Help Modify an email attachment, save, and send it?

[dylane]

I was out of the country last week and only had my GN2 with me and had a situation where a colleague sent me an Excel attachment that I needed to make some modifications to and then send back. I opened the Excel sheet from the email (which seems to keep you in the email application, not a separate spreadsheet program). So I make the changes I need in Excel (which was surprisingly easier than I expected) but then I was trying to figure out how to attach to the existing mail and send and was confused.

I ended up trying to save the document to the SD card, and thought I was successful, but when I went to open it up again none of my changes had saved.

So what's the simplified workflow for receiving an Office document as an email attachment, opening it up to make a couple of changes, and then replying with the modified document?

Edit: Also, when I have the attachment open, how do I go back to check another email without closing the Excel sheet?

 

[CoreyV]

Download the attachment, open and edit the local file, then reply and attach the local edited file?

This should make it easy to switch back and forth between mail and your office editor while you're editing the file.

 

[dylane]

I'm not sure I know how to do that. I've tried tapping and long pressing on the attachment name and I get the same results with it opening the attachment in the email window. From there I can do a save as, but it doesn't seem to actually save any of my changes (or else they are overwritten when I back out of the attachment).

Surely there has to be a way though to just quickly open an email attachment, make a couple of quick changes right there, and then send it back?

 

[CoreyV]

I don't know what email app you're using, but I do remember Gmail not being cooperative on downloading a file attachment - it always wanted to open the file instead. I downloaded an app (I think Download All Files) that would give me the option to save/download the attachment instead of automatically opening it.

Maybe give that a try.

I do understand what you're trying to do - as I do that every day with Outlook at work (open email, open attachment, edit file, and have the edits saved on the email's attachment to forward back). I just haven't had to do it with my phone.

 

[Benjie]

My way: do the spreadsheet upload to Drop Box, Box or whatever and send the link to file for whatever illicit purpose may seem fit.

 

[dylane]

Thanks for the tips. I'm using the stock email client with my Exchange account. I travel for work a lot, and I'm trying to get to the point where I don't always have to take a laptop with me (mostly since it is a bigger hassle with TSA).

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to work with Excel documents on the Note 2, using Hacker's keyboard means even writing basic functions shouldn't be too hard. It was just the sending back part that seems like it should be really easy, but I can't find a way to do it.

I think I did figure out what happened with the file not saving my changes though. I had saved using the default name and location that came up, but then I went back and reopened the original attachment again from the source email. I think when I did this it automatically saved over the top of what I had just saved. Need to do some testing though to make sure.

 

[dylane]

My way: do the spreadsheet upload to Drop Box, Box or whatever and send the link to file for whatever illicit purpose may seem fit.

I'll have to give this a try, although a number of files that I would be sending would be somewhat confidential, and people tend to frown upon putting these kinds of things in Dropbox.