KB 155

I've send an attachment to some people and they got a different file, why?

Article:155
Created:2002-03-05 13:06:56
Categories:
  E-mail
  Windows 95
  Windows 98
  Windows NT 4
  Windows XP

Question or Symptom

People are telling me that the PDF I sent is showing up as "winmail.dat" instead of the filename I sent? Why is that? I'm using Outlook (or Outlook Express) as an email client.

Resolution

The problem is you've set the mail format to "Microsoft Outlook Rich Text" and no-one who doesn't use Outlook will be able to read it. To correct this problem:

Outlook Express:

From the "Tools" menu, select "Options".
Press the "Send" Tab
In the "Mail Sending Format" section, select "Plain Text".
Hit the "Apply" button.
 

Outlook:

From the "Tools" menu, select "Options".
Press the "Mail Format" tab.
In the "Send in this message format" option select "Plain Text".
Press OK button.
 

The other way this could happen is if when you started a new message you pulled down the "format" menu and selected "Rich Text". This would only effect that mail message.