# I'm confused...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/33751>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 19, 2000, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/33751 "2000-09-19T18:16:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/33751/1 "2000-09-19T18:16:57Z")

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Can anybody tell me what an EML file is? I got an email from a friend with an attachment that I can’t open. I’ve tried many things but to no avail. Thanx.

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**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/33751/2 "2000-09-19T18:45:50Z")

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Try opening it with Outlook or Outlook express.

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**Author:** ![muppetsoup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@muppetsoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muppetsoup)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/33751/3 "2000-09-19T19:35:04Z")

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it’s a file format that lets you send a webpage that includes graphics/embedded stuff, so you can send the file and not just a link.

[http://www.okinfoweb.com/moe/format/format\_021.htm](http://www.okinfoweb.com/moe/format/format_021.htm)

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**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/33751/4 "2000-09-19T19:51:46Z")

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It’s probably an email message – MS uses that extension for emails. More specifically, it’s a RFC822 message, which is the basic platform-independent format for email mesages (i.e., the .eml file is basically 7-bit ASCII, with any file attachments encoded using one of several methods).

You should be able to view it in Outlook Express – save the attachment to a file, then doubleclick it in Explorer or use the command “start myfile.eml” from the command line.

If you don’t have Outlook Express, you can view it in your favorite text editor, but you probably won’t be able to view any attachments, except as an encoded string.