Attachments are a source of great confusion for many people. In concept they’re very, very simple. Excruciatingly simple, as a matter of fact.
Then some email programs try to get “helpful”, and all heck breaks loose.
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Attachments are nothing more than files that accompany an email message. There’s nothing special about them, there’s nothing magical. It’s just a file. Save it to disk, and you can do anything you want with that file, assuming you have the proper tools on your machine to act on it.
Some email programs try to get fancy when they display an email message that has accompanying attachments. Outlook Express, for example, will notice if the attachments appear to be images, and if they are, it will helpfully display those images below the email message body. The problem is that while it looks like the images are below the message, in fact they are not. That very same message viewed in a different email program (say, Microsoft Office’s Outlook) will not display the images below the body. Outlook will only display the icons that indicate that the message has attachments. If you want to open them, you’ll need to do so explicitly.
It’s a source of frustration and confusion for people moving from Outlook Express to Outlook, because they find Outlook Express’s behavior convenient.
It’s also a source of frustration for people attempting to send mail that will look the same everywhere.
HTML mail and Rich Text mail can get even more confusing, because images that appear in-line in one person’s mail program may appear as separate attachments to someone else looking at the same message. Or worse … the entire email message may appear as an attachment.
And so it goes with printing. There’s no standard way to print an email message that has attachments. Some programs will print an indicator that there are attachments. Others will not. Some will print the attachment, if they know how, others will print a placeholder or nothing at all.
So in short, there is no blanket answer to what you’re looking for. You’ll have to experiment with your email program to see if it supports printing email the way you want. Be sure to look for “Page Setup” and advanced printing types of options. Your email program may call them something else, but they hold the keys to what will be possible.
That’s a total … answer… talk about avoiding the question.
There IS a way to display what attachments are on the email, be it via Outlook, Outlook Express or Endura or whatever…
They appear in a field called: “Attachments:” under To: and From: and Subject: etc in the printout.
[ed: profanity removed]
That doesn’t print the attachments themselves, only their names.
I am also trying to find out how to have the email print off the attachments line. I work for a printing company and it is important to have that line so we can tell what the file is when we print the email and someone picks up the job.
Everyone elses Outlook prints that line but mine. We can’t seem to find the setting. If anyone knows please make a post. You don’t have to get all Sigmund Froyd on me, just a simple click here and here etc.
Also just to let you know this question is for Outlook 2003.
Thank you.
I figured it out. Nevermind.
Eould you like to share tje solution with the rest of us? I have the same problem here…
Yeah come on Shane, spill the beans, tell us how!
Yes I have the same problems to? So what is the fix or set up?
Here is the fix. SP1 or now SP2 for Office 2003.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=872839
In Outlook, email – Windows 2000 – I am trying to print an email that has attachments and I want the printed email copy to show the attachment that was sent.
I need specific directions please.
Hope you can help, because this article did not help a bit.
same problem i want to print an email and in the paper show that were attachments in the email.
I need to print an email with his attachment (always a htm file), I know that modifying the print options it can be done, but I need a form button that prints both mail and htm attachment, any help will be great
Thanks
I need to print my e-mails! please tell me HOW.
Disable HTML…
I would like to know why certain e-mail messages that I receive show the attachment in the body of the email while others do not.
I would like to be able to see all the attachments in the body of the email but I don’t know how to make this happen. Can someone please help me?
I can be reached at JLVPHX@netscape.net
Thanks!
Louie
I dont understand why you people are still asking how to do this, when there was a link for service pack posted.
this is included fix w/sp1
Nothing indicates that an attachment is included in a printed HTML e-mail message
When you print an HTML e-mail message that has an attachment, there is no field or icon for attachments. This hotfix adds an Attachments box to the HTML e-mail message. This box displays the file name of the attachments.
I have a relating problem, only I ONLY want to print the email and not the atachment showed below the email…. How do we solve this? Because if I click print (or file – print), the email is printed in lets say 10% and the attachment in 100%…
I SOMETIMES GET EMAILS THAT I WANT TO FORWARD ON TO FRIENDS/FAMILY—MANY TIMES I’VE DONE SO, AND IT’S WENT THRU EXACTLY THE WAY I RECEIVED IT,
PRINT, GRAPHICS AND ALL!!!
HOWEVER, SOMETIMES WHEN I TRY TO FORWARD, THE
GRAPHICS/PICTURES ARE MISSING, AND IN THEIR PLACE
ARE PLAIN WHITE BOXES WITH A LITTLE RED X IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER. AND-I USUALLY SEND AS INLINE TEXT.
SO, CAN SOMEONE CLUE ME IN ON THIS PUZZLING PHENOMENA, AND HELP ME TO GET IT STRAIGHT THRU,
NO GLITCHES/ABSENTEES?!?!?! SURE WOULD APPRECIATE IT, I HAVE A FEW IN WAITING!
THANKS SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!
I had to reload Outlook Express when I purchased a new Dell laptop. I had used Express Assistant EA9 to back-up and restore my old Outlook Exp. files and Windows Address book (which works wonderfully!) but now I get the little red X when someone sends an attachment. Can you point me to a fix. I have Windows XP Pro. SP2 installed on the new Dell.
Thanks,
Mike
I need to send an email with the attachment included, and I cannot get it to print. I also don’t know what ( Output To File Name ) means.
Can you help me with this problem.
You cannot print an HTML format email with the evidence of attachment. Only plain text will print that way. But you have got a work around :)
1. Open the HTML email from your inbox
2. Go to ‘edit’ menu and select ‘edit message’
3. Then go to ‘format menu’ and select ‘Plain text’ and press ‘Yes’
4. Then go to ‘File menu’ – Page setup – and select ‘Memo style’
5. Then print and you will get it with the attachment on it.
6. If you want the content of the attachment also printed, then tick ‘Print attached file with item(s)’option from the print window.
Emails are PARTIALLY PRINTING, ONLY the “visible” text PRINTS.
Worse, the FONT SIZE is probably a 6!! I need to print all the body/text in a SIZE I can read without resorting to a magnifying glass.
This QUIRK just happened and I need instructions to RESTORE 1) ENTIRE Message and 2) Font SIZE of 10 , 12 preferred
Thanks Bob
I cannot print a sent e-mail IF it has attachments. No, attachments, prints fine.
I have some pictures in my email account.How can
I print these pictures off of my email.
I sometimes get e-mails that I want yo print but they only print part of the page. How can I adjust so I can print the whole page?
I WANT TO JUST PRINT THE ATTACHMENTS HOW DO I DO THAT WITHOUT HAVING TO GO THREW THEM ONE BY ONE?
13-Mar-2011
How do I print only the attachment received from an email.
27-Jul-2011
@Davon
This article answers your question.
My printer prints from documents, excell etc..when I am in my emails it will print the attachments.. but if I just want to print the email itself or a regular email without an attachment it is printing mumbo jumbo.. what can I do .. it did not do this a week ago… #2 my windows icon that is usually on the bottom that I click to open computer, documents..etc and shows the time , programs running etc is off to the right now.. how do I get it back to the bottom..I tried to left click and drag – restart the pc .. nothing is working.
@Lisa
As a workaround for #1, I would copy and past the text from the email into a text editor such as Word, or Notepad,
#2 Here’s an article from Ask Leo on the subject
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