Contents Page, Previous Chapter, Next Ch apter

ATTACHMENTS

Any document can be attached to and sent with a Eudora message. To attach a document to a current outgoing message, select Attach Document... from the Message menu. A standard file di alog is displayed. Once the desired document is located, select it and click on the OK button to attach the document to the message.

The attached document functions like a "rider" to the E-mail message, and thus it doe s not appear within the message text. Instead, the full path name of the document is displayed automatically in the Attachments: field of the message header.

Note: A document cannot be attached to a message t hrough manual editing of the Attachments: field.

When the message is sent, the attached document is formatted according to the selection in the Attachment Type combo box in the message icon bar (see the "Icon Bar" section).

If the ch osen document is a Plain Text file (and if the Always As Attachment option in the Switches... dialog is turned off, or Text as Document button in the icon bar is off and you cancel the attach as), it is NOT encoded in any speci al format before being sent, but rather it is added to your message as though you had typed it in manually.

Tip:: If the Always As Attachment option in the Switches... dialog is off, or Text as Document is not selected in the icon bar, you can also a ttach to Eudora mail a document encoded with a format different from MIME or BinHex, for example a UUENCODED document.

Multiple Attachments

Multiple documents may be sent with a single message, but ea ch document to be attached must be selected as described above.

Detaching a Document

To detach a document before the message is sent out, click anywhere on the name of the document in the Attachments: field of the comp osition window. This selects the entire attachment name. Then, press the [DEL] or [BACKSPACE] key or select Clear from the Edit menu.

Receiving an Attachment

There are two primary ways you can receive an attac hed document from another Eudora user. One way prompts you to choose what directory the attachment should be placed in and to assign the attachment's name. The other way automatically receives all attachments in a pre-specified directory on your disk. Both ways are described below.

a. Manual Receive of Attachments

Unless you choose Auto Receive Attachment Directory: in the Configuration... dialog, whenever you receive a message with an attachment from another Eud ora user a standard file dialog is displayed. Use this dialog to choose where to put the document and what to call it.

Eudora automatically decodes the attachment, and it arrives on your disk just the way it left the send er's.

b. Not Saving an Attachment

You may choose not to save the attached document. This is done by clicking the Cancel button in the above dialog. In such a case, the attachment is included in the body of the messag e. The document has to be saved to a file and decoded manually to appear in its proper format.

c. Saving Attachments Automatically

The most convenient way to save attachments is to a pre-specified directory on your disk. To set this up, sel ect Configuration... from the Special menu. In the dialog, click on the large button beneath Auto Receive Attachment Directory:.

A dialog is displayed through which you may choose a directory in which arr iving attachments are automatically saved.

Double-click on the name of the directory to select it (its name should be displayed in the menu above the list). Then click on the Use Directory button.

The dialog then clos es, leaving the Configuration... dialog displayed. The name of the directory you just selected to receive attachments is now displayed in the button. If you ever want to specify a different directory to receive attachments, simply click on this button a nd the dialog for choosing an attachments directory is redisplayed.

In order for the directory to be used, the Auto Receive Attachment Directory: option must also be checked. Eudora checks this for you when you select a directory.

Note: If at some future time Eudora cannot find your selected directory, it unchecks the Auto Receive Attachment Directory: option. However, the name of the directory remains in the button until another directory is selected.

When invoking this option, attachments are decoded automatically and saved directly into the selected directory. The name given your attachments is recorded in the message from which they came. If you receive multiple attachments with the same name, a number is added to each attachment's name.

Non-Eudora Users Receiving Attachments

If you send an attachment to someone who doesn't use Eudora, the attached file is included at the end of the message in the chosen attachment format (BinHex or MIME) depending on how you choose to send it. It is not usable until the recipient has decoded it using an appropriate decoding application.

Tip: Another possibility is to encode the document to be attached with a la rgely supported format like uuencode, using external programs. Then uncheck the Text as Attachment option of the "Switches" dialog of the Special menu or turn off the Text as Document button in the Message icon bar. In this way the document is attached to the mail as it was manually typed. The recipient save the mail as a file and then decode it with his/her decoding program.

Contents Page, Previous Chapter, Next Chapter