Outlook 2003: How can pictures be displayed inline in message body

[david]

I noticed this in the Outlook help:

"In Outlook, picture attachments cannot be displayed in line in a message
body the way they can in Outlook Express."

Is this true? Why on god's earth would Microsoft do this? Why do they think
I don't want to see attachements people send to me? My default picture
viewer/editor is a Macromedia Fireworks, which is not suitable for viewing.
I don't want to have to open a third party product to view pictures.

Is there some sort of workaround here? This is a disgrace.

 

[Patricia Cardoza - [MVP Outlook]]

This is true. Partly it's due to the difference between Outlook and Outlook
Express. Outlook has been traditionally used more in a business environment
where many people don't want pictures displayed inline with the email
message. Of course, anytime you have a feature that some people like you'll
have people who don't like it and don't see it that way. But that's a good
part of the reason and I don't expect it to change.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003
Author, Absolute Beginner's Guide to OneNote 2003
Lead Author, Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***

 

[david]

Thanks for your reply. But I'm shocked by this. Why remove the option? It
should be an option. It's not as though they don't know how to do it. Now I
have to find a viewer and click on each individually. I've just bought the
"small business" Office at great expense, but of course I like to see images
when they are sent to me, or at least have the option to. This makes me less
productive, not more.

I still think this is a disgrace. Microsoft dropped the ball on this one.

David.

 

[Patricia Cardoza - [MVP Outlook]]

They didn't remove it. It was never there in full blown Outlook.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003
Author, Absolute Beginner's Guide to OneNote 2003
Lead Author, Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***

 

[david]

No but its in the free Outlook Express. I've never used Outlook before. I've
just paid a fortune for Office so I can use Word and Outlook. Hey, I just
saw your books in your .sig - thanks for taking the time to respond!

 

[Patricia Cardoza - [MVP Outlook]]

No problem. Sorry I couldn't actually help.

Just to clear up some misconception, Outlook Express and Outlook have
absolutely nothing to do with each other. It was a very poor naming choice
by Microsoft. They are completely separate programs and are not developed by
the same team at all. Just a little information.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003
Author, Absolute Beginner's Guide to OneNote 2003
Lead Author, Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***

 

[david]

Just to clear up some misconception, Outlook Express and Outlook have
absolutely nothing to do with each other. It was a very poor naming choice
by Microsoft. They are completely separate programs and are not developed by
the same team at all. Just a little information.

Well, from my point of view, the free one is better for reading my mail in
that it displays images. I don't care what they do internally, I'm just
commenting on a product I've just purchased and am frustrated with.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks for your reply. But I'm shocked by this. Why remove the
option?

It was never an option in Outlook, so it was not "removed".

It should be an option.

Write to (e-mail address removed) with a subject "Outlook" and state your case.

Now I have to find a viewer and click on each
individually.

No, save them all to a folder and use one of the many excellent freeware
viewers that can do slide shows. http://www.irfanview.com/ is one.

 

[david]

It was never an option in Outlook, so it was not "removed".

Sorry, bad choice of words. From my point of view, it was a feature I lost
upgrading from the free Outlook Express to a commercial product that I paid
for.

Write to (e-mail address removed) with a subject "Outlook" and state your

case.

I will, thanks.

No, save them all to a folder and use one of the many excellent freeware
viewers that can do slide shows. http://www.irfanview.com/ is one.

Thanks for pointing out the viewer - I've downloaded it, and it is much
quicker than loading up Fireworks, which is what I was doing previously. And
I've just worked out how to save attachments into a folder.

It's a much better process than what I had, but I'm still confused about why
the images are not just displayed - then I wouldn't have to do anything.
It's also interesting to note how defensive people are about it - and yet in
the 2 days I've been hanging around Outlook newsgroups trying to solve this,
I've seen about 4 newbies (customers) ask how to turn on something they take
for granted. I think it's a simple useful feature.

David.

 

[david]

Relax everyone, I've just sent this to Microsoft, so we can expect our
favourite free newsreader feature to appear in Outlook in no time.

"Messages in attachements should be displayed inline in messages, as they
are with Outlook Express. I've just paid good money to upgrade, and in my
view, this alone makes my experience worse than with Outlook Express. I've
been to the newsgroups to try and find out how to do this, and seen many
others in just 2 days ask the same question. I've just been told that you
can't do it. Come on Microsoft, this is a good feature, and surely you can
do it in the commercial product if you can do it in the free product. This
isn't smart. Please release a fix for Outlook 2003 that allows me to do
this, rather than save each message and open it with a viewer. Who wants to
do that. It's so 80s."

 

[Brian Tillman]

It's a much better process than what I had, but I'm still confused
about why the images are not just displayed - then I wouldn't have to
do anything. It's also interesting to note how defensive people are
about it -

Outlook's customer base is more oriented to the business and opening
pictures in-line can be a security issue within a business. Hence,
Microsoft elected not to include that feature in Outlook. Many of us who
use Outlook for business purposes simply do not want in-line pictures. They
can carry malware.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Relax everyone, I've just sent this to Microsoft, so we can expect our
favourite free newsreader feature to appear in Outlook in no time.

"Messages in attachements should be displayed inline in messages, as
they are with Outlook Express.

Shouldn't that be "Pictures in messages ..."?

 

[Guest]

Hi All,
I second this, I came to this website thinking "there has to be a way to view images in the e-mail with out having to open them seperatly". This I cannot believe. Is there anything I can do to view them besides going back to outlook express??? grrr!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

No. This is by design and is preferred by most Outlook users. I prefer not
to view every attachment every schmuck sends me. I'll decide for myself what
I view.
Perhaps OE would fit your needs better.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hi All,
I second this, I came to this website thinking "there has to be a way to

view images in the e-mail with out having to open them seperatly". This I
cannot believe. Is there anything I can do to view them besides going back
to outlook express??? grrr!

 

[Guest]

There should be an option. That's what I was saying; that I came here, feeling that for sure I would find out how to change that option as one of my preferences. It just doesn't make any sense... all of the other elaborate unuseful crap is not useful for me but I am sure it is to someone else. Well this option should have been one of the vast amounts of "unuseful" "no one uses" options.

No. This is by design and is preferred by most Outlook users. I prefer not
to view every attachment every schmuck sends me. I'll decide for myself what
I view.
Perhaps OE would fit your needs better.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hi All,
I second this, I came to this website thinking "there has to be a way to

view images in the e-mail with out having to open them seperatly". This I
cannot believe. Is there anything I can do to view them besides going back
to outlook express??? grrr!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You can send Outlook feature requests to (e-mail address removed) with "Outlook"
in the subject and to (e-mail address removed)


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

There should be an option. That's what I was saying; that I came here,

feeling that for sure I would find out how to change that option as one of
my preferences. It just doesn't make any sense... all of the other elaborate
unuseful crap is not useful for me but I am sure it is to someone else. Well
this option should have been one of the vast amounts of "unuseful" "no one
uses" options.

No. This is by design and is preferred by most Outlook users. I prefer not
to view every attachment every schmuck sends me. I'll decide for myself what
I view.
Perhaps OE would fit your needs better.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hi All,
I second this, I came to this website thinking "there has to be a way

to
view images in the e-mail with out having to open them seperatly". This I
cannot believe. Is there anything I can do to view them besides going back
to outlook express??? grrr!