Graphics attachments in mail.app

[ericmurphy]

I've noticed an issue in mail.app that has me stumped. In general, when I've wanted to send someone e.g. a jpeg file, I've usually used the "attach" button and attached the file. Earlier (i.e., pre-2.x) versions of mail would display the graphics inline, as well as show them as attachments that could either be clicked on or saved.

But the new (Tiger) versions of mail.app seem a little less straightforward. If I use the "attach" button to send to another user of mail.app, the images don't display inline, but you can still do a slideshow or save them. Same thing if you drag them in from the Finder, although if you copy and paste them from, say, Photoshop, they'll display inline.

But no matter how I attach the images, if I send them to a Windows user, they'll sometimes display in the message body and sometimes not, but in no case do they show as actual attachments. Which means the recipient can't forward them, double-click on them to open them up in another application, or even save them. The only way the recipient can do anything with them at all is to do a screen capture. What's going on here? Is mail.app doing something completely broken and non-standard with graphics attachments?

 

[symphonix]

There is a new option in one of the Mail menus called "Send Windows-friendly attachments" which might be what you want. Its switched off by default.

Also, if you attach an image you can change it from displaying inline or as an attachment by right-clicking on it and choosing the menu option (eg: "Display this image as inline").

Sorry if my answer is a bit vague, I'm not at my Mac right now.

 

[ericmurphy]

I knew about the "Windows-Friendly Attachments" switch, but I didn't think of the "Display image inline" switch from the context menu. I'll give that a try.

 

[MisterMe]

I knew about the "Windows-Friendly Attachments" switch, but I didn't think of the "Display image inline" switch from the context menu. I'll give that a try.

The thing that you have to realize is that the display of graphics inline is feature of the email client. You as a sender have very little control over whether or not the recipient's email client will display an attached graphic inline or not.

 

[ericmurphy]

Understood. But a lot of times mail.app seems to include graphics in a way (using a particular MIME type?) that makes the graphic completely inaccessible to the user of a different mail client. The graphic isn't an attachment, and double-clicking on it doesn't do anything either. Even selecting the entire message body and copying and pasting doesn't seem to work.