If you run into email attachment problems (and you’ve carefully chosen the right file format and compression method), you are probably running into an encoding problem. Here are a few problem-solving tips:

If you are having difficulty sending multiple files, try sending one file at a time

If your message is still arriving garbled, you need to enlist the help of a decoding utility such as StuffIt Expander, which will translate to and from BinHex and uuencode formats.

If decoding doesn’t help, take the time to check the encoding settings on the sender’s side. Some email programs (such as Eudora Pro and Netscape Communicator) let you send attachments in a variety of encoding methods such as MIME, BinHex or uuencode.

After all this trouble, however, some files are just too large to send as email attachments. If both the sender and receiver have FTP (file transfer protocol) access, you could always upload your files to one of the free Web servers (such as iVillage or Geocities) from where the recipient could, in turn, download them. Two recommended FTP programs are CuteFTP (for Windows) and Fetch (for Mac).

But perhaps easiest of all is a new free service, My Docs Online, which provides 20 megabytes of password-protected Web space for just such purposes. After you upload your files, simply specify who you want to share the files with, and My Docs Online sends them a short email with your name and personal comments, the name and size of the file, and a link to My Docs Online. Now, wasn’t that easy?