.doc Attachment Problem (Urgent Please Help)

[markfc]

I've been sent a file that I need for an interview this afternoon.

It arrived in Mail and an attachment called 'noname' I'm pretty sure It's a Mac word doc but renaming it to .doc and opening i get this ;

--Apple-Mail-78-666586247
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Type: application/applefile;
name=2007 VFA.doc
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="2007 VFA.doc"

AAUWBwACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAJAAAAPgAAAAoAAAADAAAASAAAAAwAAAACAAAA
VAAAAR5XOEJOTVNXRAAAMjAwNyBWRkEuZG9jAAABAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAHgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AQAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAB4BU+FMCjUAAAAcAB7//w==

--Apple-Mail-78-666586247
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
x-mac-type=5738424E;
x-unix-mode=0777;
x-mac-creator=4D535744;
name=2007 VFA.doc
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="2007 VFA.doc"
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Plus a lot more ascii! How can I open it???

Many Thanks

 

[garethlewis2]

You seem to have saved the entire message including the attachment as a .doc file. How did you save the attachment in the first place?

 

[bousozoku]

It's likely you could use OpenOffice, NeoOffice, Pages, or even TextEdit to open it since it appears to be an MS Office document.

 

[markfc]

It was forwarded to me like this, and I can't get to speak to the person until later today which will be too late then!!

I have word, both mac and Windows version but they don't want to touch it.

 

[motulist]

Email attachments get encoded as non-standard binary files (I believe they are 7 bit or some weirdness like that since the email system is so ancient) which then gets turned back into a regular 8 bit file by the receiver's email client software. I think for some reason this file was either not unencoded somewhere along the way, or was sent with corrupt encoding. Try a base 64 decoder like Decoder X.

Note: I really have very little idea what I'm talking about here, I'm just giving you my best guess because you're desperate.

edit: Well whadda ya know, I do know what I'm talking about after all.

edit 2:

1. download decoder
2. drag and drop the problem file onto it
3. open the resulting .doc file in a word processor

Tell us if that worked.

 

[markfc]

Cheers Mate, you're a Star!

That worked.

Thanks very much for your time, much appreciated.