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10 Minute Guide to Microsoft Exchange 5.0
- Lesson 8 -
Attaching Items to Messages
In this lesson, you learn how to attach files or other items to a message.
You also learn how to access and use attachments that are in messages you receive.
What Is an Attachment?
An attachment is a file or an object that is attached to a message. You can place
attachments in messages you send, and you can receive messages with attachments.
The usefulness of attachments is unlimited, but the most common reason for attaching
a file to a message is to send some information without having to type it into the
original message. For example, if you want to send information you received (or wrote)
in a word processing document to another member of your organization, you can compose
a message that explains that you have this information (and perhaps offers some comments
on it), and then you can attach the specified document to the message so the recipient
can read the information for herself.
Attaching Files to Messages
You can attach an existing file to a message with just a few keystrokes or mouse
clicks. There are a couple of things to be aware of, however, before you try this.
- If the file is a text file (one that does not have specific software codes and
can be opened and viewed with any text editor), you can attach the file to any message
for any recipient.
- If the file was prepared by a specific software application, the recipient must
have access to that software to open and view the file.
- If you are sending an attachment to someone with a slow-speed connection to the
network, a large attachment could take a long time to download. To be safe, you should
compress large files before sending them.
Taking those guidelines into consideration, if you want to send a message with
an attachment, first prepare the message as usual (see Lesson 7 for information on
composing a message). Then follow these steps:
- 1. Put your insertion point at the place in the message where you want
to insert the icon to indicate the attached file.
2. Choose File, Insert. The Insert File dialog box appears, as shown in
Figure 8.1.
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Figure 8.1 Browse through your folders to find the document file you
want to attach to the message.
- 3. In the File Name text box, enter the name of the file you want to insert.
(If you don't know the name of the file, you can use the Look In box to search for
the file. When you find it, select it, and its name appears in the File Name text
box.)
4. In the Insert As section at the bottom of the dialog box, select An Attachment.
5. Click OK, and an icon with the document name appears in the text area where
you placed the insertion point. As in other Windows applications, the icon that represents
a file is the icon for the application associated with that file (see Figure 8.2).
Attachments for Non-Exchange Users If you send an attachment to users who
are not using Exchange, they may not see the icon that is associated with the attachment.
To avoid any confusion, you could reference the attachment in your message text and
identify the program used to create it.

Figure 8.2 The icon for the attachment appears in your message.
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Plain Text Attachment If the attachment you want to send is a plain text file,
you have two choices for getting the contents to the recipient:
- You can insert it as an attached file icon into your message, as described earlier.
- You can insert the text of the file into the message by selecting Text Only in
the Insert File dialog box.
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Receiving an Attachment
When a message with an attachment arrives in your mailbox, a paper clip icon appears
in the Attachment column of your Inbox (see Figure 8.3).

Figure 8.3 It's easy to tell when there's a message with an attachment
in your mailbox.
To open the message, select it and choose File, Open (or double-click the message
header). The message appears, along with the icons for attachments (refer to Figure
8.2).
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Security You could receive many files through e-mail. Be cautious, however,
when you receive e-mail with attachments from an unknown source. File attachments
may contain viruses that could damage or adversely affect your computer.
To open an attachment, double-click its icon. The associated software starts,
and the attachment file opens. At that point, you can use the features of that program
to edit, print, or otherwise manipulate the file.
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Editing an Attachment If you receive a message with an attachment that is
a shortcut to the original file, a pointer to the original file (not a copy of it)
was sent to you. Opening this shortcut actually opens the original file. Editing
the original file changes it for all users on the network, so be careful to make
only serious changes that you have authority to make.
In this lesson, you learned about attachments: how to add them to messages you
send and how to access those you receive with messages. In the next lesson, you'll
learn more about editing and formatting the text of messages.
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