Need help with GMail

[Sam]

When I click to open an attachment that is coming in Microsoft Word, it opens up as a Notepad file and is garbled. I can open it with Google Drive but I need to save it in my computer and not in the cloud

1) What do I need to do to be able to open it with my Open Office program and modify it as I used to

or

2) What can i do to transfer the document from Google Drive into my Open Office program so I can modify it and save it on my computer

[jww]

Sam, I presume you are in Windows as an operating system. I don't believe that this is a Gmail thing, but rather related to your OS default settings.

You can set the file opening default parameters by secondary-mouse clicking on the file you want to open, select "Open With", then select MS Word. It should give you a dialogue box that asks if you want this as the default, select yes, and you should be good going forward.

[Sam]

I am reading it may be Chrome. I used to be able to click the attachment, it would show up on the bottom as a download and then open it with Open Office (a free share program that emulates Microsoft Word). Now it opens in Wordpad. tried to change defaults. I can now at least go to my Open Office program, and then select the downloads file and open it that way. A bit of a workaround, so I have access but it sure saved a few seconds beforehand

[giammi]

Maybe in the protocol handler settings of chrome? Try to enter chrome://settings/handlers in the address bar of Chrome.