saving word docs to my mac desktop

[thomas_james]

Version: 2004 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) Processor: Intel when i complete a new word doc on either my iMac or Macbook, then save it to the desktop on either machine and open up an email (via my Yahoo account) and attempt to attach the newly completed word doc to my email i keep getting a message saying that the word doc contains a virus.

know it does'nt contain a virus because i just completed and saved it 2 minutes earlier.

can anyone please tell me what's happening here and what i need to do to fix it?

help!!

 

[CyberTaz]

We can't begin to offer help unless you give us complete & accurate
information. For example: Office 2004 will not even run on OS X 10.0, which
is what you claim to have... It requires OS X 10.2.8 or later.

You need to indicate your exact version & update level of Office, OS X &
whatever email program you're actually using. With at least that information
someone may be able to provide suggestions. However, if you're using Yahoo's
web mail you'll probably need to contact their support people.

It is possible, though, that your Normal template really has been infected
by a virus which is being passed on to each new document you create. Do you
have any virus checking software? If not, there are a number of decent
free/shareware apps such as ClamXav. You might look into that.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[thomas_james]

Thanks for the reply Bob.

Sorry, I made a mistake about the version of my Mac's OS - i'm actually running OS X 10.4.11

Based on this info do you have any other ideas?

The weird and annoying thing is that i used to be able to save word docs and attach them to emails in Yahoo without any problems.

I saw someone at my local Apple retail store today who suggested deleting my Office for Mac software from both the iMac and Macbook and then re-installing. Do you know if this is likely to make a difference?

Cheers, Tom.

 

[CyberTaz]

Not sure who you spoke to, but IMHO they have no business being there for
any purpose other than cleaning the carpets or washing windows The
Office software, itself, has absolutely nothing to do with what's happening
& it's *rare* that it ever does. Macs just don't work that way, and even if
the apps were at fault reinstalling Office would just reinstall the problem.

The issue that you're describing is something happening after-the-fact with
the attachment process & is most likely due to one of 2 causes:

1- The webmail software is erroneously generating the virus alert (which is
not at all uncommon with "free" email services), or

2- The files actually are infected or something about their content makes
them appear to be (such as macros, embedded objects, etc.).

.... Neither of which will be affected by reinstalling Office - the programs
do not cause infections nor are they involved with the file after it's been
created. My best guess is that some sort of "security update" has been made
to Yahoo Mail which is responsible for the alerts. The fact that the same
thing is happening with *both* Macs points to that being the case. I'm not
specifically familiar with Yahoo Mail but I'm sure there is some sort of
support available -- check in there for any common issue.

Make sure you are including file name extensions & zip the files before
attaching. If you're concerned about a virus do as I suggested & obtain an
antivirus utility to check the files yourself rather than relying on Yahoo
Mail. If you've received Word documents from PC users a virus could very
well be present on your systems & may have infected your Normal template,
even though the virus may inert. You can test the Normal template as
directed on this link, create a new document using the freshly generated
Normal template & see if it causes the same alert when you attach it.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac