Digital paperclips

by Donna L. Baker, ACE, Baker Communications

A common part of many workflows is e-mail exchange referencing ancillary documents or files, usually attached to the e-mail. I am sure most of us at one time or another have searched in vain for a particular version of a document or an image file saved from an e-mail.

Keeping track of attachments can be more difficult than keeping track of the parent e-mail files. It doesn't need to be. When you are configuring the PDFMaker in Outlook, you'll notice the option "Include all attachments in the PDF" is selected by default for the Attachments setting.

One of the best features of Acrobat 7 is its ability to store files of different formats for reference inside the PDF file. Using the default setting automatically stores the attached files – whether they are spreadsheets, images or video – in the PDF file. If you name the archive files systematically, you only need remember the PDF file's name to locate the attachments.

You don't always want to keep attachments with a PDF document generated from e-mail messages. For example, if you circulate an e-mail with attached reference documents to several people you don't need to store copies of each document in the PDF file you create from the e-mail thread.

> See related article: Drowning in e-mail?