email recipient can't open attachment

by rhodeyes1 Mar 13, 2012 7:10AM PDT

I sent an emil with an attachment to someone and they can't open it.The file i sent is a text document from 'my documents'. I think i did everything properly.I went to 'my documents' then i right clicked the one i wanted to send.I get an option of sending to a mail recipient which i clicked.The outlook express window for sending an email comes up so I just filled in who i wanted it sent to and clicked send.They get the email but the attachment won't open.When i send the file(text document) to myself using the same procedure I have no problem opening it.Any suggestions?

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What kind of text document

by Jimmy Greystone Mar 13, 2012 7:15AM PDT

What kind of text document? What program did you use to create it?

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Re: attachment can't be opened

by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 13, 2012 7:19AM PDT

With "text document" generally is meant a document that's made in Notepad and has the .txt extension. People with Windows on their PC should be able to open it after saving it to their hard disk and using File>Open in Notepad (unless they lost the program). And most of them should be able to open it in their email program if the settings are right.

But maybe yours isn't such a text document? Tell more on how you made it.

Kees

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its an ODF file

by rhodeyes1 Mar 13, 2012 8:04AM PDT

sorry.It is an ODF an open document text.I made it by going to my documents then under file i clicked on new then the option of 'open document text'.While were at it.What is the difference between text document,open document text and rich text document?Those are 3 of many options when creating a new file in 'my documents'.Should all 3 open easily when sent as an attachment in email?

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Re: odf

by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 13, 2012 8:15AM PDT

You need OpenOffice or LibreOffice to open such a file. My guess: the receiver doesn't have those programs installed.

If you save it as .rtf it opens in Wordpad. All Windows computers have Wordpad. And the average text only document looks quite well in that program (but don't expect support for pictures).

What I find a good alternative when sending somebody a document is to make it a pdf-file. There's even a save as pdf in OpenOffice and LibreOffice to do that. Most people have a pdf-reader (Adobe, Nitro , Foxit) installed and can read it. But they can't edit it. If editing by the receiver isn't necessary, it's very nice, because it supports pictures and colours and fonts also.

Kees

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I'm not sure

by Jimmy Greystone Mar 13, 2012 9:41AM PDT

I'm not sure if it's a bundled component, installed by default, but Microsoft has actually added ODF support to MS Office. It's like the POSIX layer in the Windows Server line. They don't like to mention it, unless there's a big government contract that requires it. Though unlike the POSIX layer, ODF support has at least some marginal functional value IIRC.

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How can you choose what kind of file.

by rhodeyes1 Mar 14, 2012 7:26AM PDT

How do you choose to make it an rtf or a pdf file?I like to put my notes in notepad and then save them.Is there another way to save messages or notes?Where is wordpad located? Mentioning notepad ,I just added another discussion involving saving my jnotepad messages.

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In Open/LibreOffice

by Jimmy Greystone Mar 14, 2012 8:28AM PDT

In Open/LibreOffice, when you are asked to pick a name for the file, there's a combo box towards the bottom that asks for the file format. In there you will see things like RTF if you look. The PDF export option is separate, and there's usually a button right on the default toolbars that will say "Export to PDF" if you hover the mouse over it, otherwise there's likely a function for it in one of the menus.

email recipient can't open attachment

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