opening email attachments on emac computer

[coleen]

I just bought a used emac computer and I know almost nothing about computers in general so I REALLY need help. I do know that my os is mac os x 10.4. I have firefox and safari, if that means anything. I have been trying to open attachments in my yahoo email. The attachments end in .wmv . When I click on "download file" it gives me the message that no application is available to open file. Please tell me something! I'm stumped!

[socrates]

coleen,

You're in luck, as that issue is an easy fix with one download.  .WMV stand for windows media video, and is made for windows media player (on windows).

You just need to download a program called "flip4mac."  There is a paid version, but there is also a free one (just google "flip4mac"). 

Download and install that program, then reboot your computer.  Once it's installed the video should open in quicktime.

Let me know how that goes.

[coleen]

Thanks so much! That helped so much. Now I have another question. I cannot open a file on my college's website that holds the rubics for the papers I have to write. Is there something else I have to download and install?

[socrates]

Can you be a little more specific?  Do you get an error?  Does the page come up blank? 

If you're missing a plugin it's likely flash.  Try downloading flash from adobe.com (click get flash)

[coleen]

on the website is a tab called doc share. I click on this and the list of documents come up. I click on the document I want to open. The system downloads the document, then when I click on it to open it I get a message saying that there is no application to open this file. I have adobe flash installed and it seems to be working just fine. There are also some email attachments I cannot open for the same reason.

[socrates]

on the website is a tab called doc share. I click on this and the list of documents come up. I click on the document I want to open. The system downloads the document, then when I click on it to open it I get a message saying that there is no application to open this file. I have adobe flash installed and it seems to be working just fine. There are also some email attachments I cannot open for the same reason.

If it's the attachment you're having trouble with, it's just that you're missing an application, not a plugin.

Can you tell me what extension the attachments are? (Examples: .txt, .doc, .xls, .docx, .pdf, .xlsx)

[coleen]

i believe the extension is .xlsx.

[BC_Programmer]

Microsoft Excel 2007... you'd probably need a version of office to open those. ( or maybe OpenOffice, not sure)

[socrates]

Microsoft Excel 2007... you'd probably need a version of office to open those. ( or maybe OpenOffice, not sure)

BC_Programmer is right.

.XLSX is a microsoft office 2007 (or 2008 on mac) document.

You can only open these files if you have either Office 2008 or Open Office.

Do you own Office 2008?  If you do, that'd be easiest.  If not, Open office is a free download.

[coleen]

I tried to download the free version of open office. It did download, but nothing came up for me to install it.  Now I don't know where the download went. Hey, I told you I was VERY computer ignorant...lol

[socrates]

If you have one of the newer apple OS's, the download is likely in your "Downloads" folder.  Open up finder and click on "downloads" on the left hand side.  It should be in there.

[coleen]

new info...the documents I am trying to open were created using Microsoft Excel 2007. And I still can't figure out how to download and install much of anything...  Oh, by the way, thanks for all your help and patience.

[socrates]

That's not new info, both myself and another poster had mentioned that as soon as you said .xlsx

Did you try what I said about getting to downloads?

[coleen]

I'm sorry, yes microsoft excel was mentioned. And I inadvertently cleared the download file.

[socrates]

Ok.  Try downloading open office again.  Try not to zip through the download process, as it will usually ask you where you want to save it.  If you pay close attention, you can follow that to find where the installer is at. 

[coleen]

yes, I am really, really dumb!  Still haven't figured it out. I downloaded an open office version and it comes up in arabic or something! Would Apple iWork do the trick? and how do I uninstall the arabic open office?

[socrates]

iWork will do the trick.

You probably just downloaded the arabic version of open office.  If you just drag open office from your applications folder to the trash, it'll delete.

[coleen]

ok, I think I got the right version of open office, now its telling me i can't open it because the X11 software isn't installed. I don't have the disk that came with the computer as I bought it used. I have firefox and I found an add on called OutWit Docs. would this be something I'd want to try?  Sorry to be such a pain

[socrates]

Coleen,

You would need your original install disc for X11, so openoffice is out.

I haven't heard of outwit docs, but if you have a gmail account (which is free) you can use google docs to read, edit, and print the spreadsheet.

[coleen]

THANK YOU!!!  I created a gmail account, went to the site that had the documents, sent the documents as an email attachment to the gmail account and was able to open them as html.. IT WORKED...yay!!!   

[socrates]

Awesome!  Glad to hear you got it working.

Thanks for following up as well and letting us know it worked.