repost, dumb question 3

i posted this on a different thread but need more response.

i am having difficalty attatching documents created on MS works to my emails. ( i can attatch them, others cant open them.) i rang e.machines and was advised it was a MS problem and to contact them. i rang MS and was told that pre-installed softwear was the problem of the manifacturer, and to contact e.machines. i recounted the conversation with e.machines, . they offered to put me through to their tech support for a fee of $35 i pointed out that it was a brand new puter and that i had a right to expect it to work. they agreed to allow me a 'one time only' free consultation with the tech support team. the tech peaple then told me it was a problem with yahoo 'reading' MS and to contact them ! (and they were gonna charge $35 for that?)


i recieved this reply to this post.

from fleppen:-

save your Works documents as an OFFICE document (ie: .doc, .xls etc) because Office can NOT open Works documents ! pretty retarded actually....

i dont really understand what fleppen is saying. i have tried renam ing the file .doc but that does not change it from being MS works. i havent tried to email it yet with the new name but im not sure that was what he meant. if your saying that the people i am emailing are running MS office and office cant read Works than thats not just retarded, its bloody ridiculous. doesnt MS have some sort of standard solution for this problem? coz i cant therefore be the only one who is having a problem with these attatchments. and what was all that about it being a yahoo problem? please explain in such a way that i can email the responsible party to get this 'fixed'. (in fact i now intend to email all three parties with this query and its progress!) many thanx guys much aloha laurie

 

I think this should be in the Software Forum because some people might be having the same problem and might benefit from your post.

 

I read this on http://Forums.techguy.org:


"There's no such thing as a stupid question,
but they're the easiest to answer!"

 

thanx canafzoo, but ive looked at some of those posts and the're way more technical. if im gonna embarass my self by publicly displaying my lack of knowledge and understanding i may as well do it on the 'not so serious' site. aloha hon.

 

Thats absurd.... its a help forum. Thats why its there.. to help.

 

It might help to know what version of Works you're using. Newer ones incorporate MS Word as their text program, which should be using standard .doc formatting. Older versions had their own special format, which was NOT compatible with Word.

Since yours is a NEW computer, you should have one of the newer versions of Works. Open one of the documents you're having trouble with, click "Save As" from the top "File" button, and see if you can change the file extension from the drop-down box for "Save As Type" (see picture below, which is from Word, but your Works save function should have this too). Simply changing the file extension to .doc doesn't make it a Word document, as the actual file formatting internally is different. Changing it this way has the program reformat the document to the chosen format. If .doc isn't an option, saving it as an .rtf (Wordpad) document will be readable on any Windows Computer.

 

@ GT; I've got the latest version of Works and it still saves the files as it's own extension by default, so you will still have to do a Save As... and then select *.doc extension.
sometimes MS ís retarted...

 

as clarification, see the screenshot.

 

Exactly fleppen. Yes, it's retarded, but you CAN save as a standard Word .doc, even though it's not the default. LaurieB can reopen her documents and re-save them as .doc files from the program. She just can't make them Word documents by manually changing the file extensions to .doc. Thanks for the picture from Works. That's EXACTLY what she should see while saving them.

 

more or less....heres what i have:-

works document [*.wps]
works template [*.wpt]
rich text format [*.rtf]
text file [*.txt;*.csv]
HTML document [*,htm;*.html;*.htx]
Word 6.0/95[*.doc]
Word 97-2000 & 6.0/95 - RTF [*.doc]
Word perfect 5.0 [*.doc]
Word perfect 5.0 Secondary file [*.doc]
Word perfect 5.1 for DOS [*,doc]

so which one of the last five do i change it to? im guessing #2. ps. i couldnt print my dropdown, so i dont no how you did that either! everytime i hit print or preview the dropdown would go back up. (lol)

pps. thankyou both for your time and help. i still dont understand why MS didnt just tell me this.
ppps. a friend has now downloaded MS office in answer to the advice i recieved from fleppen. so now i dont no that i needed it, or at least a large part of it...any suggestions? i obviously want the puter to be efficient but i dont want to overload it with unnecessary programs.

 

you'll want to save it as either a:

Word 6.0/95[*.doc]

or

Word 97-2000 & 6.0/95 - RTF [*.doc]

saving them as files with the *.doc extension means everyone can open them, regardless whether or not they have Office (Notepad for instance can open *.doc files as can Wordpad) or Works.

 

Yup, MS Works allows you save as various different type.

However, there isn't a need to save your document in Word format Microsoft Word can open MS Works documents as well - it has a similar drop down list as MS Works and you can select the appropriate MS Works standard. My version of Word (Office XP) has 3 MS Works formats when you choose Open from the File menu.

 

Problem is that those she's sending to don't know how to open them. It's easier to make your file as universal as possible than to train the world how to use things.

 

GT you appear to have a knack for understanding what it is i need to know.
you can add 'natural empathy to the technology-challenged' to your resume`
so much so.....if its not an aweful impostition....can i email you direct with some of my more inane questions? much aloha. laurie