AOL – Sending Large Files by Email

Attachments

You can send pictures, music, spreadsheets or files of any type with your AOL email. These extra files are “attachments” which are sent with your email. You may add a number of attachments to one email message. For example, you may send several pictures.

When your email message arrives the person receiving the email, (the receiver) downloads and then saves these extra files by separating them from your email message. This is called “detaching” a file.

Zip Files

Some attachments may be quite large. These can take a long time to send or receive. Compressed files such as .Zip files are faster to send and receive. Zip files are special containers used to send one or more files in a smaller package. AOL has some built in features that make it easy to use zip files.

Sending a Zip File

To create a zip file:

• Attach at least two files to your AOL email, and AOL will create a zip file for you. The second file can be any little file, such as comments or instructions about the attachment.
• Use a Zip utility such as Winzip ($30), or ALZip (Free) to create the Zip file. Then attach the zip file top your email.

The email looks like this:

Receiving a Zip File

To get the save or view the attachments, the receiver downloads the file, by clicking

After downloading a zip file, AOL decompresses the zip file and saves the originals files automatically.

Updated 6/24/2007 1:49:42 PM by A. Dennison