Vassar Technology Today | Beyond e-mail attachments: Ways to share files on-line

Matthew Leung Managing Editor

Sending Microsoft Word documents as attachments in e-mails is popular, but not many people realize the various troubles this can bring, since the sender has no control over the document once he or she hits the “send” button. There are simple alternatives, however, that allow the sender to securely send a document. Think of this as having your own bullet-proof truck to deliver your documents rather than using the public postal service.

One option is placing your document on a server and e-mailing a link for the recipient to download the file. You can avoid bulky attachments and make changes to the file until the time they download it. Additionally, you can find out when the recipient downloaded the file, the number of times the file was downloaded, and sometimes even the location and identity of the recipient. While your file is en route from the server to the recipient’s computer, web-based interfaces such as Vspace (vspace.vassar.edu) provide a secure connection between the two computers to prevent eavesdropping or unauthorized alteration of the file.

Vassar’s Vspace provides all the aforementioned benefits except for the sneaky information such as the location and identity of the recipient. For the control-compulsive, there are third-party solutions such as StatCounter (www.statcounter.com) that provide information about the operating system, web browser, security settings, and the screen resolution of the recipient’s computer in addition to its location and identity (George Orwell would be proud).

Yet another alternative to sending e-mail attachments is to place your files on a web server, which allows the public to search for and view them. Vassar’s student web-space (computing.vassar.edu/services/getweb), allows search engines such as Google to index the contents of the document so that others can find it in their searches. By contrast, files on Vspace are not available to search engines. Similarly, Blackboard (blackboard.vassar.edu), an on-line classroom communications tool whose contents are not indexed by search engines, has the file-sharing features of Vspace but without the encryption. Neither the student web-space nor Blackboard provides information about how your file is accessed by the recipient. Also, Blackboard does not allow you to make changes to the file once you upload it.

But even if you can get others to download a file, you still need to get them to open it— your documents could be created under many formats, and not all formats are alike. While the Portable Document Format (PDF), a universal format established by Adobe, is a popular choice on the web for distributing documents, it is not always the most convenient, especially for PCs.

An alternative is the Hypertext Markup Language format (HTML). This is the format that most websites use to display content on your web browser. The best part is that you don’t need any experience with HTML to create an HTML document. In a word processor like Microsoft Word, to create a document in HTML format, click on “file,” “save as,” and choose “web page” in the “save as type” field. The HTML file will look similar to your typed documents with most elements (like tables and fonts) preserved.

The downside with HTML is that the look of your document will vary depending on the recipient’s computer. Some screen sizes are small, and your text will be wrapped in order to fit, or a computer might not have the font you want to display and will automatically substitute another font. The PDF format, on the other hand, ensures that the recipient will see all formatting and fonts exactly the way you want them to look.

While it seems simple to attach a Word document to an e-mail and send it, the existing alternatives for sending files in various formats via the Internet reveal the intrinsic problems with file attachments and, after all, it might be time to change old habits.