I'm a complete novice. I have Vista with Works Spreadsheet and Database. I
also have Adobe Acrobat, Excell and Micorsoft Office installed on my
computer. When I try to download a file, it automatically uses Works. How
do I:

1. Manually download using something else?
2. Have my computer automatically use Office Word, Excell, Acrobat?
3. Is there a way for my computer to automatically use the correct
application?

Please be kind. I'm old, this is my first computer, and my knowledge of
computers is at a pre-school level! Thanks for your help!

DarkHorse wrote:
> I'm a complete novice. I have Vista with Works Spreadsheet and Database. I
> also have Adobe Acrobat, Excell and Micorsoft Office installed on my
> computer. When I try to download a file, it automatically uses Works. How
> do I:
>
> 1. Manually download using something else?
> 2. Have my computer automatically use Office Word, Excell, Acrobat?
> 3. Is there a way for my computer to automatically use the correct
> application?
>
> Please be kind. I'm old, this is my first computer, and my knowledge of
> computers is at a pre-school level! Thanks for your help!

Hi, DarkHorse - Works has nothing to do with how you download a file.
When you download a file from your browser (probably Internet Explorer),
you will get a dialog box asking you to choose Run or Save. Don't choose
Run. Instead, Save the file somewhere you will find it. The Downloads
folder in your user account is a good choice. You can move it to your
Documents folder later if you like.

Then right-click on the downloaded file (presumably a *.doc or *.xls
file - one that will normally open in Word or Excel) and choose Open
With and select MS Word. If you want to make this a permanent change;
i.e., have all *.doc files open in Word instead of Works, there's an
easier way. See this link for how - with pictures:

From windowshelp.microsoft.com:
http://tinyurl.com/2nsmfs


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Hi Malke,

Thanks for the help, but it didn't work. When I try to download an Excell
spreadsheet from and email, I got the options of OPEN, SAVE and CANCEL. I
would like to just be able to open the doc like I do at work. But I took
your advice and saved it to downloads. Afterwards I could try to open right
away which didn't work, so I found it in downloads. I found it in XLS
format, right clicked, open with, browse, desdtop and found Microsoft Excel
2003, I select that and it changes to xlicons. In any event the file doesn't
open. If I rightclick and use works spreadsheet, it will open in that
format--but it's not clean/usable for my needs.

"Malke" wrote:

> DarkHorse wrote:
> > I'm a complete novice. I have Vista with Works Spreadsheet and Database. I
> > also have Adobe Acrobat, Excell and Micorsoft Office installed on my
> > computer. When I try to download a file, it automatically uses Works. How
> > do I:
> >
> > 1. Manually download using something else?
> > 2. Have my computer automatically use Office Word, Excell, Acrobat?
> > 3. Is there a way for my computer to automatically use the correct
> > application?
> >
> > Please be kind. I'm old, this is my first computer, and my knowledge of
> > computers is at a pre-school level! Thanks for your help!
>
> Hi, DarkHorse - Works has nothing to do with how you download a file.
> When you download a file from your browser (probably Internet Explorer),
> you will get a dialog box asking you to choose Run or Save. Don't choose
> Run. Instead, Save the file somewhere you will find it. The Downloads
> folder in your user account is a good choice. You can move it to your
> Documents folder later if you like.
>
> Then right-click on the downloaded file (presumably a *.doc or *.xls
> file - one that will normally open in Word or Excel) and choose Open
> With and select MS Word. If you want to make this a permanent change;
> i.e., have all *.doc files open in Word instead of Works, there's an
> easier way. See this link for how - with pictures:
>
> From windowshelp.microsoft.com:
> http://tinyurl.com/2nsmfs
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>

DarkHorse wrote:
> Hi Malke,
>
> Thanks for the help, but it didn't work. When I try to download an Excell
> spreadsheet from and email, I got the options of OPEN, SAVE and CANCEL. I
> would like to just be able to open the doc like I do at work. But I took
> your advice and saved it to downloads. Afterwards I could try to open right
> away which didn't work, so I found it in downloads. I found it in XLS
> format, right clicked, open with, browse, desdtop and found Microsoft Excel
> 2003, I select that and it changes to xlicons. In any event the file doesn't
> open. If I rightclick and use works spreadsheet, it will open in that
> format--but it's not clean/usable for my needs.

I expect that you pointed the Open With dialog to the wrong place. It
sounds like you pointed it to a shortcut, hence the incorrect "xlicons".
You need to point it to excel.exe in the Office program folder. You can
do a Search and find the location of the correct executable and point
your Open With to it or you can change the default program setting by
going through the procedure at the link I already gave you.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Thank you!

I finally found it! I also figured out that I can open up Excel, and then
from there I can open any of my saved documents. I will eventually try to
change the default setting, and if I need help, I'll post again.

Thanks again for your help!

"Malke" wrote:

> DarkHorse wrote:
> > Hi Malke,
> >
> > Thanks for the help, but it didn't work. When I try to download an Excell
> > spreadsheet from and email, I got the options of OPEN, SAVE and CANCEL. I
> > would like to just be able to open the doc like I do at work. But I took
> > your advice and saved it to downloads. Afterwards I could try to open right
> > away which didn't work, so I found it in downloads. I found it in XLS
> > format, right clicked, open with, browse, desdtop and found Microsoft Excel
> > 2003, I select that and it changes to xlicons. In any event the file doesn't
> > open. If I rightclick and use works spreadsheet, it will open in that
> > format--but it's not clean/usable for my needs.
>
> I expect that you pointed the Open With dialog to the wrong place. It
> sounds like you pointed it to a shortcut, hence the incorrect "xlicons".
> You need to point it to excel.exe in the Office program folder. You can
> do a Search and find the location of the correct executable and point
> your Open With to it or you can change the default program setting by
> going through the procedure at the link I already gave you.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>

DarkHorse wrote:
> Thank you!
>
> I finally found it! I also figured out that I can open up Excel, and then
> from there I can open any of my saved documents. I will eventually try to
> change the default setting, and if I need help, I'll post again.
>
> Thanks again for your help!

Glad you got that sorted. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User