winmail.dat

[Grace]

Today, I found out that, when sending from Outlook to some systems (AOL, hotmail, LOTUS notes), a winmail.dat file gets added. I would not mind that much, but it also seems to have supressed an actual PDF file I had attached. After some research, I found that a quick fix is to send the e-mail in plain text, rather than rich text. Two links that address this problem are included in this e-mail. I have quickly read them and remain confused:

http://www.brooklyn.com/theatre-sound/winmail.html
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q138/0/53.ASP&NoWebContent=1

In most cases I am sending an e-mail to such a user for the first time and do not know what system, such as LOTUS notes, he/she is using. And I kind of need to have rich text. If that recipient has never sent me an e-mail, is there any way to know if there will be a problem using rich text and a file attachment when i send them an e-mail? Or am I forced to always play it safe and use only Plain Text?

Also, I am amazed that, despite sending hundreds of similar e-mails to different and unknown recipients in the past, I have not run up against this problem before. Does anyone know why that might be?

Pls help
Grace

 

[John Brandt]

Winmail.dat is a data file which contains all of the style elements
from your message that was no doubt created HTML or RTF format. The
e-mail clients you mentioned cannot handle these formats and the
winmail.dat file gets created and basic text displayed on their
screen.

Sadly, yes, in this day and age, I am finding that I have to send
messages to mixed groups (folks who are not all using Outlook) in
plain text format to avoid confusion. I am also routinely cutting and
pasting the contents of attachments (presuming they are simple word
processed document) in to the body of the e-mail in plain text also.

The PDF issue may be something unrelated. A number of mail servers are
now screening out various attachments due to the virus plaque. It
could be the PDFs are being screened out. From what I have heard, ZIP
files are apparently not routinely screened out, so you may have to
attach the file in that format.

An alternative might be to save the attachment as an HTML file. But,
again, I have heard that ZIP files can still apparently get through
because the receiver has to actively open them where many clients will
automatically open PDFs or other types of attachments which may or may
not contain a virus.

Good luck


jeb

 

[Diane Poremsky]

why do you need to use rich text? In most cases, HTML format will work properly and give you some rich-text capabilities.

RTF should not be used to send internet mail - even if the other person has Outlook, their mail server may remove the tnef information in the message and they'll get plain text.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)





Today, I found out that, when sending from Outlook to some systems (AOL, hotmail, LOTUS notes), a winmail.dat file gets added. I would not mind that much, but it also seems to have supressed an actual PDF file I had attached. After some research, I found that a quick fix is to send the e-mail in plain text, rather than rich text. Two links that address this problem are included in this e-mail. I have quickly read them and remain confused:

http://www.brooklyn.com/theatre-sound/winmail.html
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q138/0/53.ASP&NoWebContent=1

In most cases I am sending an e-mail to such a user for the first time and do not know what system, such as LOTUS notes, he/she is using. And I kind of need to have rich text. If that recipient has never sent me an e-mail, is there any way to know if there will be a problem using rich text and a file attachment when i send them an e-mail? Or am I forced to always play it safe and use only Plain Text?

Also, I am amazed that, despite sending hundreds of similar e-mails to different and unknown recipients in the past, I have not run up against this problem before. Does anyone know why that might be?

Pls help
Grace

 

[Grace]

Does HTML format NOT have these problems that rich text has? I thought the links I oringinally inlcuded suggested the problem was with anything but plain text.

Also, do you also think (like John Brandt) the PDF file being suppressed is a different problem? When I change to plain text, the PDF comnes through perfectly to AOL and hotmail. With rich text, it is supressed on both.

Thanks,
G
why do you need to use rich text? In most cases, HTML format will work properly and give you some rich-text capabilities.

RTF should not be used to send internet mail - even if the other person has Outlook, their mail server may remove the tnef information in the message and they'll get plain text.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)





Today, I found out that, when sending from Outlook to some systems (AOL, hotmail, LOTUS notes), a winmail.dat file gets added. I would not mind that much, but it also seems to have supressed an actual PDF file I had attached. After some research, I found that a quick fix is to send the e-mail in plain text, rather than rich text. Two links that address this problem are included in this e-mail. I have quickly read them and remain confused:

http://www.brooklyn.com/theatre-sound/winmail.html
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q138/0/53.ASP&NoWebContent=1

In most cases I am sending an e-mail to such a user for the first time and do not know what system, such as LOTUS notes, he/she is using. And I kind of need to have rich text. If that recipient has never sent me an e-mail, is there any way to know if there will be a problem using rich text and a file attachment when i send them an e-mail? Or am I forced to always play it safe and use only Plain Text?

Also, I am amazed that, despite sending hundreds of similar e-mails to different and unknown recipients in the past, I have not run up against this problem before. Does anyone know why that might be?

Pls help
Grace

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

HTML shouldn't cause the same problems in this case...most e-mail programs
can handle HTML these days, while the Rich Text format used by Outlook is
proprietary to Outlook. And the loss of your PDF attachment is definitely
related to the Rich Text issue. Try sending in HTML with the PDF attachment
and see if it works better for you -- it should.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


In

Does HTML format NOT have these problems that rich text has? I
thought the links I oringinally inlcuded suggested the problem was
with anything but plain text.

Also, do you also think (like John Brandt) the PDF file being
suppressed is a different problem? When I change to plain text, the
PDF comnes through perfectly to AOL and hotmail. With rich text, it
is supressed on both.

