Attaching
Files to E-Mail
Users of both Outlook and GroupWise
know that all e-mail applications have a method
available for sending along files with your
e-mail. These "attachments" make it
easy to send a Word document, Excel file, photo,
or lots of other types of files electronically.
(See the Help menu in your e-mail software for
more instructions on how to attach files.)
However, there are a few things e-mail users
need to be aware of when sending attachments.
This page'll give you some tips that'll help you
avoid common problems.
What's a reasonable size for an attachment?
Our current systems are able to handle
files much larger than ever before.
However, we have thousands of users sharing
that system, yes? If they're all
hitting the server with a lot of large
attachments, or a few users are hitting it with
really huge attachments, under the right
conditions, services can be slowed for
everybody!
So as a nice rule of thumb, if your
attachment is much larger than, let's say 5
MB (and you can right-click on your file
icon any time to see how large that file is),
stop and see if there's another way you can
manage that file. (If in doubt, contact us
and ask!) And if the file really isn't
necessary for business (i.e., joke photos,
video or audio clips, etc.), help us
all by NOT sending copies of it on to others.
And see below for tips on sending the same file
to a lot of people in FCUSD.
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Is there a problem
with sending the same e-mail attachment to lots
of FCUSD users?
We need to be aware that when we're sending an
attachment, particularly a LARGE attachment, to
lots of people in our own organization, we're
potentially creating multiple copies of that
file that may be stored in numerous locations on
our servers and computers.
A couple simpler ways to share the document and
lighten the load on the system would be to:
- if everyone's at your same site, put the
document in your shared network drive
folder (often in your "I:" drive), and
send an e-mail pointing everyone to where it
is. OR...
- have your document put on your school
or department's web site. (Edline
even allows you to place it where only
teachers or staff can see it!)
Either way, you have only ONE copy of the
file being shared.
If it's a very large file, don't e-mail it to a
lot of people. If necessary, contact our
office for help in moving the file where you
need it.
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Managing Photo File
Attachments
A common way we get in trouble with file
attachments getting too big and bogging down the
e-mail server is with photos. Today's
digital cameras make it fast and easy to take
pictures and put them on our computer. But
ever increasing resolutions (6 megapixels!
8 megapixels! 10!) create photos with a
resolution MUCH higher/finer than anything we
need for use (or can actually even see) on a
screen. And at their highest
resolutions, they make HUGE files.
Photos are typically stored in a format called "JPG"
(aka "JPEG"). One nice thing about
this format is that it can be easily
compressed to shrink the file size (not the
size of the picture - how much space the file
takes up).
There are a couple easy things to do:
- Use the software that comes with your
computer or digital camera and open your
picture file. Look for the setting
that changes the resolution of the
picture for e-mailing. It will
compress the photo into a fraction of its
file size. It'll still look great
on-screen, but be a nice, small attachment.
- Don't take a super-high resolution
photo in the first place. If
you're not going to blow this picture up to
the size of a wall, :-) you likely don't
need your highest resolution settings.
Dial down the settings on your camera to a
lower resolution. It'll still look
great and print just fine in smaller sizes,
and your attachment will be appropriate for
e-mailing.
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Other Options to Sending
Photo Files
There are a number of great web sites out
there designed to help you post your photos for
sharing with family and friends, rather than
e-mailing them. They're usually
FREE, and don't require any great technical
skills to use them (they make their money if you
want to use them to print copies of your
photos). Examples include
SnapFish,
Shutterfly,
PhotoSite,
and many more. Check 'em out!
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What about Audio and Video
Files?
Be aware that even short audio and video
clips can sometimes be HUGE files. It's
doubly important when you send these (and that's
if you REALLY need to send one for
district business purposes), you check that
file size before mailing it. And that
advice about not sending these files to a lot of
people inside FCUSD, but sharing it in another
way, goes double here! :-)
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With all the good things we get from the
convenience and ease of use of e-mail, we want
to make sure we keep our systems operating at
peak efficiency! Thanks for investing the
time in learning a little more about how you can
help.
Your team here at ETIS is
constantly working to provide you the best, most
reliable technology services possible.
Just let us know if there's anything else we can
do to serve you!
Joe Jenkins, Director, on behalf
of the
Department of
Educational Technology and Information Systems
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