Can't view .rtf files on OS X 10.6.2

[aznmenace]

A company is sending statements as .rtf files. I cannot view them in TextEdit or Pages. I have opened them on PC's so I know that the files exist are are viewable on a PC. The error I get is:

"The document 'xxx.rtf' could not be opened. The file isn't in the correct format."

In smaller text below it:

"The file might be corrupted, truncated, or in an unexpected format."

I get the same message for both TextEdit and Pages. Thoughts on how to view them?

Thanks in advance.

(To clarify, 'xxx' is not porn. I replaced the actual file name with 'xxx' for this post.... just incase you were wondering)

 

[mkaake]

I ran into a similar problem recently, and it was related to the .rtf being created improperly from the source (renaming files to .rtf instead of actually creating an .rtf...). I think the first thing that worked for me on my mac was opening the file in Microsoft Word... barring that on your system, I'd suggest trying to open the file with Textwrangler (free, awesome). And if that doesn't work, it might not hurt changing the extension to see if they just renamed it to an rtf to begin with... though I don't know how likely that is to solve your problem.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I get this from time to time. Odds are mkaake's theory is correct - they're not actually RTF files, or they're being created improperly. In any case, you might have success using OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice to open them, if TextWrangler doesn't understand the files, or displays a bunch of formatting codes.

 

[hechtech]

Thanks mkaake. You just saved my ass. Just changed it to .txt and opened it with textedit. Allah Akbah

MS Word is the Mubarak of text editors but none of the alternatives are better.

 

[keltoid]

Can anyone tell me why my TextEdit doesn't have the option to save as a .txt file?? Thanks

 

[Dane D.]

Can anyone tell me why my TextEdit doesn't have the option to save as a .txt file?? Thanks

In Menu>Format>Make Plain Text> Save As