Email Attachments

1. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
   

It’s good to ask a couple of questions and consider some options before attaching anything to your email. The following list is pretty much what goes through my mind...

• What do I want to send?

Is it a Word doc, pdf, image, video etc?

• Would the recipient have the software or system to open the attachment?
  

Operating System – PC/Mac/Linux

Other software like MS Office, Adobe Reader etc?

• Who am I sending this to?
  

Are they familiar with different file types?

What Internet speed might they have?

Are they using a PC or Mac or Linux?

• How big is the file I want to attach?
  

Does it need to be ‘zipped’?

Should I ftp it to a website and insert a link instead of an attachment 

in my message?

After considering these questions, I might find that I can’t answer them so I would send a quick email and check first – I can ask what format to send a file in and whether it should be ‘as is’, zipped or a download link etc.

Another thing I would add in the email before sending it is to point out that the attachment is attached! It’s possible that people will overlook attachments they have received (generally this is only my brother-in-law).