unable to open excel attachments using outlook

M

mbourgon

Sometimes I am unable to open Excel spreadsheet attachments.
I am using server 2008.
error states: Microsoft excel previewer.
cannot create file. right click folder you want to create file in, then
click properties on shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.

Can anyone help me in this matter.
 
V

VanguardLH

mbourgon said:
Sometimes I am unable to open Excel spreadsheet attachments.
I am using server 2008.
error states: Microsoft excel previewer.
cannot create file. right click folder you want to create file in, then
click properties on shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.

Can anyone help me in this matter.

You operate a *server* version of Windows, are its administrator, but you
haven't a clue on how to set permissions on files and folders?

You never did mention just HOW you are trying to "open" the attachment. Are
you saving it to a file on the disk and then double-clicking on it to open
using the Excel previewer (since you apparently do not have Excel itself)?
What happens when you try to save the attachment to a file and then open
THAT?

Or are you trying to open the attachment from within Outlook (which means it
has to first decode the attachment, save it to a file in its temporary
folder, and then pass that file onto whatever is designated as the handler
for that filetype)?

Opening (rather than saving) attachments in Outlook means it has to open
*something*. Attachments are not files. They are merely long strings of
encoded data within a MIME part in the body of your e-mail (that are
presented as "attachments" in the UI for your e-mail client). The
attachment is *in* your e-mail, not some file floating out in the ether that
gets magically linked to the e-mail. Opening or saving the attachment means
decoding that long string. For any program to *use* that attachment means
to decode it and put it SOMEWHERE that the program can access. That means
the attachment gets put into a file. If you open an attachment, Outlook
decodes the attachment, saves it into a file within Outlook's secured
temporary folder, and then passes the file to whatever is the handler
designated for that filetype. When you exit the program that loaded the
temporary file, and upon proper exit of Outlook, those temporary files are
deleted. Any edits you made to them would be to the file created under
Outlook's temporary folder. If you Save the attachment, Outlook decodes the
attachment and puts that data into the specified file. It is then up to you
to load whatever program you want to edit the file, and those edits will be
saved to that file.

If you Open the attachment (which means Outlook created a temporary file),
and to see it outside of Outlook (and to whatever handler program Outlook
passed the temporary file), enter the path for Outlook's secured temporary
folder into the Address bar of Windows Explorer. To find the folder name,
look in the registry under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Security

where <version> is whatever version of Outlook that you installed; e.g.,
10.0 for Office XP, 11.0 for Office 2003, and so on. The data item named
"OutlookSecureTempFolder" points to Outlook's temporary file path.

Also read:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/securetemp.htm
 

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