and the file is hidden. It starts off with only a tiny amount of info in it, and this process is really just doing what MS Word would be doing for a saved file, except that the hidden temp file would be in the same folder as the *.doc or *.docx file being opened.
Nothing on my system changes after I choose Word 2007 from the file format conversion prompt and the document opens. The temporary Word document is deleted as I close Word, but the file with the full name that was extracted remains until I close the email.
If I save the *.docx file out to a folder, I see that the file properties DO show the "Unblock" button, even though I emailed the file to myself - I presume because it has passed through another server the flag is applied to it. Strangely enough though, double-clicking to open the file DOES NOT show the security warning and check box to remove the security flag from it. That is a surprise to me.
1st-Security-Prompt.jpg
MS Word > Tools menu > Options > General tab.
Tick the "Confirm conversion at Open" option.
Apply change > close Word.
See if that now shows the conversion prompt when the attachment is double-clicked or is first saved out then double-clicked.
If that doesn't help, then I suppose we will have to compare registry entries for the file association.
Just for completeness, here's the processes involved when an email containing such an attachment is opened and then the attachment is opened.
On opening email:
Randomly named folder BA28TIPL is created as sub-folder of Temporary Internet Files folder and populated with:
CAZAK2KX (random name - zero bytes)
wbk176.tmp
They both remain even when the message is closed, but would be deleted if Outlook Express was closed.
On reopening the email, another *.tmp file is created with a new number: wbk178.tmp. These *.tmp files are the HTML content of the email message. The number is randomly generated.
On double-clicking an attached *.docx file from the attachments field I get a "Mail Attachment" security prompt as shown in the second screenshot below. The attachment is simultaneously extracted with its proper name to the same Temporary Internet Files folder as the other files.
New zero-byte files with random names, eg. CANY97DD and CAHXORUW are generated each time the email is closed and reopened, but they aren't significant.
If I accept the security prompt and allow it to open, Microsoft Word launches with the format conversion prompt I showed in my previous comment, and simultaneously a Word temp file is created. The naming of this will be the first 2 characters of the file name being replaced by ~$ and the file is hidden. It starts off with only a tiny amount of info in it, and this process is really just doing what MS Word would be doing for a saved file, except that the hidden temp file would be in the same folder as the *.doc or *.docx file being opened.
Nothing on my system changes after I choose Word 2007 from the file format conversion prompt and the document opens. The temporary Word document is deleted as I close Word, but the file with the full name that was extracted remains until I close the email.
If I save the *.docx file out to a folder, I see that the file properties DO show the "Unblock" button, even though I emailed the file to myself - I presume because it has passed through another server the flag is applied to it. Strangely enough though, double-clicking to open the file DOES NOT show the security warning and check box to remove the security flag from it. That is a surprise to me.
1st-Security-Prompt.jpg
ASKER
Flash Drive is FAT32.
atf3doc
atf3doc
Thank you atf3doc
I had the same problem while opening *.docx files, which were, however, not E-Mail attachments. In addition, I used Office XP on a Windows XP (SP3) system with the Office 2007 file converter installed. My solution was the following:
MS Word > Tools menu > Options > General tab.
Untick instead of tick the "Confirm conversion at Open" option.
Apply change > close Word.
MS Word > Tools menu > Options > General tab.
Untick instead of tick the "Confirm conversion at Open" option.
Apply change > close Word.
What operating system is installed on the affected workstation?
Does this ONLY happen when opening *.docx attachments from within Outlook, or does it ALSO happen if the user saves the attachment out to a local folder and then double-clicks on it to open the saved file?
You say that it opens in ASCII text. Is the actual content of the Word document being shown in a readable format as plain text, or is it just showing a bunch of gobbledegook characters?
If it's just gobbledegook, is there a distinctive file header right near the start of the first line like "PK", and then right down at the bottom a list of *.xml files with paths suffixed by "PK"?
On opening the *.docx file I would normally expect the user to be prompted with a file format conversion dialog as shown below. Is this happening, and is the user choosing "Word 2007 Document"?
File-Format-Converter.jpg