Thanks,
G
why do you need to use rich text? In most cases, HTML format will
work properly and give you some rich-text capabilities.

RTF should not be used to send internet mail - even if the other
person has Outlook, their mail server may remove the tnef information
in the message and they'll get plain text.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)





Today, I found out that, when sending from Outlook to some
systems (AOL, hotmail, LOTUS notes), a winmail.dat file gets added.
I would not mind that much, but it also seems to have supressed an
actual PDF file I had attached. After some research, I found that a
quick fix is to send the e-mail in plain text, rather than rich text.
Two links that address this problem are included in this e-mail. I
have quickly read them and remain confused:

http://www.brooklyn.com/theatre-sound/winmail.html

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q138/0/53.ASP&NoWebContent=1

In most cases I am sending an e-mail to such a user for the first
time and do not know what system, such as LOTUS notes, he/she is
using. And I kind of need to have rich text. If that recipient has
never sent me an e-mail, is there any way to know if there will be a
problem using rich text and a file attachment when i send them an
e-mail? Or am I forced to always play it safe and use only Plain
Text?

Also, I am amazed that, despite sending hundreds of similar
e-mails to different and unknown recipients in the past, I have not
run up against this problem before. Does anyone know why that might
be?

Pls help
Grace

 

[Grace]

Thanks, it does seem to work with HTML. Another thing I notice, is that,
when in rich text, if I add a file (by clicking on that paperclip), it
appears within the text of the message, whereas with plain text, Outlook
adds a separate box called "Attach" below the subject box after I attach a
file. Or do you think there is some other cause of this?

Perhaps, the file being within the rich text is why it gets lost.

D

HTML shouldn't cause the same problems in this case...most e-mail programs
can handle HTML these days, while the Rich Text format used by Outlook is
proprietary to Outlook. And the loss of your PDF attachment is definitely
related to the Rich Text issue. Try sending in HTML with the PDF attachment
and see if it works better for you -- it should.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


In

Does HTML format NOT have these problems that rich text has? I
thought the links I oringinally inlcuded suggested the problem was
with anything but plain text.

Also, do you also think (like John Brandt) the PDF file being
suppressed is a different problem? When I change to plain text, the
PDF comnes through perfectly to AOL and hotmail. With rich text, it
is supressed on both.

Thanks,
G
why do you need to use rich text? In most cases, HTML format will
work properly and give you some rich-text capabilities.

RTF should not be used to send internet mail - even if the other
person has Outlook, their mail server may remove the tnef information
in the message and they'll get plain text.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)





Today, I found out that, when sending from Outlook to some
systems (AOL, hotmail, LOTUS notes), a winmail.dat file gets added.
I would not mind that much, but it also seems to have supressed an
actual PDF file I had attached. After some research, I found that a
quick fix is to send the e-mail in plain text, rather than rich text.
Two links that address this problem are included in this e-mail. I
have quickly read them and remain confused:

http://www.brooklyn.com/theatre-sound/winmail.html

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q138/0/53.ASP&NoWebContent=1

In most cases I am sending an e-mail to such a user for the first
time and do not know what system, such as LOTUS notes, he/she is
using. And I kind of need to have rich text. If that recipient has
never sent me an e-mail, is there any way to know if there will be a
problem using rich text and a file attachment when i send them an
e-mail? Or am I forced to always play it safe and use only Plain
Text?

Also, I am amazed that, despite sending hundreds of similar
e-mails to different and unknown recipients in the past, I have not
run up against this problem before. Does anyone know why that might
be?

Pls help
Grace

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

You're right about the format type affecting whether the attachment icon
appears in the message body or in its own pane or field. Rich Text is the
only format that puts the icon in the body. I'm not sure if that's why the
attachment gets lost when the RTF message is received by another mail
client, but it does get mixed up in the formatting somehow...

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


In

Thanks, it does seem to work with HTML. Another thing I notice, is
that, when in rich text, if I add a file (by clicking on that
paperclip), it appears within the text of the message, whereas with
plain text, Outlook adds a separate box called "Attach" below the
subject box after I attach a file. Or do you think there is some
other cause of this?

Perhaps, the file being within the rich text is why it gets lost.

D

HTML shouldn't cause the same problems in this case...most e-mail
programs can handle HTML these days, while the Rich Text format used
by Outlook is proprietary to Outlook. And the loss of your PDF
attachment is definitely related to the Rich Text issue. Try
sending in HTML with the PDF attachment and see if it works better
for you -- it should.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


In

Does HTML format NOT have these problems that rich text has? I
thought the links I oringinally inlcuded suggested the problem was
with anything but plain text.

Also, do you also think (like John Brandt) the PDF file being
suppressed is a different problem? When I change to plain text, the
PDF comnes through perfectly to AOL and hotmail. With rich text, it
is supressed on both.

Thanks,
G
why do you need to use rich text? In most cases, HTML format will
work properly and give you some rich-text capabilities.

RTF should not be used to send internet mail - even if the other
person has Outlook, their mail server may remove the tnef
information in the message and they'll get plain text.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)





Today, I found out that, when sending from Outlook to some
systems (AOL, hotmail, LOTUS notes), a winmail.dat file gets added.
I would not mind that much, but it also seems to have supressed an
actual PDF file I had attached. After some research, I found that a
quick fix is to send the e-mail in plain text, rather than rich
text. Two links that address this problem are included in this
e-mail. I have quickly read them and remain confused:

http://www.brooklyn.com/theatre-sound/winmail.html

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q138/0/53.ASP&NoWebContent=1