Mail Attachment Filter Options

The Attachment Filter page of Mail Options contains settings that control how PK Protect Attachments handles files that you attach to email messages. The page contains options for specifying which types of files are zipped and whether attachments totaling less than a certain size are zipped at all.

To set mail filter options for PK Protect Attachments:

Select Options from the Application Menu or Quick Access Toolbar.
Select the Mail category, then the Attachment Filter page.
On the Attachment Filter page, set the options you want.

Don't zip signatures: If you use a signature file that attaches to your email messages, check this box to not compress (or encrypt) the signature file. Your message will be sent a little bit faster.

Set a Minimum Size for Attachments to Zip: Some attachments may be so small that you may decide there is nothing to gain by zipping them. You can specify a size threshold for zipping attachments. PK Protect will only zip attachments whose total size (counting all attached files) is greater than the specified threshold. (By default, PK Protect Attachments zips attachments of any size.)

Note: If Encrypt attachments is turned on, this option is ignored and all attached files are zipped and encrypted.

To set a minimum total size for attachments to zip:

Specify a size threshold in the controls labeled Don't zip if total size less than or equal to.

Select the type of size units from the drop-down menu list. Enter the number of units for the threshold in the adjacent text field. Choices of size units are:

Unit	Description
Bytes	Bytes
KB	Kilobytes
MB	Megabytes
GB	Gigabytes

Never Zip Attached Files of Certain Types: You can tell PK Protect never to zip attached files of specified types. One reason you might do this is that files of certain types are already in a compressed format. Zipping them cannot make them much smaller and may even make them larger.

Note: If Encrypt attachments is turned on, this option is ignored and all attached files are zipped and encrypted.

To specify types of attached files that you want PK Protect never to zip:

List file name patterns for the file types in the field labeled Never zip files with these extensions.

For example, to exclude all attached .XYZ files, enter *.xyz. Use a semicolon (;) to separate different patterns.

Patterns for .zip, .gif, .jpeg, .png, and .jpg files are listed by default (unless you have removed them).

Always Zip Attached Files of Certain Types

You can tell PK Protect to always zip files of certain types even when zipping of attachments is turned off or other settings would exclude the files.

For example, if you tell PK Protect to always zip .TXT files, PK Protect will zip attached file myfile.txt even if ZIP attachments is turned off or you also set a minimum size of 50 bytes for attachments to zip, and myfile.txt is only 43 bytes.

The Always zip setting similarly overrides the Never zip setting.

Files zipped because of the Always zip setting are zipped using current option settings, including settings for encrypting and signing on the General page of Mail options.

By default, PK Protect prompts before zipping an Always zip file attachment that would not otherwise be zipped, to confirm that you want to zip it. In the prompt dialog, you can choose whether to encrypt or sign the attachment or whether to zip it at all.

To specify types of attached files that you want PK Protect always to zip:

List file name patterns for the file types in the field labeled Always zip files with these extensions using current options.

For example, to always zip all attached .XYZ files, enter *.xyz. Use a semicolon (;) to separate different patterns.