Docs to Unix files ?s
Norm
Anyone know why several (found 4 or 5) of my Word documents would change
to "Uniix Executable Files" and when opened would present a login to
Terminal? The modified dates for most are several months ago for 4 of
them and one last week.
Thanks for any info.
--
Norm
Corentin Cras-Méneur
Bad entry or corruption in your Launch Service database.
Hopefully, simply selecting the file in the Finder, pressing command-i
to select Open With and chinsing Word (apply to all) should do the
trick,
Corentin
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Norm
korve...@NoSpam.mvps.org (Corentin Cras-M�neur) wrote:
> Norm <NOS...@gmail.invalid> wrote:
>
> > A curiosity question from a novice....
> >
> > Anyone know why several (found 4 or 5) of my Word documents would change
> > to "Uniix Executable Files" and when opened would present a login to
> > Terminal? The modified dates for most are several months ago for 4 of
> > them and one last week.
> >
> > Thanks for any info.
>
>
> Bad entry or corruption in your Launch Service database.
> Hopefully, simply selecting the file in the Finder, pressing command-i
> to select Open With and chinsing Word (apply to all) should do the
> trick,
>
> Corentin
Thanks much. Fixed right away but didn't change icon. Maybe I need to
relaunch for that.
Wish I had asked sooner. :-( One of the files was the MT-NewsWatcher
filter file. Oh well....
Appreciate.
--
Norm
Norm
korve...@NoSpam.mvps.org (Corentin Cras-M�neur) wrote:
> Norm <NOS...@gmail.invalid> wrote:
>
> > A curiosity question from a novice....
> >
> > Anyone know why several (found 4 or 5) of my Word documents would change
> > to "Uniix Executable Files" and when opened would present a login to
> > Terminal? The modified dates for most are several months ago for 4 of
> > them and one last week.
> >
> > Thanks for any info.
>
>
> Bad entry or corruption in your Launch Service database.
> Hopefully, simply selecting the file in the Finder, pressing command-i
> to select Open With and chinsing Word (apply to all) should do the
> trick,
>
> Corentin
Corentin:
Thanks again for the help with this.
I'm curious.. .... I found one more file.
All these Unix files seem to be dated near or at the time I migrated to
Snow Leopard.
What causes this problem? And should I be looking for other problems
with this?
Thanks again,
Norm
--
Norm
John McGhie
Just apply the fix Corentin gave you, to each file as you find it.
Now you know why I suggested you should not use the Migration Assistant :-)
Mac OS keeps a database of which file extensions are mapped to which
applications. The old File Type and Creator Code mechanism from OS 9 has
been deprecated.
By "deprecated" I mean it should still work for creator codes and file types
that were known in OS 9. But the mechanism is probably not fully up-to-date
because Unix/Mac OS X runs on file name extensions.
During application installation, the Installer publishes a list of the file
extensions each application can handle, and a priority order (the
application's native file format is top priority, other formats it can
handle are given lower priorities).
If Migration occurs before an Application has been installed, or if the
application cannot be installed, the Launch Services database entry for that
file extension is "blank".
If the file extension is blank, the file will automatically be assigned as
"unknown".
In either case, the file will show up as a "Unix file" (which is basically
the Launch Services daemon saying to the OS X system "I have no idea, you
figure it out").
In some cases, of course, the file legitimately IS a Unix file. Unless you
know what it is, it's not easy to determine which of the three possibilities
it is.
If it is a Unix file, or the file contains embedded metadata, the system can
figure it out by reading the file header. If you later install an
application that publishes the fact that it can open the extension, all the
files with that extension will suddenly flip to the correct icon.
In rare cases, you will have to help, using the technique Corentin told you
(which manually updates the Launch Services Database to associate that file
with the correct application).
Hope this helps
On 3/12/09 8:19 AM, in article
3sOdnTUglbZyRIvW...@speakeasy.net, "Norm"
<NOS...@gmail.invalid> wrote:
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matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:jo...@mcghie.name
Norm
In article <C73E09C5.5403%jo...@mcghie.name>,
John McGhie <jo...@mcghie.name> wrote:
> Just apply the fix Corentin gave you, to each file as you find it.
Done. I searched originally and changed them one by one and then found
one more that Spotlight did not find originally. Perhaps more are
lurking.
> Now you know why I suggested you should not use the Migration Assistant :-)
No, why? ;) ;) You are only allowed one "I told you so." ;)
<snip>
> If Migration occurs before an Application has been installed, or if the
> application cannot be installed, the Launch Services database entry for that
> file extension is "blank".
In hindsight.... now, John, remember ;) ..... would I have been better
off migrating applications as well as everything else?
I used Migration Assistant but did not migrate any of my apps. I
installed them after migration.
> Hope this helps
It does.
And thanks for the further education on that topic.
Norm
BTW, in somewhat the same vein, when I'm presented with a Properties
screen to input (I've set that preference for new docs until I learn a
bit about Properties), it will often have a date (in April 2004) as the
title. Is this a migration issue again or something else? Just curious.
Thanks,
Norm
--
Norm
John McGhie
On 4/12/09 10:12 AM, in article
A4CdnS9c15hf2IXW...@speakeasy.net, "Norm"
<NOS...@gmail.invalid> wrote:
>> Now you know why I suggested you should not use the Migration Assistant :-)
>
> No, why? ;) ;) You are only allowed one "I told you so." ;)
Sorry :-)
> In hindsight.... now, John, remember ;) ..... would I have been better
> off migrating applications as well as everything else?
I don't think so. I suspect the system would not update the Launch Services
Database until after the end of the Migration, so I suspect you would either
get the same result, or a partial, mixed, fruit-salad kind of result.
I can't be sure. It's not going to be a big issue, because as you find each
kind, Corentin's fix corrects the system for all files of that kind.
> BTW, in somewhat the same vein, when I'm presented with a Properties
> screen to input (I've set that preference for new docs until I learn a
> bit about Properties), it will often have a date (in April 2004) as the
> title. Is this a migration issue again or something else? Just curious.
There are three dates stored in a Microsoft Word document, and three dates
maintained by the File System.
The ones stored in the document are copied if the document is copied (which
is usually a bad idea, but that's the way they designed it).
Cheers
Norm
In article <C73EF3EF.54FC%jo...@mcghie.name>,
John McGhie <jo...@mcghie.name> wrote:
> > BTW, in somewhat the same vein, when I'm presented with a Properties
> > screen to input (I've set that preference for new docs until I learn a
> > bit about Properties), it will often have a date (in April 2004) as the
> > title. Is this a migration issue again or something else? Just curious.
>
> There are three dates stored in a Microsoft Word document, and three dates
> maintained by the File System.
>
> The ones stored in the document are copied if the document is copied (which
> is usually a bad idea, but that's the way they designed it).
I probably didn't explain this very well.
When I open Properties for an old file, or do a Save As on an old file
(meaning Word vX), the Properties window presented has in the Title
Field a date rather than the current/old title of the doc or nothing. I
"believe" the same thing happened when creating a new doc but my memory
not as clear on that. :-(
Any clues as to why? Any reason to go on a diagnosing mission?
Thanks,
Norm
PS BTW, I've never been able to figure out why Word (of any version)
asks if I want to Save changes when I don't think I have made any. For
instance just now I opened a few docs, opened Properties and then Saved.
It asked each time. Curious?
--
Norm
John McGhie
If it appears in the Title field, chances are the date has been stored as
text in the Title field.
I have never seen Word get the Title field wrong, so it is likely someone
wrote a date in there. Maybe a macro.
If a document contains any Word fields that are "hot" or "warm" (they update
dynamically or on document open) then the text of the document HAS changed
when you opened it, and it will prompt ,you to save it.
Typical instances are page numbers (will update if the document is opened on
a machine with a different default printer, because the document gets
repaginated) and date fields in the header or footer (will update to today's
date/time)
Cheers
On 5/12/09 2:24 AM, in article
WuOdnYhRHYEvtITW...@speakeasy.net, "Norm"
<NOS...@gmail.invalid> wrote:
--
The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
Norm
John McGhie <jo...@mcghie.name> wrote:
> If it appears in the Title field, chances are the date has been stored as
> text in the Title field.
I've looked further and the problems seems to be on most, if not all, of
the Word X docs. I'll take a look when I have a chance to see if they
were like that before upgrade to Snow Leopard.
And I find it isn't always just a date, I find Titles that look like
Titles but they aren't of that doc but maybe another in the same folder.
>
> I have never seen Word get the Title field wrong, so it is likely someone
> wrote a date in there. Maybe a macro.
Show the title be the same as the name of the doc or is it a name given
to the doc.
>
> If a document contains any Word fields that are "hot" or "warm" (they update
> dynamically or on document open) then the text of the document HAS changed
> when you opened it, and it will prompt ,you to save it.
Hmmm.... you lost me.
>
> Typical instances are page numbers (will update if the document is opened on
> a machine with a different default printer, because the document gets
> repaginated) and date fields in the header or footer (will update to today's
> date/time)
Well. I only open on my Mac. And I use mainly set dates.
I'll get looking for reasons.
Thanks for the help,
Norm
--
Norm
John McGhie
On 5/12/09 12:56 PM, in article
juSdnRanEeN7IITW...@speakeasy.net, "Norm"
<NOS...@gmail.invalid> wrote:
> Show the title be the same as the name of the doc or is it a name given
> to the doc.
The Title is a free-text field. You can enter whatever you like in there.
It has nothing to do with the file name. However, if a document has a title
before it is saved, Word will suggest that as the file name.
If a document has a title and you copy it, the copy will have the same title
until you change it. If you get a file from somewhere else, you may not be
aware that it has a title.
Cheers