Problem "save" vs. "save as" with long filenames

[GregP]

In my work I receive a lot of files as attachments to email. Many of
these documents have titles such as
"Chapter_10_Transcription$#1378999#"--in other words an English title
followed by a string of gobbledygook. If I select the "Save" button in
Mail or try to drag these to my hard drive or DVD-RAM I am told that I
cannot save the file because the filename is too long. So I have to
"save as" by stripping out part of the name. Presumably this changes
the Properties associated with the document as well. Is there a way to
avoid having to do this?

Where does the gobbledygook come from? Is it somehow the result of
Word's default "read only" preference?

Thanks for any help!
GregP

 

[Elliott Roper]

In my work I receive a lot of files as attachments to email. Many of
these documents have titles such as
"Chapter_10_Transcription$#1378999#"--in other words an English title
followed by a string of gobbledygook. If I select the "Save" button in
Mail or try to drag these to my hard drive or DVD-RAM I am told that I
cannot save the file because the filename is too long. So I have to
"save as" by stripping out part of the name. Presumably this changes
the Properties associated with the document as well. Is there a way to
avoid having to do this?

Where does the gobbledygook come from? Is it somehow the result of
Word's default "read only" preference?

Is the name really mangled while still in Apple's mail.app? I can't
remember when mail.app got long filename support. I'm pretty sure it
was always there. I have mail from early 2003 where the attachment
filenames are > 32 characters.

It's what Word v.X and other programs that do not support long
filenames get the system to do. They contract the name by cutting it
really short and appending gobbledygook in the hope of making it
unique.
Well nigh useless when your collaborators are putting version numbers
at the very end of their essays that masquerade as filenames.

Upgrading your Office to 2004 fixes that.

In the meantime, the workaround is to record the filename before
enmangulation, and then fix it up in the finder afterward.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello Greg -

Since you don't mention your Word or OS version, this is just general
info, but...

In OS 9.X & earlier Mac file names were limited to 32 characters. If
your still running in OS 9 *or* using an earlier version of software
running in Classic, that is most likely the problem.

Beginning with OS X, 256 characters (lfn)are allowed, but certain
characters are reserved by the OS & therefore are considered 'illegal'
in file/folder names. This will cause files from other platforms to
have their name truncated at the first illegal character. Also, Office
X doesn't suport more than 31 character filenames, whereas Office 2004
does support the full 256.

It is also possible that the filenames are being perverted by the email
process or could even be failing in their native location. But I concur
with Elliott that the most likely cause is <guess> you're in Office X &
because of the lack of lfn support compounded by the similarity of the
filenames, Word is trying to 'do you a favor' by attempting to uniquely
identify each file.

Regards |:>)