Microsoft Outlook Exchange help viewing attachments in .xls format
Using Outlook Exchange (on the web), we are trying to send an .xls file attachment to be opened with a Microsoft Office application. The file attaches correctly, but when we click it...it reads "The file must first be saved to the computer..." It doesn't open up the file in our Office application.
Question: We need the end-user (person receiving this e-mail) to be able to just click the file and open it in the Office software. The user is a very new computer user and does not know how to save and open files. So once they click it, it needs to open right away. I've read somewhere that .xls files cannot be opened as part of a security update and I've read about changing registry files, but we cannot do this because we cannot get access to this user's computer and we don't want to risk changing registry settings. Please help asap!
Question: We need the end-user (person receiving this e-mail) to be able to just click the file and open it in the Office software. The user is a very new computer user and does not know how to save and open files. So once they click it, it needs to open right away. I've read somewhere that .xls files cannot be opened as part of a security update and I've read about changing registry files, but we cannot do this because we cannot get access to this user's computer and we don't want to risk changing registry settings. Please help asap!
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Even with Outlook Web (which I've never tried ...) the handling of attachments relies on at öleas how the OS handles downloads.
About the web server thing: Sure you can make that web server open, but that leaves the files open for everybody to download. At first you can make the URL a bit obfuscated by including a cryptic prefix - random generated for each attachment set - for every file and ensuring that the directory of them couldn't be read, i.e.:
Second Idea would be to protect the Excel file with a password. I presume that "zip it with a password" would be too much complicated for your end user ...
Nonetheless the OS (or browser, or antivirus ) of the client might block the seamless opening of downloaded files as well ...
About the web server thing: Sure you can make that web server open, but that leaves the files open for everybody to download. At first you can make the URL a bit obfuscated by including a cryptic prefix - random generated for each attachment set - for every file and ensuring that the directory of them couldn't be read, i.e.:
http://theserver.thedomain.com/ADDAcBHZYqgMtQS1Pzfbzpv7EddGyGseWm8wCLeLeY9uMTKHAG/myworkbook.xlsSecond Idea would be to protect the Excel file with a password. I presume that "zip it with a password" would be too much complicated for your end user ...
Nonetheless the OS (or browser, or antivirus ) of the client might block the seamless opening of downloaded files as well ...
ASKER
The zip it with a password would be too complicated...the encrypted link might work, how would I go about doing something like that?
Basically spoken, "simple" web servers (aka "without CMS") are usually fed via FTP, where the driectory structure reflects the URL structure. So you need some script that generates the "random part", creates a directory at the right place and stores the file to d/l therein. Afterwards it would spit out the correct URL to you to copy/paste it into your email message.
ASKER
Are FTP addresses free? Know of any good ones?
Unfortunately - I don't know.
If you have a web server, you should usually have some ftp acces for maintenance, too ... you'd use the ftp procedure to stuff the files into the web server's data directories.
If you have a web server, you should usually have some ftp acces for maintenance, too ... you'd use the ftp procedure to stuff the files into the web server's data directories.
ASKER
Good information.
ASKER