What Apps Should I Use to Open Mystery Files?

I use Microsoft Works. When I send a spreadsheet or word processing file via e-mail, the recipients sometimes complain that they are unable to open the attached file. What should I do?

Sonia Delmundo, Brooklyn

I'll answer your specific question first, and then I'll address the general issue of dealing with file formats your system doesn't automatically support.

The best way to share files created in Works is to save the files in a non-Works format. Current versions of Works come with Microsoft Word, the most popular word processor used today. If you use Word rather than the Works word processor, your documents will have the standard.doc extension by default, and just about everyone will be able to read them.

Take care not to send out files in the program's default.wps format, which few other programs support. Before you send a file, select File, Save As, and in the Save As dialog box's 'Save as type' pull-down menu, select Rich Text Format (*.rtf). Save the file, and then e-mail the RTF version.

The drill is pretty much the same with anything you create in the Works spreadsheet program. In the 'Save as type' pull-down menu, select Excel 97-2000.

But how do you open an e-mail attachment that's in a file format your system can't handle automatically?

First, make an educated guess about the kind of file you're dealing with. If the e-mail message refers to a letter or résumé, the attachment is likely from a word processor. If it refers to a budget, chances are that the attachment is a spreadsheet. Launch the appropriate program and drag the file into it, but drop it on the menus at the top of the app's screen, not the blank work area. If it loads, you guessed right and your PC supports those types of files.

If you have trouble with odd file types, you may need to get a file-viewing program. Ontrack's $30 PowerDesk Pro 5 shows contents of files created in many formats, and it lets you copy data out of the files and paste them into one of your own programs.

Send your questions to answer@pcworld.com. Answer Line pays $50 for published items. Lincoln Spector is a contributing editor for PC World. You'll find his humorous writing at www.thelinkinspector.com.

Customize Dialog Boxes

Can I customize the Places Bar in Internet Explorer 6's Save As dialog box so the icons point to my favorites rather than to Microsoft's?

James L. McCrystal, Jr., Cleveland

The Places Bar is a column of shortcut icons located on the left side of Windows' standard File Open and File Save dialog boxes. The easiest way to customize it is by using Microsoft's Tweak UI freeware. There are separate versions of Tweak UI for Windows XP and for every other version of Windows; the XP version is part of PowerToys for Windows XP. Download the version for your OS at PowerToys for Windows XP (scroll down as needed).

Windows XP: After you download and install PowerToys for Windows XP, select Start, All Programs, Powertoys for Windows XP, TweakUI for Windows XP. In the left pane, click Common Dialogs. For further instructions, skip to "All versions" below.

All other Windows versions: Once you've successfully downloaded and installed Tweak UI, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double-click Tweak UI (in Windows Me, you may have to click view all Control Panel options first). If you find that your Tweak UI dialog box doesn't include three rows of tabs, upgrade to the current version. Click the Open tab.

All versions: Click the Custom places bar radio button. Below that, you'll find five pull-down menus representing the five Places icons. You can change any icon by selecting a different folder from the pull-down menu or by typing the full path to a different folder (see FIGURE 1).

Better 'Send To' Access

In July, I described how to add items to the Send To menu. Bruce Bevitz of Longwood, Florida, suggests an easier way to accomplish this in Windows 98, Me, and XP (but not in Windows 2000). Select Start, Run, type sendto, and press Enter. This opens your Send To folder. After you add shortcuts to this folder, they will appear whenever you right-click a file and select Send To. Conversely, removing an item jettisons it from the Send To menu.