Understanding Attachments

There might be times when you want to send a file to someone through email. That file might be a Domino database, a spreadsheet, a word processing document, a compressed file, a graphics file, or a scanned photograph of your grandchildrenalmost any type of file. In Lotus Notes, you can attach an entire file within the body of your mail message and send it. The file you attach is a copy, so your original remains intact on your computer.

The user who receives your mail can detach your file and save it. If the recipient has the same application program in which the file was created, she can launch the application, opening the file in its native application.

Be careful about opening an attachment. It could be a virus! If you have virus protection software running on your email, you should be notified if the attachment is a potential virus. But if you don't have virus software, you should not open any attachment unless you are expecting the file or know the person sending you the file.

Attachments can be placed only in rich text fields, and the body of the mail message (where you type your message) is the only rich text field in the Mail Message form.

Although you tend to use attachments most often when working with your mail database, you can attach a file to any database document that has a rich text, or body, field. For example, in a personnel database there might be an attachment in a person's document that is a scanned picturethe person's portrait.