Office 2008 filetype deprecation issue: Eudora rides to the rescue

[etcstgo]

Attention, Office 2008 & Eudora users:

While we wait for MS to reflect on the best laid plans of men and
mice, at least Eudora users can make sure that attached Microsoft
files are no longer assigned a deprecated filetype descriptor.

These instructions assume you remember how to use ResEdit, and also
that ResEdit requires Classic, and that Classic requires a slightly
older machine. If you have all that and are of brave disposition, here
goes:

1) Make sure Eudora is closed. Using ResEdit, open /Eudora Application
Folder/Eudora.app/Contents/MacOS/Eudora.
2) Once open in ResEdit, open the EuIM resource.This is where Eudora
stores the file type codes it assigns to attachments.
3) In the list that appears, open "Proprietary Stuff". (This includes
Microsoft files).
4) Starting at field No. 10, update "Type" entries to the current
filetype codes used by Microsoft (SLD8 for PowerPoint, W8BN for Word,
XLS8 for Excel).
5) Step by step:
Field 10: Change "Type" entry from SLD3 to SLD8 and "Ignore x-mac-type/
creator" to 1.
Field 11: Repeat above.
Field 14: Change "Type" entry from WDBN to W8BN and "Ignore x-mac-type/
creator" to 1.
Field 15: Repeat above.
Field 17: Change "Type" entry from XLS4 to XLS8 and "Ignore x-mac-type/
creator" to 1.
Field 18: Repeat above.
Field 19: Repeat above.
6) Before you finish, scroll back up to Field 11, place the cursor on
the box titled [11)*****] and choose "Insert new field..." from the
Resource menu. Make this an identical copy of Field 11 (copy and paste
from it as needed), except to change the "Type" entry from .ppt
to .pps. That will cover PowerPoint slide shows.
7) Nothing special needs to be done for other Microsoft filetypes,
such as TEXT, RTF or WXBN.
8) Done. Save your changes and restart your computer for good measure.

From now on, Microsoft files coming in as attachments to e-mail will
have the newer filetype codes assigned to them, thereby avoiding the
current issue with Office 2008 and deprecated filetype codes. This
will not fix older files already residing on your hard drive, but at
least will prevent further aggravation. If you have a twisted mind,
after making these changes e-mail older files to yourself to have
Eudora automatically batch-fix filetypes for you. :-D

No guarantees, except that it works as advertised at my end.

And sorry, I don't know how to fix other mail clients.

Patricio Mason
Santiago, Chile

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Patricio:

That's a useful set of instructions

However, we should warn people that this technique does have the side-effect
of giving the virus writers and credit-card thieves a free kick at the
content of your computer. (Not just Word, and not just documents: if they
were to use this as a method to find a way in, they get everything from any
kind of file on the computer...)

So anyone using this method should also purchase and run AntiVirus and
AntiSpyware programs.

Users may also experience some character transposition. The WDBN format was
an eight-bit format, the W8BN format is expected to contain Unicode.

For me, this just seems like far too much work. File>Open will open the
file straight up, and you only have to do it once to each file.

And we should perhaps not give users the idea that Microsoft are considering
changing the handling of WDBN "back" to the old mechanism. This was done as
a security improvement, so I will be extremely surprised if they undo it.
Ever!

Cheers

Attention, Office 2008 & Eudora users:

While we wait for MS to reflect on the best laid plans of men and
mice, at least Eudora users can make sure that attached Microsoft
files are no longer assigned a deprecated filetype descriptor.

These instructions assume you remember how to use ResEdit, and also
that ResEdit requires Classic, and that Classic requires a slightly
older machine. If you have all that and are of brave disposition, here
goes:

1) Make sure Eudora is closed. Using ResEdit, open /Eudora Application
Folder/Eudora.app/Contents/MacOS/Eudora.
2) Once open in ResEdit, open the EuIM resource.This is where Eudora
stores the file type codes it assigns to attachments.
3) In the list that appears, open "Proprietary Stuff". (This includes
Microsoft files).
4) Starting at field No. 10, update "Type" entries to the current
filetype codes used by Microsoft (SLD8 for PowerPoint, W8BN for Word,
XLS8 for Excel).
5) Step by step:
Field 10: Change "Type" entry from SLD3 to SLD8 and "Ignore x-mac-type/
creator" to 1.
Field 11: Repeat above.
Field 14: Change "Type" entry from WDBN to W8BN and "Ignore x-mac-type/
creator" to 1.
Field 15: Repeat above.
Field 17: Change "Type" entry from XLS4 to XLS8 and "Ignore x-mac-type/
creator" to 1.
Field 18: Repeat above.
Field 19: Repeat above.
6) Before you finish, scroll back up to Field 11, place the cursor on
the box titled [11)*****] and choose "Insert new field..." from the
Resource menu. Make this an identical copy of Field 11 (copy and paste
from it as needed), except to change the "Type" entry from .ppt
to .pps. That will cover PowerPoint slide shows.
7) Nothing special needs to be done for other Microsoft filetypes,
such as TEXT, RTF or WXBN.
8) Done. Save your changes and restart your computer for good measure.

