In addition to creating messages from within Outlook, you can also use Outlook to send messages from other applications. You can send email messages directly from any Office 2003 application, from Internet Explorer, or from Windows. Sending from Microsoft Office ApplicationsYou can send email directly from any of the Microsoft Office programs by selecting File, Send To. You'll have several options to choose from. You can send the Office file as an attachment, as part of the Outlook message, to a routing recipient, or to an Exchange folder (if you're using Exchange Server). The Send To menu for Microsoft Word is shown in Figure 18.24. Figure 18.24. You can send an Office file in a variety of ways.If you select Mail Recipient (as Attachment), the entire Office document is sent as an attachment to the email message. This is the easiest method to use to send your Office file and the easiest method for the recipient to understand. The recipient receives your email with an attached Office file that she can save to her hard drive or open directly from Outlook. The other commonly used option is to Send To, Mail Recipient. Selecting this option from within a Microsoft Word document displays Figure 18.25. Figure 18.25. Send your Word document as an email to a recipient.Your Word document will actually turn into an email. The message header is shown at the top of the window and you can select your recipients. You can choose a subject for your email and include a brief introduction to your document. The document is received in much the same way it is sent. The document appears as an email message, rather than as an attachment. NOTE You can send Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in this method. Access databases must be sent as attachments. TIP If you mistakenly select to send the document to Mail Recipient instead of Mail Recipient (As Attachment), you can easily get rid of the message header and return your document to normal. Click the Email button on the standard toolbar to return your Word document to its previous state. Sending from Internet ExplorerYou can also send email directly from Internet Explorer. To send a link, click File, Send. You can choose to send a link by email or the entire page by email. However, if both you and your recipient are using Outlook 2003 with the default attachment security settings, sending a link by email is pretty much useless to your recipient. The link (a .url file) is blocked by Outlook's security settings. Use this method only if your recipient is using another email client or if your recipient has customized his attachment security settings.
For more information about Outlook's attachment security, see "Attachment Security," p. 471. TIP I've found that it's much easier to copy the Web address from Internet Explorer's Address bar and then simply compose a new email message from within Outlook. That way I don't encounter the attachment security restrictions when I send a Web link to another user. Sending from the Context MenuYou can use Outlook to send any file on your computer to another person. Simply right-click on the file and select the Send To, Mail Recipient command to generate a new email message with the file attached. NOTE When you email files using the context menu, your message format is always in plain text format. |