In addition to the comments made earlier about opening attachments, there are a couple of things Macintosh users can do to exchange attachments with Windows users.
Convert documents before you send them as attachments.
Most major programs used by Wintel machines are available for the MacOS, ex: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). You can use your Macintosh to convert a document to the Windows version by doing a "SAVE AS", and selecting the proper file type. It helps if you know which version of the program the Windows user is using so you can save it in the format the Windows user can recognize. New versions of programs have more features, and anything done using a new feature cannot be translated when converting to an earlier version.
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Tips for MAC users: If you don't know what kind of attachments your recipients can read, try converting them to PC format before you send them using the application you are making them with or a translation program such as MacLINK PLUS. Remember: Macintoshes can read Wintel [PC] files; but Wintel machines [PCs] can't always read MacOS files; so you're safer if you translate before you send. |
Name your converted files using Windows / Unix naming conventions
Files created on the MacOS don;t normally have a three letter extension, which is what Windows based machines use to decide which program will open it. (This information is imbedded in MacOS files so Mac users don't have to deal with it.) The MacOS allows you to use almost every keyboard character except the colon [:], and newer versions of Windows allow longer names and some non-text characters.
However, some computers place serious and quite archaic limitations on what you are allowed to name a file. Unix, MSDOS, and versions of Windows (3.1 to earlier) limit names to eight letters followed by a three letter extension telling the computer the type of file. While these limitations served the early days of computing well, they are really dated today. People don't like or understand names like confrinf.txt (for a text document called conference information).
Remember to name your converted document in the format "8 dot 3". Older Wintel machines cannot recognize long file names and don't allow non-letter/number characters. You won't go wrong if you follow the 8dot3 naming convention. Example of valid Wintel file name would be "letter.doc" or "services.doc".
Here is a table of common three letter extensions to use as part of your file name:
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.exe |
Executable file or application |
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.sys |
System file |
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.htm |
HTML file |
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.txt |
text file |
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.jpg |
JPEG image file |
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.gif |
GIF image file |
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.zip |
Zipped (archived or compressed) file |
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.doc |
document (text) file |
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.wav |
audio file |
Programs to open files
Both the MacOS and Windows may suggest a program that may open an attached file. The program suggested may or may not work. Once you select a program to open a particular type of file, your OS will assume that is the correct program for all files of that type. If your choice was incorrect, then you will have to force your OS to use a different program. Explaining this process is beyond the scope of this presentation.
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