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A Techy question
Hi guys,
I'm not technologically au fait at all so please bare with me if this is a stupid question.
Someone from a different department at work has told me that for some reason files that come to his outlook email are coming as eaf files instead of PDF files.
He is convinced that someone has changed the settings, is this possible? If so can they be changed back?
I have contacted our IT department but they usually move slower than a snails pace. I have also checked google but can't make head nor tail of the pages that are being found.
So can anybody help?
Thank you in advance.
I'm not technologically au fait at all so please bare with me if this is a stupid question.
Someone from a different department at work has told me that for some reason files that come to his outlook email are coming as eaf files instead of PDF files.
He is convinced that someone has changed the settings, is this possible? If so can they be changed back?
I have contacted our IT department but they usually move slower than a snails pace. I have also checked google but can't make head nor tail of the pages that are being found.
So can anybody help?
Thank you in advance.
0
Comments
http://www.techhit.com/outlook/save_email_pdf_format.html
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/643
Which probably means whoever is sending the messages is attaching a EAF format file. So they need to contact the sender of the message to find out exactly what they sent and ask if it can be sent as a PDF.
And of course you always send them a test message with a random PDF file attached and see what happens.
It could be that he doesn't have a PDF reader on his computer, and the system is changing the extension to something it recognises.
I would doubt that is happening. Assuming Windows is being used then all that would happen is you'd get a message saying there was no program associated with that file type registered on your system and an offer for Windows to go off on a hunt for something to open it.
I have never yet seen Windows or indeed Outlook arbitrarily change the format of a file into something that it can open by itself.
It seems that were coming as PDFs before and now they are coming as EAF instead.
He asked someone different to send the PDF file to his computer and it came in as a PDF and changed to an EAF (this is what I've been told, I can't vouch for it)
It all seems very strange to me.
I have never known files to arbitrarily change format/name. What might be interesting is for him to open the EAF file in Notepad and see if there is any intelligible text in it. That might give a pointer as to what is going on.
Normally if Outlook or possibly a virus scanner blocks an attachment you get some sort of warning about it. Always possible this EAF thing is the warning that the original attachment has been blocked, though I can't find anything about EAF file types that would confirm this is what is happening.
The other option is that there is some nasty lurking on his computer playing silly games. So a scan with whatever anti-virus software is installed might not go amiss. And possibly also with something like Malwarebytes.
So the most likely explanation is that something else has renamed the file's extension and I suppose that an anti-virus or firewall might. I'd expect a Google search to turn up something along those lines though.
http://www.file-extensions.org/eaf-file-extension
I would suggest waiting for IT to sort this, since there is no information on how the original file is being created and then sent to the user. There could be a myriad of things happening in the middle before it gets to the in box.
http://www.filesuffix.com/en/extension/eaf
Even if the program association for a file was changed it would have no effect at all on the file name. If you set Word as the default program to open PDF files you would not suddenly see every PDF file on your computer change to .DOC.
What is being described here, PDF files spontaneously changing to EAF does not make a lot of sense.
Oh yes. Sorry I'm half asleep.
It does sound a bit weird.
The EAF file extension is used for a special XML based format called ELAN Annotation Format, also known as EUDICO Annotation Format. ELAN is an educational programming language for learning and teaching systematic programming.
for ELAN, see - http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:BJ09sHV5bf8J:fave.ling.upenn.edu/downloads/ELAN_Introduction.pdf+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
I second that. Half the time the only way to work out what is going on is to go and stand behind the user and watch what they do, which quite often bears no resemblance to what they said was happening!
Thank you for your replies. I had IT call me and I went through it with them they seem just as flummoxed as me but they se to think that it's not an issue with the IT department but an issue with the company that own the terminal as it is a specialist type of machine.
I pointed them in the persons direction for more information and I haven't heard a peep since so hopefully it's sorted. If not I'm sure I'll hear all about it first thing tomorrow!
Thank you again.
Bit of a pointless thread really.
Well in your opinion but I learnt some new things.
Sorry you feel you wasted your time.
To me is was like a normal day at work!
Yep. Taking all day to sort out someone else's problem while not getting on with your own work :-)