With a few clicks of the mouse, they can eliminate the cumbersome job of sending floppy disks through regular mail or the intimidating prospect of sending something via FTP, a file transfer protocol favored by more sophisticated Internet users. That is the theory. The reality is often much different. It's not as easy as it is supposed to be. Even experienced computer users become frustrated.
Attachments usually show up in e-mail messages as icons.
E-mail programs such as Eudora, or those that come with Microsoft Office, America Online or Lotus Notes, are designed to enable people to click on those icons, triggering the file to open in a separate window. Click on a file that was created using a word processor such as Microsoft Word, and if you have Word on your computer, the file should open immediately. But in many cases, that click opens nothing but the door to confusion. Sometimes the file does not open at all. Sometimes a dialog box opens on the computer screen, asking the user which program should be used to open the file.