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Consider Attachment Options

These days most businesses couldn’t function without the ability to send files attached to e-mail messages. The author who sends his completed chapters to the publisher, the musician who sends her sound files to a producer, or the photographer who sends his pictures to a magazine—all have the option to transmit their data instantly via e-mail.

As efficient as sending attachments can be, there are some important things to consider before distributing them.

Size

Even the post office and your friendly parcel carrier have size limits on what they can deliver. Just as you wouldn’t expect the mailman to be able to drop off a dining room table on your doorstep, you can’t expect e-mail to deal with overly large attachments (those larger than 2 megabytes). One reason is that many recipients don’t have enough space in their mailboxes to receive these oversized files. Most word-processing documents don’t pose a problem, but sending 200 photos of Bertie in accounting’s retirement party to your colleague could be. Err on the safe side and assume that any attachment larger than 1 or 2 megabytes might be a problem.

If you must send every picture of Bertie’s big bash, here are two options.

Compress the images. If you have a Windows Operating System, a program such as “Winzip” takes all the attached files and compresses them into a tight little bundle. When they arrive at the other end, they can be quickly decompressed or “unstuffed” and viewed. If you’re using an Apple machine, “Stuffit” is the most popular compression software.

Send several smaller e-mails. Break the attachment into several bite-sized pieces, and send each one attached to a separate e-mail. This is only a practical alternative if the file is easy to segment. For example, sending 200 separate e-mails, each with one Bertie picture, would be laborious and time-consuming.

Use a server. One method that bypasses attachments altogether is to upload your files to a server that is then accessed via the Web by your recipient, who can then download them. Popular services include YouSendIt and FilesAnywhere. For photographic storage try Photobucket and Shutterfly.