Indecipherable wording.

[potty64]

After going to Downloads & clicking on File, then choosing a listed entrant and then transferring it to Documents and then opening it, I'm then requested to choose which file I'd like to open it with ie Word Pad, Documents, Adobe, Windows Photo gallery etc etc. I opted for Word pad but all the text was gobblededook!! Y?

[SlackAlice]

What's the file ext?

[MichaelZZ]

The way to do this is to open the program first, I think.
For instance, if you have downloaded a MS Office spreadsheet (Excel) and saved it in your Downloads folder, first go to MS Office, Excel, File, Open and then go to your Downloads and click on the Excel file to open it.
As Alice says, we can give a more definitive answer if we know what sort of file you are trying to open.