Word attachment scrambled in mail
The Older Gentleman
Their booking form for our ski holiday in February is in the form of a
Word 1997-2004 document. So is their final invoice document. My Mac runs
Office For Mac.
When I open the document in Mail, almost every character (except, oddly,
the header) has been transformed into WingDings or Zapf Dingbats of
varying colours and types, rendering it unreadable.
Forwarding it to my web-based email client and opening it from that
makes no difference.
However, selecting all the copy and then selecting any given font (I
used Times) transforms it into a perfect form.
Any idea what's causing this odd glitch?
--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER GN250 Damn, back to six bikes!
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com
Mike Dee
> This is a puzzler for me and a ski company.
>
> Their booking form for our ski holiday in February is in the form
> of a Word 1997-2004 document. So is their final invoice document.
> My Mac runs Office For Mac.
>
> When I open the document in Mail, almost every character (except,
> oddly, the header) has been transformed into WingDings or Zapf
> Dingbats of varying colours and types, rendering it unreadable.
>
> Forwarding it to my web-based email client and opening it from
> that makes no difference.
>
> However, selecting all the copy and then selecting any given font
> (I used Times) transforms it into a perfect form.
>
> Any idea what's causing this odd glitch?
Don't try to read it in Mail.
It is likely to be an attachement to the email they sent back to you.
If you haven't configured Mail to launch MS documents in Word, then
save the attachment to your computer, onto your desktop or whatever and
then open that saved attachment in a program that can read Word
documents. You already say you have Office for Mac installed, try that
on the attachment that you've saved (at some location that you can
point it to).
--
dee
The Older Gentleman
> It is likely to be an attachement to the email they sent back to you.
> If you haven't configured Mail to launch MS documents in Word, then
> save the attachment to your computer, onto your desktop or whatever and
> then open that saved attachment in a program that can read Word
> documents. You already say you have Office for Mac installed, try that
> on the attachment that you've saved (at some location that you can
> point it to).
Done that first of all. No difference.
Chris Ridd
> Mike Dee <mik...@emteedee.invalid> wrote:
>
>> It is likely to be an attachement to the email they sent back to you.
>> If you haven't configured Mail to launch MS documents in Word, then
>> save the attachment to your computer, onto your desktop or whatever and
>> then open that saved attachment in a program that can read Word
>> documents. You already say you have Office for Mac installed, try that
>> on the attachment that you've saved (at some location that you can
>> point it to).
>
> Done that first of all. No difference.
They're probably mangling it when they're sending it, and it is nothing
to do with you using a Mac or anything like that. Try asking if they'd
zip the file and then send you the zip file.
If you want to diagnose the problem a bit more, then select the bad
message in Mail, and choose View > Message > Raw Source. You will need
to look down for lines starting with "Content-" and "MIME-", like this:
Content-Type: application/msword;
name="my document.doc"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="my document.doc"
What do those lines look like in your message?
--
Chris
Mike Dee
> Done that first of all. No difference.
Then perhaps (and only perhaps) they are using fonts in their document
that you don't have installed on your Mac, you see a garbled substitute
until you physically "interfere" and choose a sensible font to read it
in.
Try (if you can) to open their file in a plain text editor, it should
in the headers of the attached Word doc inform you what fonts were used
in the creation of their document.
Try opening the attachment in some other program, OpenOffice for
example.
If all fails, ask them to resend the form "Saved As" the same (or near
equivalent) version of document for Word that you have on your Mac.
Failing any of the above, I'm fresh out of ideas. Good Luck.
--
dee
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <1jctlg0.1i38jqx1v0qf5sN%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
> This is a puzzler for me and a ski company.
>
> Their booking form for our ski holiday in February is in the form of a
> Word 1997-2004 document. So is their final invoice document. My Mac runs
> Office For Mac.
>
> When I open the document in Mail, almost every character (except, oddly,
> the header) has been transformed into WingDings or Zapf Dingbats of
> varying colours and types, rendering it unreadable.
>
> Forwarding it to my web-based email client and opening it from that
> makes no difference.
>
> However, selecting all the copy and then selecting any given font (I
> used Times) transforms it into a perfect form.
>
> Any idea what's causing this odd glitch?
>
>
They're using a font you don't have, or a font you _do_ have, but which your
system has assigned a different font number from the one their system has
assigned. As fonts are assigned by font number, this means that when you open
the document you see it in the font that _your_ system thinks it should be
in.
I've seen this before. During a beta test I was a part of, for example, the
text in the install application showed up using Symbol, which made it
remarkably difficult to justify clicking 'Okay'.
