By Gayle Fortnataro, Virtual Valley Student Success Coordinator
How Do I Send an Email Attachment?
Note: The following lesson provides illustrations of how to send an email attachment using Microsoft Outlook Web Access on a PC with Microsoft Vista. The process is similar for other email programs, other operating systems, and for sending attachments on a Mac.
Note: For a text-only version on this lesson for the sight-impared, click here.
How to Attach Documents to Email Messages:
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Bright Idea!
Before you send email to your professor, review a lesson on email ettiquette. The standards for clarity and politeness required for college-level communication are higher than for personal emails, and you may be unfamilar with these standards. You should treat all coorespondence with your professor as professional communication.
Visit the following links for lessons on email ettiquette:
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Will your recipient be able to
open your attachment?
The person you are sending your attachment to may not have the same word processing program as you do, and, therefore, may not be able to open your attachment unless you first save it in a universal format. This is especially true if you use Microsoft Works, rather than Microsoft Word.
"Works" is the basic word processing programs that comes free with most PC's. It is generally a good idea to replace it with the more powerful program, Word. Until then, however, you can save your file in "Rich Text Format" or as a Microsoft Word file with the Works "Save As" menu.
Additionally, if you have the newest version of Microsoft Word (2007), then you also may have to save your file as a "Word 97-2003" or as "Rich text format" because while the newest Word can open files from earlier versions, the reverse is not true: older versions of the program cannot open files created with the newset version.
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A Word About Document File Types
How Can I Tell What Type of File I am Saving or Attaching?
You can tell what format a file has been saved in by looking at the 3 or 4 letter "extension" that appears at the end of its title, separated by a period, like this:
document_title.ext
How to Save Your Document File in Version Other Users Will Be Able to Open and Read:
| File Extension | File Type | Who Can Open and Read it? |
|---|---|---|
.doc |
Miscrosoft Word 97-2003 |
Those who have any version of MS Word |
.docx |
Microsoft Word 2007 |
Only those with the most recent version of MS Word |
.rtf |
Rich Text Format |
Everyone - no matter what word processing program they have. |
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This is what the "Microsoft Office Button," located in the top left corner of MS Word, which has replaced the "File" menu in Word 2007, looks like:
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Caution!
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How many files can I attach to a single message?
How to Attach Photos to an Email Message:
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How do I remove an attachment?
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