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The most common way to exchange documents over the Internet is by attaching them to an E-mail message. An attachment is a file included with an email message. When you create an attachment, your email program converts, or encodes, a word processor file with all of its formatting information into a code of alphanumeric characters (numbers and letters) that can be sent across the Internet as part of an email message. Sending and receiving attachments is often frustrating because it involves a number of variables: people use different email programs, different computer systems, and different word processing programs, whose files are often not fully compatible with each other. Any of these can cause trouble with attachments. The following tips will help you avoid some of the most common pitfalls of attachments.

Be responsible for your files when you send them. Make sure you know the operating system of the recipient. If you're both using the same operating system (Mac or Windows), the same word processing program and a common email program such as Outlook, Eudora, Exchange, or Netscape, then you're not likely to have problems. However, the recipient must have the hardware and software that can read that file. For example, if you attach an MS Word file, and the recipient of your message is using a word processor like ClarisWorks, that person isn't going to be able to open your attachment. In situations like this, you should either reformat your document as a plain text file or save it as an RTF (rich text format) file and send that (see Rule #5).

Notes: MS Word and WordPerfect can generally open each other's files with a minimum of fuss. Word 6.0 for Mac can open Word 6.0 for Win 3.x and Word 7.0 for Windows 95 documents and vice-versa.

Always tell your recipient the type of file you're attaching. In the body of the email, you want to say whether it's a document created in WordPerfect 6.0, Word '97, etc and what format it was saved in. For example: "I'm attaching a copy of my document called 'mydoc.wpd', the file was created in Word '97 and is in RTF format."

Make sure the three letter extension (for example: *.wpd or *.doc) is part of the file name. The three-letter extension helps computers keep track of file. For instance a file called "title.wpd" is in WordPerfect format. If the receiving computer has WordPerfect running on it, the recipient will be able to simply double click the document to open it. If the three-letter extension is absent, the receiving computer may not know what the format is and display gibberish when the recipient tries to open the file. (Other common extensions are .doc for Microsoft Word, .txt for ASCII Text, and .rtf for rich text format).

Don't ever send attachments to email lists. On large lists, people of many different skill levels will be using all sorts of different combinations of email and word processing programs; it's virtually certain that some of them will be unable to receive your attachment.

When you're not sure what word processor your recipient has, send RTF (rich text formatted) files. RTF is a standard file format that virtually all word-processors can read. RTF includes basic formatting information, such as changes in font, point size, and bold/italics/underlining. Most word processors will have a "Save as" option that will allow you save your file in a variety of different formats, including RTF.

When receiving a file, if double clicking doesn't work, try opening the file from within your word-processing program. A file that comes up with gibberish when you double-click is more likely to be properly decoded by your word-processing program. Both WordPerfect and Microsoft Word have comprehensive file filters built in. Simply save the attached document into a directory on your computer - open your word-processing program and use the open command on the file menu.