Parts Folder
Eudora Tip #166/12-Feb-2003

If you roam around your Eudora Folder – the one with your settings and mailboxes etc, not the Eudora Application Folder which contains the software itself — you’ll soon see a Parts Folder.

Open that and you may well be in for a surprise. I currently have 5 pictures in mine.

What are these? How did they get there and is it safe to delete them?

The Attachments Folder is the receptacle for files such as pictures which people attach to their messages and send to you, but the Parts Folder is the receptacle for pictures which people include in the body of their message. This is most likely to include images, but there could be other files as well.

Recently one of my clients emailed me some photos of her garden. When I opened her message there were the pictures in full splendour in the body of the message. These weren’t attached to but inserted in the message.

While I could see them in the message, if I wanted to find the original I’d need to look in the Parts folder.

Now, if I delete those pictures from the Parts Folder and empty the Trash when I open the message again I’ll simply see an icon where the picture once was and a line of text similar to this:

Related: :homeworld:IMG_1818.jpg:00072F13:6C2F57B2:00000000:00000000

This line tells me that IMG_1818.jpg used to be part of the message but now can’t be found.

So: feel free to delete the contents of the Parts folder if you’re sure you no longer need them. The pictures of my client’s garden were pretty, but I’m afraid I’m just not going to keep them forever. That once in a lifetime picture of great-aunt Irma though — you can bet I’ve moved that to safer storage!