Office & productivity software forum: MS Word Attachments

Rees Baker, thanks for your reply. The file extension is wps. and the Type is Microsoft Works Word Processor. I opened the file by clicking the paper clip and then "open" in the dialogue.
The message is from MS Vista to Windows XP SP2.
(I am not an expert.)

No problem at all about my name. I can't expect everybody to write Dutch names correctly.

A .wps file isn't a Word file (that's .doc or .docx). But it's Works (as you say). Ask your son to save the document in a more widespread format, like .rtf. You'll be able to open that.
The inverse trick (from MS Word to MS Works) using the same .rtf format is described in http://www.microsoft.com/products/works/more/worktogether.mspx

MS Works is a competing and incompatible Microsoft program (with a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database). You could call it "a poor man's Office" (because it's cheaper).
With OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) being totally free and totally compatible with MS Office, it's beyond me why anybody would use MS Works. The best advice for your son: switch to OpenOffice.

Kees