winmail.dat -- unable to prevent

[Stuart McGraw]

When I send email from Outlook 2000 (10.6838.6845)SP3 on XP,
there is always a winmail.dat attachment. All the "fixes"
for this I have been able to find say set the default
message format to plain text (or html). I have done
that but bloody Outlook still adds the attachment (and
puts any other real attachments into it making them
completely inaccessible to most recipients.) The
recipients are not in my Outlook Contacts or Address
Book so the format is not being overridden that way
(and a look at Properties in the compose window lists
the messages as "plain text".)

How do I fix this?????

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

When I send email from Outlook 2000 (10.6838.6845)SP3 on XP,
there is always a winmail.dat attachment. All the "fixes"
for this I have been able to find say set the default
message format to plain text (or html). I have done
that but bloody Outlook still adds the attachment (and
puts any other real attachments into it making them
completely inaccessible to most recipients.) The
recipients are not in my Outlook Contacts or Address
Book so the format is not being overridden that way
(and a look at Properties in the compose window lists
the messages as "plain text".)

What type of account? Corporate/Workgroup mode it IMO mode? See if any of
these helps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/197064
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138053/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196784/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318699
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269186

 

[Stuart McGraw]

What type of account? Corporate/Workgroup mode it IMO mode? See if any of
these helps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/197064
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138053/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196784/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318699
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269186

Thanks. Unfortunately I gave bad info.
I am having the problem with Outlook 2002
(Office XP) in IMO mode. I also failed to
mention (because I didn't realize it was
relevant) that I create messages and save
them to an IMAP drafts folder.

I found the following discouraging KB article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280857

that says there is no fix -- any change to
a message on an IMAP server will generate
a winmail.dat attachment. The suggested
"workaround" is to "ignore" the winmail.dat
file. Unfortunately it seems that Outlook
put image attachments (in html formatted
email) into the winmail.dat (*1) file so
that is not a very workable workaround,
even if I were willing to spew unreadable
attachments to my mail recipients.

Anyway the answer for me seems to be that
Outlook XP is virtually unusable. Good
job Microsoft!

(*1) I think that was the behavior I saw
but haven't bothered to confirm it.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Thanks. Unfortunately I gave bad info.
I am having the problem with Outlook 2002
(Office XP) in IMO mode.

There is no IMO mode in Outlook 2002. That went away after Outlook 2000.
Youre version number does indicate you're using Outlook 2002 instead of
Outlook 2000, though, and I didn't pick that up originally.

I also failed to
mention (because I didn't realize it was
relevant) that I create messages and save
them to an IMAP drafts folder.

I found the following discouraging KB article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280857

that says there is no fix -- any change to
a message on an IMAP server will generate
a winmail.dat attachment.

I guess you'll have to live with it, then. Sorry.

 

[Steve JORDI]

The winmail.dat problem is famous.
It's related to the Outlook Rich Text format that is imposed
and not RTF compliant.

You should check two things to make sure you're sending emails
the right way without Winmail.dat.

1st)
Tools->Options
In the "Mail Format" tab, click the Internet Format button.
Make sure to have "When sending Outlook Rich Text messages to Internet
Recipoients, use this format": and set it to "Convert to HTML"
Do not use Send Using Outlook Rich Text Format


But that's not enough.

2nd)
After that, you should get all your contacts in the contacts view
Open each contact that has a valid email address
Double click on the email address itself (in the email field)
This opens a dialog box with email properties.
There you should absolutely set the Internet Format to
"Let Outlook decide the best sending format".
Do not set it to "Send Using outlook rich text format" because
this OVERRIDES the global mail format settings set under point 1)

Now if like me, you have 400+ contacts, you're on for a long ride
setting everything manually

Note: at least when you create a new contact, this one will inherite
the global mail format and you won't need to edit it manually to
set the Internet Format.

Hope this helps.


Sincerely,
Steve JORDI

(Remove the K_I_L_LSPAM from my email address)