Sorry, it's always difficult to post without knowing the experience level of the person you are replying to.
You can open an EPS file in Notepad, Wordpad, or even Microsoft Word. There are many text editors out there and any of them should work. Notepad and Wordpad are part of the Microsoft OSs typically hidden in the C:WindowsSystem (or System32) directory.
Notepad probably isn't the best choice but it should work for smaller files without any problems. If you use Microsoft Word, Word may complain or prompt you for the format of the file. Just look for a checkbox or something that says "plain text".
The 'headers' (beginning of the file that explain a little bit about the file) are straight ASCII text, not binary, which means that you can read them without decoding.
You can also open CDR files with a text editor to check the version of CorelDraw that created the file. It will be the first line, something like:
RIFFt7 CDRCvrsn
The character that follows CDR is the version of CorelDraw. Here it is a "C" indicating "12" (7 is version 7, etc, A is 10, B is 11, C is 12, D is 13).
Oh, and most file formats have headers or something in the first few characters that describe or classify the file format. Some are readable text, others are binary and can't be easily deciphered, but they can be compared with known file types.
I have several text editors on my Send To list. When I right click on the file name in Windows Explorer, I can choose which application to send the file to.
Carl - thanks for the great explanation. I understand now - I never knew that I could use Word for finding how the file was originally created. I started using Word, Excel and Power Point years ago in my pervious life before my engraving business. I would have never thought about using it for this purpose. Thank you for you time to give me an excellent explanation and a new tool for my toolbox.
