can't read .rtf files online

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Level 2

248 points

can't read .rtf files online

I go to a yahoo group where files are posted for us to share around (basically for a charity newsletter I design for free).

The articles are posted either as word which are not a problem (I click on them and they download to my desktop). some are posted as .txt files which just open when clicked upon and I can copy and paste into another application, again, not a problem.

However, 90% of the articles are posted as .rtf files. And when I click on them they open, but are full of massive amounts of nonsense, with the odd word thrown in here and there. I cannot see a way of even downloading the file to my desktop. Is there some way that I can extract the proper copy from these files? Do I need some kind of viewer to see them properly? Is it a pc vs mac problem? I think it's only mac people who have this problem on this site. And it's no good asking the site owners to change it, they have no idea what I'm on about in the first place!

Any ideas?

Ta

Posted on Nov 7, 2005 12:30 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 7, 2005 1:22 PM in response to Kathykate

.rtf format is platform-independent: it is a plain-text file that contains text markups embedded in the actual text (as you have seen). Many programs can be used to view rtf files (Word, TextEdit, even Safari can sometime do it).

download-vs-view (and what viewer to use) is mostly a browser issue. You can usually option-click or right-click or cmd-click or something (depending on the browser) to get a popup menu allowing you do download the target of a link instead of automatically trying to open it as a normal click does. You can usually configure the browser to download these files (like you see for Word) instead of opening them or to open them with a specific app.

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Answer 2

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Nov 7, 2005 2:17 PM in response to Daniel Macks

Ah cheers, am using Safari, with your info can now download and open in TextEdit.

thanks a lot

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Answer 3

Nov 15, 2005 6:13 PM in response to Kathykate

I'm having a similar issue, I am saving rtf file to my powerbook and they open in test edit, but the header is missing. When I tell it to open in Word, it opens but then I see the spinning wheel. Word freezes up. I really need to get to the bottom of this issue because if I can't then my parents office will be forced to buy dell PCs instead of Apple computers!

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Answer 4

Nov 15, 2005 7:18 PM in response to Brent Darting

Gotta be specific here..."TextEdit" I assume? What header are you talking about: "header" could mean something in the RTF markup structure, or it could mean what Word calls the "header" (page number or other stuff that prints at the top of each page).

If you open the file from within Word (File...Open...) instead of using the Finder to open the file, does it open successfully?

What version of Word? What program (and platform) created the RTF? I've seen cases where MS Word places non-standard RTF tags in the files it creates, which causes different versions to mis-read the file or to omit some layout information.

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Answer 5

Nov 16, 2005 12:23 PM in response to Daniel Macks

Sorry for the spelling error. Yes I meant TextEdit. By header I mean what word calls it. There is some information typed at the top that is slightly faded.

I am unable to open the application from word using File>Open because the documents are faded and I am unable to select them. Even when go to "get info" and tell it to open with Microsoft Word, I can't select it in the open window in Word. I have been trying to control click the file using the "Open with..." function. The file will open initially and then the spinning wheel appears and it completely freezes up. It stays frozen even after an extended amount of time.

I am using Word 2004 for Mac version 11.2

I don't know what platform created the RTF because it was downloaded off the internet from a corporation.

Let me know if there is any other information that you need.

thanks for your time

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