From now on, Microsoft files coming in as attachments to e-mail will
have the newer filetype codes assigned to them, thereby avoiding the
current issue with Office 2008 and deprecated filetype codes. This
will not fix older files already residing on your hard drive, but at
least will prevent further aggravation. If you have a twisted mind,
after making these changes e-mail older files to yourself to have
Eudora automatically batch-fix filetypes for you. :-D

No guarantees, except that it works as advertised at my end.

And sorry, I don't know how to fix other mail clients.

Patricio Mason
Santiago, Chile

--

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
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Charles]

For me, this just seems like far too much work. File>Open will open the
file straight up, and you only have to do it once to each file.

Unless I am wrong, unless you make a change and save the document,
subsequent double-clicking still won't work.

Also, changing and saving a document is not always an option, as is the
case with read-only documents or documents whose Date Modified,
Properties, etc., you don't want to change in any way.

Charles

 

[Charles]

For me, this just seems like far too much work. File>Open will open the
file straight up, and you only have to do it once to each file.

P.S. to my previous message:

Not that I am advocating making the suggested changes with ResEdit,
especially in light of the security reasons you cite.

Charles

 

[etcstgo]

So anyone using this method should also purchase and run AntiVirus and
AntiSpyware programs.

Users may also experience some character transposition.  The WDBN formatwas
an eight-bit format, the W8BN format is expected to contain Unicode.

Hi, John:

You've got it backwards.

This is not about turning WDBN files into W8BN files (or XLS3 into
XLS8, or SLD3 into SLD8).

This is about *preventing* actual W8BN, XLS8 and SLD8 files from
needlessly turning into WDBN, XLS3 or SLD3 files. This is what Eudora,
and perhaps other clients, currently do as they download attachments
to e-mail.

Applying the older filetypes will needlessly make legitimate Word,
Excel and PowerPoint files received as attachments unopenable under
Office 2008 using the 12.1.0 patch.

Preserving the actual filetype is no more likely to bring viruses,
spyware or black dragons into your system than receiving or
downloading any Microsoft file.

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, sorry: I thought you were changing the code in the document, you're
not, you're changing it in Eudora. In which case, if it *IS* W8BN, it
should come right where it may have been wrong before.

Sorry, there has been so much meaningless hot air in this thread I'm not
reading it too closely

Cheers

Hi, John:

You've got it backwards.

This is not about turning WDBN files into W8BN files (or XLS3 into
XLS8, or SLD3 into SLD8).

This is about *preventing* actual W8BN, XLS8 and SLD8 files from
needlessly turning into WDBN, XLS3 or SLD3 files. This is what Eudora,
and perhaps other clients, currently do as they download attachments
to e-mail.

Applying the older filetypes will needlessly make legitimate Word,
Excel and PowerPoint files received as attachments unopenable under
Office 2008 using the 12.1.0 patch.

Preserving the actual filetype is no more likely to bring viruses,
spyware or black dragons into your system than receiving or
downloading any Microsoft file.

--

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
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[sf]

For those of us without access to Classic, perhaps some instructions for Rezilla?

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/rezilla&gt <http://sourceforge.net/projects/rezilla&gt>;

I'm a bit stuck with duplicating step 6...

 

[Norm Winick]

I did discover another way of opening files that is much faster for me. Open MS Word from the dock (or anywhere) and a new blank document appears. Drag the icon of whatever file you want to open to the blank document and voilà, it's there. While you can't open a file by dragging an icon to the doc or the application, you can to an open document. I don't know why.

 

[etcstgo]

For those of us without access to Classic, perhaps some instructions for Rezilla?

Sorry, I am not familiar with Rezilla.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Norm -

That's a handy tip, but there's a consideration - Take a look at the title
bar & I believe you'll find that the existing doc has not been opened, but
its content has been *copied* into a new document, i.e. Document1,
Document2, etc.

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

 

[MC]

That's a handy tip, but there's a consideration - Take a look at the title
bar & I believe you'll find that the existing doc has not been opened, but
its content has been *copied* into a new document, i.e. Document1,
Document2, etc.

I just tried it, and I'm sure it has its uses... I just haven't figured
them out yet!

 

[Phillip Jones]

Sorry, I am not familiar with Rezilla.

I am as well. in OS 9 we had ResEdit. (Resource Editor). It was a Great
tool but at the same time a dangerous application. you could really mess
up a file unless you remembered what you changed or created a backup copy.

The only thing I find that one would have to take a similar approach.

what's That famous fish in Japan That only very specific parts are
edible. And if the one preparing it cut into a poisonous section and
then into his own finger would cause instant death. (FUGUE?)

That's kind of the way ResEdit is.
--
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