If you clear your font caches (Word _and_ system level) the problem will go
away _if the problem is at your end_. If, however, it is _they_ who have the
wrong font number, _they_ will have to clear their caches. Good luck getting
them to do this.
--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.
The Older Gentleman
> Then perhaps (and only perhaps) they are using fonts in their document
> that you don't have installed on your Mac, you see a garbled substitute
> until you physically "interfere" and choose a sensible font to read it
> in.
Yes, I think this nails it.
Ta.
The Older Gentleman
> If you want to diagnose the problem a bit more, then select the bad
> message in Mail, and choose View > Message > Raw Source. You will need
> to look down for lines starting with "Content-" and "MIME-", like this:
>
> Content-Type: application/msword;
> name="my document.doc"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
> Content-Disposition: attachment;
> filename="my document.doc"
>
> What do those lines look like in your message?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_00A6_01CA9240.6C4C4360"
------=_NextPart_001_00A7_01CA9240.6C4C4360
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
And *masses* of coding relating to the attachment.
The Older Gentleman
That makes sense. Ta.
Chris Ridd
> Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com> wrote:
>
>> If you want to diagnose the problem a bit more, then select the bad
>> message in Mail, and choose View > Message > Raw Source. You will need
>> to look down for lines starting with "Content-" and "MIME-", like this:
>>
>> Content-Type: application/msword;
>> name="my document.doc"
>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
>> Content-Disposition: attachment;
>> filename="my document.doc"
>>
>> What do those lines look like in your message?
>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
> boundary="----=_NextPart_000_00A6_01CA9240.6C4C4360"
This means the message has more than one part. Each part starts with
that boundary text.
>
> ------=_NextPart_001_00A7_01CA9240.6C4C4360
Here's one.
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
This might be a cover note. It isn't the word document.
>
> And *masses* of coding relating to the attachment.
You need to look for the next instance of that boundary text, maybe the
word doc's after that.
--
Chris
The Older Gentleman
Oh, cba.
The sender has now told me that about 5% of his customers have the same
problem, so he's going to re-do the booking form in a different font.
Gareth John
> Mike Dee <mik...@emteedee.invalid> wrote:
>
> > Then perhaps (and only perhaps) they are using fonts in their document
> > that you don't have installed on your Mac, you see a garbled substitute
> > until you physically "interfere" and choose a sensible font to read it
> > in.
>
> Yes, I think this nails it.
>
> Ta.
As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
received document (before changed to soething readable)?
I work with several big corporate clients who have their own 'company'
fonts they won't let out, but which they use for all outward
communications.
Luckily, those fonts are usually just tweaked versions of something
common, and they're OK on screen because Word substitutes something else
on the fly.
G.
--
From Gareth John
Please pull out the plug if you want to reply by email
The Older Gentleman
> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
All of it.
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <1jcu0gf.1ekaqosnmtnz0N%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
Someone's using a non-standard font, and which his system has assigned a
different font number than other people. Want to bet that most of the
customers see a font other than the one he thought he was using, it's just
that only some of them see Wingdings or other unreadable fonts? And again
want to bet that if he changes the font to a standard one, such as Times or
Helvetica, everyone will be able to read the document perfectly? And, again,
updating the font caches at his end would probably fix things, too... not
that this is likely to happen. Windows hides its font caches at
C:\Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT (yes, even the 64-bit versions) and the way
to clear the cache is to delete C:\Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT and then
reboot _immediately_. The system will rebuild the cache on startup. Note that
deleting FontCache.dll instead of FNTCACHE.DAT is a Very Bad Idea(tm). And,
yes, the spelling is significant. The font caches on OS X are a lot harder to
find and more numerous, more than a half-dozen not all of which have 'cache'
in their names, which is why it's best to use a good font utility to reset
them. (And then you must reboot immediately, of course...)
Chris Ridd
> Gareth John <g.j...@PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
>> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
>
> Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
> All of it.
Expecting Word documents to maintain formatting when emailed is a bit
na�ve of the sender. Converting them to PDF is sensible, and there are
some free ways to do that on Windows.
--
Chris
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <1jcu7m9.1ac58cz1ixb6bkN%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
> Gareth John <g.j...@PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
>> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
>
> Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
> All of it.
>
>
>
<has a look at that font in his font manager> Why would anyone use Abadi MT
Bold Condensed for _anything_?! It's Helvetica-like, only uglier! If you've
got to use a sans-serif font and don't like one of the Lucidas, use Optima or
Frutiger! It's people like that who use <ick>Comic Sans</ick> for
everything... <wanders off mumbling>
The Older Gentleman
Yes, except that it's a booking form which you have to fill in, and to
do that on a PDF you need full Acrobat, don't you?
