# Outlook 2003 - PDF attachments converted to win.dat files



## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Some of my users are having problems with PDF Files they are sending to clients. We are using Outlook 2003. We scan many documents into PDF files to send to clients. Even though the client has Adobe reader the attachment is converted to a win.dat file and they can't open it. This is a random problem. It doesn't seem to matter what program the receiver is using so I can't relate it to a incompatibility problem with Lotus or Corel. Does anyone know why a PDF file would be converted like that even though the receiver has Adobe reader?

Thanks,
Jennifer


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

Is it converted to a win.dat file locally or when the client receives it on their end? If it is not something that is happening locally, then it might be that one client that is having issues. If it is the one client I might recommend that you have the users zip the files as they are going out to that one client.


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## Krash (Jun 21, 2007)

Change the email send format to TEXT only and see if it works. If it does , try HTML as well. Post the results here and I might be able to help.


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

It doesn't seem to make a difference whether or not the email is sent in HTML, rtf, or plain text.

I have not tried zipping the file. I will see if that works.

Thanks for your input.

Jennifer


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## Krash (Jun 21, 2007)

Hey check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290809.


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

Thanks Krash. At least now I have something to research further. I was pretty much at a dead end. I am not sure this will help or not. The pdf file converts to a win.dat file not winmail.dat. They seem very similiar so I'll check into it

Thanks again - Jennifer


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## Krash (Jun 21, 2007)

Quick question. Is the sender able to send the attachment to himself/herself and receive it as a PDF file or does it get converted to a win.dat file ?

If the attachment comes back intact to the sender, then its probably an issue at the receiver's end which is out of your control. In this case , zipping the files would be the best solution.


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

I'm not sure. I imagine they would be able to since we don't have any trouble with PDF files. When it happens again I'll test it. I think a better solution might be to zip it. I think it is being converted by their email exchange server, so zipping it might get it past. The client claims to have Adobe Reader and is able to read other PDF files. It kind of sounds suspicious doesn't it?

Thanks Krash.

Jennifer


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## mrclymer (Sep 20, 2007)

I am having this same issue with one of my users... Here are my caveats though. This user (user A) can send a PDF through MS Outlook (running on a 2003 TS with Exchange for the mail client) to himself and it comes in as a win.dit. When he sends to my email account outside the system, it is a regular pdf. i have also had him send the same pdf to me and him at the same time with the same results. Here is the really weird thing as i thought it was an issue with his home computer. (this happens in his webmail as well) Another user (user b)is on the same system as user A, and when he sends to user A's email account outside our system, it shows up there as a PDF and not win.dat. i have rebuilt his profile, and the application he uses sends the PDF directly from it, but that is irrelevant to this issue as we tried it with PDFs that were saved on the desktop.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.


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## mrclymer (Sep 20, 2007)

i fixed the issue for my client. Even though Outlook was set to sending messages in the plain text format, for some reason when pdf attachments were sent to the email address, outlook was sending it in the Rich Text Format (RTF). i changed this manually by double clicking on the email address and manually selecting the send in plain text format. Now if i can fix the program that is setting it to the RTF format.


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## finewine291 (Mar 2, 2007)

I am experiencing something similar. I have a post "Can't read reply text." The solution posted in that string somewhat fixed the problem except that on a letter that has multiple replies it reverts back to sending it in rtf or plain text. I suspect that the "unsupported" address book has something to do with it. (I mean the autocomplete feature that fills in email addresses that one already typed.) There isn't a lot of documentation on this feature. My two problems of not being able to read reply text and PDF attachments converting to win.dat files are related. Once the reply text could be read, the PDF attachment stayed intact.

Jennifer


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