Unix application

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I recently bought a Macbook Pro, and because of my job, I have to download hundreds of Word documents. Initially, these files would save as Word files, but now, they save as UNIX applications. I am not sure why, and when I have opened them, the files are corrupt. I can open these files on other computers without a problem. It is just this laptop, and I'm not sure why all of a sudden the computer started saving them differently. Please help if you can.
 
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What MacBook Pro, what operating system and what version of Office for Mac will all be of assistance.
 

chscag

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Office Online? What Office Online are you referring to? Office 365?

Word documents are in the same file format whether you're opening them with Windows or Mac OS X. The fact that the files are being saved as Unix documents tells me that you're not downloading Word files but executables that OS X does not recognize and therefore calls them Unix documents. Windows executable files downloaded to OS X are recognized as Unix documents. Tell us how you're downloading those files and where are they being downloaded from?
 
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The quick way ....
In the finder, select one of those files and hit the spacebar ... what do you see.
Post a screenshot and we can take it from there.

Cheers ... Marc
 
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Sorry for the delayed response. If I hit the space bar, looks like the first image. If I click "Open with Terminal" (or if I click on the file without the space), it looks like the second image.

Thank you so much for your help :)

Picture1.png Picture2.png
 
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MacInWin

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It may be that "Heather's Final" does not have an extent, that bit after the "." that lets us know what the files are for. Or it may be that the letters after the "." aren't recognized by the operating system. To fix this, find "Heather's Final" and right-click on it, then click on Get Info. The resulting box will show in the "General" section the kind of file that the OS thinks the file may be, and in the "Open with:" section the default application to open that kind of file. To change the default application, click on the lock bottom right and enter an admin login and password, then on the little up/down arrow on the right of the window that shows the default application and pick the application you want. If it's not showing, click on "Other..." and navigate to where the application you want to use may be. Assuming that you get that done, if you are very, very confident that you want all the same kinds of files to use the same application, you can then click the Change all box to change the default for all the files on the entire drive that have that same "Kind" quality. I'd be leery of that myself, but it's up to you.
 

chscag

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@Megan:

I refer you back to my reply #4. (You've been downloading executable files.)
 
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MacInWin, give me time to work your response out.

chscag, I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the files I am opening. They are all Word files submitted the same way by multiple individuals. I have always opened them without a problem up until about a week ago, when they all of a sudden they started saving as these Unix files.

I'll keep you updated. Thank you everyone for your help.
 
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MacInWin,

Your solution worked. When I looked under "General," it said the file was a "Unix executable" file. I have never in my life heard of this type of file, and I know all of the users are submitting their files as Word documents. But changing the default helped me open this file, and now when I download new files, they are saved as Word files unless I change the name, and then they are saved as Unix files. But after I download them, I can rename them and they will still be Word files. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm glad I can access the files now. Thank you for your help!

Megan
 

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