Ubuntu
evolution package

Attachments sent from outlook via pop3 server arrive as "winmail.dat" file and not the file type sent

Asked by Dan Granstrom

Im new to Ubuntu & Evo. I am looking at converting from microsoft/outlook to Linux with evolution for email. I receive email via pop3 server many with attachments, sent from outlook When I tested with attachment types such as jpg, doc, ppt, or pdf I see only a TNEF Winmail.dat file in place of the sent attachment. Is there a way or a plugin to decode the "TNEF winmail.dat" resulting file providing the attachment in usable/origional form?

Thanks Dan

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Wrwrwr (wrwrwr) said : 		#1

1. You can disable sending in TNEF in Outlook: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241538.

2. There is a LookOut extension for Thunderbird to handle this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4433.

3. I don't know of a similar thing for Evolution, but there is a little command line utility for that, package name "tnef" (http://sourceforge.net/projects/tnef/).

Install it like this:

sudo apt-get install tnef

and to unpack a winmail.dat use:

tnef –file=winmail.dat

4. As a last resort there is a web utility for this: http://tud.at/php/tnef/.

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Dan Granstrom (coyotejoe-7) said : 		#2

Thanks,
Item one is out as I dont control the senders and there are many. I will try LookOut with Thunderbird. Both Thunderbird and Evolution were packaged as part of the Ubuntu 7.10 update.
I will also try the TNEF package with Evolution. Do I understand correctly that execution of the TNEF command line utility "tnef –file=winmail.dat" would be required for each “winmail.dat” attachment received?

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Wrwrwr (wrwrwr) said : 		#3

Yes basically it would be required. However, there is a topic about automating this on the forums, with two ideas:
- simple: create a launcher on the desktop that you can drop .dat to extract it,
- advanced: recompile evolution with tnef plugin enabled.

I have tried neither of these, but can probably help with compiling if needed.

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Wrwrwr (wrwrwr) said : 		#4

Bah, i forgot about the forums link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=256027.

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