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TMO Quick Tip - Mail: Quick Look Attachments

by , 7:30 AM EST, November 10th, 2008

Apple's Mail application is a perfectly fine tool for managing and reading your email, and it does pretty well with handling message attachments, too. You don't have to move attachments out of Mail to view them, however, thanks to Leopard's Quick Look feature.

To view a Mail attachment with Quick Look, select the file in your email message and tap the Space bar, just like you do in the Finder. That opens a Quick Look window that shows a preview of the file. There's also a Quick Look button near the top of Mail message windows, too, but I found the Space bar keyboard shortcut to be much faster.


Some email attachments don't come with a preview icon...

You need to have Mac OS X 10.5 or higher to use Quick Look, and it can't preview file formats it doesn't recognize. You can add plug-ins that let Quick Look preview even more files, and many of those add-ons are free.


...but Quick Look can solve that problem.

I use Quick Look in Mail all the time so I can check out files people send me before I drag them to my Desktop.


Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

if you have tips or tricks to share, or Mac-related questions you want answered.

Jeff Gamet is TMO's Managing Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

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