Working with Attachments

When you send an email, you can attach any type of file to be sent with it. Sending attachments is an effective method of communicating highly formatted information such as agendas, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and digital pictures. Ever since virus writers began inserting viruses in files attached to email messages, Outlook has implemented a fairly restrictive attachment policy. This section provides instructions for sending attachments, explains Microsoft's attachment security policy, and offers some workarounds and suggestions for best practices for sending attachments so that all recipients can read and access them.

Enclosing Attachments

There are two main methods of sending attachments. You can enclose an attachment or you can embed an attachment. Enclosing an attachment simply means that a file is attached to an email message. Depending on your message format (HTML, rich text format, or plain text), your attachment will show in the message or in the message header.

There are two main methods to enclose an attachment. With either Outlook message editor (WordMail or the native Outlook editor), you can click the paperclip icon on the toolbar to display the Insert File dialog box (see Figure 18.12).

Figure 18.12. Use this dialog box to select the attachment to insert.

Doing so opens a dialog box that you can use to navigate to the location of the file you want to attach. Select the file and click Insert to attach your file to your email message.

When using WordMail as your email editor, you can insert a file by selecting File from the Insert menu.

You can also insert other Outlook items in your email messages. If you're using WordMail, click the small down arrow next to the paperclip icon on the toolbar to display the Insert menu. Select Item to display Figure 18.13.

Figure 18.13. Select the Outlook item you want to attach to your message.

Use the folder tree in the Look In box to select the folder that contains the item you want to attach. When you've selected the proper folder, all available items in that folder will appear in the Items list at the bottom of the window. Select the item you want to attach and click OK.

NOTE

You can insert another Outlook item as an attachment or as a shortcut. You can send an item as a shortcut if the recipient has access to the folder in which the item currently resides. A typical use for inserting a shortcut is sending a link to an item in a public folder. Inserting an item as a shortcut saves space and ensures that the recipient will see the latest copy of the item, even if it has been updated since you sent the email.

If you're not sure why your attachments sometimes appear in the body of the message, and sometimes appear at the top or bottom of the message, see "Moving Attachments" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.

If you're using the native Outlook editor to compose your email, the methods for attaching files are very similar: You can still click on the paperclip icon on the toolbar. But with the Outlook editor, you can also simply click the Insert menu and select either File or Item.

If your default mail format is rich text format, you have another option on the Insert menu: Object. Selecting Object displays Figure 18.14.

Figure 18.14. You can create a new object or insert an existing object.

From this dialog box, you can create a new object to insert or select an existing object. Typical objects are bitmap files, charts, PowerPoint slides, and video clips.

NOTE

If you're using HTML format, you can choose to insert a horizontal line, a picture, or a hyperlink. A plain text message does not have these extra options.

If your recipients are having problems receiving your attachments, see "Disappearing Attachments" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.

Embedding Attachments

Embedding an attachment allows the attachment (either an image or another file, such as a Word or Excel file) to be viewed inline with the rest of the message. Embedding a file within an email takes just a bit more work. Use the following steps to embed an Excel spreadsheet in your email:

1. Create a new email message.

2. Click in the body of the email message where you want the Excel spreadsheet to appear.

3. Use one of the methods previously described to open the Insert File dialog box shown previously in Figure 18.12.

4. Select the file you want to embed.

5. Use the drop-down list next to the Insert button to select Insert as Text. The text of the spreadsheet should appear in your email message.

The previous steps for embedding a file or an image are the same whether you're using Word as your editor or the native Outlook editor.

Sending Pictures

Sending pictures is one of the fun uses of email. If Grandma and Grandpa live 12 hours away, you can send them pictures of the grandkids weekly so that they never miss a step, smile, or first day of school. There are two ways to send pictures: as attachments and embedded within the email.

From a system administrator's point of view, it's better to attach the files to the email than to embed them. This approach is beneficial for several reasons. It ensures that the attachments are easy to save to disk. Any proud technically savvy grandparent is probably going to want to save the picture to the hard drive for storage. Attaching each picture as its own file makes it easy to save just the attachments you want. Attaching the images rather than embedding them also makes the email message load faster. On occasion, when waiting for a picture to load in an email message, text will jump around as the picture loads. This process can also cause confusion as your recipient is reading along and expecting a picture, but their older computer hasn't loaded it yet.

Attaching an image to an email uses exactly the same process as attaching any other file. If you want to embed an image in an email so that the recipient doesn't have to double-click the attached file to open the image, use the following steps when composing in HTML format with the native Outlook editor:

1. Create a new email message.

2. Click in the body of the email message where you want your item to appear.

3. Click Insert, Picture to display Figure 18.15.

   Figure 18.15. Use this dialog box to insert a picture.

   

4. Browse to select the desired picture.

5. Click OK to insert the desired picture.

Use the following steps to insert a picture in HTML format using WordMail as your email editor:

1. Create a new email message.

2. Click in the body of the email message where you want your item to appear.

3. Click Insert, Picture, From File to display Figure 18.16.

   Figure 18.16. Use this dialog box to insert a picture.

   

4. Browse to select the desired picture.

5. Click Insert to insert the desired picture.

Your picture in your email message will be the same size as it's stored on your computer. With today's high-resolution digital cameras, this can sometimes be quite large. You might need to resize your picture after you insert it in an email. To resize your image, scroll to the bottom right of the email message and drag the black square handles of the image up and to the left to change the image's size. You can also use the Format Picture toolbar from within Word to alter the size and properties of the image.

Attachment Security Options

A discussion of attachments wouldn't be complete without a discussion of Outlook's attachment security. In 1999, virus writers discovered a new method to transmit viruses. They discovered that a macro virus could be written to exploit the Outlook address book. These viruses would send themselves to everyone in your Outlook address book and were transmitted in a variety of formats. Typical formats included executable files (.exe files), screen saver files (.scr files), and Visual Basic Scripting files (.vbs files). When one of these attachments was opened (by double-clicking), the virus delivered its payload. An email was sent to everyone in the address book with a copy of the virus enclosed.

Microsoft implemented new security features to prevent viruses like these from spreading so quickly. One of those security features was a block on certain types of attachments.

For more information on the attachment-blocking features of Outlook 2003, see "Attachment Security," p. 471.

If you attempt to attach a file that Outlook blocks, you'll receive the message shown in Figure 18.17.

Figure 18.17. Outlook warns you if you attempt to attach a blocked file type to an outgoing email.

Outlook warns you that the file type you're trying to attach might not be viewable to recipients using Microsoft Outlook. You can choose whether to send the message. If you choose to send the message, Outlook sends the attachment with the message, but that attachment might be blocked by the recipient's email client.

Sending .exe Files Via Email Securely

Most users either love or hate Outlook's attachment security features. I used to dislike these features, but five years as an Exchange administrator have changed my mind. It's almost never a good idea to send an executable file over email. The risk that the executable file contains a virus is just too great. Even if you know where the executable file came from, it's still a good idea to avoid opening an executable file sent via email. Even if the file is from someone you know, it still might contain a virus. If you need to send an executable file (or any other file type that Outlook blocks), it's much better to zip that file first. In addition to preventing the file from corrupting, zipping a file ensures that the file won't be blocked by the recipient's email client or email server. Many corporations block executable files from ever entering their mail server.