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It's maddening when e-mail includes attached files you can't open. Unfortunately, this is a regular occurrence for many heavy e-mail users. The chief cause: The recipient lacks the "native application," technical talk for the program that created the file. But solutions are now at hand. One to check out is Inso's Quick View Plus 4 ($59), a dramatically beefed- up version of the "quick view" applet built into Windows 95. Quick View allows you to look at files from more than 200 programs, including both Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange as well as most major spreadsheet, database and word processing programs. Even better, Quick View lets you copy what you see into your clipboard and paste it into an application you use. A free demo is available at http://www.inso.com

Much the same cyber magic is worked by E-ttachment Opener from DataViz (about $39). E-ttachment Opener especially excels at giving PC users a look at Macintosh files. E-ttachment Opener can make readable most e-mail "garbage" text--usually encoded files that have been mangled by an e-mail gateway. For more information, visit the DataViz Web site at http://www.dataviz.com