I’m trying to get email document attachments to open automatically when downloading. I’m in Safari, on mail.google.com; I have checked the box for “Open “safe” files after downloaded” in the Safari preference tab “General”. However, when I click on a .docx attachment to an email, it downloads but doesn’t open in Pages (or anything else). I’ve un-checked the “Open safe files…” box, then checked it again, but get same result.
Is there a way to get those downloaded files to open automatically in Pages?
I’m doing email this way because I love the way gmail sorts incoming email into Primary, Social and Promotions. Is there a way to get Apple Mail to do that?
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Dan Snyder
"Safe" is the clue. Safe would things that don't have any chance of executing code or macros. Most image formats, for instance. But I'd assume that Microsoft Word documents aren't considered safe because they can execute things when you open them. In fact, the history of malware is filled with malicious Word documents with hidden dangerous macros. So the idea is that you need an extra step to be sure that you really want to open the file.
Keep in mind that while you know you are reading YOUR email, and you know the sender, and you have already determined the document is "safe," there is no way for the browser to know what you are thinking. So it doesn't consider the file safe. For all it knows, you went to a website with a fake "click here to do something" button that really is a download button.
If you want to use Mail instead, you can, I believe, set up some filters in Gmail to sort the Social and Promotions messages, assigning labels to them (labels = mailboxes) so you can then see them in the Mail app. I've never done it as I don't like the Gmail tabs, so I don't use them.