Sending docx, xlsx, and pptx attachments problem
Elv...@officeformac.com
Webmail clients identify the application creator as msword (when the attachment is sent from Entourage) when it should be (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document).
I also find that when the feature append file extension is used for files without extensions, Entourage (at least 2004) is attaching .doc suffix to .docx files that are missing suffixes. In some webclients, I see that the attachments are being downloaded/opened with ".docx.doc" suffixes.
The work around has been to have PC users download the document and correct the extensions. This is hardly acceptable since it will continue the grudge that files from Mac users are problematic, even when they are Microsoft files being sent by Microsoft email clients.
So there is something about how Entourage packages .docx, .pptx, .xlsx attachments that somehow misidentifies the documents as plain .doc, .ppt, and .xls documents.
-elvin-
Elv...@officeformac.com
Corentin Cras-Méneur
Hi Elvin,
> Mac users who receive this with Entourage have no problem. But if users
> on PCs or those who receive the message with a web client, will find
> the file misidentified as a .doc document and thus creating problems
> with MSWord tries to open .docx document as a .doc. (converter errors
> happen). Similar problems happen with .pptx and .xlsx documents.
[...]
>
> I also find that when the feature append file extension is used for
> files without extensions, Entourage (at least 2004) is attaching .doc
> suffix to .docx files that are missing suffixes. In some webclients, I
> see that the attachments are being downloaded/opened with ".docx.doc"
> suffixes.
I believe that the root of the problem is that your files do not have
an extension. Even on a Mac (especially now in Snow Leopard),
extensions are critically important.
DO you have any problem if you send a file that already has the proper
extension??
Corentin
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Elv...@officeformac.com
-elvin-
Corentin Cras-Méneur
> They definitely have their extensions. We work in a cross-platform
> environment, so all our Mac users save and show their extensions.
Then I don't remember ever seeing that.
Zipping the files might be a workaround (which is silly for a file
format that's already zipped).
In the preferences, what method is used for encoding?? Have you tried
changing it?
All I can think of is that the client on the other end is messing up
the attachments as it de-encodes them,
Elv...@officeformac.com
Encoding is AppleDouble (for any computer), no compression. I've confirmed that this is a problem across multiple PC machines consistently when accessed from our campus webmail client and apparently from at least one Eudora client. Whatever it is, it's not telling the PCs the right way to open the thing.
Elv...@officeformac.com
Choosing save to disk when you click on the attachment, saves no problem, proper extension and opens beautifully. As far as I can see when you go with "Open With...", it treats it like a .doc, .xls, .ppt file (even showing it with a .docx.doc, .xlsx.xls, or .pptx.ppt extension!). So it's using the right app but thinking it's in a different format.
More testing later.
-elvin-
Elv...@officeformac.com
-elvin-
Elv...@officeformac.com
The PCs I'm testing are running Windows XP if that matters.
Elv...@officeformac.com
Corentin Cras-Méneur
> I'm surprised others aren't running into this and easily able to
> reproduce this problem.
I have never ever had any problem with file encoding.
The only cases when I saw that with others were 1) old client used on
the PC and 2) a weird SMTP server that was messing up the encoding.
Have you tried selecting a different encoding method?
����������Corentin
Elv...@officeformac.com
-elvin-
Elv...@officeformac.com
josephfuoco
Other postings I've read concerning this behavior tend to rule out e-mail clients at both the Mac and PC end (so I'm thinking Entourage is not at fault). There is never an instance of this happening for PC-to-PC or Mac-to-Mac, or PC-to-Mac, only the case of Mac-to-PC. When the file extension remains correct (the 'x' is not dropped) a converter works for Office XP/2003 apps to read the Office 2007/2008 file.
So, is the glitch in how Office for Mac 2008 stores files or in the SMTP handling of these files on the mail server?
If someone else is seeing this happen, can you indicate what mail server product is being used?
Elvin wrote:
I am surprised others are not running into this and easily able to reproduce
02-Feb-10
I am surprised others are not running into this and easily able to reproduce this problem.
