Changing how attachments are attached to outgoing email?

Hello everyone, my apologies in advance if this has already been answered somewhere, but I've been scouring the discussion forums for nearly an hour and don't really have more time to keep going.

I'm new to Mac, 6 days now. I'm having a bit of a problem: when I create a new email message and want to attach a file to it, the file is being 'previewed' in my email. Maybe not a big deal for some, but one thing I often need to attach is a massive PDF, not in file size but in pixels, 20,000-30,000 in width. Because Mail is trying to preview the attachment in the message, it is taking literally four minutes to do so, during which time I can't do anything else at the computer.

If I zip the PDF file, then attach the zip file, it shows as a file icon, but that isn't a very good solution - it would mean I need to zip every file I want to send that is previewable, meaning extra steps and more disk space usage.

Is there a way to attach these files without having to zip them, whereby the file will display on my end as an icon rather than as the actual file? I hope this makes sense. It's driving me crazy. My Mac experience so far has been excellent, but this is bordering on a showstopper for me.

I've read a ton of threads about email format, etc, and it doesn't matter if I do my emails as Plain or Rich Text, if I'm creating one from scratch or replying, who the recepient is, etc, it is always previewing the PDF. There's got to be a setting somewhere which will allow me to stop seeing the file contents in my email message.

Thanks to anyone who can help with this issue 🙂.

MacBook 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

MacBook 2GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Apr 17, 2007 1:54 PM

22 replies

Apr 20, 2007 4:54 PM in response to Allan Sampson

The point is being missed. A message is not being sent. It's a file, anything up to 235 kb in size . If the attachment, for example 'Weekly Report.pdf' is sent it is received as 'Weekly Report'. The 'pdf' is lost.

Re loading, on the Mail message the Adobe icon appears.
under the icon is this message
(Loading (name of file) .pdf (175 kbs)
If that is sent the '.pdf' is not attached.

There is no spinning ball. The message is either sent or Cancel is used.

Apr 20, 2007 5:35 PM in response to PierreR

Thanks PierreR, your message has answered my query.
It is interesting and bears out my contention that the option MailPDF doesn't work. An attempt was made to use Mail PDF to sent 5 to 8 pages files. No file is 1 page. It also answers the question what is happening when the message comes up under the Adobe icon (Loading ......file name .pdf (size 175kb). MailPDF is limited to one page and can't handle the rest of the file. It's been noticed that the message reads (size 175kbs) whereas at the bottom of the screen file size may be 235kbs.
Is Apple going to correct this or is there a solution

Apr 20, 2007 5:51 PM in response to rex thomas1

My "Mail PDF" test included selecting a long thread here at the Discussions and at the Safari menu bar going to File > Print.

At the Print selection, I selected the PDF button and at the menu window that appears, I selected "Mail PDF".

The PDF file created was attached to a new Mail message automatically. It was a multiple page PDF file - 5 or 6 pages. The attached PDF file appeared as an icon in the message body which I opened from within the message before the message was sent.

I sent this message to my business email account that I access with Outlook on a Dell notebook running Windows XP.

The message and attached PDF file was received and I was able to open the attached file without any problems.

My test bears out my contention that the "Mail PDF" does indeed work as intended regardless if the PDF file includes multiple pages and that you may have an OS X system issue or problem that isn't related to Mail.

The Mail application displays all image/photo and single page PDF attachments inline or viewed in place within the body of the message by default which is not related and has no bearing on the "Mail PDF" function.

More than a single page PDF file attachment will appear as an attached file only (as an icon) in the message body - no different from a Word or Excel file attachment and as my test bears out, using the "Mail PDF" function worked without any issue with a multiple page (5-6 page) PDF file attachment.

Apr 20, 2007 10:13 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks Allan, now we appear to be getting somewhere.
You post "The PDF file created was attached to a new Mail message automatically." Yes that occurs.
You then post " It was a multiple page PDF file - 5 or 6 pages. The attached PDF file appeared as an icon in the message body which I opened from within the message before the message was sent. "
From this you appear to have received the PDF file in total. Was the file named and .pdf appended? No file size given? Because this is not what is occurring in either my case or PierreR's.
Further, why is it necessary to open the message before sending it?

I've taken a 526kb file named 'Weekly Report'. Chosen Print/ Mail PDF. Mail has loaded. The Adobe icon has come up in the Mail message. Again with the message 'Loading etc'. Clicked on the icon and the complete PDF File was there. Charts etc, no corruption. Then went to the Menu and selected 'Attach file.' Eudora loaded and an Eudora message appeared on the screen with an 'Loading ...Weekly Report.pdf' attachment in the Eudora attachment space.
It's not been sent because someone is going to ask,"What's with the loading ..?"
I'm baffled. Is there an option to limit the size of files? It can't be the update to 4.9 because it was the same under 4.8.
Thanks again

Apr 20, 2007 10:46 PM in response to rex thomas1

The file was named including the .pdf extension along with the size of the file.

You ask why is it necessary to open the message before sending it - did you mean to ask why is it necessary to open the attached file before sending the message?

It isn't necessary to open the attached PDF file before sending the message but I did so to make sure the file was complete, etc.

When I choose "Mail PDF", a new Mail message is launched automatically with the PDF file attached and available in the message body. If the attached file is a single page PDF, the attachment will appear inline or viewed in place which is the default and normal with Mail.

More than a single page PDF file appears as an icon in the message body when attached.

Clicked on the icon and the complete PDF File was there. Charts etc, no corruption. Then went to the Menu and selected 'Attach file.' Eudora loaded and an Eudora message appeared on the screen with an 'Loading ...Weekly Report.pdf' attachment in the Eudora attachment space.

This is where you lose me. If the PDF file (icon) is available in a new Mail application message after selecting "Mail PDF", why are you going to the Menu and selecting "Attach File"? The PDF file is already attached to a new Mail application message. Using Menu > Attach File brings up a Finder window to locate/choose another file that you want to attach to the message that already includes the PDF file attachment created when selecting "Mail PDF".

With the Mail application, where is this message "Loading, etc." available?

Apr 21, 2007 7:06 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Allan
From what you are posting I have a problem with Mail PDF in that it doesn't load large files. In my last Post the PDF file 'Weekly Report' was 15 pages, size 732KB. What shows up on the Mail message is "Loading ............. .pdf (size 539KB) You can walk away. Have a cup of coffee and the loading is never completed so that under the icon is Weekly Report .pdf. This is probably the same problem that PierreR has encountered.
However, if the icon is clicked on I find the whole file has loaded. But the message (Loading etc cannot be deleted and the correct title inserted.) That was the reason Attached file was used. To see if the file could be named.

The question now is why doesn't Mail complete the loading of the file when MailPDF is used. If Save as PDF or Compress PDF are used the file is converted without any problems.

Apr 21, 2007 9:26 PM in response to rex thomas1

As a test I did the same with a 43 page Word document that is 460KB in size before using "Mail PDF".

The 43 page PDF file was attached to a new Mail message in a matter of seconds and the file size increased to 561KB.

There was no "loading" message and everything worked as designed and without issue so I believe you have another problem that has nothing to do with Mail.

When was the last time you ran Disk First Aid repair via Disk Utility when booted from your install disc, repaired disk permissions or used a system and user cache cleaning utility?

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Changing how attachments are attached to outgoing email?