How To Open Attachments

The Christian Counter

Dear Computer Lady,

I know how to open most email attachments but occasionally I run into one that brings up a box and asks me to choose which program I wish to use to open the attachment and there is a long list of choices. I have never had any success opening these. There must be some way to do this. Please help!!!

Thank you and love your site. Debra

Dear Debra,

When you open a file, your computer looks at the three letter ending on the file to see what program it should open the file with.

For example, if the file ends with .txt your computer will probably use notepad to open that file with. The computer knows to use notepad because the file extension .txt has been associated with notepad.

When you try to open a file with an extension that has not been registered with any program,

your computer does not know what to open that file with. So, it will ask you what to do with it. What you need to do, is find out what program the file was originally created in and see if you have the same program installed on your computer. If you don't have that program, you might not be able to open the file. You could ask the person who sent you the file what program it was created in, or go online and look it up on the list at: http://www.jozy.nl/extmenu.html

Elizabeth