Attachment

An email term.

An attachment is a file that you want to include with your email message. You can add many attachments to an email message.

Your email client will have an icon or menu item that allows you to pick the attachment file from a folder. Quite often the icon looks like a paperclip or it may say 'File Insert'.

Normally, out of courtesy, you keep down the size of attachments as multi-megabyte files take an age to download and may fill up a busy in-box.

If very large files need to be transferred, then an FTP server is the better method (see FTP).

Do not open attachments from unexpected emails even if the email seems to be from a friend. Email attachments are a favourite way for virus and trojans to be spread, and pretending to come from a friend is a favourite con-trick some people use to make you open it.

2020-10