[voicebox]

Hi
I would appreciate some help and advice with a problem I am experiencing.
When I send a document as an attachment in Mail, the recipient is unable to open it ....
The same problem occcurs if I use Entourage. All my documents are created using Word - my Powerbook which I bought last November, was shipped without AppleWorks.
The only way I can send documents at the moment is by using the good old 'Copy and Paste' method!
Any thoughts would be most welcome.
voicebox.

[bbales]

I am assuming the recipient is a Windows user. Sigh.

I don't know about Mail, but in Entourage, under the "attachments" section, there should be a line saying something like "encode for any computer." Click on that slender bar of type and you'll get another section of alternatives. Encode your attachment for Windows users (or whatever is appropriate).

Then send. I'm not guaranteeing this will work. But it did work for me.

[dtriska]

Make sure you have the proper three letter extension on the Word documents (.doc). I believe Word still uses creator codes, so it may not force the extension on all documents.

Also, make sure you have "Send Windows-Friendly Attachments" checked in Mail. I can't remember which menu this is in, but I think it's Message. There's an attachment sub-menu where this option is located.

[voicebox]

Originally posted by dtriska:
Make sure you have the proper three letter extension on the Word documents (.doc). I believe Word still uses creator codes, so it may not force the extension on all documents.

Also, make sure you have "Send Windows-Friendly Attachments" checked in Mail. I can't remember which menu this is in, but I think it's Message. There's an attachment sub-menu where this option is located.

Hi dtriska,
Thanks for your help, but the "Send Windows Friendly Attachments" is checked - and all my Word documents have the .doc extension. I made sure of this when the problem first reared its ugly head .... It doesn't seem to make any difference, although I have no problem sending documents to my iMac or to other Mac users.
voicebox

[voicebox]

Originally posted by bbales:
I am assuming the recipient is a Windows user. Sigh.

I don't know about Mail, but in Entourage, under the "attachments" section, there should be a line saying something like "encode for any computer." Click on that slender bar of type and you'll get another section of alternatives. Encode your attachment for Windows users (or whatever is appropriate).

Then send. I'm not guaranteeing this will work. But it did work for me.

Hi bbales
Thanks for your help, I have not spotted this in Entourage, so I will try it - I'll let you know!
Although Mail is the 'fly in the ointment'!

[bergy]

Do you have the latest version of Word? The only other thing I can think of is your isp is somehow mangling them ...

[dtriska]

Does this problem occur with all Windows users, or just one? If it is just one, the problem is probably on his end, most likely in how his email client is handling attachments.

The only way around this, I would imagine, is to zip the files you want to attach. It adds another step, but you can always point out to your friend that the problem is on his end, and if his email client would handle attachments better, there wouldn't be this inconvenience.

[besson3c]

Originally posted by dtriska:
Does this problem occur with all Windows users, or just one? If it is just one, the problem is probably on his end, most likely in how his email client is handling attachments.

The only way around this, I would imagine, is to zip the files you want to attach. It adds another step, but you can always point out to your friend that the problem is on his end, and if his email client would handle attachments better, there wouldn't be this inconvenience.

If you decide to zip them, don't use Panther's built in zip. It doesn't seem to work with WinZip.

[zappy]

Originally posted by dtriska:
Also, make sure you have "Send Windows-Friendly Attachments" checked in Mail. I can't remember which menu this is in, but I think it's Message. There's an attachment sub-menu where this option is located.

What exactly does this option change in the way that the attachement is send?

[philm]

I think it only sends the data fork. People don't sem to get the '_filename.doc' file in addition to the 'filename.doc' file. Then again, I thought that OS X did not use forks...?