Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Graphics conversion filter question.

This is topic Graphics conversion filter question. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by John Spooner (Member # 1565) on 06-05-2003, 03:10 PM:

Dear colleagues.
Quite often when opening attachments received, the attachment will not display and the advice "unable to load graphics conversion filter...." is displayed.
If I press yes to proceed, I receive the Wordpad screen which is either blank or filled with lines of squares and symbols.
What is the graphics filter, does it need to be installed and how can I open such attachments and view them? Keep it fairly simple as I know very little about the ideosyncracies of computers.
John Spooner.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 06-05-2003, 06:20 PM:

What email client are your using and on what operating system?

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 06-05-2003, 06:50 PM:

If an attachment is an unknown type, an assumption is made that it is a graphic and the graphic conversion filter is supposed to convert it to a screen image. The "type" is generally specified by the filename extension - .jpg, .gif, .bmp & .tif are some of the many graphics image file types. If the conversion tool doesn't recognize the file type of your attachment then you see that error message.
There are also rather a lot of non-graphic file types, and if someone sends you a wordperfect document file (.wpd?) but you don't have wordperfect installed... well, the system has no idea what to do with it, and the usual default last-resort option is to try notepad or wordpad which will show a real mess if it is anything except a text file (wordpad will display Microsoft RTF and Word files to some extent as well I think).

One rule: don't EVER open an attachment unless you know what it is - this is how 99% of all computer viruses are spread (virii?). Many viruses spread by sending emails from infected computers to everyone on the owner's email address list, so don't trust any email just because it says it's "from" someone you know.
A current and rapicly spreading virus also exploits a problem whereby it can infect your system even if you don't open the email. Make sure you have all the current updates to your system installed, "windows update" should be in your start menu somewhere.

Posted by John Spooner (Member # 1565) on 06-06-2003, 12:23 PM:

Dear Adam.
The e-mail system is Outlook Express 6 and Windows 98SE.
Dave, Luckily I have a virus programme installed and only recently it detected a Trojan Horse and was able to heal the file.
It is a free programme from Grisoft called AVG and automatically regularly updates, so I concur with you on the importance of such safeguards. Also Windows update is active and I receive the notifications as they occur.
Do I need to purchase or download some extra software to enable these files to be seen?
John S.

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 06-07-2003, 08:56 PM:

John,

What kind of attachments are you trying to open?? (File extension?). One other problem can be that the first time you went to open one the computer asked you what program you wanted to open it iwth. Not knowing what to say you might have picked the wrong one, and the computer remembers what you choose and then will ALWAYS try to use the wrong program to open that kind of file. There is a way to fix this if it happened, but we need more info on what you are doing.

I use AVG too and think it is great - it finds many more things than Norton. Be aware though that it doesn't completely scan the mail in outlook express unless you switch folders - like from inbox to sent items or some such - then it scans before it goes into the new folder. It WILL, however, scan any new program that is attempting to run and block it if it is bad. Thus it still does protect you from trying to run an infected program in an email.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 06-08-2003, 01:27 PM:

I have never seen Outlook Express deliver that particular message, so I can only guess that whatever application OE is launching to open the file is displaying it. So basically, "what Don said".