When downloading a Microsoft word document

[sammac]

My computer then converts it to a StarOffice document and I don't know why! How can I undo this so that documents remain as Word?

Really annoying when I send something home or am sent an attachment which is then automatically converted. I think that there must be something somewhere that is ticked to do this but don't know where to begin. No-one has heard of StarOffice to help me. I'm also frightened that anything that I've got which has been converted will disappear if I get rid of it completely.

Need the Mumsnet geek squad help please

It depends a bit on how you are attempting to save the document. If it was an attachment and you were reading your e-mail via your web browser, for example, then it ought to be possible to right-click the attachment and then use "save as..." (the exact wording on menus depends on the browser).

So could you give a little more info on (a) what the document type is (.doc or .docx for example) and what you do to read your e-mail and save attachments ?

(Also, it's worth pointing out that sometimes a browser will give choices like "open with ..." and "save as ..." but then has a box to say "always do this in future" so it might be that is the cause of the attempt to open with StarOffice (yes, I've heard of it - a freebie from Sun Microsystems, who are also behind OpenOffice) and the conversion gets done because that's the best option (from a "using StarOffice" viewpoint).

With a bit more info about what browser or e-mail application, hopefully this can be "Undone" for you for future documents

Also, regarding existing documents...
It may be worth checking if StarOffice gives choices for document format, so if you open one of the existing documents and then use the menu for file / save as... do you get a box for the filename (presumably already showing the existing filename) and another box which possibly includes "MS Word" and other choices (but would usually show Star Office, or some appropriate suffix for it, as the default).

Thanks for answering, I'll try to give more info in my very untechnical way!

I use AOL and when I right click attachment the only option is download now or download later- nothing about save as.

The documents are .doc normally and I have Word which is my preferred option. I normally use it for sending stuff home from work or vice versa, but it even does it if I use a memory stick. For example I sent home an email yesterday with a master copy of a form and when it is opened it is all resized/ on new pages and totally out of alignment. Then when it prints it can't be used! What a waste of my time and I get really frustrated and stressed out about it.

For the existing documents I do get save as MS Word which I automatically do but somewhere in the process it converts. I save as *doc or the other otion is all files. Hope that helps towards the info and thanks again .

So you do have Word on your machine?

If so once you've got a .doc file on your machine, either from a memory stick or by saving it from email, right click on it and select "Open With".

Select "Choose Program" and hopefully Word will be listed on their somewhere.

Before clicking "OK" you can select the "always use" option. That will mean that every time you open a .doc file Word will be used to open it, so think if you want that to happen.

StarOffice is OpenOffice which is highly compatible with Microsoft Word .doc documents.

Nothing is being 'converted', it is just that StarOffice has made a setting in windows to say that it should be used to open .doc documents instead of Word.

How to change this setting depends on what version of windows: on Vista click the Start button and choose Default Programs -> Associate a file type...

Alternatively, reinstall Word and it will do it for you.

Oops, I missed BPs message - that is an easier way!