OK, if you can open what you get on the thumb drive, then it is NOT an old
file format.
It's a problem with the email sender or your email client.
Either the email sender is coding the document wrongly (wouldn't be the
first time...) or your email client is putting the wrong file type and
creator code on the file when it saves it (if FireFox is involved, that is
likely...)
In future, ask the sender to Zip the file before attaching it. It should
come through perfectly.
I wouldn't waste a thoroughly good rant on this issue
It really is not
such a bad thing. There are four Word file formats: I know them as 2, 6,
97 and 2007 (those are the PC versions of Word that introduced them).
Word 2008 will open 97, and 2007 is its native .docx format. Word 2004 has
97 .doc as its native format, and will open and save .docx with the free
optional converter.
Version 6 has been "deprecated". Both Word 2004 and 2008 will still open
it. However, it is theoretically possible to hide bad stuff in it. So
Microsoft implemented a "safety check". If you use File>Open from within
Word, the file will open right up. But if any other application "sends" a
file of this type to Word, Word will silently refuse to open it. This makes
it much more difficult for the bad guys to sneak one past you without your
knowledge.
What Microsoft either forgot or never knew, was that several other software
vendors out there have not been updating the File Type and Creator Code that
they add to files of type "Microsoft Word". They are still marking *any* of
the Word file types as a "Word 6 File". Causing Word to suddenly refuse to
open them
Most of the other vendors have now updated their file
stamping, so this problem should now be rare. And Microsoft made a change
in the latest update that makes the safety-check they put in more forgiving.
This leaves the "Word 2" file type. That's so old there probably isn't
ANYTHING still producing it. I believe the last application to produce it
for real was Microsoft Word 2 on Windows 3.1. For a while, Microsoft Write,
the freebie Word Processor included with Windows 3.11 and Windows 95-98 also
used the format, with a different extension.
The input converter for Word 2 has been dropped progressively from Windows
and Mac Word over the years because it's too expensive to maintain. The
Word 2 format is nothing like the "modern" Word formats. It's a "command
stream" format similar to WordPerfect. So it required a large lump of
software just to read it, and that software had to be converted to each new
platform. The Windows guys held onto theirs a bit longer than the Mac guys
did, because theirs was actually the engine inside Windows Write. When
Write was replaced with Word Pad, the Windows people lost their Word 2
converter. On the Mac, we lost the converter with the move to OS X. People
with a version of Word that was still running in OS 9 "Classic" could still
use the converter, but that died when Classic went away. And there's no
chance of making a business case to re-write the thing for Intel. I think I
have seen only "one" Word 2 file in the past five years...
The new .docx format has potentially a much longer life. The "text" part of
it is straightforward mark-up language. At a pinch, almost any web browser
will read it.
Now, if you need some fresh ideas for a good rant, give me a bell: I can
suggest a selection of deserving targets
Hope this helps
John, thanks for your very thorough reply. I really do appreciate your
thoughtfulness, and while I don't want to shoot the messenger, Microsoft has
put you in the position of bearing what I can't help but hear as very bad news
in terms of Microsoft's commitment to the end user.
I had a long rant here, but I deleted that since my gripes are not really your
fault, and will simply say:
Since this is the second time in a week I've received this combination of
errors (both Word 2004 files, send from two different colleagues), I'll do
what worked last time: I'll walk up to the sender's office and get a copy of
the document on my thumb drive. It opened fine that way.
--
Don't wait for your answer, click here:
http://www.word.mvps.org/
Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:
[email protected]