This week’s column is inspired by a question posed by, of all people, my father. He and my mother have a “luxo-lamp” iMac G4, and use Apple’s Mail application to stay connected with family and friends. My father’s question: “We get a lot of email messages with attachments. Sometimes when we try to open the attached files, we can’t. We get all kinds of messages that we don’t understand. What’s a father and mother to do? Love, Dad”

First, send money (just kidding). Actually, in the words of the Captain, Road Prison 36, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”. If you attach something to an email message, it’s really a “crap shoot” whether or not the receiver can open it. Despite “Big Redmond’s” wishes, not everyone uses Microsoft Word or Windows Media Player. And, to be fair, despite Apple’s wishes, not everyone has QuickTime installed on their PCs (but, we’re getting there…).

Anyway, let’s say someone sends you an email message with a Word document attached, and you don’t have Word on your computer. Both Macs and Windows PCs are prepared for this eventuality. They will tell you they don’t have the application required to open the document. They may suggest another application that might open the document, or allow you to select an application to use to open the document now and in the future. Want to make sure just about anyone can read your digital document (assuming you’re not sending it for their revision and modification)? Use Mac OS X’s built-in “Save as PDF” feature, and send a PDF file instead.

Photo formats are much easier to accommodate, as all systems contain applications that play well with images. Video is another matter. For the most part, you need Windows Media Player installed on your computer to view video encoded in Windows Media Video format. However, if you receive a video file with a .mov, .mpg, or .avi suffix, either QuickTime or Windows Media or even RealPlayer can be used to view it. Oh, and special thanks go out to the person that sent me the “Ghost in the Car Commercial” video for Halloween. I’m still cleaning up the mess.

When in doubt, contact the sender with your problem, and see if they can send the message again in a different format. Or, if it’s text, why not just put it in the body of the email, where everyone can read it. What a concept.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski