ALL attachments are "read only"

[OldManJimbo]

Using Mail 1.3.11 (Panther 10.3.9) and I must have something set wrong because EVERY document or spreadsheet that comes as an attachment will only open in Read Only mode. To save any modifications I need to save it with a new file name - hassle. Any ideas?

 

[reh]

I believe that's how mine works as well. Makes sense to me...

 

[OldManJimbo]

I need to disagree - it makes no sense to me.
When I open a document from an email, I shouldn't need to save it as something else. That seems like an unnecessary extra step. The default should not be "read only."

Is there a way to change the default?

 

[yellow]

Yes it should be Read Only, and you should have to resave it.

Early versions of Mail.app didn't detach attachments, so when you double click it to open in from the email, you're opening an attachment that is part of your overall mailbox (which is a flat file).

If you edit said document and then attempt to save it, you would be changing the size of the MIDDLE of the mailbox file. This could cause all sorts of Bad Things™ to happen (corruption). (When you get new mail, they get appended to the end of the mail file with a special character in between.) Not only that, but some how the app would have to know that it would automatically have to re-encode the email attachment to reinsert the changed.

Hence, Read Only and force you to save it locally.

 

[MisterMe]

I need to disagree - it makes no sense to me.
When I open a document from an email, I shouldn't need to save it as something else. That seems like an unnecessary extra step. The default should not be "read only."

Is there a way to change the default?

Oh for heaven's sake. Drag your attachment to the Desktop. All will be fine.

 

[OldManJimbo]

OK-OK-OK
The biggest inconvenience is needing to rename the "read only" version that's been opened directly from the email.
So - if I SAVE the attachment to the Desktop first and then open it, I will be able to save it without adding an extra letter or changing the name.
Seems counter-intuitive to ME, but then again my brain works differently - after all, hasn't Steve Jobs been telling us all to "think different" for quite some time?
Thanks for your help, input and gentle scolding.

 

[Fukui]

if I SAVE the attachment to the Desktop first and then open it, I will be able to save it without adding an extra letter or changing the name.
Seems counter-intuitive to ME

What if you want the original unchanged doc from the email?
Oops! You changed it! Cant go back then if its not read only.
You shouldn't be able to alter what is arguably someone elses
message, attachments and all. Its a record if you think about it.

 

[Macaddicttt]

OK-OK-OK
The biggest inconvenience is needing to rename the "read only" version that's been opened directly from the email.
So - if I SAVE the attachment to the Desktop first and then open it, I will be able to save it without adding an extra letter or changing the name.
Seems counter-intuitive to ME, but then again my brain works differently - after all, hasn't Steve Jobs been telling us all to "think different" for quite some time?
Thanks for your help, input and gentle scolding.

Okay, I just tried this myself, and I see where you're getting confused. Let me try and explain it better.

As others have said, you're opening a file on an email that someone else sent. The original file is read only in the same way an email is read only. You can't change the email that someone sent you. But you can copy and paste things out of someone's email and then change it. Attachments are the same way. You have to save the attachment somewhere on your hard disk (i.e. copy from the email and "paste" on your own machine).

As for the changing the name, here's the simply answer: you don't have to.

I just tried opening and then saving a read-only document myself and it gave me the message that I had to rename my file. At first I was confused, but here's how it works. If I were to have a read-only document on my desktop (not in an email) and I were to open it, that message would make sense. If I tried to save this read-only document, the default location would be on the desktop. I'd have to change the name because the original has that name and you can't write over it because it's read-only. You just can't have two documents with the same name in the same place. If I wanted to, I could just save the file somewhere else and keep the same name.

That's what you're doing with an email attachment. When you want to save an attachment, you're not going to save it in the middle of your mail file. You're going to save it somewhere else. Therefore, you don't need to change the name, just the location. I don't know if the message comes up for other programs, but I tried it with Word. I think it's really stupid that Word tells you you need to rename the file. It's just confusing. But it's intentions are good. It's just trying to keep you from saving two files of the same name in the same place. But that's not a worry with email attachments.

 

[OldManJimbo]

A-HA

Yes, that's it.
Excellent explanation and clarification - I guess I never tried to save it with the same name because the little dialog box said I could not.
Thanks for taking the time to research this and provide such a detailed reply.
Now I can reduce my medication and get back to work - hah.