Unable to open e-mail attachment

Hi
In order to open email attachments on any machine, that machine must have a programme installed upon it that is compatible with the file type (extension) of the attachment.
For example you will not be able to open a file with the extension ".pdf" unless you have Acrobat Reader (or compatible) programme installed.
This does not always apply if you are using webmail rather than email, as providers such as gmail, btmail have previewers which will open various of the more standard formats'
Hope this is helpful, if so would you please register that with Fixya
Cheers

With the Web-based Yahoo! Mail service, you can attach to your email message a saved Web page or another document in HyperText Markup Language format.
When you attach an HTML file in this way, Yahoo! Mail won't display the HTML content of the attached file in the email message body.
To view the attachment, you must click the attachment tab above the email message.Yahoo! Mail and HTML
Yahoo! Mail is a Web-based service and it's fully compatible with the coding languages used to design and display Web content, including HTML and XML, Extensible Markup Language.
This means emails sent or received in Rich text or HTML format include clickable hyperlinks, graphics and other Web design elements.
However, Yahoo! handles emails with HTML attachments in a different way to email messages formatted with HTML.

About Yahoo! Mail Attachments
Like most email programs and online services, Yahoo! Mail offers an attachment feature for adding images, video clips, audio files and HTML document to email messages.
Some email programs display the content of the attached file in the email message body, but Yahoo! Mail doesn't provide this feature for any file attachment, whether it's an image, video clip or HTML document.


Viewing Yahoo! Mail Attachments When you attach an HTML document or another file to your Yahoo! Mail message, an "Attachments" button labeled with a "Paperclip" icon appears below the email address fields and above the email message body.
Clicking the "Attachments" button opens a pane containing a list of all files attached to the email. The email sender or recipient can open each attachment to view the files by clicking the file name.

Considerations

When sending a Yahoo! Mail with an attachment, always explain the content of the attachment in the main body of the email message.
A brief explanation will encourage the recipient to click and open the attachment to view the HTML document.
Bear in mind that many email services automatically block HTML attachments because of the security risk of opening HTML files, which can contain viruses, phishing scams or open Web pages with inappropriate content.
If you want to share a favorite Web page with a friend or contact, include a hyperlink to the Web page rather than a saved copy as an HTML attachment.

Mail can not open not knowing what program to use to open them! Ask what type of file it is supposed to be. Save the file(do not open) to your hard drive and then rename them with the proper extension: .DOC for a Word document, .JPG for a picture and so on. If she is sending files with no extensions and doesn't know what they should be, findout what program she is using to create the files or have her get assistance on her end.

You must identify the file extension of the file, example if its resume.odt, odt file extension will works only for open office application. It is important to identify the file extension so that you will know what kind of program or application you are going to use. Have a nice day.

this will have to be a problem with the file extension.i guess you do not have the program to open the file extension that you have received.every file received end with an extension format e.g a word document file will end with a " .doc" extension,if you do not have microsoft word you may not be able to open such a file.

Two possible issues: The file extension may be missing from the file and Excel has issues opening a file directly from the e-mail attachment.

It is always a best practice to download the attachment before trying to open it.

Save the file to your comptuer and verify the file has a 3 digit extension on the end. .XLS an Excel 2003 and lower extension - .XLSX is Excel 2007 extension.

Opening an attachment from an e-mail places the file in a TEMP directory on the hard drive and Excel may have issues saving your changes because of this.

Save the attachment and then open it with Excel. That way, the changes you make will be saved, you will know where the file is and you will not lose your work.

if you are using an outlook email check if you have programs which support the attachment to open. same thing with webmail. try to check the extension name of the file you are trying to open.

http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/efw

some attachments won't open if you don't have the program to open it, just download it on your computer and see what file extension it does have.

if you are using office it can be set to not send some attachments.
it is usually safe to rename the extensions on them to something stupid.
make a copy of the file first .
but to rename the extension you have to see it first.
open any folder and goto the tools/folder options/ uncheck the hide extensions for known file types.
hit ok
then you can see the extension of all file names.
See if that works for you.
Other times its the size of the file you are sending
the normal limit is 2 meg for email.