attached files can't be opened

[Lila]

We are running Word 2002 on Windows XP (Home). Attached files saved as Word
..doc (and copy received OK by sender ) come with "scrambled" letters and
can't be opened (are read as .dat with a systems danger warning). The work
around is to save the file in Word, re-name to .doc - this restores the
file. I don't know the sender's version of Word but it came on a recently
purchased laptop. Is this a version compatibility problem?

Regards
Lila

 

[Scud]

Have you tried opening the file in another text editor such as wordpad?

 

[Lila]

I can open the files in Wordpad or by renaming them as ".doc". But this is
very time-consuming, and apparently everyone my friend mails attachments to
has the same problem. I received the same file OK as .rtf, but others have
gotten nonsense. So it would be nice to fix the problem at the source -
since they supposedly are regular Word files. His Word version is 2003 SP 2,
operating system is Windows XP home edition, 2002.

Lila