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)

I presume you mean it does in XP.

For example : this.is.a.test.com is certainly allowed : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q6l8kc6hgo54vrw/kgImv2jue...

It shouldn't be allowed as that is how some viruses spread as Windows only see the last extension...

Edited by deleted (Wed 24-Apr-13 22:26:01)

It is allowed, but I think it falls into the "every time you do this, god kills a baby kitten" sort of category.

And of course some punctuation has been allowed for many years (ie hyphens).

Full stops weren't originally allowed as the format for a filename was 8.3 - as soon as they had long filenames that released the full stop.

And even more significant is that this was largely following other file systems such as those used in Unix which allowed some punctuation and long filenames for years before Windows did.

The spread of viruses isn't affected by full stops. If it is looking only at the extension past the last full stop then that is exactly what it should be doing. The problem that causes the viruses (in my guess) is that Windows will hide the extension by default so when you look at a filename that you may think is a word document it could actually be an exe - most non-savvy users don't know what most of the extensions are anyway.

Indeed - which is why it shouldn't have been allowed to start with

That's basically how it works - you see something whilst Winsnooze seems something else