Previous Posts In This Thread:
On Monday, February 01, 2010 2:17 PM
Elvin wrote:
Sending docx, xlsx, and pptx attachments problem
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: imap
Mac users who receive this with Entourage have no problem. But if users on PCs or those who receive the message with a web client, will find the file misidentified as a .doc document and thus creating problems with MSWord tries to open .docx document as a .doc. (converter errors happen). Similar problems happen with .pptx and .xlsx documents. <br><br>Webmail clients identify the application creator as msword (when the attachment is sent from Entourage) when it should be (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document). <br><br>I also find that when the feature append file extension is used for files without extensions, Entourage (at least 2004) is attaching .doc suffix to .docx files that are missing suffixes. In some webclients, I see that the attachments are being downloaded/opened with ".docx.doc" suffixes. <br><br>The work around has been to have PC users download the document and correct the extensions. This is hardly acceptable since it will continue the grudge that files from Mac users are problematic, even when they are Microsoft files being sent by Microsoft email clients. <br><br>So there is something about how Entourage packages .docx, .pptx, .xlsx attachments that somehow misidentifies the documents as plain .doc, .ppt, and .xls documents. <br><br>-elvin-
On Monday, February 01, 2010 2:31 PM
Elvin wrote:
Due to a Safari error, this topic was posted multiple times.
Due to a Safari error, this topic was posted multiple times. I have posted replies at those duplicate posts to reply here on this thread. Thanks!
On Monday, February 01, 2010 5:01 PM
Corentin_Cras-M?neur wrote:
On 2010-02-01 14:17:11 -0500, Elv...@officeformac.com said:Hi Elvin,[...
On 2010-02-01 14:17:11 -0500, Elv...@officeformac.com said:
Hi Elvin,
[...]
I believe that the root of the problem is that your files do not have
an extension. Even on a Mac (especially now in Snow Leopard),
extensions are critically important.
DO you have any problem if you send a file that already has the proper
extension??
Corentin
--
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http://www.mvps.org - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
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On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 12:30 PM
Elvin wrote:
They definitely have their extensions.
They definitely have their extensions. We work in a cross-platform environment, so all our Mac users save and show their extensions. <br><br>-elvin-
On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 12:59 PM
Corentin_Cras-M?neur wrote:
On 2010-02-02 12:30:30 -0500, ElvinC@officeformac.
On 2010-02-02 12:30:30 -0500, Elv...@officeformac.com said:
Then I do not remember ever seeing that.
Zipping the files might be a workaround (which is silly for a file
format that is already zipped).
In the preferences, what method is used for encoding?? Have you tried
changing it?
All I can think of is that the client on the other end is messing up
the attachments as it de-encodes them,
Corentin
--
--- Office:Mac MVP http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/ ---
http://www.mvps.org - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
MVPs are not MS employees - Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me - Retirez "NoSpam" pour m'?crire
On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 6:32 PM
Elvin wrote:
Yep. I'd agree that zipping files is overkill.
Yep. I'd agree that zipping files is overkill. <br><br>Encoding is AppleDouble (for any computer), no compression. I have confirmed that this is a problem across multiple PC machines consistently when accessed from our campus webmail client and apparently from at least one Eudora client. Whatever it is, it is not telling the PCs the right way to open the thing.
On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 6:59 PM
Elvin wrote:
I have tried two different kinds of web email clients (to two different
I have tried two different kinds of web email clients (to two different recipients) now so it is not the recipients email server. What I will test next is sending the pptx xlsx docx files from a different email account using Entourage. <br><br>-elvin-
On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 7:06 PM
Elvin wrote:
What I see at the client end...on the PC...
