Microsoft Outlook 2007

Working with Attachments

Attachments allow you to send Office documents as well as pictures or other electronic files to other individuals for sharing information, reviewing, and editing of content. Any file type can be sent 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 2003 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:

Create a new email message
NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Sending Email Messages.
OPTIONAL: In the body of the message, include a reference to the email attachment with the file name, program, and version it was created in
RECOMMENDED: Many users are wary of attachments because of viruses. Including information about the file and what it is for is a good practice and will set most recipients at ease.
From the Insert command tab, in the Include group, click ATTACH FILE
The Insert File dialog box appears.
Locate and select the file to be sent
Click INSERT
The attachment icon appears in the Attached field.
Click SEND

Opening Attachments

You can open and view attachments either from an open message, or simply from the Reading pane while viewing a message with attachments.

Open the message
OR
If you are using the Reading pane, from the Folder Contents area, select the message
NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.
Double click the attachment icon
The Opening Mail Attachment dialog box appears
Click OPEN
Your attachment appears on screen.

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

Open the message
OR
If you are using the Reading pane, from the Folder Contents area, select the message
NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.
Double click the attachment icon
The Opening Mail Attachment dialog box appears
Click OPEN
Your attachment appears on screen.
In the program used to open the attachment, from the File menu, select Save As...
Change to the desired drive and directory
OPTIONAL: Change the filename
Click SAVE or OK

Saving Attachments: Before Opening

Open the message
OR
If you are using the Reading pane, from the Folder Contents area, select the message
NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.
Double click the attachment icon
The Opening Mail Attachment dialog box appears
Click SAVE
The Save As... dialog box appears.
Change to the desired drive and directory
OPTIONAL: Change the filename
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.

Open the message
NOTE: For more information, refer to Basic Email Activities: Reading Email Messages.
Right click the attachment icon » select Remove or Clear
To close the message, from the File menu, select Close
In the Save changes confirmation dialog box that appears, click YES