I prefer not to receive Word attachments, and, except under exceptional circumstances, as a security measure any unexpected Word attachment is deleted along with the message that accompanies it.
A lengthy standard response used to be sent in response to unsolicited Word attachments, but I realised that people might find that irritating. Nowadays the response is much briefer:
You are receiving this reply because it appears that you attempted to send a Microsoft Word attachment to this email address. Your attachment and its accompanying email have been deleted.
For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_attachments
That second link points to the text that follows.
Sorry I was unable to read the attachment you sent with your email.
I hope the following information is useful!
The attachment that came with your email was in Microsoft Word format, which is not a standard Internet format, but a proprietary one owned by Microsoft, and protected by them so people can't be sure of reading it properly unless they buy (expensive!) Microsoft software.
If you were to send your text inside a plain email (instead of as an attachment to an email), or as a plain text, rich text, HTML, or PDF attachment, then I'd be able to read it.
Distributing documents in Word format has some disadvantages for people who send them, and for people who get them.
The sender can't be sure what the document will look like if someone views them with a different version of Word; some people may not be able to read them at all.
Receiving
Word attachments is best avoided, because they can
carry viruses: have a look at this
list of known Word viruses if you're interested.
A Word document normally includes hidden information about the
author, enabling those with the know-how to pry into the life of
the person who wrote it.
Text that you think you deleted may still be embarrassingly present in the file, but simply hidden from you when you view it using Word. The person who reads your Word document with a different program might be able to see it all.
Your attachments might even contain fragments of documents you were working on prior to sending your email, in text that's invisible to you, but visible to some of the people who receive your Word attachments. See this BBC News story for more information.
If someone is using a slow connection, or reading their email through their mobile (cellphone) or their handheld computer, a message might not be accessible to them at all if it's sent as a Word attachment; even if it is, it will take many, many times longer for them to download than if you send a plain email, and this could be very expensive for them on a wireless connection.
Worse still, sending people Word documents, without first checking to see if they can read them, is a discourtesy because it implies that if they don't own the same programs the sender uses, the sender isn't interested in whether or not they can read what they've written. Imagine sending a document in Latin to someone else without knowing whether or not they read Latin!
If someone who doesn't own Word gets a Word document, the only way they can be sure of reading it properly is to go out and buy Microsoft Word. Not everyone can afford to do this, and millions of individuals and organisations use other word processing programs because they prefer them, or because they're cheaper or even free.
You might not wish your communications to imply that you're only interested in communicating with people who've chosen to buy the most expensive and up-to-date software. People who've chosen to live simply and make do with old or free software -- or who can't afford otherwise -- can feel they're being treated with contempt when people send them unsolicited Word attachments.
It's worth knowing that a tiny but influential minority of people have very strong feelings about the use of Word attachments. Among these people are respected activists who have worked diligently to bring information and communications technology to developing countries. See, for example this article by the free software pioneer Richard M Stallman.
Even some people who do own Word don't like to receive Word attachments because they don't want to get viruses.
I hope it's clear that I'm not in any way trying to tell you off, but just to share with you some information that you might not have had an opportunity to consider, and which might be helpful to you.
In case you do choose to reconsider using Word attachments as a method of communication, here's some information about ways of sending emails and attachments that anyone can read.
If what's important in your email is the words, it's always, always best to send it as a plain text email. This won't allow you to use italics or underlining, but will be readable on any email program on any device anywhere in the world. To do this type your message right into a blank email in your email program, and check that it will be sent as a plain text mail (not HTML or RTF) -- the 'Help' function of your email program should explain how you can set it up to send plain text emails. There are accepted conventions for emphasising words or distinguishing titles of books. Emphasise words like this: it's *very* easy. Cite references like this: Joseph Heller, _Catch 22_.
Another way that might work is to compose your message in Word, then select and copy all of it. Open your email program and create a blank email, and paste the text into the area where you would type your message. This is not entirely reliable, since different versions of Word work slightly differently, and it might add a whole load of invisible formatting codes to your email (invisible to you, using a Microsoft email program: a lengthy jumble of meaningless characters to someone who tries to read it using something else).
If you have a very long document you want to send as an attachment, or a document which people won't be able to understand by means of the words alone (perhaps you have complicated formulae or tables in it, or you *must* use bold and italic), then there are still ways of doing this without appearing to show contempt for people who don't own Microsoft Word.
To convert the file to HTML using Word is simple. Open the document, click on File, then Save As, and in the Save As Type strip box at the bottom of the box, choose HTML Document or Web Page. Then choose Save. You can then attach the new HTML document instead of your Word document. Note that Word menus change between versions in inconsistent ways -- if you see slightly different menu item names, please try them.
To convert to plain text (or RTF, rich text) is almost the same--instead of HTML Document, choose Text Only or Text Document (or RTF or Rich text Format) as the Save As Type. RTF often works on a variety of machines, but isn't as certain to work as plain text or HTML.
Your computer may also have a program to convert to the PDF (or Adobe Acrobat) format, which was designed to make sure that when someone else views your document, it looks exactly the same on their computer as it did on yours. Select File => Print. Scroll through available printers and select the pdf converter. Click on the Print button and enter a name for the pdf file when requested, then attach that file to your email. There are some cheap or even free programs to make PDF files: use the search function at http://www.download.com/ or http://www.tucows.com/ to find them.
There's some other useful information about Word attachments at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_attachments
I hope I haven't offended you by offering you this reflection. It can be a bit alarming to learn that the way we've been communicating has implied disrespect to some of the people who receive our communications. I thought -- I hope I'm right -- that you'd prefer to be told about it.
Every
blessing,
Fr Martin.
"I
don't see what the problem is. It displays perfectly on my computer."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Huh?"
"Unless you're inviting people to come round and look over your
shoulder to read it, it's irrelevant how it looks on your computer. If
you want them to read it and make sense of it, what matters is how it
looks on their computer."
Further information on this topic can be found at Wikipedia and at the Free Software Foundation.
I do not intend to imply that my views represent the policy of any organisation, nor do I warrant any information to be accurate.