Every time I mail a word attachment from my PowerBook (using Word 2004) to a
Windows Machine (XP), it cannot open the file and tries to search the
internet for the correct program to open the file.
Any idea why it does so and what is the solution to fix this? I am looking
for a job and am presently sending resumes so it is very embarrassing when
someone cannot open by files.
Just by the way, might be better to send the resume in pdf anyhow....but I
do this all the time and it works fine.
Make sure the file has the .doc extension (Entourage will add it
automatically if you set the preferences right). Although, I have a vague
idea that something on the Windows side recently changed to force people to
save documents to the hard drive before opening attachments from email, so
it's conceivable that's the issue.
There's no difference in the Word file format (since Word 97). The most
common problem arises when the doc was sent by email and the attachment
encoding was not set properly.
A Mac email program, Entourage, has this to say in Help:
About attachment encodings
When you choose an encoding format, it is helpful to understand how
Macintosh files differ from files created on other computers. Macintosh
files include additional resource information that files created on other
types of computers do not. If you are sending a data file, such as a
Microsoft Word document or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, such resource
information may not be necessary. However, if you are sending something more
complex, such as a program, to another Macintosh computer, you must choose
an encoding format that preserves all the data.
The AppleDouble encoding format preserves the additional resource
information, and can be read by both Macintosh and other types of computers.
AppleDouble is a good choice for your default encoding format; it works most
of the time with most computers. However, if AppleDouble fails, you can
choose a different encoding format depending on the type of computer you are
sending the attachment to:
€ To send an attachment to a Macintosh computer, use BinHex, which
preserves the Macintosh resource information and data.
€ To send an attachment to a Windows-based computer, use MIME/Base 64,
which preserves the data only.
€ To send an attachment to a UNIX computer, use UUEncode, which preserves
the data only.