Chris Ridd
> Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2010-01-24 19:12:02 +0000, The Older Gentleman said:
>>
>>> Gareth John <g.j...@PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
>>>> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
>>>
>>> Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
>>> All of it.
>>
>> Expecting Word documents to maintain formatting when emailed is a bit
>> na�ve of the sender. Converting them to PDF is sensible, and there are
>> some free ways to do that on Windows.
>
> Yes, except that it's a booking form which you have to fill in, and to
> do that on a PDF you need full Acrobat, don't you?
I think the free one will do that, but I'm not sure.
--
Chris
SteveH
> > Yes, except that it's a booking form which you have to fill in, and to
> > do that on a PDF you need full Acrobat, don't you?
>
> I think the free one will do that, but I'm not sure.
You need the full version to set it up - but end users can use reader to
fill in details.
--
SteveH
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <1jcu9f4.1dgq98ahi8wtcN%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
> Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2010-01-24 19:12:02 +0000, The Older Gentleman said:
>>
>>> Gareth John <g.j...@PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
>>>> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
>>>
>>> Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
>>> All of it.
>>
>> Expecting Word documents to maintain formatting when emailed is a bit
>> naï¿œve of the sender. Converting them to PDF is sensible, and there are
>> some free ways to do that on Windows.
>
> Yes, except that it's a booking form which you have to fill in, and to
> do that on a PDF you need full Acrobat, don't you?
>
Nope. You need full Acrobat (or one of the many pretenders to the Acrobat
throne) to _create_ the document, but you can generate a document which can
be filled out using Reader or Preview or just about anything else which will
_read_ PDFs. It just takes a bit of effort.
The Older Gentleman
> On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:48:59 -0500, The Older Gentleman wrote
> (in article <1jcu9f4.1dgq98ahi8wtcN%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
>
> > Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 2010-01-24 19:12:02 +0000, The Older Gentleman said:
> >>
> >>> Gareth John <g.j...@PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
> >>>> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
> >>>
> >>> Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
> >>> All of it.
> >>
> >> Expecting Word documents to maintain formatting when emailed is a bit
> >> na�ve of the sender. Converting them to PDF is sensible, and there are
> >> some free ways to do that on Windows.
> >
> > Yes, except that it's a booking form which you have to fill in, and to
> > do that on a PDF you need full Acrobat, don't you?
> >
>
> Nope. You need full Acrobat (or one of the many pretenders to the Acrobat
> throne) to _create_ the document, but you can generate a document which can
> be filled out using Reader or Preview or just about anything else which will
> _read_ PDFs. It just takes a bit of effort.
Ah, right. I'd imagine that "a bt of effort" is precisely what you don't
want in a booking form, because the moment punters hit a snag they'll
just give up and go elsewhere.
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <1jcudci.1oicz2qdno7i8N%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
> J.J. O'Shea <try.n...@but.see.sig> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:48:59 -0500, The Older Gentleman wrote
>> (in article <1jcu9f4.1dgq98ahi8wtcN%totallyde...@yahoo.co.uk>):
>>
>>> Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2010-01-24 19:12:02 +0000, The Older Gentleman said:
>>>>
>>>>> Gareth John <g.j...@PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> As a matter of interest, what font did Word say was being used in the
>>>>>> received document (before changed to soething readable)?
>>>>>
>>>>> Says it's Abadi MT Bold Condensed, but it's not: it's WingDings symbols.
>>>>> All of it.
>>>>
>>>> Expecting Word documents to maintain formatting when emailed is a bit
>>>> naï¿œve of the sender. Converting them to PDF is sensible, and there are
>>>> some free ways to do that on Windows.
>>>
>>> Yes, except that it's a booking form which you have to fill in, and to
>>> do that on a PDF you need full Acrobat, don't you?
>>>
>>
>> Nope. You need full Acrobat (or one of the many pretenders to the Acrobat
>> throne) to _create_ the document, but you can generate a document which can
>> be filled out using Reader or Preview or just about anything else which will
>> _read_ PDFs. It just takes a bit of effort.
>
> Ah, right. I'd imagine that "a bt of effort" is precisely what you don't
> want in a booking form, because the moment punters hit a snag they'll
> just give up and go elsewhere.
The guys who build it at the office have to put in the effort. The customers
just have to fill it out.
Mr Guest
2010 19:42:37:
Well, I thought this was more recent, but:
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07052007
My colleague keeps mumbling "He wants to taste the curb" whenever he
sees an example of Comic Sans.
--
MrGuest
Always, seemingly, on the road to nowhere