John, one of our customers who uses Outlook Express, recently had issues attaching a file to an email message. The issue was that the program association in Internet Explorer had been changed to use “Outlook” instead of “Outlook Express”. This is how I fixed it – and as a follow-up – these are instructions for John to show how to attach files to an email message. (Click the title to learn more ..)
Changing Internet Explorer Program Settings
“Internet Explorer Program Settings” allow you to change your change your default web browser, webpage editor, and programs that the browser uses to perform common activities (like reading mail and attaching files from Windows Explorer).
• Choose START -> INTERNET EXPLORER to open the Internet Explorer Browser
• Choose TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS from the menu
• Click the PROGRAMS tab
• In the EMAIL field, change “Outlook” to “Outlook Express”
• Choose OK to save your changes.
Attaching a file from Windows Explorer
If you are browsing files on your computer and want to send a file through email, simply right-click on the file (this pops up a menu) and choose SEND TO -> EMAIL RECIPIENT. Note that this only works if you are using a ‘local’ email client (meaning Outlook Express or another email client that is installed on your computer). It does not work if you are using webmail (Like Verizon’s webmail).
Using Picasa and Verizon webmail
(Another customer, who is using Verizon webmail and manages his pictures with Picasa, wanted to send a video by email but could not figure out how to find it on his computer and attach it to the email.
• Choose COMPOSE to create a new message, address it, and give it a subject
• Scroll to the bottom of the screen and where it says “attach a file” click the BROWSE button
• And then you have to find the file on your computer; when you find it, select the file and choose OPEN to attach it.*
• Click the ATTACH button (located to the right of the BROWSE button; you should see the file in the ATTACHMENTS: box.
• Scroll back up to the top and click the SEND button.
*If you have trouble locating the file on your computer, Open Picasa, find the video, right-click and choose “Locate on Disk”. In the ‘address’ bar, you’ll see something like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\Betty\My Documents\My Pictures\Devyn Concert
Copy and paste that address into the “Attach A file” field (in step 2 for verizon email) instead of choosing BROWSE (it should just see the file there).