Why Do I Receive Winmail Dat Files ?
Winmail dat files are generally received when your mail
program is unable to properly decode the email being sent to
you.
This can happen for a number of reasons,
but the most common is due to different email clients.
For example if an email is composed and
sent from Microsoft Outlook it allows extra information called
Transport Encapsulation Format or TNEF for short to be sent with
the email, this extra information contains information such as
fonts, colors and formatting, and if this email is received by
someone using outlook then it retains the original look and feel
Because TNEF is only relevant to users of
Outlook, other email programs such as Netscape or Outlook
Express will also receive a dat file attachment.
To get around these problems, make sure the
email sender turns off RTF or rich text format.
To do this from Outlook select
Tools > Options > Mail
Format tab, and change
Compose in this message format to Plain Text
Using plain text you’ll lose options such
as colors, font types etc, but no matter which email program
opens the email it will be fine.
It will also take up far less space than
email composed using rich text or HTML
If you really want to read the contents of
the Winmail. dat file then you have a the following options.
- Install full blown Outlook, a trial
version can be downloaded from Microsoft
- Search the web for an application such
as WmDecode which will allow the attached dat file to be
opened.
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