Attachements in Mail

What you're seeing is an artifact of Mail.app, so don't sweat it.

When you add an attachment, Mail.app looks to see if it understands the file format as something it can display (such as an image file). If it can, it renders the attachment in the message so you can see it.

However, other mail readers may or may not behave the same. You cannot predict how it will appear since you don't necessarily know which mail client the recipient will be using - they may use a client that renders images inline, or one that shows them as links in the header or footer.

If it truly bothers you, compress the attachments into a .zip archive. Mail.app won't bother decompressing the contents to try and display them, so they'll always appear as a link.

To send zipped attachments is not a satisfactory solution to this problem. I have been using Entourage sending attachments for 10 years, and I hardly ever had any problems. Attachments simply show up in the file format they are sent in, as such in the attachment field. Because I started using Apple's Address book and iCal, I recently tried switching to Apple Mail. Since I did, family and friends receiving pictures sent as jpg's don't like them pasted into the text (if they can open them...). I don't like to see attachments pasted all over my emails when composing them either. I just received a zipped attachment from another Mac user, and like many others I don't like receiving attachments this way. An app which should work smoothly with the rest of Apple's applications, is simply disappointing so far. I really hope someone can come up with a better solution than zipping (which does not seem work well with iPhoto).

Send the message in Plain Text. Take a message in the Sent mailbox to someone who has reported the issue, click on Message/Send Again, then on Format/Make Plain Text and send. I think this is likely to correct the problem which probably is related to your sending Rich Text Format, which those using Outlook or Outlook Express often have problems with.

Ernie

Sending it in plain text may solve some problems for recipients using PC/Windows, but it certainly does not change the way attachments show up/are treated both in my email while composing it and in the email to the person receiving it. So far I have not seen any good solution convincing me that Mail works well with attachments. It simply is a poorly constructed application, and Apple has no reason to be proud. Even though I am a relatively fresh user of Mail, I have more than 20 years experience with Macs/Apple. When I occasionally have tried Mail during the last few years, I have noticed the strange way it treats attachments, but I have assumed that there was some setting which I had missed. Unfortunately I have lately learned that this is not the fact. In addition, my native language of Norwegian is not offered in spelling and grammar. I had to resort to Aspell and import it into Mail. Microsoft Entourage and Outlook have offered Norwegian and many other languages for more than a decade! When is Apple going to recognize the fact that many users are not satisfied with Mail?

I have been using Mail since the first version of OSX -- it works great in my opinion, and I like it better than any other email client I have used.

Images View in Place as you compose, but are true attachments. Whether the recipient sees them View in Place or Inline View is controlled by the recipient's email client, and not how you send.

The issue with RTF is with the recipient email client for the most part. Outlook even has problems with RTF from Outlook Express, and the RTF MS uses is proprietary. Neither do well with RTF from other sources. AOL is well known to not be agreeable with RTF, whether coming from Macs, or not.

Can't argue with your complaint about supported languages.

Ernie

Ernie,
To expect recipients with PCs/Windows to change their e-mail settings so they can receive attachments from users of Apple's Mail in a more normal manner, is overdoing it if you ask me. Just the last couple of days I have heard from 5 recipients that the attachments either come pasted in the email and will not open in a normal manner, or they can't be opened at all. One of them was a Mac user, who obviously had made Mail send attachments when replying. When she wrote me that her mother was unable to open my pictures, her email came back to me with question mark symbols instead of the pictures I sent her, also unable to be opened. In other words this also causes malfunctions between Macs. My contacts wondered why the pictures I sent no longer appear the way they used to (when using Entourage).

It is your privilege to enjoy these features in Mail, as much as it is mine (and I see quite a few others with me) have the privilege not to. I and the others participating in these discussions have been looking for a way of making Mail behave in a more normal manner. It is not a satisfactory solution to tell everyone we send attachments to that any problems they may have is due to their own email application.

I have installed Mozilla Thunderbird alongside Mail and just use that if I have to send a mail with attachments. The attachments issue is a horrible feature of Mail.

The frequent issue when using RTF with some recipients is not limited to sending with Apple Mail, nor from Macs. I would be able to send to these same recipients without issue I would fully expect. But I would do so using Plain Text, and Windows Friendly of course. And they would not have to change any settings -- don't know where you got the idea I was suggesting that?

Ernie

Btw, I send regularly to those using Windows, including my wife -- but she uses Thunderbird.

Ernie,
Yes, I saw that someone suggested sending the email as Plain Text yesterday. I was on the phone with my brother who is a PC/Windows user, and I agreed to test it then and there, hoping this was it.FYI, I have had the Windows friendly option checked all along. Unfortunately this only possibly solves the problem of the recipient not being able to view/open the attachments. They still arrived pasted in his email, not appearing as an attachment which one can click on and open with the name the file was sent with. He reported not ever having this problem receiving mail sent by other Windows users or with Entourage. So far I unfortunately, like so many others taking part in this discussion, have not found a satisfactory solution. Using web based mail or Entourage when sending pictures, is not a satisfactory option for me. I need to have all my sent mail in one mailbox. I realize that the only realistic solution is if Apple at some point decides to fix this feature (described as 'horrible' by FarawaySA) .

Could you send me a similar message -- I think something else may be involved. You can find an email address for me by clicking on my name to the left, and looking in the bio line of the resulting Profile.

Ernie

I have had Mail attachment problems forever until I found Apple Mail Attachments Iconizer. This little application makes Mail have "nice behavior" so attachments can be handled properly by recipients' mail clients. The application runs in the background so you don't have to do anything. Go to http://lokiware.info/Mail-Attachments-Iconizer and check it out.

I have been enjoying our email exchanges, and will continue to do so as needed. However, I thought I needed to make some comments here in the forum.

I see little utility to Mail Iconizer and will explain below, and I continue to believe the first practice is to simply send in Plain Text and to place all attachments last in the message.

Mail Iconizer has no impact on what Mail will display in the received message -- I have tested messages sent from those using it before. Interestingly, it has little to no impact to what will display with Thunderbird on my PC with Vista -- the images would continue to Inline View.

In email jargon, the most common nomenclature for an image viewing in the body of the message is "Inline View" -- in Thunderbird for one example, there is a setting to have Inline View on or off. Otherwise image files will display open in the message. This was the same for those sent with and without Mail Iconizer.

Apple uses the nomenclature of View in Place and View as Icon -- doesn't change what is sent to others.

The files sent when using Mail Iconizer will have a different header, which instead of having Content-Disposition: Inline will have Content-Disposition: Attachment. In my examinations, this might help with a recipient using Lotus Notes, and maybe AOL. But with any modern email client, should not matter. It is an open question what versions of Outlook and Outlook Express could be considered "modern".

View as Icon has no impact on what you send, but only what you see on your Mac. No impact on the recipient.

Ernie

I am not an expert on this but Mail Attachment Iconizer has cured a number of attachment problems PC recipients have had just opening and saving my attachments. Iconizer does change the Content-Disposition in the outgoing message in a few tests I have run. If you change "view in place/in line" in a mail message and then send the message the Content-Disposition changes in the sent message. I am using Iconizer 2.2.2.