Outlook 2003 email attachments

  • Thread starter Thread starter OldCabanaGuy
  • Start date Start date
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OldCabanaGuy

I'm getting complaints from email recepients that they are getting garbled
email from me when I send attachments. Some research indicates that I can
only send plain text to those people. I'm astounded that this can be the case
at this point in time. Does anyone have a work around they can suggest? Or
perhaps a different email client they can recommend? I'll be damned if I will
spend hundreds more to get Office 2007 to fix a problem that should not have
existed after 1990.
 
I'm getting complaints from email recepients that they are getting garbled
email from me when I send attachments. Some research indicates that I can
only send plain text to those people. I'm astounded that this can be the
case
at this point in time. Does anyone have a work around they can suggest? Or
perhaps a different email client they can recommend? I'll be damned if I
will
spend hundreds more to get Office 2007 to fix a problem that should not
have
existed after 1990.
Click to expand...

The first thing you should check is if you have any add-ins interfering by
starting Outlook in safe mode (Start>Run, put

outlook.exe /safe

in the Open field, click OK) and trying to send again. Also, if you have
your antivurus program configured to scan mail, uninstall it and reinstall
it without that feature.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Brian. My recipients are reporting they get a
file named Winmail.dat. Microsoft KB278061 says: "This problem occurs because
the Winmail.dat file is used to preserve formatting that the sending client
includes in the message, but the receiving client does not recognize the
Winmail.dat file. In Outlook, the Winmail.dat file includes Rich Text
Formatting (RTF) instructions. This type of formatting is used with the
Microsoft Outlook Rich Text format and when you use Microsoft Word as your
e-mail editor. " Their solution is to send plain text! I wonder if others
found they can work around by not using Word as their editor while sending
RTF, for example.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Brian. My recipients are reporting they get a
file named Winmail.dat. Microsoft KB278061 says: "This problem occurs
because
the Winmail.dat file is used to preserve formatting that the sending
client
includes in the message, but the receiving client does not recognize the
Winmail.dat file. In Outlook, the Winmail.dat file includes Rich Text
Formatting (RTF) instructions. This type of formatting is used with the
Microsoft Outlook Rich Text format and when you use Microsoft Word as your
e-mail editor. " Their solution is to send plain text! I wonder if others
found they can work around by not using Word as their editor while sending
RTF, for example.
Click to expand...

Are the recipients also Outlook users? Rich Text is specific to Outlook and
other mail clients cannot decode it. If you want formatted messages that
your recipients have a better chance of reading, use HTML.
 
It turns out that the only combination I could get to work was Plain Text/No
Word. IMHO, that's pretty pathetic for what is supposed to be their premier
communication app. I don't know if O2007 works better, and I refuse to throw
good money after bad to find out. My W7 download just finished; perhaps
Windows Mail will treat us better. Thanks for helping.
 
It turns out that the only combination I could get to work was Plain
Text/No
Word. IMHO, that's pretty pathetic for what is supposed to be their
premier
communication app. I don't know if O2007 works better, and I refuse to
throw
good money after bad to find out. My W7 download just finished; perhaps
Windows Mail will treat us better. Thanks for helping.
Click to expand...

Then I still think you're having a Rich Text formatting problem. Open the
Contact record of one of the people who are telling you about the
windmail.dat attachment. Double-click their e-mail address. Do you see an
"E-mail Properties" dialogue? If so, what's contained in the "Internet
format" drop-down at the bottom?
 
At this point I am sending only plain text to all of my contacts. Otherwise I
am in the position of trying to track the mail client(s) used by each of
them. That is not a headache I should have to own. (I add 4-5 contacts most
days) It is obvious from the KB article that MS knows that the Winmail.dat
architecture is a design flaw. I'm disappointed that they left 2003 owners
twisting in the breeze.
 
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