Another Mac query?

[woodbloke]

Puzzled I am, over a very simple little thing...attaching files to emails. Easily done I know but I've got a slight problem and it's probably something to do with the way I've saved stuff. So the routine is to open a new mail message, click the 'paper clip' and attach Word/Excel docs in the normal way, so that a Word icon appears on the email window.

However, I scanned in some docs last night, one of which was my passport and saved it as a PDF. When I tried to attach the passport PDF to the email, the whole thing, not the icon appeared in the email window, so that it took around 5 minutes or so (there was another doc a well which did the same thing) to send. Same thing happens when I try to send JPEG pics...the whole pic appears, not the icon.

Bizzarely, when I go into Finder and drag and drop other PDF's to an email, the icon shows and not the whole doc, which is the way it should be n'est pas?

Clearly I'm doing something slightly askew...but what? :-?

Edit - I've just discovered the little drop down menu in the bottom RHS of the email window that allows you to shrink a JPEG to a much smaller size, which is good. But...it doesn't seem to work with PDF files and there's now no 'shrinkage' menu? - Rob

 

[gasman]

Rob you'll struggle to shrink a PDF by very much at all.
Don't worry about the whole file appearing - I think that is the default for the Apple Mail programs - when they arrive at their destination the recipient can still right click and save as etc
Regards
Mark

 

[Jonzjob]

I usually send anything as jpegs and in finder I right click on the file and select "Compress' for the file. Then in Mail select 'New Message' or 'Reply' or whatever you are doing to send the e-mail, select 'Attach' and select the compressed file. It will go as a Zip file and can just be opened at the other end with a double click. It looks to be the same for PDFs too.

I found this out because when I was sending jpegs as they are the other end were only getting the tiny photo that showed on the send page at my end?

What OS are you using? 10.6 or 10.7?

 

[woodbloke]

I usually send anything as jpegs and in finder I right click on the file and select "Compress' for the file. Then in Mail select 'New Message' or 'Reply' or whatever you are doing to send the e-mail, select 'Attach' and select the compressed file. It will go as a Zip file and can just be opened at the other end with a double click. It looks to be the same for PDFs too.

I found this out because when I was sending jpegs as they are the other end were only getting the tiny photo that showed on the send page at my end?

What OS are you using? 10.6 or 10.7?

I've just tried that and when I highlight a jpeg in 'Finder' and try and compress it, the 'Compress' option on the File drop down menu is greyed-out, so I can't do it I'm using 10.7.3 on the IMac and there's also no right-click option on the mouse, just a 'click' function wherever it's depressed - Rob

 

[nev]

Rob you'll struggle to shrink a PDF by very much at all....
Mark

If you use adobe acrobat? you can 'reduce the size (mb's) ' of the file, (under the file menu, towards the bottom) which is handy if you or the recipient have slow internet connections (narrowband) like me

 

[petermillard]

System Preferences>mouse to enable right-click; if it's a magic mouse (mouse/trackpad hybrid) you right-click with a two-fingered tap. Or just use Ctrl+click.

Re. email attachments; by default, single-page PDFs show as the actual page image, whereas multiple page PDFs just show the document icon; the system-level tools (Preview) won't let you change the level of compression on a PDF AFAIK. An attached PDF will take the same time to send wether it's showing the page image or just the file icon, surely?

BTW, 'shrinking' JPEGs using the menu in the mail window changes the size of the attached image, not the level of compression. If you want to send a specific size of image but make the file smaller, you'll need to increase the compression level in e.g. iPhoto, Pixelmator, Acorn, Photoshop etc…

HTH Pete

 

[RogerS]

Rob..you have me confused with icons etc. When you attach something to an email...any email..any system..you either attach the actual document ie jpeg or pdf or a link to where it is stored offline (as it were). If you are attaching a pdf to an email then you need to send the pdf as part of that email. Apple mail will display the actual attachment contents as part of the email and so you will see it. Other email systems only show a small icon but the result is still the same..when that email gets sent, it includes the whole of the attachment.

Compressing pdfs, jpgs etc has already been dealt with.