Mail.app question

[pedz]

Today's question / issue is with Mail. Folks I talk to embed gifs in their mail. I don't know if this is new for them or not. Also, they are coming from Lotus Notes so it might be doing some monkey business that Mail doesn't understand.

But instead of viewing the gif inline I see:

(Embedded image moved to file:blah002.gif)

and the image is at the bottom of the email. Is this new for Lion? As I said, I've never noticed this before. Is there some way to get the images to show up instead of the message?

Thanks.

 

[MisterMe]

Your question is too vague and non-descriptive to respond with a definitive answer. In general, there is no such thing as inline or embedded graphics in email. Except in the case of linked files in HTML mail, there are only attachments. Whether or not an attached graphics file is displayed inline is determined by the email program and not by the user.

A lot of novice email users waste a lot of time trying to perfect the formatting of email. It is a fool's errand. Except in the case of HTML mail, they have virtually no control over email formatting. Even in the case of HTML mail, the sender has only limited control. If you think that your production is that important, then send it as an attached PDF file. This virtually guarantees that your recipients will see exactly what you want them to see.

 

[Giaguara]

If something you email absolutely has to have a specific formatting, make the formatting correct in some editor, and save it as a PDF file. Then attach the PDF file to the email.

Email attachments tend to show as attachments, and that's not only for Mail.app of Mac OS X. Email was designed to be text only, so you can't be sure that even the fancy text colors, sizes, or fonts would be as the receiver sees them.