Why can't I open file attachments entitled wwinmailnn.dat?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Angelo Campanella
  • Start date Start date
A

Angelo Campanella

Colleagues have been sending me Word documents which purvey through
Firefox and Eudora as wnmailnn.dat files which I cannot open with Word
(as hey are sworn to be) or any other application.

On my complaint, they have been translating said documents into PDFs,
but I hate to be a pain in this matter.

I think it has to do either with my Eudora settings, or a Eudora bug, or
Firefox a quirk. I looked inside the Word translations available and
none had any resemblance to reality.

Any Clues?

Angelo Campanella
 
Hi
If the file is Not in the right format the application will not open it.
Your friend probably sent you the wrong file. Some application save the
files that generated by them in their own propriety format but can generate
a file in another format (like PDF) if Save AS, or Exported To are built in
as part as the supported formats.
Could be that the the author, forgot (or did not pay attention) and sent you
the file in the propriety format.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)
 
Angelo said:
Colleagues have been sending me Word documents which purvey through
Firefox and Eudora as wnmailnn.dat files which I cannot open with Word
(as hey are sworn to be) or any other application.

On my complaint, they have been translating said documents into PDFs,
but I hate to be a pain in this matter.

I think it has to do either with my Eudora settings, or a Eudora bug, or
Firefox a quirk. I looked inside the Word translations available and
none had any resemblance to reality.

Any Clues?

Angelo Campanella
Click to expand...

It's more likely *their* Outlook settings rather than your Eudora or
Firefox settings.

Try asking the senders to format their *email* (not the attachment) as
either plain text or HTML (i.e., *not* "Rich Text Format" (RTF)). If
they attach a Word doc to a plain text email (or an HTML email), the
attachment ought to come through as a xxxx.doc and you should be able to
open it with Word.

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm
 
Angelo said:
Colleagues have been sending me Word documents which purvey through
Firefox and Eudora as wnmailnn.dat files which I cannot open with Word
(as hey are sworn to be) or any other application.

On my complaint, they have been translating said documents into PDFs,
but I hate to be a pain in this matter.

I think it has to do either with my Eudora settings, or a Eudora bug, or
Firefox a quirk. I looked inside the Word translations available and
none had any resemblance to reality.

Any Clues?

Angelo Campanella
Click to expand...

P.S.: If changing the body of the email to plain text doesn't work, try
WMDecode http://www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk/ (the last time I ran into
this problem, the solution was Fentun (http://www.fentun.com/) but that
seems not to have been updated for anything more recent than Win95). Or
you can try the online viewer at http://www.winmaildat.com/

MS article of interest:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278061

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm
 
If they are using Outlook, they need to go to the email preferences and set
the sending format to HTML or Plaintext. They are using MS-Richtext, and
this is a nonstandard format which will only work on (some) Microsoft
platforms.

If using Exchange, an Admin may need to make this change on the server.

They would be well-advised to fix this as it will be causing trouble for
other recipients too. It also causes a security isue as these .dat (actually
known as TNEF) attachments may be difficult to scan for viruses.
 
Colleagues have been sending me Word documents which purvey through
Firefox and Eudora as wnmailnn.dat files which I cannot open with Word
(as hey are sworn to be) or any other application.

On my complaint, they have been translating said documents into PDFs,
but I hate to be a pain in this matter.

I think it has to do either with my Eudora settings, or a Eudora bug, or
Firefox a quirk. I looked inside the Word translations available and
none had any resemblance to reality.

Any Clues?

Angelo Campanella
Click to expand...

Do you mean "winmail.dat"? Those attachments indicate that someone
who uses Microsoft Outlook has sent you an E-mail message in Rich Text
format. Ask the person to send messages to you in Plain Text format.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Desktop Experience)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
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