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TICKET ARCHIVE -> OPENING DOC ATTACHMENTS TO E-MAILS

richard jarvis - Mar 3, 2008 - 3:28 pm

On my old 1998 iMac I had to install a translation programme, MacLinkPlus, in order to read e-mail attachments made on PCs or to send my own attachments in a format that a PC user could open e.g. Rich Text. I asked in store before buying the new 2gHz 20" Mac a week ago if such a programme would again be necessary but was assured that I would not have this problem any longer with OS X Leopard. It is true that it is easy to export a document in Rich Text, Word etc and then send them as attachments, but I am apparently only able to OPEN Word DOCs I receive as attachments because a 30-Day Trial version of Word is installed on the computer. Thus DOCs do open at present but with the inscription 'Word Test-Drive'. What then happens once the 30 day trial programme expires? Have I been misinformed that a translation programme is no longer required and will MacMail continue to be able to open DOC, PDF, RTF attachments without the trial Word software? Don't tell me I have to spend £100 on 'Office for Mac' just to read my e-mails.........

Richard Jarvis

Serenak - Mar 3, 2008 - 4:47 pm

Hello Richard

thanks for using macosx.com and I think I will be able to lay your fears to rest for you.

You do not need the Office for Mac - in fact I usually put the damn trial version straight in the bin... those who have/use/need that behemoth can install it and the rest of use can do without the nuisance of something that dies in 30 days...

However the mac comes with a couple of quite "lowly" and overlooked tools that can hand a lot more than they are given credit for Text Edit and Preview - just try dragging them into the Dock and then dragging a .doc, .rtf, onto them and see what happens.

You can change what applications are the default to open a file as follows:
Get a file you want to open - select it and do "Get Info" - Look at the "Open With" setting and change it from (say) Word to (say) TextEdit

To make this the new default association for this file type click the "Change All" button

If these 2 under-rated applications don't do everything you need there is a whole world of freeware for the Mac out there... NeoOffice is a good free MS Office replacement and as good a place to start as any.
(Other recommended apps from my point of view are Simply Burns, Live Quartz, Bean, Carbon Copy Cloner, Image tricks and a load more)

Try taking a look at www.opensourcemac.org for a start into the world of free and open Mac software and www.pure-mac.com is a huge resource to show you just what software is out there for the Mac (both free and commercial)