Knowledge Base

OL97: Text Attachment Sent from Macintosh Loses Paragraph Marks

Article ID: 184374

Article Last Modified on 1/22/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q184374

SYMPTOMS

When you receive a text file attachment from a Macintosh computer running an Internet mail client, the text of the attachment seems to be one continuous stream with no paragraph breaks, when opened in Microsoft Notepad. Additionally, little squares appear where the paragraph breaks should be.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because the Macintosh formats line breaks with a carriage return (CR) character when the RETURN key is pressed. Conversely, a Windows-based computer formats line breaks with a carriage return/line feed character (CR/LF) when the ENTER key is pressed.

RESOLUTION

Open the text file in Microsoft Word. Word recognizes the Macintosh CR character, due to the its cross platform capabilities. Text will be displayed with line breaks in the appropriate places.

Additional query words: binhex

Keywords: kbbug kbpending KB184374


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