• BlackBerry® Internet Service
• BlackBerry smartphones
• Microsoft® Outlook® 97, 2000, 2003, and 2007

Some email messages that are received on the BlackBerry smartphone have a winmail.dat file attached instead of the original attachment. There is no Open Attachment option associated with this file or they receive an error when opening the attachment stating:

This attachment type cannot be viewed on your device

The BlackBerry Internet Service is not compatible with rich text format (RTF) messages created with Microsoft Outlook 97, 2000 or 2003.

An RTF message sent from Microsoft Outlook 97, 2000 or 2003 without an attachment appears on the recipient′s BlackBerry smartphone as a plain text message with the winmail.dat file attached.

An RTF message sent from Microsoft Outlook 97, 2000 or 2003 with an attachment appears on the recipient′s BlackBerry smartphone as a plain text message with the original attachment replaced by a winmail.dat file.

RTF messages sent from other email applications appear correctly on the BlackBerry smartphone.

Alternately, to avoid the winmail.dat attachment, configure Microsoft Outlook to use the plain text mail format.

1. In the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Mail Format tab.
3. From the Send in the message format drop-down list, select Plain Text.