>I sent out an email to a list of sailing club members with a membership >list attached as a pdf. > >I got a reply from one member (only one mind you - not sure how many had >this problem) saying: > >>I can't open that pdf - can it be sent without the ".bin" extension (and >>associated encryption)? > >I checked and this account is set up to send out using Apple Double. I >can't really send out two versions of this mailing so what should I do?
.bin is MacBinary, I have NO idea why Emailer would have sent an attachment with that. It shouldn't. AppleDouble is two Base64 attachments, one is the data fork, one is the resource fork. This is important for Mac users and files/applications with resource forks. Anyone using an email client that doesn't support AppleDouble will see two attachments, one will be the data fork and will decode normally and function normally (pending it wasn't something that needed the resource fork, but if it was, chances are the person has an email client that supports AppleDouble). The other attachment will be the same name, but with % at the beginning of the name, it will also potentially be very small, and if the person tries to open it, it will be meaningless garbage. They can safely ignore this part. Alas, AppleDouble puts the % named resource fork portion FIRST in the line of attachments, so non complient users (most of Windows since Outlook dropped support for AppleDouble), will see the non usable file first, and get confused (because by their nature, Windows users are too stupid to think about what is in front of them). At no time should they see a .bin file Since you are sending a PDF, which is already a "flat" file (has no resource fork, or at least not one that matters), you don't need to use AppleDouble. Use Base64, just select it from the Encoding popup (where it normally says Service Default). That way, they will only get one Base64 attachment of the PDF, instead of two with one unusable. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the person complaining is on AOL. AOL doesn't support anything but Base64 (and even that they don't support very well). AOL does strange things with file attachments. They actually decode the attachment move it to a storage area, and reencode it on the fly when someone downloads their email using an email client other than the AOL client software. Alas, this means if you send anything other than Base64 to AOL, it will screw up the attachment. It has been a while since I tried the different combinations, but it may be that AOL is seeing the AppleDouble, and trying to reencode for a Mac, and changing it to MacBinary. If that isn't why it came thru with a .bin extension, then I have no clue. Regardless, I'd just change your PDF mailings to use Base64 encoding and not give the issue another thought. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
