winmail.dat

[Prius90]

I get some e-mail with winmail.dat in the 'Attachment' line and nothing will
open them...even if they are in 'Word'. Most things are opened with Adobe,
but 'Word' [that I would rather use] isn't listed as as option to use. I have
Vista, thank you.

 

[mac]

I get some e-mail with winmail.dat in the 'Attachment' line and nothing
will
open them...even if they are in 'Word'. Most things are opened with Adobe,
but 'Word' [that I would rather use] isn't listed as as option to use. I
have
Vista, thank you.

winmail.dat files are created when sending from MS Outlook, WM can't read
them.

Tell the Outlook sender to resend using plain text.

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

I get some e-mail with winmail.dat in the 'Attachment' line and nothing
will
open them...even if they are in 'Word'. Most things are opened with Adobe,
but 'Word' [that I would rather use] isn't listed as as option to use. I
have
Vista, thank you.

If the mail was sent from Outlook using Outlook's RTF format then Outlook
Express will never find the attachment. Outlook Express does not understand
Outlook's RTF format. Ask the Outlook user to please use Plain Text,
especially when sending attachments.

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP-P/I]]

As the others have explained, Winmail.DAT comes from only one source,
Microsoft Outlook when its set to use Rich Text Format to compose email.
Outlook is the only email program that understands this format, all other
email clients get either the Winmail.DAT attachment which can't be opened,
or get no attachment at all. Tell the sender to use either HTML or Plain
Text to compose messages and that will stop happening. In the meanwhile,
there are several decoder programs that will let you open this attachment
and read it:

http://www.slipstick.com/addins/decoders.htm
Decoder Tools

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Winmail.dat files are proprietary files created by the Outlook program.
Other email programs are not able to open those files.
Tell the Outlook sender to resend using plain text.
For more on this, see http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/richtext.htm

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

The explanation for that problem is here:

http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/qt/et121705.htm

The basic problem is that Outlook, by default, uses a proprietary
form of encoding attachments, which is not readable by non-Outlook
mail clients. Ask the sender to resend the attachment using either
plain text (preferred) or standard HTML format.

Note: Most webmail servers are able to convert Outlook attachments
to standard format.

Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
------------------------------------------------------

"KDM" wrote in message

Winmail.dat!!
Puzzle me this, Riddler!
I have a vista computer at home. When I get my webmail (network
solutions) there, the wordperfect email attachments from my work
computer (xp, Outlook 2003, sending in html, not rtf!) are converted to
winmail.dat files. Now here's the strange part: if I go into my
webmail on my work computer, they are not converted to winmail.dat.
Both accesses to the webmail are thru Firefox. So, it seems to have
something to do w/ that Vista computer. One final observation (perhaps
totally irrelevant): no such conversion occurs w/ my gmail account.
Any ideas? Thanks,
KDM

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

If you view that message sent from Outlook with another Outlook
email program or via webmail, the Winmail.dat file is automatically
converted to standard attachment format.

Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
------------------------------------------------------

"KDM" wrote in message

Gary,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my post (1st
ever).
One question I am left w/ is this: Why are my webmail attachments on
my work computer not converted to winmail.dat when those very same
attachments are in webmail.dat when viewed at home (vista) using the
same brower (firefox)? Thanks again.
Kevin
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Different webmail providers? They don't all have the same features.
If it's the same webmail provider, then I don't know what would
cause the difference.

Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
------------------------------------------------------

"KDM" wrote in message

Gary, Thanks again. I still don't understand why if I view it in
webmail on one computer (xp, has outlook 2003) it is converted, and if i
view it in webmail on another computer (vista, no outlook), using the
same browser, it is not converted.
Feel free to ignore this post. I know you must be getting tired and
maybe I am being dense.
Thanks again.
KDM