animated gif

[ Edited by Apple Discussions Moderator ]

Well, the reason is because, quite simply, the feature is broken. I'm not sure which Tiger update broke it, but broken it surely is.

I don't receive or send much in the way of animated gifs, but it did work before. Oddly, emails that I had sent in the past that contained animated gifs and that are still in my "sent" folder continue to properly display the animated gif I had enclosed. But composing a message and enclosing an animated gif now no longer works.

Additionally, there also seems to be a problem now with the junk mail filter in Mail in that it is ignoring it's own rules regarding the address panel, previous recipients and erstwhile marking of every draft and sent message as junk. Whether this is a contributing factor with Mail's animated gif handling problem is something I leave for more knowledgeable folks to determine.

Regarding some of the other responses in this thread: suggesting that users refrain from using animated gifs as a solution to the problem is simply absurd. If someone wants to send someone an animated gif, that's their business. Period. Mail used to support the feature, now it's broken. That's the problem, not the user.

Similarly, suggesting that users "try another email program" is equally unmoving. There shouldn't be a reason in the world why Apple can't provide the functionality that had been present in Mail, functionality that has now mysteriously disappeared.

Please. please don't tell users to simply dispense with sending animated gifs or use other email programs. If you have a solution that returns Mail to it's normal function, I'm sure many will be grateful for your wisdom. If you don't, then what exactly is the point?




1 gig emac superdrive Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Although Jaguar and Panther Mail renders HTML received, they do not support composing HTML which also includes when forwarding a message received that was composed in HTML including animated gifs.

Although you cannot compose complex HTML within the body of a message with Tiger Mail, RTF with Tiger Mail is HTML and supports forwarding a message received that was composed in HTML including animated gifs.

Reason for this: if you automatically render all HTML received (with any email client with OS X) and a spammer uses HTML for message composition and includes embedded images or objects that must be rendered from a remote server, if the Mail.app Junk Mail filter does not automatically mark the message as junk and you open the message, this can reveal that your email address is valid to the spammer causing more spam to be received.

Copied from Why HTML in E-Mail is a Bad Idea:

"Because it introduces accessibility problems. When you write in plain text, the receiving mail client renders the text in whatever font the reader chooses. When you format email with HTML, the sender controls the formatting. But this is a trap: You only think your message will render the same way to the viewer as it appears to the sender. In reality, the receiver can end up squinting because the font looks so tiny, or vice versa. HTML is not rendered the same way from one viewing client to the next - all guarantee of accessiblity goes out the window. This is especially problematic for visually impaired persons."

Because it can introduce security issues and trojan horses -- it's a gateway to danger as any Outlook user can tell you. HTML can include any number of scripts, dangerous links, controls, etc.



Powerbook G4 17" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I've got the same question...........when I had Panther, the Preview played animated gifs without any problem, but now it seems that some genius out there's decided that nobody needs the "play" feature anymore. I'd really REALLY like to know why.

I remember receiving some animated GIFs back in
10.3.x, and being able to see them animated, but was
NEVER able to forward them to others so they'd
receive it the same way in Mail. STILL can't...but
now I can't even see the animation when I open such
files in Preview, unless I open the "drawer" and hold
down my "down" cursor to watch it scroll the frames.
Why are animated GIFs such an impossibility?

[ Edited by Apple Discussions Moderator ]

Well, I did discover a way to watch animated Gif files........just use your Quicktime, All ya gotta do is open Quicktime then go to open file and click on whatever gif file you want to check out ( I make my own so this comes in real handy) on your desktop and the viewer should pop up with no problem. I know it's a round-about way of doing it, but at least it works.

Emac 1.25 GHz Combo Drive Mac OS X (10.4.6) Quicktime Pro, Toon Boom Studio 3.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2

I LOVE my Emac 1.25 GHz Combo drive! Mac OS X (10.4.6) Anybody wanna see an Inte-eMac raise your hands.........I do I do!!

I have discovered a way to forward animated gifs.
You can use the append feature instead of forwarding
normally. The append feature can be accessed via
the Edit menu (Append Selected Messages) or via the
append button (file icon with quotes). You can only
do this with something that comes to you from
someone else—you select the message and 'append' it
to the one you are sending out. For some reason,
the animation is present when you do it this way and
not when you forward normally. I have no idea why,
or why you can't just put an animated icon into any
email you wish and have it work. Seems pretty basic
to me.

Perhaps I am missing something or haven't tested the above solution thoroughly enough, but the use of "Append Selected Messages" seems to work fine for me. So I wonder why the discussion continues... Yes, I know "Forward" doesn't work for animated gifs, but "Append Selected Messages" sure seems to work fine!

If you want to send your own animated gif, just attach the animated gif to an email, mail it to yourself and, once you have received it back, select it, start a new message and use the "Append Selected Messages" menu command. Granted, this is a rather ugly workaround, but it does accomplish the task!

Cheers,

YourMacDoc



[ Edited by Apple Discussions Moderator ]

PowerMac G4 Dual 1.42 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4)