Advice on saving files for emailing to iPhone / iPod touch

[bmike]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hello,

When I save files and then later send them as attachments - often people that read them on an iPhone or iPod Touch complain to me that the files are corrupt. When the users get home - the documents do open without error in Pages and TextEdit (the mac people I send docs to tend to not have word).

The specific message displayed is "This document can't be viewed. The file format is invalid."

Does anyone have success with this?
Does anyone know what settings to choose to make it most likely my documents will be viewable on mobile devices?

Thanks so much.
Mike

p.s. we've ruled out corruption in the mail client - md5 checksums of the messages before/after are good. Other attachments work -we test on multiple iPhone / iPod touch in house - so it's not a problem on the receiving phone - the documents never render on any the mobile devices. I'll file a bug with Apple - but wondered if word had settings to work with the 3.0 OS on iPhone reliably.

 

[CyberTaz]

Sorry, but those with whom I communicate have enough of a problem with a 13"
Macbook & won't even try to view an 8.5"x11" document on a 3.5" screen

According to Apple specs the iPhone 3G & 3Gs should handle both .doc & .docx
formats so if that's what the recipients are using the answer will most
likely have to come from Apple... Especially since instances of the same
files function as expected elsewhere. Earlier models & iPod Touch I haven't
been able to confirm & have no experience with.

As an interim you might try RTF or PDF.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[bmike]

Bob,

Thanks for looking up the specs. I forgot to mention that most .doc and .docx that get sent to me just work on the iPhone - so I'm guessing something subtle is going on with my docs.

I've tried compatibility - turn off change tracking - no joy...

rtf and pdf generally work - but are less desirable since pdf are non editable and rtf render poorly for the docs we send :-(

If anyone has settings in word that work for them - I'd love to try to duplicate the.

 

[John McGhie]

What encoding are you using to send the files?

Almost anything will read MIME, but AppleDouble, BinHex and UUEncode will
give you problems.

Cheers

Bob,

Thanks for looking up the specs. I forgot to mention that most .doc and .docx
that get sent to me just work on the iPhone - so I'm guessing something subtle
is going on with my docs.

I've tried compatibility - turn off change tracking - no joy...

rtf and pdf generally work - but are less desirable since pdf are non editable
and rtf render poorly for the docs we send :-(

If anyone has settings in word that work for them - I'd love to try to
duplicate the.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]