What I see at the client end...on the PC...if you have the PC choose "Open With" and by default it does choose Word, it produces the error "Word cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc". It does this a few times and sometimes if you repeated click ok...the file will actually open. Other times, particularly if you choose "show help" then "ok", then you will be brought to the choose different encoding window. <br><br>Choosing save to disk when you click on the attachment, saves no problem, proper extension and opens beautifully. As far as I can see when you go with "Open With...", it treats it like a .doc, .xls, .ppt file (even showing it with a .docx.doc, .xlsx.xls, or .pptx.ppt extension!). So it is using the right app but thinking it is in a different format. <br><br>More testing later. <br><br>-elvin-
On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:01 PM
Elvin wrote:
Sent test message from home also using Entourage with different SMTP and it
Sent test message from home also using Entourage with different SMTP and it still appears that the files are misidentified for the purpose on PCs for "Open With..." <br><br>The PCs I am testing are running Windows XP if that matters.
On Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:02 PM
Elvin wrote:
I am surprised others are not running into this and easily able to reproduce
I am surprised others are not running into this and easily able to reproduce this problem.
On Wednesday, February 03, 2010 11:47 AM
Corentin_Cras-M?neur wrote:
On 2010-02-02 21:02:14 -0500, ElvinC@officeformac.
On 2010-02-02 21:02:14 -0500, Elv...@officeformac.com said:
I have never ever had any problem with file encoding.
The only cases when I saw that with others were 1) old client used on
the PC and 2) a weird SMTP server that was messing up the encoding.
Have you tried selecting a different encoding method?
??????????Corentin
--
--- Office:Mac MVP http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/ ---
http://www.mvps.org - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
MVPs are not MS employees - Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
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On Wednesday, February 03, 2010 5:22 PM
Elvin wrote:
AppleDouble, BinHex, and MIME/Base64 all reproduce the problem but UNIX
AppleDouble, BinHex, and MIME/Base64 all reproduce the problem but UNIX encoding does not. I have switched our machines to default to that and hopefully that should solve the problem. <br><br>-elvin-
On Thursday, February 18, 2010 4:08 PM
Elvin wrote:
Still trouble with UNIX encoding.
Still trouble with UNIX encoding. Finding that BinHex (Macintosh) format seems to work on PCs when I get the messages via webmail. Testing now with colleague's Eudora PC client.
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jaf123
jaf123
Researching this problem has identified multiple Mac web-clients (as
senders of .docx files) and multiple Windows web-clients (as
recipients of .doc instead of .docx --also the case for .xlsx changed
to .xls). Has anyone investigated the potential for the mail server
being responsible? I've had one respondent suggest this.
Corentin Cras-Méneur
> I have Mac users sending .docx and .xlsx files via e-mail to PC users
> running WinXP and sometimes (not every time) the file extension changes
> --the 'x' is stripped of the end. This makes Word or Excel or the
> associated converter unable to deal with it. Renaming the file by
> adding the 'x' works as a band-aid but I have been unable to find and
> treat the root cause.
That looks like a server-side issue (sending or receiving end). The
extensions get stripped to 3 characters.
You can test this for instance by sending a .html file and checking
whether the recipient gets a .html or .htm
Corentin
Elv...@officeformac.com
jhme...@gmail.com
> Researching this problem has identified multiple Mac web-clients (as
> senders of .docx files) and multiple Windows web-clients (as
> recipients of .doc instead of .docx --also the case for .xlsx changed
> to .xls). Has anyone investigated the potential for the mail server
> being responsible? I've had one respondent suggest this.
MIME headers that include Macintosh "Creator and file type" codes
(which are hex encodings of up 4 ascii characters each), e.g
x-mac-type="584C5334" ["XLS4" in hexadecimal ascii]
x-mac-creator="5843454C" ["XCEL" in hexadecimal ascii] <== our Bad Guy
On the recipient side, these parameters are taken to identify
the attachment as being a type which must have an ".xls"
extension to be understood by Windows as being that kind of file,
so that extension is forced upon the stored file.
In Eudora, a "[Mappings]" section of program file "Deudora.ini"
(not of user's settings file "Eudora.ini) contains such Macintosh
type and creator codes, which causes the given effect. Replacing
those codes with empty strings corrects the problem in Eudora,
including the problem that Eudora itself inserts Mac type/creator codes
when it even sends attachments, due to the very same "mappings" entries,
so that the same single cure fixes both problems at the same time.
--