Really, now.

[brooksmoses]

Just how hard would it be to write a Thunderbird plugin that checks outgoing emails for phrases such as "attached is" or "I have attached" or whatnot in unquoted text, and if it finds them checks the email to see if there actually is an attachment -- and, if the phrases are present but no attachments, pops up a dialog box saying, "Did you mean to add an attachment?"

Sigh. It couldn't be harder than fixing the part of my brain that's always forgetting the attachments.

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. If I had to count the number of "oops, here's that attachment" messages I've had to send ...

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I received one of those today, so there's a market.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to make it a habit that if I want to send an attachment, I attach the file *before* writing the message.

This gives me a, err, much better success rate.

[zeborah]

Oh yes, me too. Also I'm trying to convince myself never to procrastinate on choosing a subject line.

[surelars.livejournal.com]

Yes, that. Also, writing the Subject: line after I write the body of the email vastly increases the chance that my mail has meaningful subject lines.

But then I do depend of my mail client telling "yo - no subject? Sure you want that?"

[redbird]

I should do that. Especially as I'm using a no-longer-supported email client, so nobody's writing any upgrades or add-ons.

[mschlock.livejournal.com]

Attach first, write email next, type in email addresses last, just in case Outlook decides to try to send the mail when it's still half done (I am still unclear which damn keyboard shortcut does that but it's clearly close to "save message").

Lameness.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, Netscape mail scans for the word attachment, and pesters you if you don't have an attachment. Meaning every time someone sends me one of those e-mails with the disclaimer that the contents and any attachments are confidential, and I respond, I get the warning.

I hate job hunting (which is when I get most of those messages with the disclaimer).

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

I have almost got myself trained to do the attachments first and then the text explaining what I have attached, but it is an uphill battle. I think there's something in my subconscious that makes me think they get attached when I describe them that way.

[miyasato.livejournal.com]

Sigh. It couldn't be harder than fixing the part of my brain that's always forgetting the attachments.

I think your brain is simply telling you email was never designed to be a file transfer protocol! :-)

[shandrew.livejournal.com]

Mail should always be queued for a few minutes before it is actually sent, so you can edit or add an attachment after you "send".

[deyo.livejournal.com]

If you write this plug-in, remember to distinguish between new and quoted text, so that replying to an attachment doesn't trigger it.

Now now

[shreevatsa.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

It already exists :)

Attachment Reminder (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/5759)
Check and Send (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2281)

[Also Google "attachment reminder" for Gmail, Outlook, Evolution, Mail.app, etc.]

And it's smart enough not to scan the quoted part, too.