Attachments in mail.app

gigapet

gigapet

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I've been experiencing a lot of problems, (or more importantly others are experiencing the problem), regarding attachments in mail. Some are able to detach the attachments and some aren't. Obviously those using a mac or mail have no trouble but most who use a PC, do. It's driving me spare, it's happening even if I enable the 'send PC friendly' option. Anyone know a way around this?
 
Be sure that in Mail you have checked the option to send "Always send Windows friendly attachments". You will find it in the Edit Menu > Attachments. If you are sending attachments to AOL users, AOL creates its own set of problems. I find that zipping my attachments solves that problem neatly. Control+Click on the file to be sent the from the context menu select "Create an archive of..." That will create a zip file compatible with either Macs or PCs.
 
It's mostly gif files. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the recipients are using Lotus Notes and they're PC monkeys.
 
You get the contextual menu to archive when you control + click on the file itself. You need to go to the folder where the file is saved. Control + Click on the file and you will get a menu. Select Archive. Now you have a zipped file. Attach the zipped file.
 
perfessor101 said:
It isn't a context menu. It is on the menu bar when Mail has the focus.
Click to expand...

Sorry - I meant

Control+Click on the file to be sent the from the context menu select "Create an archive of..." That will create a zip file compatible with either Macs or PCs.
Click to expand...

Anyway, I see it's in finder now. I never noticed that until you pointed it out, funny.
 
perfessor101 said:
Be sure that in Mail you have checked the option to send "Always send Windows friendly attachments". You will find it in the Edit Menu > Attachments.
Click to expand...
Holy cow. I never knew that existed. SWEET Thanks!
 
perfessor101 said:
If you are sending attachments to AOL users, AOL creates its own set of problems. I find that zipping my attachments solves that problem neatly.
Click to expand...


Does anyone know exactly *why* AOL users have problems viewing attachments sent by Mail.app? If I drop a jpeg into a Mail message -- and I know that the AOL client supports the jpeg format -- exactly what is the problem? This is driving me absolutely nuts....

-Syncopator
 
Rather than drop the image in the body of the message, attach it.

AOL has it's own format(for lack of a better word) for handling images. Most users can not open an image sent by an AOL user because of this.

I think AOL decided to be in its own little world. ;)
 
At one time AOL was infamous for using proprietary protocols that were just enough different from the standards to keep anyone from using anything but AOL software. With the growth of the internet they have moved away from that position -- somewhat. But they still tend to do things their own way.

These days much of that is enforced by their POP and SMTP servers and is understandably done to protect their user community from viruses, SPAM, etc, originating outside of the the AOL domain. Sending attachments to an AOL addressee from Macs often suffers as a result of this. There are, however, a few tricks to sending attachments to AOL users that may help.
  1. Be sure that in Mail > Edit > Attachments that "Send Windows friendly attachments is checked
  2. Be sure that the attached file has the appropriate three character extension appended to the filename.
  3. Only send one attachment per email. The AOL server will delete any additional attachments
  4. If all else fails, or if you want to send multiple files, then Zip the files and send the Zip archive. To Zip a file, choose "Create Archive of..." on the OS X context menu or use Stuffit Deluxe and choose Zip as the format.
  5. Suggest to your AOL using friends they consider getting a "Real ISP."
By-the-way, items 1 and 2 should be done when you are sending attachments to any PC user, not just AOL customers and they do no harm when sending attachments to Mac users.
 
perfessor101 said:
Be sure that in Mail you have checked the option to send "Always send Windows friendly attachments". You will find it in the Edit Menu > Attachments...
Click to expand...

All this time I've been checking the "Send Windows friendly attachment" checkbox in the attachment dialog ...

Thanks for the heads-up! :)
 
Thanks for the replies, Cheryl and perfessor. I had done all of the above, with the exception of clicking "attach" to send photos. Oddly, the result *looks* the same in Mail -- the photo is displayed in the body of the message. But I guess dragging a photo in from the desktop actually causes a different type of message to be sent than what is sent by clicking "attach." Bizarre. And a FPITA. Anyway, thanks again.
 
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