Select the product you need help with

Attachments that are sent in the body of an e-mail message do not appear in Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003

Article ID: 289972 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q289972

SYMPTOMS

When you send a Microsoft Outlook Rich Text formatted message in Microsoft Outlook, and you insert an attached file in the message body, the message is received in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format and the attachments are not displayed in the message body (inline). The characters <<AttachmentName>> appear in the message body where you inserted the attachment.

The attachments are received, but they are not inline.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

CAUSE

This behavior occurs for Internet recipients and Outlook Contacts when you set the Let Outlook decide the best sending format option in Outlook 2002 instead of specifying Outlook Rich Text format for the specific contact.

NOTE: The Let Outlook decide the best sending format option is the default setting for new contacts and messages that you send to addressees that are not in your address book.

If you send to Microsoft Exchange Server recipients in an organization, attachments are not displayed inline if you send in a format other than Outlook Rich Text format.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

RESOLUTION

To resolve this behavior, change the Internet format specification for the contacts to use Outlook Rich Text format when you send to Internet recipients. To do this:

In Outlook, click the Contacts folder, and open the contact for the person you sent the message with the attachment.
On the General tab, double-click the resolved e-mail address in the E-mail field
In the E-mail Properties dialog box, click the drop-down arrow for Internet Format, and then click Send using Outlook Rich Text Format
Click OK to close the E-mail Properties dialog box, then click Save and Close to close the contact and save changes.

Repeat these steps for each Internet recipient contact for whom you use Outlook Rich Text format when you send messages. When the messages are sent, they are not converted to HTML and the attachment appears inline.

Use the following steps to set the default message format for Exchange Server recipients:

In Outlook, click Tools, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab
In the Compose in this message format box , click Rich Text, click Apply, and then click OK.

When you send messages to Exchange Server recipients in an organization, change your default sending format to Outlook Rich Text.

Back to the top | Give Feedback