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I'm REALLY starting to hate Outlook

For like the third time this week (you'd think I would have learned by now), I've been screwed over by Outlook.  I absolutely loathe the way it apparently attaches files to outgoing e-mail messages.

For some reason, I can drag-and-drop an attachment in an Outlook message addressed to myself, but when I check my mail from home or send it to someone else, the attachment, if read in an e-mail client other than Outlook, appears as decoded binary data (typically in web-based mail system), or it just isn't there (as is the case with Outlook Express.)

My company doesn't mandate that we use any particular POP3 client - I've just been using Outlook because of its great spam filter, and I had a copy of Norton Anti-Spam around, which worked great.  But this is getting to be a real pain in the ass.

Thunderbird, here I come.

Posted: Jul 16 2005, 06:44 PM by guam-aspdev | with 8 comment(s)
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Comments

William Lefkovics said:

Are you using the default message format as Rich Text? Or (ugh) Word as your email editor? Does this happen when you use HTML or plain text?
# July 16, 2005 4:27 AM

Jason Salas said:

Hi William,

Sadly it happens with plaintext, RTF, and HTML formatted messages. :(
# July 16, 2005 6:27 AM

nobody :) said:

Are the contacts set to always get RTF?

Are you using exchange server? If so, the idiot admin has it configured to always send RTF.
# July 16, 2005 8:18 AM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Nobody,

Nope...it's a pretty bre-bones install and no Exchange server. For some reason attachments sometimes when dragged-and-dropped into a message (as opposed to clicking on the attachment paperclip icon and specificing the file(s)) don't really attach the file. I've lost out on a couple nights' work already because of this.
# July 16, 2005 5:38 PM

Some Guy said:

You're able to reproduce this every time? Is the attachment in the message in your sent items?
# July 16, 2005 8:27 PM

Jason Salas said:

Yep...and Outlook reads it fine...it's just any other POP3 client or web mail program that spits out jibberish or has no attachment.
# July 16, 2005 9:09 PM

nobody :) said:

Sometimes when you drag and drop (or later, remove attachments), Outlook doesn't accept the change until after you save it to drafts. This happens if the message was open long enough to save to drafts and you attach (or remove) an attachment after it saved automatically and you send it before it saves again and it uses the drafts version.

BTW, you don't specifically mention the version or which editor you use, both of which can have an effect on if the message is sent as RTF. You should find and delete the nickname file, as "always use RTF" information can be remembered in it.

To troubleshoot the RTF problem (that's why attachments are binary), you should set the contacts to only use plain text. For addresses not in contacts, double click on the underlined addresss and select always use plain text.

# July 17, 2005 9:59 AM

Jason Salas said:

Hi nobody,

I doubt that's it...I normally send stuff plaintext and manually type in the addresses.
# July 17, 2005 7:53 PM
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