Microsoft 12 Word

We get a monthly letter from a friend in email in pdf format as attachments and looking at the message source it is composed in Word 12. I havent got that so cant test but the attachment is turning up as ._pdf extension.

Looking at the message source the filename has a comma in it and a double full stop as the extension which Windows Live Mail is converting to an underscore.

Can anyone tell me how Word 12 exports to pdf and has my friend whos not very computer literate, is punctuating the titles of his letters with commas and full stops or does word add a full stop to the filename?

The workaround is to save it and rename it then open it which gives my dad a problem because he is just used to opening the pdf direct from the email. Any ideas?

Windows live mail seems to convert .. to ._ and I don't think there is any way to stop it. I've just sent a Word 2010 file saved as "test." which outputs a pdf file as "test..pdf" and the file received in WLM was "test._pdf". Everything works fine on a file called "test.." or "test", so it's the single period that's doing it.

The only thing to ask your friend to do is to make sure they aren't adding a period to the end of a filename (or any periods to be honest, it's not a good practice!).

As you've already worked out, it's Windows Live Mail that's doing this (a known bug apparently), but as far as I can see there is no way of stopping it unless the original file is renamed before sending or renamed after receiving.

Thanks for the confirmation, why word is allowing full stops in filenames is a mystery.

In reply to a post by Banger:

Thanks for the confirmation, why word is allowing full stops in filenames is a mystery.

Because Windows long filenames have allowed punctuation (with some exceptions) for years.

Love the sig

Not technically correct, XP allows long filenames but not punctuation as does WLM 2012.

A full stop is punctuation(I think?), Windows allows full stops in file names..

see reply to troll.

Sorry I don';t follow, please explain!

FYI - I don't use silly characters in file names, so I'm not supporting the actions, but I know windows does allow it.

Windows XP doesnt. So this must have been introduced in Vista which I havent got.

Edit: Just tried it and XP does allow multiple full stops in filenames its commas etc it doesnt. Apologies all round.

Edited by Banger (Wed 24-Apr-13 21:59:32)