[Macpartners] Attachment annoyances

Fri Sep 9 13:32:58 EDT 2011

Thanks, Andrew & others - I didn't realize that "rich text" = html...  computers are getting more complicated to use, not simpler!

Marion

On Sep 9, 2011, at 8:02 AM, Andrew Munchbach wrote:

> Hi Marion--
> 
> This happens when an email sender puts an inline attachment in a plain
> text email.  Everything above the attachment displays as expected,
> everything below the attachment gets shunted into a text file.  If a user
> sends you an email using Rich Text this will not happen.  You can set your
> instance of Apple Mail to always compose messages in Rich Text and usually
> when an email recipient responds to your message it will use the same
> format.  That setting can be found in:
> 
> Mail > Preferences > Composing > Message Format > Rich Text
> 
> If you prefer to send plain text email messages and want to ensure this
> does not happen to people you send messages to you can toggle the "Always
> Insert Attachments at End of Message" flag.  That can be found under:
> 
> Edit > Attachments (see screen shot)
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> Andrew
> - - -
> Andrew Munchbach
> Macintosh Platform Coordinator
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> IS&T | Systems Engineering | SWRT
> amunch at mit.edu
> +1 (617) 324-4571
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/8/11 8:38 PM, "Marion Leeds Carroll" <mlcar at MIT.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks, everyone -
>> 
>> Thanks, folks!
>> 
>> Okay, it looks like the attachment -disappearance problem is standard,
>> and more trouble to fix than it's worth (if it can even be fixed, really)
>> 
>> But nobody has addressed the other attachment problem:
>> 
>> If anyone sends me an attachment, everything below the attachment
>> (signature, but also as much of the text of the message as sits below the
>> attachment) arrives attached as either a pdf or a Dreamweaver file.  To
>> read the entire email, I have to open this "web page" attachment and
>> translate it into the text that the sender was trying to send me - even
>> if all that's actually present in the html is </body>.
>> 
>> 
>> Apparently some email programs send messages as HTML instead of plain
>> text.  (If Applemail has this option, I haven't seen it - although I have
>> chosen to "display remote images in html messages")
>> 
>> Am I at the mercy of emailers who send their messages as HTML? Or is
>> there some way that I can receive html messages translated into text so I
>> can read them?
>> 
>> Thanks -
>> 
>> Marion
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> On Sep 8, 2011, at 5:47 PM, Brian Bulmer wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> We are actually currently seeing this problem occur fairly frequently on
>> all three main mail apps, but the issue is a bit different in each client.
>> Apple Mail will sometimes not show the attachment originally, but it
>> should show it a short time afterwards. This however can be resolved on
>> the mailbox that is having the issues by highlighting the mailbox in
>> question and then selecting 'Mailbox-Rebuild" form the main menu.
>> Following this, quit the app, and navigate to your User/Library/Mail
>> folder (example: yours may be:  Macintosh HD/Users/mlcar/Library/Mail/  )
>> and delete the "Envelope Index" file. Then relaunch mail and this should
>> be resolved.
>> 
>> Outlook 2010: When attachements are found in your mailbox that it has a
>> hard time decoding, it can sometimes take quite a bit of time sitting
>> there on "Updating your personal folders". Simple solution here is to
>> restart the outlook client. If this does not work right away, a reboot
>> can resolve the matter, but it may not be a permanent solution.
>> 
>> Outlook 2011Mac  When attachments are included in an outgoing message and
>> they are not at the end of the message, or otherwise just aren't liked
>> for some reason, the outgoing mail server will reject the message and ask
>> if you would like to try sending the message again, which ends up failing
>> each time. The solution is ironically the same for the Mac Outlook
>> version, restart the client, if no luck at that point, restart the
>> computer. A simple relaunch of outlook usually resolves the issue. If you
>> simply cant get the email with the attachment out, delete the composed
>> message and your remainder of your queued messages should be sent.
>> 
>> For the attachments, this depends on the senders client settings. There
>> are a few mail clients that if attachments are inline in the message,
>> they will not encode properly, or decode on the receiving end properly.
>> For Apple Mail: 
>> If you put all attachments at the end of message. Apple Mail will encode
>> correctly.
>> So, to be friendly to other clients, esp. Windows clients. Please keep
>> the following 2 options selected:
>> 1. Edit->Attachments->Always Send Windows Friendly Attachments
>> 2. Edit->Attachments->Always Insert Attachments at The End of Message
>> 
>> 
>> These quirks are not extremely fun to have around, but they are
>> widespread across many institutions. Mail clients and servers are in no
>> means perfect, and have a difficult time interpreting mail from a
>> multitude of different clients across multiple Operating Systems,
>> languages, with included pictures, music, stationary, html, code
>> snippets, etc. It seems that these issues are occurring more just
>> recently, but I feel they're doing a fairly decent job trying to keep up.
>> It all comes back to the idea that they al need to get on the same sheet
>> of music in order for everyone to play nicely in the sandbox that is the
>> internet. Computers aren't perfect, they're made by humans.
>> 
>> We'll get though it and forget about it sometime later, like all the past
>> great viruses and data breaches.  ;-)
>> 
>> Just my 2 cents..
>> 
>> Brian Bulmer
>> Managed IT Services (DITR)
>> Information Services and Technology, MIT
>> Office: (617) 253-2163
>> bbulmer at mit.edu  
>> <http://ist.mit.edu/about/org/ds>http://ist.mit.edu/about/org/d
>> <http://ist.mit.edu/about/org/ds>s
>> _______________________________________
>> Please note:  MIT IS&T staff will NEVER ask you for your password, nor
>> any email requesting your password information.  Please ignore any email
>> messages that claim to require you to provide such information.
>> 
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>> On Sep 8, 2011, at 5:06 PM, Marion Leeds Carroll wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Hi I have a MacBook Pro for MIT, and a plain MacBook for my home life. My
>> personal email goes only to my home Mac, but I allow my MIT work email
>> goes to both.
>> Attachments are undependable on my MIT machine: Yesterday, for instance,
>> I received the same message in both places, and the attachments I needed
>> arrived at "home" - but not at "MIT".  I ended up sending the message to
>> "MIT" from "Home", and finally had the attachments where I needed them.
>> 
>> More maddening:  when I got back to "MIT" today, the original email had
>> the attachments that were missing yesterday.
>> 
>> I have other attachment annoyances:  if anyone sends me an attachment,
>> everything below the attachment arrives attached as either a pdf or a
>> Dreamweaver file.  To read the entire email, I have to open this "web
>> page" attachment and translate it into the text that the sender was
>> trying to send me - even if all that's actually there in the html is
>> </body>.
>> 
>> Is this something I just have to live with?  It's been going on for a
>> long time, and it has caused some problems with my work... and it only
>> seems to be happening in my MIT MacBook Pro, not my home MacBook.
>> 
>> Thanks!
>> Marion
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ====
>> Marion Leeds Carroll
>> MIT Libraries/Museum/Hillel/LVAC Web Assistant
>> mlcar at mit.edu | E25-131 | 781.646.9115
>> 
>> Music to Cure MS 
>> http://singtocurems.org <http://singtocurems.org/>
>> 
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>> =====
>> Marion Leeds Carroll
>> MIT Libraries Web Assistant
>> mlcar at mit.edu
>> 
>> Music to Cure MS 
>> http://singtocurems.org
>> 
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> <Screen Shot 2011-09-09 at 7.59.16 AM.jpg>

=====
Marion Leeds Carroll
MIT Libraries Web Assistant
mlcar at mit.edu

Music to Cure MS 
http://singtocurems.org