[StalkerJay]

Hi all at geekstogo.com! the best solution for any computer problem.

I have recieved an email with a ".dat" attachment and doing some searches i haven't been able to find a program to open it. I have requested the sender resend the email in plan text or as a word document with no response. Can you please help?

Thanks ahead of time you guys are great!

Stalker Jay

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Is it winmail.dat? From my googling this problrm, I found suggestions of opening it with Notepad or WordPad.

Here's a link that explains the .dat email attachments.

[piper]

Is it winmail.dat? From my googling this problrm, I found suggestions of opening it with Notepad or WordPad.

Here's a link that explains the .dat email attachments.

[StalkerJay]

no it isn't a winmail.dat i read the same info and notepad wordpad or microsoft word would open it they just gave me a bunch of unreadiable charachters.

[StalkerJay]

Well i got a reply froom the sender with the attachment in Microsoft Word format he said it doesn't look as nice, but [bleep] at least i can open it! Thanks for your time and help!~

Jay

[jester620]

Jay,

If you trust the sender, you might try to open it in excel. I know with some our .dat files in our office. The files that turnout gibberish in word, are meant to be opened with excel. It may or may not be what you need, but its worth a shot...

[silverbeard]

dat file are used for format and index purposes in the windows os. The characters you see are legible to the os or parent program and do various things usually format layout for a document. As far as I know they are not executable.

[Johanna]

Save the attachment to your hard drive, then change the file extension to .eml and it will open....dunno why, but it works every time I get mail from a friend I have whose attachments always do that.
Johanna

[StalkerJay]

How do you change a file extension?

[Johanna]

Click once to highlight, pause, click again as if to change the name of the file. The file name will allow you to edit. Delete the .dat and replace it with .eml . Click it again to "set it", then double click to open it. Wow. That sounds harder than it is.
Johanna

[StalkerJay]

oh okay. i got it. a little shortcut for you is F2 (or right click, rename)

[Johanna]

You're right, but when I answered you I just described how I would do it. Sorry. I try to avoid telling people to use the F keys because many of the new keyboards are like mine and have a toggle for multiple functions, so it gets confusing. I've also learned on this board that right click context menus can vary considerably and I've gotten into the habit of not using them when I don't have to, even when I'm wanting default behavior. Glad it worked for you, too.
Johanna

[StalkerJay]

Ah i see, very valid points in an effort to be consistant and general due to the huge variation of computers out there. thanks