Are you compatible?
By Charles Miller 

A call I receive on a regular basis from clients as well as Atención readers is the query of how to open attachments sent via email. This question arises when users receive an email from a friend, a trusted friend; because they know not to open any attachments from anyone they do not know and trust. The problem is sometimes these attachments will not open.

Usually the reason this happens is that the sender of the email simply assumes the recipient will have all the same software they have and the recipient will be able to click on the file and open it. Too many users simply do not understand, or stop to think, not every other computer user in the world has Microsoft PowerPoint, or Corel Draw, or even Microsoft Word installed. When they attach a file created in one of these programs and email that file to someone who does not have the associated program installed on their computer, then the file often will not open.

What happens in most versions of Microsoft Windows is that a dialog box opens saying, “Windows cannot open this file. To open this file Windows needs to know what program created it. Windows can go online to look it up automatically, or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer. What do you want to do?” This is all well and good, but neither of the options is very likely to be immediately helpful.

The first option is to “Use the Web service to find the appropriate program,” but usually all that accomplishes is to let you know you need a copy of such-and-such program and that you do not have it. The other option is to “Select the program from a list” but that option is almost never helpful either.

The most common circumstance under which this occurs is when users try to open a word processor format for which they do not have the correct word processor version installed. This occurs when someone who has Microsoft Word 2003 or older versions installed on their computer tries to open a document created with the latest Microsoft Word 2007; the file formats are not compatible. Fortunately, Microsoft has provided a solution for this, and it is cost free.

With the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack, you may use your older software to view, print and copy contents of many newer file formats. The list includes the new Microsoft Word format (.docx), several Web Page formats (.htm, .html, .mht and .mhtml), WordPerfect (wpd), and Works (.wps). The Office Compatibility Pack is available for free download. Point your browser to http://tinyurl.com/ykums3  to download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.

So that solution works well for users who have an older version of Word or Excel, but what if you do not have an older version or any version? For users who do not have Microsoft Office installed on their computer, the compatibility pack is of no use to them, but not to worry. Microsoft also provides a series of “viewers” for those who are not users of Microsoft Office. These “viewers” are completely free, and may be used to look at (but not edit) Microsoft files for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio. Point your browser to http://tinyurl.com/2w3s6z  for the free Microsoft Word Viewer.

Many other helpful utilities are available from the site www.microsoft.com/download. 

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.