Attachments
Jul 27 2008 15:19
A handful of issues with attachments:
- Notes includes attachments when you reply to an email. This might sound useful, but in practice this means that we've got multi-megabyte "Thank you" emails flying around.
- Attachments with a text MIME type are displayed inline without any ability to save the attachment. I don't mind the inline display, but I must have the ability to save the attachments (many of these are specially formatted text files to be uploaded via script, so I don't trust any copy-paste mechanism). Asking the sender to zip up the attachment and resend the file is not acceptable.
- Notes displays attachments inline which is sometimes useful as I can put text around the attachment explaining what it is. However, this only works in a Notes-to-Notes context. If the email is from a non-Notes user, the attachments are displayed at the end of the email, but without any separator to visually distinguish it from the text of the email. In too many cases, this just makes the attachment appear to be buried in the email signature and makes them hard to find.
- Attachments are not included in exports. (A related issue is that I can't export messages in any kind of usable format - e.g. .eml file.)
- I've got an email with multiple attachments. When I click on an attachment in the preview pane, a black box indicates which attachment is currently selected. If I then open that attachment by double-clicking on it and selecting "Open", the attachment opens as expected. When I go back to the preview pane and try to select another attachment, the black box briefly appears, but then disappears. Clicking anywhere else in the email or on other attachments does not bring the black box back. I have to move to another email and then back to the original email to get the attachment selection box working again. (Yes, this might be nit-picking a little, but that doesn't mean it's not a UI glitch.)