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Microsoft Outlook 2003

Working with Attachments

Attachments allow you to send Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other electronic files to other individuals for sharing information, reviewing, and editing of content. If you have the information as a file, you can send it as an attachment.

WARNINGS:
If you want future access to an attachment, you must save it or reopen the original message.
If you delete the email message, the attachment will be deleted.

• Attachment Etiquette
• Sending Attachments
• Opening Attachments
• Saving Attachments
• Removing Attachments

Attachment Etiquette

The following etiquette tips for sending attachments are general guidelines and can help prevent and/or solve problems.

• Be conscious of the file size: depending of the type of connection, large files can take a long time to download; many users have disk quotas and large files can quickly take up their available space.

• Include the program name and version that you used to create the file (e.g., I have included the report created in Word XP with this message).

• Attachments should not be sent to a listserv (unless specifically allowed). Instead, ask people that are interested to request the attachment directly from you.

• Faculty sharing information with students in their classes may want to use the W: drive instead of sending the file as an attachment (with large classes, this can be a much more efficient use of network and server resources).

• Faculty and staff sharing information with their department colleagues should consider using the department shared drive (the S: drive) instead of sending the file as an attachment.

Sending Attachments

To send an attachment with your email message, follow these steps:

1. Create a new email message
   NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Sending Email Messages.

2. In the body of the message, include a reference to the email attachment with the file name, program, and version it was created in

3. From the Insert menu, select File...
   The Insert File dialog box appears.

4. Locate and select the file to be sent

5. Click INSERT
   The attachment icon appears in the body of your message.

6. Click SEND

Opening Attachments

In order to open an attachment, you must first open the message that it is attached to.

1. Open the message
   NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.

2. Double click the attachment icon
   HINTS:
   The attachment should open on the screen. If it does not open, save the attachment and then open it using the appropriate program.
   For more information, refer to Saving the Attachment Before Opening.
   If the Opening Mail Attachment warning box appears, click OPEN

Saving Attachments

For future access to your attachment, you must save the attachment. You must also save the attachment if you want to make any changes to the file. The following instructions involve saving attachments only, not attachments and messages.

Saving Attachments: After Opening

1. Open the message
   NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.

2. Double click the attachment icon
   The attachment should open on the screen. If it does not open, save the attachment and then open it using the appropriate program
   NOTE: For more information, refer to Saving the Attachment Before Opening.

3. In the program used to open the attachment, from the File menu, select Save As...

4. Change to the desired drive and directory

5. OPTIONAL: Change the filename

6. Click SAVE or OK

Saving Attachments: Before Opening

1. Open the message
   NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.

2. Double click the attachment icon

3. From the Opening Mail Attachment warning box, click SAVE
   The Save As... dialog box appears.

4. Change to the desired drive and directory

5. OPTIONAL: Change the filename

6. Click SAVE

Removing Attachments

If you have saved an attachment (e.g., to your H: drive), you can "remove" it from the email message. This will help preserve your disk quota.

NOTE: This does not work when viewing messages in the Reading Pane. You must open messages completely to remove their attachments.

1. Open the message
   NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.

2. Right click the attachment icon » select Remove or Clear

3. To close the message, from the File menu, select Close

4. In the Save changes confirmation dialog box that appears, click YES

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