Mac OS X Mail and PDF Files: Inline or Icon?
Will it or won't it? If I attach this PDF file, will Mac OS X Mail display its content or just an icon? And why can I view this invoice I received inline while I have to open that in Preview?
Mac OS X Mail seems to enjoy the confusion and guessing evoked by its handling PDF file attachments. Fortunately, there is rule and regularity — if not sense and sensibility — to how PDF files are treated.
Know When Mac OS X Mail Will Show a PDF Inline, When as an Icon
To know whether Mac OS X Mail will display a PDF file attachment as an icon or inline, look at the file's length:
- PDF files of only one page are displayed inline in the message text.
- PDF files with two or more pages are shown as icons.
For the single-page PDF files, you can switch between inline and icon display by selecting View as Icon or View in Place from the context menu respectively.
