Firefox judges how to handle a file by the "content-type" header sent by the server. Internet Explorer doesn't trust the content-type and also examines the beginning of the file in making its decision. As a result, IE can bypass problems with some server configurations (the main problem is that webservers often tell browsers that an unrecognized type of file is just a plain text file).

The short term workaround would be to right-click a link to the file and save it to disk, and then open it from there.

The longer term solution is for the server to send a content-type specific to MS Publisher, or a generic "this is binary content" header.

Do you want to give an example of a problem site (URL to the page with the link, if it's not confidential)?

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. The short-term workaround I knew about. But I'm the only male in an office of women who love Publisher. I can't give you the problem site because it's password protected. However, it's the Staff Side of my agency's little non-profit.

If this is a server error then I'll try to open up a Publisher file from another website. If it opens fine then I'll know it's my web host and I'll pester them to fix it.

Thank you for your time and for showing me what direction I need to head in!

This site has some sample files for different versions of Publisher:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=newsletters

If you find out what software is used on the webserver (in-house, it might be Microsoft's IIS server), there would be different steps to add the content-type.

Thank you, jscher2000. You've been very helpful. Our site is remotely hosted so, after successfully opening MS Publisher files from other sites, I've contacted our web host and put the issue on them to fix the "content-type". Hopefully, they will respond positively and all will be well again.

-)