>In Setup/ Internet/ Accounts/ Options I am forced to choose a default >encoding from binhex, base 64, unencode, apple single or apple double. >Recipients of my emails are having problems with binhex so I'm resorting >to sending attachments via aol which doesn't force me to choose an >encoding method. Are any of the other choices more universally accepted >or is there a way to disable the encoding and do my own compression with >dropzip or dropstuff?
First issue: You are confusing Encoding with Compression. They are two different things. You have NO choice when sending an attachment via email but to encode it in some fashion. This isn't an Emailer limitation, this is an Email limit. Email is a 7 bit system because it was designed to only handle text. Attachments are 8 bit (because files are designed to hold more than just text). In order to send an attachment, it must be changed from its native 8 bit format and turned into 7 bit text that Email can handle. That is what the encoding does. Despite the fact that you use AOL, it is still encoding the attachment... it just uses its own format, so it does't give you an option. Second issue: What kind of encoding to use. You had been set as BinHex, which is a GREAT choice... IF you are sending Mac specific files. BinHex encodes both halves of a Mac file, the data fork and the resource fork. This is wonderful if your recipient is on a Mac. But chances are the people that are complaining are all PC users. PC's only use the data fork of a file. As a result, very few PC email clients natively handle BinHex (there would be no reason to as they won't normally interact with dual fork files). So when you send a BinHex'd file to one of these people, their mail client can't decode it, so they just see the raw encoded text. Obviously this is less than desirable. So then you might want to use what PCs are expecting, and use most often (and what has more or less become the "standard" for email attachments). That would be Base64. However, Base64 does not handle the resource fork of a file. So if you are sending a Mac file to a Mac user Base64 is useless. There must be a happy medium you are thinking... right? Well, there is sort of. AppleDouble. AppleDouble takes the Mac file, splits it into its two forks, and then uses Base64 encoding to attach each half by itself. If you send this to a person that has an email client that can use AppleDouble (just about every Mac client you will find, and many PC clients), then it will properly reassemble the file or dispose of the resource fork as needed (on the Mac it will reassemble it, on the PC it will drop the unneeded half). If you send it to someone that does NOT support AppleDouble, then it will be seen simply as two regular Base64 encoded files. One will be the data fork, one the resource fork. For PC users, they can simply ignore the resource fork attachment (it will be the filename prepended with a %). This means, for MOST of your normal email use, AppleDouble is probably your best bet. That way you don't have to think about who is getting the file, and what format to use. You will get the occasional PC users that will wonder what the 2nd attachment is, but you can tell them to safely ignore and delete it (tell them once, they will probably be fine). As for the other two types of supported encoding methods: UUEncode: An old Unix encoding method. It is still used, but it makes files larger than Base64, doesn't support dual forks, and is not anywhere near as widely supported as Base64. About the only time you want to use this is when you know you are sending to someone using a VERY old unix or CPM system (any recent system will have Base64 decoders available). The most common place to see UUEncoded files in in newsgroups. You really don't see them used in Email any more. AppleSingle: Same idea as AppleDouble, except that is mashes the encoded forks into one long file. This presents a problem to users that don't support AppleSingle, because it can't fall back to Base64 and get a useable meaningful file from it. Basically, don't use AppleSingle. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
