Review: YouSendIt Enables Secure File Transfer — Maybe

Because of its store-and-forward nature, the YouSendIt process adds to your convenience by not requiring that recipients be around to receive the file. They can go to the site within the time limit you set and get the file at their convenience.

If YouSendIt ended there, it would be a nice, but unremarkable means of managing file transfer. But there’s more. A series of applications are available for download that enable you to install YouSendIt Express. The Express version resides on your computer and, in addition to having the same functions (with nearly the same interface) as the website, it allows you to attach entire folders. Plus, there are plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and for Microsoft Office and Outlook, as well as other ones that I didn’t test.

Depending on the plug-in, these features are more or less useful. With the Outlook 2007 plug-in, for example, you’re asked every time you send an email with attachments if you want to use YouSendIt for those attachments. With Microsoft Word 2007, YouSendIt shows up in the “Send” menu choice.

Picture transfer

It’s not entirely clear how it works in Photoshop, although I did find that in the case of the 64-bit version, it doesn’t work at all. The instructions say that it converts some file types before sending. This means that if you’re taking photos using one of the RAW digital camera files used by the pros, you’ll find yourself having to choose between formats such as TIFF and JPEG. I tried sending the Nikon form of that file type, called an NEF file, and YouSendIt insisted on the conversion. Since this file type is used because it’s not modified or compressed, this means of file transmission may not be suitable for such an application. However, repeated attempts to install the Photoshop plug-in into the 64-bit version of Photoshop were unsuccessful, so that limitation wasn’t a problem.

YouSendIt Express also occasionally failed to send files with the 64-bit version of Windows 7. When this happened, shutting the application down and restarting it sometimes solved the problem. I did not notice these problems with the 32-bit version of Windows 7.

On its website, the company is silent on its support for Windows 7, although discussions with a company representative revealed that YouSendIt is still working on full support. Unfortunately, that is not the only thing the company is silent about. For example, if you want YouSendIt to perform document tracking, your recipient will need to have a YouSendIt account. This information, however, is buried deep within the tech support information. Unless you research these issues, you’re going to be disappointed.

Overall, YouSendIt works well in its most basic form. However, be aware that to use some of its more specialised features, you either need to be running an older version of Windows or be willing to wait until the company updates its software to be compatible with current versions.