change .mht to excel

[dead red]

after 8 years of my company trying to get me to lose my mac for a PC they finally found something I dont know what to do with.

im getting a file that ends in .mht they sent instructions that say from explorer i should select the file and "change" it to .xls and bingo.

well i cant open this dang thing in any browser. i cant just open it in excel. i cant change the suffx to .xls and open it. i cant change the suffix to .html and open it.

im stumped here. any help would b great.

 

[mkrishnan]

The only .mht files I'm familiar with are made by Internet Explorer -- they're archive HTML files -- the single file is a container for the HTML code file as well as well as the images and any other files necessary to fully render the page offline.

According to this post:

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/193788/way-view-mht-winie-web-page/

Stuffit Expander can crack the MHT open and show you the HTML; if it's a spreadsheet, pretty much everything should be in the HTML file (or possibly even if you expand it all to a folder, you'll be able to just render the HTML using the MHT contents in any browser).

 

[dead red]

when i drag it to expander it says unable to determine file format.
the odd thing is the icon looks like a word document with the HTML globe in the middle of it. word cant open it because "the page uses frames and my browser doesn't support them."
i use opera safari and firefox. explorer is no longer supported for the mac so I guess thats out.

arghhh...

 

[mkrishnan]

Perhaps it would help if you could experiment with what it does on a Windows PC?

 

[dead red]

have. from folder option you simply select the tools, file type, then file type (mht) and then tell it to change it to excel. click OK. and your done.

seems so simple that it's baffling me as to why the Mac cant or wont do it. I just have to believe it's possible but Im not seeing it. it would be the first time that I've had to admit to anyone in my company I cant open that file cuz on on a mac. and really dont want to give them any reason to make me switch.

the co provided dells are junk and will drive me over the edge of sanity.

 

[portent]

Try it in Opera.

 

[dead red]

already did. no go.

 

[edesignuk]

MHT.

They're nothing to do with Excel

 

[mkrishnan]

MHT.

They're nothing to do with Excel

We covered that already, e. You're slippin' on your pimpin'.

I think what is going on is this: the file is a spreadsheet or table that was generated or exported in HTML format; Excel can parse HTML tables into spreadsheets. However, as the HTML is embedded in the MHT, which is only supported on Windows, it's stuck there, and Excel for OS X can't read it.

Perhaps OpenOffice might? They're kind of suckers for supporting every ridiculous format that some Windows software designer thought up.

Anyway, otherwise, give in and use a Windows PC or trace the file back to its origin and get the creator / originator to use a sensible file format. Otherwise I'm out of options for you.

 

[portent]

I finally got an MHT file from IE/Windows to play with. On my Mac, it opens in Word 2008 by default. The text and some graphics are perfectly readable, but it looks little like the original web page.

Word 2004 errors out when you try to open it.

Excel won't open it.

Opera will try to open it, but displays an error. Opera can create and open its own MHT files just fine, as you'd expect. But Word 2008 can't open the Opera MHT file.

On the other hand, an Opera MHT file moved over to Windows also opens fine in IE.

 

[dead red]

awww nuts. why the hell doesn't she just send the file out as a spreadsheet like a normal person.

I have office 2004. and that seems to explain why it looks weird. so now I have to spend 250.00 updating software cuz she's a nutcase.

Im thinking it might just be easier to get parallels and open this noncense from the windows side. might even be cheaper because I already own a copy of windows.

 

[neo738]

.chm/.mht with opera

Thought I'd add what I just found out for the next person hitting a dead end with google

Had a chm file that when opened would open as shown in the attachment.

Used file juicer to extract data. Was then able to open the .mht files with opera 11.01

 

[gavgold]

MHT Solutions - Firefox with UnMHT or rename .eml

I've found 2 solutions for this:
1) There's a plugin for Firefox called unMHT which worked with my files
2) Renaming the files with a .eml extension results in Apple Mail opening them perfectly. I use an Automator to rename the file automagically as it lands in the Downloads folder.

Now, if only I could figure out how to tell Mail to open the file without it being renamed then that would be perfect