Mail attachment

R. Ramshankar

I use Microsoft Outlook to send and receive e-mails. Whenever I send e-mails with attachments (.doc files,.xls files etc), the recipient receives the attachment as winmail.dat files if he uses any mail softwares/application other than Microsoft Outlook, for instance Netscape. If he receives the same mail using Microsoft Outlook, he is able to get the attachments in the same form sent by me. Why does this happen?

Solution by NIIT

The .dat file contains formatting code that is sent by someone using Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange. It usually does not contain any useful information other than RTF formatting code that permits two MS Exchange users to send e-mail messages with formatting such as bold and italics. When a user sends an e-mail with this formatting option to someone who is not using MS Outlook, a winmail.dat file appears as an attachment (even though no attachment was sent). Additionally, when a separate attachment, such as a Word 97 document is also sent from the user on MS Outlook to a non-MS Outlook user, the attachment and winmail.dat file may be combined into a single winmail.dat file.

To overcome this problem, please follow these steps while sending an e-mail from MS Outlook: - 1. In Outlook, create a new e-mail message. 2. In the `To' box, type the e-mail address of the recipient. 3. Select the `Tools' menu and select `Check Names'. (The full name of the e-mail address appears in the `To' box.) 4. Right-click the e-mail address and select `Properties...'. (The e-mail address Properties' dialog box appears, where the e-mail address is the e-mail address selected.) 5. Un-check the `Always send to this recipient in Microsoft Exchange rich-text format' check box (see image below). 6. Click `OK' to close the e-mail address Properties' dialog box. 7. Complete the message and click `Send'.