accessing attachments on mavericks

Below is a lengthy email I just submitted to Apple Accessibility - I don't know if others are having this problem and interested to know if it is just me. I will post whatever reply I receive. I am writing this email because of a continuing problem with access to attachments using VoiceOver and Apple Mail. Put simply, in roughly 90% of the emails that I receive with attachments, I cannot either access or download the attachment. My mail is through an office exchange server. I am running Mavericks with the latest Mail program update. I did not experience this problem with earlier versions of Apple’s OS; nor do I have any similar problem using Outlook on Windows and JAWS. Normally, under the Mail menu, Preferences, Viewing, the Use “Use Classic Layout” checkbox is not checked. After opening the Mail program, I assure that I am interacting with both the Messages Column Group and the Messages Table. This allows me to use the cursor keys to navigate through the list of messages. To read a particular message, I use VO-j, which jumps to the message text with the hint “Interact with Text.” In the 90% of cases I mentioned, if there is an attachment with the message, I can scroll to the end of the message where the attachment is located and VoiceOver will say the name of the attachment with the word “image” immediately after the name of the attachment. However, using Cmd-Y for Quick Look does not let me read the attachment; likewise, when I go to the File Menu and scroll down to Save Attachments, this item is dimmed. However, using Outlook with JAWS in Windows, I can access the attachment. Similarly, in the messages table (in the 90% of the emails where I can’t access the attachment) I get the same result by trying to use either Quick Look or Save Attachment. Under Mail Menu, Preferences, Viewing, and then Checking the box for Use Classic layout, I can determine whether an attachment will be accessible or downloadable. Once that box is checked, I navigate to the Messages Table and interact with it (note, there is no longer a Messages Column Group, so the Sort BY choices no longer appear). Navigating with VO-right-arrow, VO reads Status, From, Subject, Date received and , finally and most importantly for this topic, Attachments. If there is no attachment, VO says “Blank.” However, if there is an attachment, there are two possible messages spoken. First, in the 90% case, VO says “attachment” which indicates that, in fact, there is an attachment. However, with this message, the attachment is not accessible or downloadable. Using either Quick Look or Save Attachments will not allow use of the attachment. In the second, 10% situation, VO says “X Item” where “X” indicates the number of attachments. In his case, Quick Look and the Save Attachment option under the File Menu are both available. The attachment can be either viewed in Quick Look or downloaded using the Save Attachment function under the Mail menu. Unchecking the Use Classic Layout box, the same attachments (as when the box is checked) are either accessible and downloadable or not. I cannot determine what attributes are causing the difference, nor can I find any characteristics of the emails with the attachments that are driving the difference. To assist Apple in hopefully resolving this problem for me and, if it is a larger bug, resolving it for similarly situated users, I am attaching four emails. The sender of the email does not matter as I have emails from each of them that produce the opposite results from those that are attached. . Likewise, the file type of the attachment does not create the difference. I look forward to any assistance you can provide and would be happy to work with a member of your team in resolving the problem.

After quite a bit of research, time on the phone with Apple and playing with others' machines, I have found a very workable solution to my above problem. That said, the solution is neither perfect nor elegant. When a message containing an attachment is highlighted, but the "Save Attachment" item in the file menu is dimmed, press VO-J to jump to the text of the message. Scroll down to the attachment and press VO-Spacebar. This brings up the menu from which the attachment can be opened or saved. I still have no answer on why you can neither use the file menu and why you must be on the attachment, but this works. I feel a bit foolish as others in this thread and other threads have noted the VO-spacebar command to access attachments, but if anyone else is struggling with attachments, I hope this helps. Ray

No issues here. I can use the file menu to save attachments. maybe it's just your computer. Good luck.