Microsoft KB Archive/179106

= Word attachment is not readable upon receipt via e-mail =

Article ID: 179106

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q179106



SYMPTOMS
When you send a Microsoft Word document as an attachment through e-mail, upon receipt, you expect it to be able to be read. However, the document contains large amounts of random, garbled text.



CAUSE
This problem may occur when there is a mismatch in encoding types between the sending e-mail client and the receiving e-mail client, such as Microsoft Outlook.



WORKAROUND
For more information about how to recover the attached file from the encoded text, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

171436 E-mail contains text instead of attachment

Any further questions about encoding schemes need to be sent to your Internet service provider or e-mail software manufacturer.



MORE INFORMATION
The Internet was not designed to carry binary files. It is only able to transfer messages made up of ASCII text characters. To resolve this problem and to allow various file types to be sent over the Internet, and to be exchanged between diverse operating systems, encoding methods have been developed.

The two major encoding methods are Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) and Uuencode. Files encoded with either of these methods generally have information in the text header to identify the type.

Keywords: kbprb KB179106

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