PDFs are the most popular document format in offices, public administration and domestic use, given their intrinsic characteristics (document always the same for everyone, difficult to modify and configurable to be signed or completed only in the required fields). If we are a beginner with PC and smartphone and we find ourselves having to send a PDF, we may encounter some small difficulties in correctly inserting the attachment or sending particularly large PDFs (or a series of large PDFs). Since no one is born learned, we decided to show you in a simple guide all the steps to be sent to send PDF via email, how to send larger PDFs via the cloud or how to send large PDF files via external services (to be inserted in the body of the e-mail). At the end of the guide we will be able to send any type of PDF document by e-mail.
How to send PDF via email (simple attachment)
The simplest and most linear method to send a PDF via email is to connect to your email account (for example Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail and the like), log in with your credentials then click on New message or on the button Write to start the screen dedicated to sending a new e-mail message.
Now identify the icon of the attachments (in the shape of a paperclip) or click on Attach, select the PDF file to be sent (among the files on the PC), insert a sender, a subject and a message in the email then click on Send to send the PDF.
Unfortunately this method, although the simplest of all, may not be valid for larger PDF files (often the limit is 10 MB, but more and more often the problem is related to the anti-spam and antivirus system that blocks attachments in the bud too large and "suspicious"): our recipient may not receive any files or only receive an empty email, without an attachment (due to the fault of its provider). In these cases it is better to use one of the methods recommended in the two chapters below to be able to send any PDF via e-mail.
How to send large PDFs via Google Drive
If we want to send a large PDF file via Gmail, we first upload the file to our Google Drive cloud. We open the site, log in with the same Google account that we used for Gmail then click on New -> File upload .We select our PDF file, then wait for the upload to our cloud space; at the end we open Gmail again, we click again on Write then we select the button in the shape of Google Drive, present at the bottom.
A new window will open, where we can choose which file to insert into the email; select the large PDF and click Insert below. The file will be added to the email as a shared link, i.e. it will be present in the body of the email as a clickable link; the recipient will only have to open the email, click on the link or button that will appear in the body of the email, so that he can view (in another window) the content of the PDF, also having the option to save it on the Drive or download it to your PC.
How to send large PDFs via OneDrive
If instead we have decided to send a large PDF file via Outlook, we can upload it to OneDrive, the cloud service offered by Microsoft. We open the site indicated a little while ago, we log in with the Microsoft credentials used for e-mail or for Office then we upload the file by clicking at the top on Upload -> File .Then select the large PDF file, wait for the end of the upload then go to the Outlook web page; from here we select the New message item, we click on Attach then we select the Search in cloud paths item.
In the new window, make sure to select the heavy PDF file to be included in the email and click on Share as a link to OneDrive . The file will now be added as a shared link within the body of the message, ready to be viewed or downloaded by the recipient regardless of the size of the file.
How to send large PDFs with external sites
If the file or folder full of PDF is really too large to be sent with sharing via the cloud, we can also use the services offered by sites such as Filemail and WeTransfer to be able to safely transfer large files.
Using the two sites that we have recommended, we can send, without registration and with a limit of 2 GB, any large PDF to any colleague, friend or relative, who will thus be able to access our document or our folder of documents without having to time to understand if the file can be sent via simple attachment or via cloud.
In this regard, we invite you to read our guide on how to transfer and send files of all sizes via the internet, in which we explain how to use these services and the alternatives to the two services that we have already reported to you.
Conclusions
As we have seen, even sending a simple PDF as an email attachment (one of the first things you learn to do when we send email via computer) can hide news and surprises to learn: we have seen how you can send PDF (but also any other file type) by taking advantage of the cloud integration on Gmail and Outlook, which take advantage of Google Drive and OneDrive respectively to be able to store and send the largest files. In addition to the cloud method, we mentioned the sites to send large files, great for sending very heavy PDFs or PDF folders without fear of being blocked by the recipient's email provider.Another way to send large files is to use P2P networks, as described in our guide on how to send large files via the internet without limits with direct P2P sending . If, on the other hand, we wanted to download the attachments received via email clients, we recommend reading our guide on how to download the attachments of the emails from Outlook, Gmail, Thunderbird and others .
