Sunday, February 1, 2009

Letter Opener: new life for winmail.dat files


If you live in a world where you get email from Outlook users, and I think most of us do, you probably see the dreaded winmail.dat file on occasion. Outlook compresses all of its attachments together into one .dat file, leaving the rest of us scratching our heads as to what's inside. I've used TNEF'S Enough, a free utility for the Mac (mentioned last year by Mat) which will crack the files open for you. This week, however, I discovered Letter Opener.
Letter Opener is a Mail.app plugin which decodes the .dat files inline, so the process is transparent to you, the recipient. The attachments appear like any others, and life is that much easier. Letter Opener isn't cheap, and the utility vs. cost ratio is dependent on how many winmail.dat files you deal with on a daily basis. Prices range from $29.95US for a single license, to $179.95US for a 10-pack. More information and demo videos are available at the restoroot.com website.

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