Forum Archive Index - July 2001

[Marilyn Munroe <who.c@res.co.nz>]

There has been recent discussions on the practice of including attachments
with email messages and the possibility that they may contain viruses.
My recommendations to reduce this problem are as follows;

If you wish to send e-mail with advanced features such as images or tables I recommend that you send e-mail in HTML format. It can take some time to get comfortable with some of the advanced HTML features, but is worthwhile in that most recipients can see the features of you email in their email client even if they do not have Microsoft word installed.

If you still wish to send text documents I suggest that you send them in RTF format (Rich Text File). This format, while not as feature rich as Word, is perfectly adequate for most purposes. This has the  bonus of not being capable of transporting viruses and also the file size is much less.

If you wish to send spreadsheets as attachments I recommend that you send them as SLYK files (Symbolic Link). This file type will preserve values and formulas, but may loose some of the features that you power formatters out there may use. Most spreadsheet applications can open SLYK files, and as with RTF files, cannot transport viruses.

I hope that you find this info useful.

Boop-boop-de-do Marilyn