I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe Reader, and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it, MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?

Stop opening your .pdf files with Word. Use Reader.

Your file associations are screwed up.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"stephanie" wrote in message
...
I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double
clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord
opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe Reader,
and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it
does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it, MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?

Hi Stephanie,

Is it just this PDF file that behaves this way, or all PDF files? If
it's all of them, you have a damaged file type assignment in the
registry.

To fix the assignment, open Windows Explorer and click Tools Folder
Options File Types. Click PDF in the list. Click the Change button,
select Adobe Reader and check the box for "Always use the selected
program", and OK all dialogs.

If it's just that one file, ask the sender to mail another copy
(preferably compressed into a zip file, which provides some protection
against corruption during transit).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 19:10:02 -0800, stephanie
wrote:

I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe Reader, and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it, MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?

Thanks, Jay.
Just this one. It is 1MB.
If the sender is not familiar with zippers, would breaking into smaller
files help?



"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Hi Stephanie,

Is it just this PDF file that behaves this way, or all PDF files? If
it's all of them, you have a damaged file type assignment in the
registry.

To fix the assignment, open Windows Explorer and click Tools Folder
Options File Types. Click PDF in the list. Click the Change button,
select Adobe Reader and check the box for "Always use the selected
program", and OK all dialogs.

If it's just that one file, ask the sender to mail another copy
(preferably compressed into a zip file, which provides some protection
against corruption during transit).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 19:10:02 -0800, stephanie
wrote:

I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe Reader, and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it, MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?

I don't kow how to respond in polite society.

"JoAnn Paules [MVP]" wrote:

Stop opening your .pdf files with Word. Use Reader.

Your file associations are screwed up.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"stephanie" wrote in message
...
I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double
clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord
opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe Reader,
and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it
does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it, MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?

Smaller files might help. The causes of problems in attached documents
are many and somewhat random, but attaching a single huge file to an
email can't be good. :-) At least by having smaller files, most of
them should arrive intact.

The main advantage of zipping the file is that the zip process
attaches something called a "cyclic redundancy check" or CRC (total
geek stuff). The unzipping program can look at the CRC to determine
whether the received file contains different bytes than the sent file.
If they are different, it displays an error message, and you know you
have to resend. When you attach a plain Word document or PDF document
to an email, there's nothing to say "this file is no good" except that
it just doesn't work right.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 20:38:03 -0800, stephanie
wrote:

Thanks, Jay.
Just this one. It is 1MB.
If the sender is not familiar with zippers, would breaking into smaller
files help?



"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Hi Stephanie,

Is it just this PDF file that behaves this way, or all PDF files? If
it's all of them, you have a damaged file type assignment in the
registry.

To fix the assignment, open Windows Explorer and click Tools Folder
Options File Types. Click PDF in the list. Click the Change button,
select Adobe Reader and check the box for "Always use the selected
program", and OK all dialogs.

If it's just that one file, ask the sender to mail another copy
(preferably compressed into a zip file, which provides some protection
against corruption during transit).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 19:10:02 -0800, stephanie
wrote:

I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe Reader, and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it, MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?

That really could be taken the wrong way, couldn't it? :-)



--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"stephanie" wrote in message
...
I don't kow how to respond in polite society.

"JoAnn Paules [MVP]" wrote:

Stop opening your .pdf files with Word. Use Reader.

Your file associations are screwed up.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"stephanie" wrote in message
...
I have received an e-mailed document that had been scanned.

It arrived with a ".PDF" ending. But the icon is a lower-case "w."

I fully opened the e-mail and tried to open the file by (1) double
clicking;
(2) using the menu; and (3) by right-clicking. In all cases, MSWord
opened
and displayed gibberish.

I saved the document to disk, and then closed Word, opened Adobe
Reader,
and
tried to open the saved filed. Adobe does not recognize the file - it
does
not appear in the directory of the "Open" dialogue box..

When I open the directory with Win Explorer, I see the document, with
its
lower-case "w" and the ".PDF" ending. When I double-click on it,
MSWord
opens and displays gibberish.

What do you suggest?