Docs to Unix files ?s

[Norm]

A curiosity question from a novice....

Anyone know why several (found 4 or 5) of my Word documents would change
to "Uniix Executable Files" and when opened would present a login to
Terminal? The modified dates for most are several months ago for 4 of
them and one last week.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

A curiosity question from a novice....

Anyone know why several (found 4 or 5) of my Word documents would change
to "Uniix Executable Files" and when opened would present a login to
Terminal? The modified dates for most are several months ago for 4 of
them and one last week.

Thanks for any info.

Bad entry or corruption in your Launch Service database.
Hopefully, simply selecting the file in the Finder, pressing command-i
to select Open With and chinsing Word (apply to all) should do the
trick,

Corentin

 

[Norm]

Bad entry or corruption in your Launch Service database.
Hopefully, simply selecting the file in the Finder, pressing command-i
to select Open With and chinsing Word (apply to all) should do the
trick,

Corentin

Thanks much. Fixed right away but didn't change icon. Maybe I need to
relaunch for that.

Wish I had asked sooner. :-( One of the files was the MT-NewsWatcher
filter file. Oh well....

Appreciate.

 

[Norm]

Bad entry or corruption in your Launch Service database.
Hopefully, simply selecting the file in the Finder, pressing command-i
to select Open With and chinsing Word (apply to all) should do the
trick,

Corentin

Corentin:

Thanks again for the help with this.

I'm curious.. .... I found one more file.

All these Unix files seem to be dated near or at the time I migrated to
Snow Leopard.

What causes this problem? And should I be looking for other problems
with this?

Thanks again,

Norm

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Norm:

Just apply the fix Corentin gave you, to each file as you find it.

Now you know why I suggested you should not use the Migration Assistant

Mac OS keeps a database of which file extensions are mapped to which
applications. The old File Type and Creator Code mechanism from OS 9 has
been deprecated.

By "deprecated" I mean it should still work for creator codes and file types
that were known in OS 9. But the mechanism is probably not fully up-to-date
because Unix/Mac OS X runs on file name extensions.

During application installation, the Installer publishes a list of the file
extensions each application can handle, and a priority order (the
application's native file format is top priority, other formats it can
handle are given lower priorities).

If Migration occurs before an Application has been installed, or if the
application cannot be installed, the Launch Services database entry for that
file extension is "blank".

If the file extension is blank, the file will automatically be assigned as
"unknown".

In either case, the file will show up as a "Unix file" (which is basically
the Launch Services daemon saying to the OS X system "I have no idea, you
figure it out").

In some cases, of course, the file legitimately IS a Unix file. Unless you
know what it is, it's not easy to determine which of the three possibilities
it is.

If it is a Unix file, or the file contains embedded metadata, the system can
figure it out by reading the file header. If you later install an
application that publishes the fact that it can open the extension, all the
files with that extension will suddenly flip to the correct icon.

In rare cases, you will have to help, using the technique Corentin told you
(which manually updates the Launch Services Database to associate that file
with the correct application).

Hope this helps

Corentin:

Thanks again for the help with this.

I'm curious.. .... I found one more file.

All these Unix files seem to be dated near or at the time I migrated to
Snow Leopard.

What causes this problem? And should I be looking for other problems
with this?

Thanks again,

Norm

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Norm]

Hi John:

Just apply the fix Corentin gave you, to each file as you find it.

Done. I searched originally and changed them one by one and then found
one more that Spotlight did not find originally. Perhaps more are
lurking.

Now you know why I suggested you should not use the Migration Assistant

No, why? You are only allowed one "I told you so."

If Migration occurs before an Application has been installed, or if the
application cannot be installed, the Launch Services database entry for that
file extension is "blank".

In hindsight.... now, John, remember ..... would I have been better
off migrating applications as well as everything else?

I used Migration Assistant but did not migrate any of my apps. I
installed them after migration.

Hope this helps

It does.

And thanks for the further education on that topic.

Norm

BTW, in somewhat the same vein, when I'm presented with a Properties
screen to input (I've set that preference for new docs until I learn a
bit about Properties), it will often have a date (in April 2004) as the
title. Is this a migration issue again or something else? Just curious.

Thanks,

Norm

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Norm:

No, why? You are only allowed one "I told you so."

Sorry

In hindsight.... now, John, remember ..... would I have been better
off migrating applications as well as everything else?

I don't think so. I suspect the system would not update the Launch Services
Database until after the end of the Migration, so I suspect you would either
get the same result, or a partial, mixed, fruit-salad kind of result.

I can't be sure. It's not going to be a big issue, because as you find each
kind, Corentin's fix corrects the system for all files of that kind.

BTW, in somewhat the same vein, when I'm presented with a Properties
screen to input (I've set that preference for new docs until I learn a
bit about Properties), it will often have a date (in April 2004) as the
title. Is this a migration issue again or something else? Just curious.

There are three dates stored in a Microsoft Word document, and three dates
maintained by the File System.

The ones stored in the document are copied if the document is copied (which
is usually a bad idea, but that's the way they designed it).

Cheers

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Norm]

Hi John:

BTW, in somewhat the same vein, when I'm presented with a Properties
screen to input (I've set that preference for new docs until I learn a
bit about Properties), it will often have a date (in April 2004) as the
title. Is this a migration issue again or something else? Just curious.

There are three dates stored in a Microsoft Word document, and three dates
maintained by the File System.

The ones stored in the document are copied if the document is copied (which
is usually a bad idea, but that's the way they designed it).[/QUOTE]

I probably didn't explain this very well.

When I open Properties for an old file, or do a Save As on an old file
(meaning Word vX), the Properties window presented has in the Title
Field a date rather than the current/old title of the doc or nothing. I
"believe" the same thing happened when creating a new doc but my memory
not as clear on that. :-(

Any clues as to why? Any reason to go on a diagnosing mission?

Thanks,

Norm


PS BTW, I've never been able to figure out why Word (of any version)
asks if I want to Save changes when I don't think I have made any. For
instance just now I opened a few docs, opened Properties and then Saved.
It asked each time. Curious?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Norm:

If it appears in the Title field, chances are the date has been stored as
text in the Title field.

I have never seen Word get the Title field wrong, so it is likely someone
wrote a date in there. Maybe a macro.

If a document contains any Word fields that are "hot" or "warm" (they update
dynamically or on document open) then the text of the document HAS changed
when you opened it, and it will prompt ,you to save it.

Typical instances are page numbers (will update if the document is opened on
a machine with a different default printer, because the document gets
repaginated) and date fields in the header or footer (will update to today's
date/time)

Cheers

Hi John:



There are three dates stored in a Microsoft Word document, and three dates
maintained by the File System.

The ones stored in the document are copied if the document is copied (which
is usually a bad idea, but that's the way they designed it).

I probably didn't explain this very well.

When I open Properties for an old file, or do a Save As on an old file
(meaning Word vX), the Properties window presented has in the Title
Field a date rather than the current/old title of the doc or nothing. I
"believe" the same thing happened when creating a new doc but my memory
not as clear on that. :-(

Any clues as to why? Any reason to go on a diagnosing mission?

Thanks,

Norm


PS BTW, I've never been able to figure out why Word (of any version)
asks if I want to Save changes when I don't think I have made any. For
instance just now I opened a few docs, opened Properties and then Saved.
It asked each time. Curious?[/QUOTE]

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]