I have Paint Shop Pro 12 on my new computer. I belong to several lesson
groups who use .eml mail format. Now, often, within that mail, there is another
zip. That zip is the zip for supplies for the lesson. I can view the lesson
itself via a reader or IE, but I cannot open the supplies. Outlook Express had
that ability 100%, but now I can only view the lesson and not be able to obtain
the supplies. Do I need a better email software program? My lessons go to a
Gmail address, but I use Windows Live.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #56, I look at a situation where attachments are being sent in a
non-standard manner and are difficult to open.
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Email attachments
So, I’m not really sure specifically what email program you are using to look
at your email. Windows Live could mean many things. If you mean Windows Live
Hotmail, that means you’re using a web-based interface and the .zip files
should be something that you can simply download and extract.
If you’re using Windows Live Mail, that is more or less the same as Outlook
Express was for this particular scenario. It should be able to also open the
attachment or at least save the attachment that is the .zip file.
.eml files
Now, what I suspect is happening is that you’re receiving things in what I
would consider to be a very non-standard way.
If you’re actually seeing these things as .eml files, that probably means
that whomever is sending them to you is actually creating .eml files (which
really are email files) and attaching them to a message. That’s technically the
wrong way to do it. .eml files really only happen when you try and save an
email message that you’ve already received.
Yes, they’re a common way to store email messages in their entirety, but
they’re just not used for sending email messages back and forth like this in
any regular manner. Whoever is sending you this message is presumably trying to
send an email message as an attachment and that just seems kind of odd, to be
honest.
Download the email
The best solution I can think of right now is if that’s happening… I’d go
grab Thunderbird. Thunderbird actually understands .eml files natively.
If you double-click on an .eml:
-
Thunderbird will open it.
-
It will display it;
-
And it will correctly interpret all of the attachments that might be
included with that .eml file including the .zip file.
You should then be able to simply click or double-click on the .zip file
that’s included with that message and it will open like you expect – much like
you did with Outlook Express.
Change the email method
But like I said, right now, I fundamentally question whoever is sending this
email message to you in that perhaps they’re doing it in a way that is making
this unnecessarily difficult.
What you normally should see would be your lesson in the message body
itself. There would be no .eml attachment. The message would simply contain
your lesson and the attachment that would appear with it would be the .zip
file.
But like I said, since somebody is sending this to you, that’s not something
you probably have control over. A quick and dirty solution to this problem
would be to install Thunderbird, which would simply interpret the .eml files
just like you were used to them being interpreted by Outlook Express.
Next from Answercast 56 – A friend got email that looked like it was from me, but with the wrong email address. What do I do?
When you forward an email some email programs ask you if you want to send the forwarded email as an attachment or in-line (send the forwarded message in the body) or as an attachment. It could be that the person sending you the email is using the attachment option, thinking it’s necessary because the message contains an attachment.
Windows Live Mail desktop client program is probably what he’s referring to. And, as well as Thunderbird, it also opens .eml files natively (and also saves emails as .eml files).