Job Applications + gMail + Thunderbird + PDF = bad, bad news...

August 23, 2006 7:56 PM

HELP! Job applications + gMail + Thunderbird + .PDF = screwed up attachments ...why!? what's wrong?

I've been applying for jobs and, like any good wanna-be-techie, like to send my documents (cover letter + resume) in .PDF files with the thinking they are the most universal.

BUT ALAS...there is a problem. It seems that of the 5 cover letters (attached .PDFs) I've sent in the past week, 4 of them got screwed up by gMail or Thunderbird, but the resumes (.PDFs attached on the same email *all* went through).

My setup:
1. write cover letters in MS Word/XP
2. print to .PDF with CutePDF
3. attach cover letter to plain text email in Thunderbird which accesses gMail through "smtp.gmail.com".

> > > it goes wrong when I try to check out the sent mail/attachments in gMail. The screwed up files (all with longish names, ie "My Name - Cover Letter for The Job with The Company.pdf") show up in gMail under the following file names:
1. Ð’I:ipart/mixed; boundary="------------040502040503040509020206"
2. øZÅ7ipart/mixed; boundary="------------080500050905060508010809"
3. à„1ipart/mixed; boundary="------------050307060509070902030303"
4. 0f®9ipart/mixed; boundary="------------070207050804030909000000""on Internship.pdf"
5. @u2:
(when i tested this by sending to my yahoo mail account, yahoo shows the screwy file as named "file.bin")

but all are the correct file size (~50-70K), and can be viewed with "view as HTML"; just not downloaded and viewed like normal....EXCEPT if I use Thunderbird to read my sent mail (or download the files as sent to another email account I have in Thunderbird).


....sooo, you have any ideas? has this happened to you? how can i fix this (it only seems to happen when thunderbird is involved, so i could use gMail alone, but dont like the compose interface)?

thanks.

posted by chefscotticus to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Do you know that the recipients of your messages are having this trouble? Or has it so far only been observed in your sent mail folder in gmail? Does it happen if you use shorter filenames? Does it happen if you use other e-mail software?
posted by winston at 8:11 PM on August 23, 2006

[from the poster] good question:

yes, recipients are having this trouble. I first realized the problem when one of the HR people responded asking that I send the cover letter again as it had not worked the first time. I also have emailed it to myself, from gMail to Yahoo!, and had this problem (but NOT when viewing Yahoo *with* thunderbird [w/ yPOPS]).
posted by chefscotticus at 8:18 PM on August 23, 2006

if i've found my own answer (i have!) and post it here in response to my own question, does it mean that my posting to MeFi was a success?

from thunderbird help zine: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Attachments_renamed
posted by chefscotticus at 8:39 PM on August 23, 2006