Attaching the documents or pictures

An attachment is a file that you send along with your message, such as a photo, a document, or a spreadsheet. Sending an attachment is kind of like paper-clipping a separate document to a letter. In fact, Outlook Express uses a paper clip icon to indicate that a message has an attachment, and the button you click to add an attachment sports a paper clip design as well. Eudora uses a sheet of paper with a paper clip attaching a second sheet.

Follow these steps to add an attachment to an outgoing message to Outlook Express:

1. Click the Attach File (paperclip) button. The Insert Attachment dialog box appears.

2. Rummage through the files on your hard drive until you find the file you want to insert. Click the filename to select it.

3. Click Attach.

4. The file is inserted into the message as an attachment. An icon for the attachment appears in a special Attach line that's inserted beneath the Subject field in the message header.

5. Finish the message, and then click the Send button.

In Eudora,

1. Click the Attach File button (or use the Message menu). The Attach file dialogue box appears.

2. Follow the same steps as for Outlook Express.

Attachments

File attachments show up as icons with e-mail messages. You can open them by double-clicking on the associated icon. That is, you can try. This technique works only if you have a program that understands the format of the file, such as WordPerfect for a WordPerfect file.

If you don't have the right application, you may be confronted with the Open with menu. You can try Notepad, but make sure the box "Always open these files with this application" is not checked.

In Outlook/Outlook Express, if you don't have the right application, you can still save the file by dragging it to your desktop or another folder.

In Eudora the file is saved automatically to the Eudora/Attach folder. Once you have installed the required application, you can start it, go to this folder and open the file. Alternatively, you can return to Eudora and double click the link at the foot of the email message which accompanied it.

When attaching files in Outlook/Outlook Express, just make sure that you don't have the Make Shortcut to This File box checked (in the Attach dialog box). That won't properly send the actual file, except on an in-house network.

In Eudora, you won't strike this problem as the Attach dialog box lets you click on the file you want and automatically properly attaches it.

Large attachments can cause problems

If you want to send a large attachment with an email message, it is good etiquette to check with the intended recipient before sending the attachment. Not everybody can handle them, and sending large attachments to someone with a limited amount of server space can cause that server space to overflow, blocking the recipient's other email. That won't make you popular, I can assure you. As a quick rule of thumb: If it exceeds 40 Kb, it may be too large. If possible, reduce the attachment's size (See Photos below). If not, contact the intended recipient and ask permission to send the attachment.

Many businesses, worried about viruses, no longer allow attachments, so it is a good idea to check before sending any attachment to a business address.

Photos

If the attachment on an e-mail you receive is a graphic image, Outlook Express displays the image directly in the message when you open the message, so too does the latest version of Eudora (6.1). As a result, you don't have to do anything special to view images your friends send to you via e-mail. For all other kinds of attachments, just double-click the icon to open the attachment and the program that can read it simultaneously.

Some versions of Eudora don't open graphic images unless they were originally embedded in the message. Instead the name of the image will appear at the foot of the message as with all other attachments. Just double-click to open it in your default image viewer.

Before attaching a photo check its size. If it is more than, say, 70 Kb, use a graphics program, such as the ones suggested in our Paint replacement hint (see under Windows/Bundled Utilities), to resize it. Cutting its longest side from the maybe 1900 pixels (as it came from the camera) to 800 pixels can bring a 700 Kb photo down to 20-25 Kb - much more suitable for sending as an email attachment or insertion.