Expert: Arthur Naman - 12/21/2007

Question
Hi,

My job often requires me to open .pdf attachments. I have Acrobat Reader 8 and iFranView32 installed on my computer. But lately, more times than not, I get an error message from either program when I try to open the attachment. The error messages are cut/pasted below:

Acrobat Reader 8:

Adobe Reader could not open "filenamehere.pdf" because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded).

iFranView:

Unknown file format or file not found

I have tried everything I can think of. The people sending me these files have said that they have never had any problems sending the exact same files to other people. I work freelance, so there is no "tech department" I can turn to. I have tried reinstalling both programs, but to no avail. I have tried saving it and then opening it via the program, opening it directly from the download manager, saying magic words first, etc. Nothing seems to work. I feel pretty certain that the shortfall is on my end and not from the people sending it, since I have received the same error messages with multiple people sending me attachments.

Please help! I am having a hard time keeping ahead of my workload due to this problem.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer
I've not heard of iFranView32. A search of the web indicates that it is used for image manipulation.

First, what e-mail software are you using.

Does your e-mail server have a web interface you can use rather than downloading as part of an e-mail message. I think from your message that you are using yahoo, gmail, or other web-based e-mail.

Try uninstalling both adobe acrobat and iFranView32, then re-boot, then re-download and reinstall adobe acrobat only. See if that works.

Try to download and load a .pdf file from another source, like an irs form from www.irs.gov.

Let me know what happens - it is not obvious to me what is going on.