Use Save As when saving email attachments

Q: Somebody sent me an email attachment and, after I opened it, I made some changes to the document. But when I looked in my My Documents folder, the file wasn’t there. If I open the attachment from my email again, I see the changes but I still can’t find the file in the My Documents folder.

A: This can be a tricky one for noobies. The reason you can’t find the file in your My Documents folder is because it’s not there.

When you receive a file as an email attachment your computer stores the file in a temporary folder usually buried several layers beneath your Windows folder.

When you opened the attachment and made some changes to the file you were actually updating the temporary copy of the document.

Your best bet in this situation is to open the email attachment and immediately use the “Save As” option on the menu to save the document with a new file name and in the location you want, in your case the My Documents folder.

Keep in mind that any future changes to the document should be made by opening the document from the My Documents folder and not by re-opening the email attachment.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, May 4, 2007 on Tech Talk with Noobie, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday between 11:30 a.m. and noon. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .