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Tips and tricks to help you use your Macintosh |
By Terry Lawrence, program director MacWest Computer Society, Vancouver. British Columbia One of the best features about Email is that you can attach existing files, folders, documents, photos, and so forth - just about anything on your hard disk, in fact - to an Email, and send them anywhere in the world at no cost. So if you want to send Aunt Edna in Dusseldorf that cute photo of your late Kitty sleeping in the salad bowl at your recent Barbecue, or a copy of that letter to the editor you wrote last week, just write a cover letter and attach the letter or photo to it. But how, exactly, do you do that? Just about everybody has a copy of the Microsoft “Outlook Express” Email program now, whether they are currently using it or not, so I will use that program for this example. The procedure is much the same in other Email programs, but the location or name of the “Attachment” icon or menu bar item may vary a bit. There is more than one way to do this, so we’ll start with the official way. Getting started. The first thing to do is start a new email by clicking on the “New” icon, or reply to an existing Email from Aunt Edna or whoever, by clicking on “Reply.” When you have the cover letter written, look at the little icons at the top of the email window, and click on the paperclip Icon that says “Add Attachments.” That should open up a dialogue box that allows you access to anything on your hard disk. Use the double arrow in the header at the top of the dialogue box, which will probably say “Documents” or “Outlook Express” when you first open it, to find the Documents folder, if it isn’t the one displayed above the scroll list when you open the “Attach” dialogue box. Just click on the double arrow, and a hierarchical list of folders, drives, documents, or photos with the Desktop at the top level (bottom of the list) will drop down, with the displayed folder at the top of the list, and it’s contents in the scroll window below it. You use the list to move up the ladder as far as necessary to get where you want to go - for example, up to the Hard Disk - and then use the scroll window below to move back down the ladder by selecting and opening each folder until you come to what you are looking for. For instance, if the item at the top of the list is “Outlook Express” when you open the “Add Attachments“ dialogue box - which is essentially the same as any “Save” or “Open” dialogue box - you would click on the double arrow, choose your Hard Disk by highlighting it, and a list of the top level folders in the Hard Disk will appear in the scroll list. Select “Documents” or “Saved Photos,” press the “Open” button, and the “Documents” folder will appear in the top bar with a list of the top level items it contains in the scroll window below. Select the document you want to attach to the email, if it’s at that top level of the Documents folder, and click on the “Add” button. Then press “Done” if you are just attaching one item, or select further items and add them if you want to, before pressing the “Done” button. If the document or photo you are looking for is a buried one or two levels (folders) deeper in the Documents folder, just continue selecting and opening the folders until you reach it. For instance, if you wanted to send me a copy of your Letter to the Editor, you would just select and open the “Letters to the Editor” folder, and then choose the letter you wished to attach and click the “add” button. If you wanted to add all the items in the folder, you would click the “add all” button. If you change your mind and don’t want to attach anything, just click the “cancel” button. Photos, Clip Art, Folders, and so forth work just the same way. In any Save, Open, or Attach dialogue box, you can always come back up the hierarchical list as far as you want at any time by clicking on the double arrow in the list header, and selecting the level you wish to return to. When you are done adding documents, photos, or whatever, just click the “Done” button, and you will return to the Email window you were writing in, with a new list of added attachment Icons at the bottom of the window. Finish your letter, hit send, and Aunt Edna will have a copy of the last picture ever taken of the late Fluffy snoozing in the salad. Opening Email Attachments. To open any attachments you may receive in your Email, just click on the paperclip Icon at the right side of the email window, select the attachment, and the computer should do the rest, figuring out which program to open it in, and opening the program and attachment Sometimes the attachment may be written in a program, or compressed or saved in a format you don’t have, which none of your existing programs can translate or open. In that case, you will be unable to open the attachment. Warning! If you don’t know who sent you the letter, do not open any attachments, as they could contain a virus. Instead, if you have a current anti-virus program, open the Email by double clicking on it in the “Inbox” window, and then drag the attachment icon out of the Email window and drop it onto the Virex or Norton Anti-Virus Icon on your desktop. That should cause your anti-virus program to scan the attachments before opening them. If you want to be on the safe side, just drag the attachment icon straight into the trash can and empty it without opening the attachment. Drag ‘n Drop attaching and opening. The other way to attach a document, photo, or whatever to your Email is to open the Email program and start a new letter or reply, so that you have an open Email window. Resize the window so you can see the Hard Disk Icon. Open the Hard Disk folder window alongside or on top of the Email window, so you can scroll through the contents of the Hard Disk. This is easier if you have a larger monitor. I usually have my Hard Disk window sized so it occupies the left hand third of the display when open. Find the item you wish to attach in the Hard Disk window, and drag it’s Icon onto the open Email window and drop it. A copy of the document, photo, or folder will attach itself to the Email. Conversely, if you open up a received letter in your Email program by double clicking on it in the list, you will see the Icons of any attachments in a secondary window at the bottom of the letter. Double clicking these Icons will cause the attachment to open, if it is in a format your computer can read. You can also simply drag it out of the Email window into any other folder or external drive disk you wish to copy it to. |