Opening a Binary File

[jayfram]

Someone sent me a text document in binary format (the name of the document is "Viewdoc" -- no extension) which opens fine when I'm at work, on a Windows machine, but at home on my Mac it gets opened in Quicktime, but all it will show me is the very first page; I can't get it to scroll down past that. I tried opening it in Word but it just looks like gibberish. Any ideas on how to open this document in a way I can see the whole thing on my Mac? Thanks...

 

[rpaloalto]

You can try to do a control+click, chose open with, and use text edit. If that wont work try preview. You can also try adding .doc as the extension and retry with word.

 

[jayfram]

Thanks - I tried everything but nothing works. I'll have to deal with it when I'm back on my Windows computer at work tomorrow I guess..

 

[kolax]

Try downloading a Hex Editor to view binary files.

 

[Sun Baked]

If it is opening in quicktime, opening the document and looking at the header to see what they say can tell you something about a file.

Something like opening a movie that you are having trouble with to see what the extension should be and if you have the codecs.