Soweit ich informiert bin, ist das total veraltet und fällt ganz weg. Früher wurde es mit Punkt geschrieben.

Und wie wär's nebenbei mit "Att." ?
Das macht nämlich das neue Programm meiner Firma automatisch, und in LEO steht immerhin, dass das dem im Deutschen tatsächlich veraltenden "z.Hd." entspricht. (Letzeres wird bei mir nicht mehr verwendet.)

Kenne nur AE, da ist es "att."

I've never seen it without the N, but I don't think it matters whether you put a period or not. I personally would leave out the period.

I personally like it with the period, i.e., attn.:

but

Google seems to overwhelmingly prefer it without the period i.e., attn:

À toi le choix!

In normal casual writing I noticed that the period just went away over time in virtually all abbreviations, eg, in PhD, MD, Dr Smith, 52nd St, PO box, and so on.

Wenn ich schon "zu Händen" oder "to the attention of" einer Person schreibe, wirds wohl kaum "casual writing" sein, Baer. Es geht um formelle Geschäftsbriefe.

CSilla "casual" depends much on your understanding. Better to think of it as "ordinary." At any rate, periods in abbreviations are nowadays nearly always optional. "Attn:" is more natural for me, but what the heck. At the very least, "att." is not standard, though I imagine most people would understand it.

Are there not more important things in the world to worry about?

(But if you must, without the point, because the last letter is present)

Escoville: if you're protesting that worrying about the minutiae of punctuation is not worthy of attention, perhaps you're in the wrong forum, amigo.

Just for posterity here: At least here in Austria, "z.Hd." is still commonly used and is in no way obsolete. I don't find "attn." obsolete, either.

PS. The presence of the last letter does not determine whether or not one uses a period. Witness "St." for "Saint," surely one of the most common abbreviations in use.

Mir geht es eigentlich nicht um den Punkt, sondern um das n: Können sich die Native Speaker mal einigen, ob es eher "attn." oder "att." heißt? Beides steht in LEO.
Für Officepeople aka Sekretärinnen ist das durchaus wichtig.
(In Deutschland wird z.Hd. nicht mehr verwendet, daran erkennt man wirklich schon das Alter der Person, die im jeweiligen Büro Weisungen solcherart ausgibt.)

@ CTS US, #12: Actually, the presence of the last letter does make a difference, at least in British English, where abbreviations like Mr, Dr, St etc. are spelt without a full stop. According to Michael Swan this only happens with abbreviations that contain the last letter of the abbreviated word - Mister, Doctor, Saint. Other abbreviations, like etc., are spelt with a full stop because the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the abbreviated word.

csilla - Ich bin keine Muttersprachlerin, aber habe von 1989 bis 2003 in NYC fuer diverse Weltunternehmen wie E&Y, CAP Gemini, Salomon Smith Barney u.v.m. gearbeitet, und zwar in DTP und word processing. Adressenaufbau war immer:

Ms. Smith
Ernst & Young LLP
Department
5 Times Square
New York, NY 10036

Only lawyers were using "Att.:" - without the "n" and that's all I can say ;-)

In der Ö-Norm-Schulung hatten wir das "zu Handen" als Abkürzung "zH" behandelt. Es wird ebenso in der Schule so gelehrt. Alles andere ist veraltet.

AE sets a point after abbreviations more than BE: e.g. Mr. / Mr - if the abbreviation includes both the first and last letter of the abbreviated word, BE generally drops the point

ATTN: name or
Attn: name

period is not necessary!

I work as an accountant in California and write it all the time as shown above. It is definitely not antiquated!

Just to help clarify this issue for future precise (and thus laudable) translators for whom punctuation is 'nicht egal'.

1) In 30 years of business correspondence, I have never seen Attention written as 'Att' in AE (can't speak for BE);
2) I have only occasionally seen it written without a period, and
3) just because a few people don't bother to spell something properly and/or don't apply a rule of punctuation (usually because they're unaware of it or don't care) does not invalidate the rule per se.

The person who noted earlier that Saint is abbreviated St. is right.

According to Strunk and White - the English (AE) punctuation "Knigge" - abbreviations are written WITH the period, also so that they may be identified as such.

Mein Gott, es geht um 1 bis 2 Zeichen, für die man vorher immer genug Zeit und Raum hatte – bis schlampige Geschafts-E-mails (MIT 'e-'!) als 'akzeptable' eingestuft wurden.... :-/

Definitely don't forget the n--it has a completely different meaning!

Strunk and White is a guide mainly for expository writing, and while it's still worth reading in some respects, punctuation usage in particular has changed considerably since it was written many decades ago. The Chicago Manual might be more useful (though I don't recall this being in it), or simply any current guide to business correspondence.

Answers.com is an even less reliable source; I wouldn't expect most people to understand that 'att' was meant as 'attachment.' And I'm not sure why anyone would need an abbreviation for 'attachment' in any case, since e-mail programs generally have an icon.