FIRST: Please accept my sincere thanks for everyone who responded to my SOS. SECOND: It seems that two things were wrong here: 1. I was trying to reformat an attachment by changing ".txt" extension to ".ftw", when the file was a GEDCOM file. 2. The more serious problem was that the sender copied the GEDCOM file into the e-mail message before sendint the e-mail. AOL or the sender's e-mail service read the message as being too long, and converted the message to text format. As a result, the attachment was never in GEDCOM format. My advice (although I haven't yet opened the file--a word to the wise), is: When you send a message, make sure that you are truly ATTACHING the GEDCOM file to the e-mail message, and not importing the file in text format into the e-mail message. AOL will permit the transfer of a file in GEDCOM, IF it is formated and attached in that language. Unfornately, mine was not. I have aske the sender to re-send, in GEDCOM attachment. Scott Mills AltonMills@aol.com