Note: Mail Attachments Iconizer has been upgraded to Attachment Tamer. If you have a license for Iconizer, you can download Attachment Tamer as a free update.

Different email software formats messages in different and often incompatible ways. There are several such differences between Mac OS X Mail, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. If you either send email to people who use Microsoft Outlook, the most common PC email software, or you send messages using a Microsoft Exchange server, you have most likely noticed the issues. Here is how to solve them using Apple Mail and Mail Attachments Iconizer:

General Setup

The first step to compatibility with other software is to enable the option to Send attachments as they are displayed in Iconizer's preferences. This option is part of the Default nice behavior preset, and so it is enabled by default after installing Iconizer. Read on for how to prevent specific problems.

Problem 1: You send image attachments. Outlook users cannot extract them from the message.

Make sure that that the Send attachments as they are displayed option is enabled in the preferences. Any attachments that are displayed as icons when composing a message are then sent as regular attachments. You should also put the attachments at the end of message to avoid Problem 3.

Problem 2: You want images to be embedded in the message. Users of other email software see ordinary attachments.

First, make sure that that the Send attachments as they are displayed option is enabled in the preferences. To allow images to be embedded two conditions need to be met:

1. The message must not contain any other attachments than JPEG, GIF, or PNG images, and the images must be displayed in place when composing the message. To display attachements in place, select them, control-click on them, and choose View in Place from the contextual menu.
2. The message must be in the rich text format.

Alternative solution: If you use Mail's stationery feature or compose your message directly in iPhoto (this requires iLife '11 or newer), images will also be correctly embedded in the HTML layout.

Problem 3: You send messages with various attachments. Outlook users often get extra attachments named ATT000n.xxx (ATT0001.txt, ATT0001.htm, ATT0002.txt, etc.). If you use an Exchange server, all recipients get these superfluous attachments.

Make sure that that the Send attachments as they are displayed option is enabled in the preferences. Additionally, you need to put attachments at the end of message (even below your signature): to make Mail always automatically place attachments at the end, make sure that you are not editing a message, then go to the menu Edit > Attachments and activate the option Always Insert Attachments at end of Message.

Note: If you use external software to compose your email messages, attachments may still be inserted in the middle of the message. This needs to be addressed by the manufacturer of that software

If your problem is not covered here, try these solutions to common problems.