Email Attachments

Introduction

You have most probably arrived at this page because you received an email with some unidentifiable attachments and you have followed the web link provided to obtain an explanation. These attachments are not unusual, but may be confusing if you don't know what they represent. Further they are treated differently by different email client programs.

The email client is the program that you use to read and send email, as distinct from the email server on which you have a mailbox.

Winmail.dat Attachment

This attachment is a file created by Microsoft Mail and Microsoft OutLook email clients. The file contains some document formatting information that can be used by other Microsoft email clients, however the inability of your email client to process this file should not be of any concern. It contains no message information and may be safely deleted.

.p7m Attachment

This attachment is file is a digital signature and indicates that the email was digitally signed by the sender. The fact that you have received it as an attachment means your email client has not recognised, and therefore not processed this file automatically. You are therefore unable to take advantage of the features inherent in a digitally signed document.

Depending on your email system and email client, you may have received an empty email with this attachment or you may have received the email correctly, but with an attachment that ends in ".p7m". The latter situation is asumed, or you would not have known to look at this page. In either situation, you may safely delete this attachment.

To learn about the benefits of Digitally Signed email, click here.