Attachments

What is an attachment?

An attachment is a file you send with an email message, much like an enclosure you would send with a letter (such as a photo, brochure, copy of a newsletter, etc.). When sending email, you can attach any information that is in digital form (such as a photo, map, program, or a formatted document). You can even send voice messages on Eudora via a program called PureVoice.

You need to send some information as an attachment because email protocols can only deal with fairly plain text. They can't deal with binary data, images, or special formatting commands used in word processors. To get around this limitation, email programs perform a little magic. They convert the digital document you want to send into text, using one of many conversion schemes for doing this.

How to send an attachment

Adding an attachment to a piece of email generally consists of these basic steps:

1. Address and create your email message.

2. Click on the "add an attachment" button or icon, or select the "attach" menu item.

Navigate through your computer's folders or directories until you locate what you want to attach. Probably the most difficult part of adding an attachment is locating where the item you want to attach is located. Many computer users don't get involved with where things are stored on their computer.
: For example, say you want to attach a photo you took of your family. You scanned the photo and saved it somewhere on your hard drive. Here are some examples of how to make your selection via Eudora Lite, Outlook Express, and Netscape Communicator.

3. Select the item you want to attach. When you have located the item, point to it and click on ATTACH.

4. Select a method of encoding the item or do nothing to accept the default method.

Your email software will convert the item you selected into an attachment. As soon as you click on SEND, both the message and the attachment will be on its way to your designated recipient(s).

Selecting a method of encoding is a complex subject. For now do nothing which selects the program's default method. We will look more closely at choosing another method below.

Receiving an attachment

Your email software has some means of letting you know that an attachment was included with the email. Sometimes the program displays a paper clip symbol, because a paper clip is the way you would attach your enclosure to a paper letter. Other programs display different icons, such as a page with the corner folded down. The icon may display on the list of email messages your see when you download your email, and will also display somewhere in the message, often in the header text.

Email programs store attachments received in a folder. The default [automatic] location for that folder is usually within the folder for the email program itself.

However, you can tell the program to store your attachments in any folder you want to make it easier for you to find.

If you want to know where your program automatically stores attachments, look in the Attachments section of the Settings, Preferences, or Options menu.

The most important criteria for creating a folder to store your attachments is that it is easy for you to find and remember where it is.

Opening an attachment

In theory, the software used by the person receiving the email will convert the attachment back into its original form. However, this doesn't always work perfectly. If your email program was able to decode an attachment, you should be able to open it and read it.

To open an attachment, click on the attachment icon. Your computer should run a program necessary to open the attachment.

Common problems opening attachments

Here are the most common problems you might have:

1. Your program is not able to convert the encoded file.

The item you want to send as an attachment has to be encoded so it can be sent as email. Unfortunately, there are a number of different methods of encoding the attachment.
Think of encoding as putting the item in a box with a special lock on it. The person who receives the email needs to have the key necessary to unlock the box.

If you receive an attachment for which you don't have the key (i.e., it wasn't encoded with a method your email software uses), you won't be able to unlock the box and read the contents of the attachment. Some email programs know more than one method of encoding, and can decode most attachments. Others know only one method.

Here are 2 methods for dealing with this problem.

Use matching encryption schemes. Some email programs give you the ability to choose to send an attachment using a method other than the default. If you are more experienced using email programs and someone could not open an attachment you sent, you might try using different encryption schemes to figure out which one will work.

Here is a method to test encryption schemes:

Locate a small file to send (remember: your recipient has to download it, so you don't want the download to take much time)
Create an email message telling the recipient you are sending an attachment using one of the methods your email program allows and asking the recipient to let you know if s/he was able to open the attachment.
Attach the small file to the email and instruct the program to use that method of encoding.
Send the message.
If the recipient is able to open it, you have found the correct encryption scheme. If the recipient can't open it, repeat the steps above using a different scheme.
Use the same email program. Make an agreement with the other person to use the same email program. Using the same program ensures that the same method of encoding is used, even when attachments are sent across platforms (MacOS to Windows)

There are free versions of many email programs. You can download them and keep multiple email programs on the same machine so you have them available when you need to exchange attachments.

To get around the problems people have receiving and reading attachments, some people send a document as an attachment - but also copy the text of the document into the email message. Although the formatting is lost in the email message version, the content is there and easy for everyone to read.

2. Your computer can convert the attachment, but doesn't have a program to open it.

If your computer can't open the attachment, you need to determine what program is needed to open it. If the person sending it tells you what kind of document it is (ex: "I'm enclosing a Word 6.0 document"), you will know which program to use to open it. However, this doesn't happen very often.
Figuring out what program is needed to use the attachment can be a real task. Look at the name of the file. If it has a three letter extension, this might indicate what type of file it is. Here is a table showing common extensions and what type of files they are. Once you know what kind of file it is, you will need to locate a program on your computer that can read that file type.
If your computer is unable to read a file without a 3 letter extension, you need to determine what kind of file it is. To do that, a Mac user can point to the file and click on GET INFO, and then either get a copy of that program or a similar program that can open the file. A PC user will need to contact the sender to determine what kind of file it is.

A note of caution: If you select one of the programs your Operating System suggests, the operating system will think you always want to open that type of file with that particular program. If that program cannot read a particular attachment file, you will have problems. (This can be fixed, but it is beyond the scope of this presentation.)

Macintosh users can exchange attachments with Wintel users. For more information about how to do that, click here.
A company called Dataviz makes programs for converting documents for both the MacOS and Windows. This program can be used to convert a document so if can be easily opened by an application different than the one that created it. Visit the Dataviz web site to learn more about these programs.

A good way to avoid problems your recipients might have in opening attachments is to know what program s/he has for reading the attachment, and convert your attachment to that format before you send it. If you don't know what kind of documents your recipients can read, try converting them to a commonly used format using the application you used to create the document or one of the Dataviz translation programs mentioned above. Mac Users: Remember, Macintoshes can read Wintel [PC] files; but Wintel machines [PCs] can't always read MacOS files; so you're safer if you translate before you send.