How to get a .msg file out of a .docx?

English
#1

Hi all-

We have a quirky issue with email formats. We have a Word .docx file that was sent to us. Inside the .docx file is embedded a .msg file. On a windows machine with MS Office installed, clicking on the .msg opens the file in Outlook. However, we want to be able to view this file without anything Microsoft.

From what i’ve read, it is in theory possible to open a .msg file in Thunderbird. But first we need to get the file out of the .docx as a standalone file. In LibreOffice Writer, there doesn’t seem to be an option to export it out.

Alternatively, if we could launch it from out of LibreOffice, to launch Thunderbird for example (similar as Word-to-Outlook), that’d be fine too. But we’ve not found a way for that to occur either.

Anyone have any idea as to how we can export an embedded .msg file out of Writer as a standalone file?

Thanks!

-Fizz

Edit: I am using LibreOffice 7.02 on Linux.

#2

If the .msg file is represented by an icon then just right-click on the icon and select Save Copy As… In the dialog that opened I selected file type text (.txt), entered a name with the extension .eml, e.g. TestEmail.eml, click save and the file saved should be openable by Thunderbird. Cheers, Al

#3

Al-
The .msg is represented by an icon, but right clicking on it does not give the option to “save copy as”. I have the options of cut / copy, but they do not permit me to paste it outside of the doc. If i say to copy it, then try to paste it to the desktop (or anywhere else), it doesn’t work.

-Fizz

#4

That was curious, I can’t replicate what I did before.

If you right click on the icon and select Rename Package then the box named Filename gives the path to the Temp file. Navigate to the temporary file, copy it and paste it elsewhere, rename it with an .eml extension and it can be opened in Thunderbird

Alternatively, I used 7-Zip to open the .docx, navigated to embeddings, I viewed (F3) the .bin file and copied everything inside what appeared to be the OLE wrapper for the .bin. I pasted that into Notepad and saved it with an .eml extension, it opened fine in Thunderbird.

#5

When i right-click on the embedded icon, i don’t have the option to Rename Package.

Regardless of our software / OS differences, the trick seems to be to open the .docx as though it were an archive, pull out the relevant .bin, rename it to .eml, and then open in Thunderbird.

So that seems to be the best fix for now- i just hope it works consistently.

-Fizz

#6

Hi

had you tried to open the file with ms word online?

If you save the docx file in odt format and then open it with some programs to open zip files can you get the .msg file?

If you right click on the msg icon and the copy it on desktop whats happen?

#7

I don’t have an MS Word online account (and hope to avoid that :slight_smile: ), so haven’t tried that.

I just tried saving the .docx as a .odt. When i re-open the .odt i still don’t have the option to save-as on the icon, so it’s still trapped inside the file. I can’t find a way to save the embedded file / icon outside of the docx or odt.

Per your suggestion, i have tried opening it through Archive Manager, both the .docx and after re-saving it as a .odt. I can find the file that corresponds to the .msg (it’s a .bin file from the docx, and has no suffix in the .odt version). However, neither of those seems to be a valid .msg file. Even though i can extract them, they aren’t recognized as a valid .msg anymore (even by Outlook).

-Fizz

#8

well

so I think it’s not possible to save a .msg file from inside a docx

Try to open an issue or a proposed enanchement

#9

Well, i’ve got a pseudo workaround. It may not always work though.

I can open the docx with Archive Manager, and extract the .bin file corresponding to the attachment. If i rename that .bin to a .eml, i can then open it in Thunderbird. Most of the contents are encoded characters, but i was able to find the body of the message as normal text, and read what i need to.

So in this case, i have a workaround, though inelegant. But i don’t know if this will work for all messages in the future.

-Fizz

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