Why do my Excel and Word files not make it to AOL users?
 

I have tried on multiple occasions to send MS Word and Excel documents as email attachments to AOL users but they only show up as ".dat" files. They are not readable by the recipients. Any thoughts???

My parents had all kinds of problems with this, are you using the proper suffix (.doc .xls)? If so how about saving the files as PDF's? If you want to edit they just send them and get the people at the other end to save them then change the suffix.

I assume the recipient has the applications...

Good luck

I have the same problem with a friend. I send 100's of attachments globally - only he seems to have this problem. There must be some sort of control panel setting in aol mail.

And when he replies to an email, the original message is never there...

Why on earth would you use AOL? You can't send a document when its open by clicking "file" "send" you have to exit AOL and attach the file. I used it for years until I saw what you could do with other email/internet programs like Earthlink, or even roadrunner.

Could it be that M$ products are thought to be virus ridden?

Get gmail, hotmail or something else and then you'll be clear of this problem. This is why I lease my own server :) No hassles, and everything works :D

It's the recipient we are talking about. We don't control what email clients our friends use...

Isn't there a saavy aol user out there (or is that an oxymoron)?

.dat files are a result of using outlook to send files. .dat is the encoding used by outlook to specify text, background, etc.with outlook only. Outlook doesn't work well with other email browsers. Only fix is to change outlook to format to plain text when you send.

Ijust switch to my web email browser to send attachments if I have to. Other fix is to have aof user open aof, minimize their gay browser then use outlook as email program.

Hey Gooch,
Sorry I don't have a solution, you can try what Bob said?

I can tell you that I have the same challenges with anyone who uses, hotmail, google or aol type email accounts. Its not you, its them. Tell them to spend a dollar or two and get a real email account, ha ha.

In my marketing business, we use a Realtor software package that emails clients property info, right in the package there is a disclaimer at the bottom of every email that states if you use a hotmail, aol, yahoo type account the file attachments likely wont work? There is some GEEK explaination for this, I can get the GEEK explaination and copy/paste it here if you like? I'll have to go find it, but its in my software notes somewhere?

Saw a sign the other day and like it....... "Rent A Geek", thought it was clever.

Cheers,

lolo, geek answer is likely -- M$ files are viruses in disguise. Excel is famous for it's marco viruses.
I don't have problem with yahoo mail that often. When I do, I just compress the files and let the receiver uncompress them. Normally this solution gets around virus detection filters.

I seem to remember many versions of Word and Excel not being backwards compatible with other versions. This may be like a decade ago tho.

Randy,

Thanks. I'll try changing the Outlook format to plain next time as this seems like the easiest solution (i.e. something on my end).