attach a document to an email

I am the ward clerk and wanted to get a document out to the whole ward. I didn't see a place to attach a document or picture to an email that I am sending out to the ward members. Can you do this?

jeremp wrote:I am the ward clerk and wanted to get a document out to the whole ward. I didn't see a place to attach a document or picture to an email that I am sending out to the ward members. Can you do this?

Short answer - No. This has been a requested feature. To work around, the e-mail address list would have to be used in some other e-mail client such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Eudora, etcetera.

jeremp wrote:I am the ward clerk and wanted to get a document out to the whole ward. I didn't see a place to attach a document or picture to an email that I am sending out to the ward members. Can you do this?

Long answer- while you can't add attachment, you can include a link..... I do it all the time with meeting schedules, TFOT lessons, and documents I've scanned from the stake for distribution, etc.

If you've never done it, it is a slight learning curve, but not difficult, and I know there is somebody in your ward who could help you.

The quote below (with link) from the calendar help shows how to post your file someplace, then add a link to your calendar description linking to that file, like an event poster, etc, but the process would be similar for any document you wanted your ward to have access to from your email notifications from lds.org.

There are actually benefits to linking, and this may be the preferred method anyway. The "link" process is a "pull" process, and those who want it follow the link and get it, making your email smaller. The "attachment" process "pushes" the attachment file to them with their email, whether they want it or not. Those with dial-up that have their email set to automatically download attachments will thank you for the link and not an attachment (and perhaps bring you a plate of cookies some Monday night,) and some spam filters won't pass attachments anyway.

quoted from the calendar help:
Attach Documents (e.g., Fliers) to Events

Currently the calendar does not allow you to attach fliers to events. However, this should not pose a serious problem since uploading and displaying files on the web is possible with another method, such as Google. To refer to a Google-hosted file in your event description:

1. Sign up for a Google account (or some other web service that allows you to upload files).
2. Go to docs.google.com.
3. In the upper-left corner, click Upload.
4. Drag and drop your file into the target rectangle.
5. In the Private option at the bottom, select Anyone with the link or Public on the Web.
6. Click Start Upload. After the file uploads, the file name becomes a hyperlink.
7. Click the hyperlinked file name.
8. In the Web address, copy the URL that appears for the file. (It will be long.)
9. Go to a URL shortening service, such as tinyurl.com or bit.ly and shorten the URL.
10. Insert this shortened URL into your calendar event description.

While the quote from the help file tells you to use google docs, and you can, you can also do the following instead:

Place your document (probably in PDF format) in your "classic" website's "news and information" location, probably in PDf, then call up the document from "classic," and copy the URL page address, use a url shortening service (tinyurl, bit.ly) on this address to "shorten" it. Then simply include the link in your email. (NOTE: will only work until classic goes away...and only for those things your whole ward should see.)


And remember, PDF is currently the most standard file for transfering these documents. You really can't assume that most of your ward can open whatever program you are using to create the file. Openoffice (free!) will convert your documents to PDF's so most people can view them.