24th July 2001

HTML e-mail is all about cool formatting and graphics, but you could be missing a lot without the images. When you send an HTML message to someone else, you can be sure that the images are included by enabling the "Send Pictures..." option within Outlook and Outlook Express. What happens? The file paths in the underlying HTML code are changed to use the bundled image(s) that are sent along with the e-mail. If you happen to send a web page, the image links will no longer point to the Internet. This way, the e-mail can be read offline in all its graphical glory, as it was meant to be. Outlook and Outlook Express each have this option, but they reside in different places and are named differently. For Outlook Express, click Tools | Options | Send tab | HTML Settings button, then enable "Send pictures with messages" -- in Outlook, click Tools | Options | Mail Format. Next, be sure that "Send in this message format" is set to HTML, press the Settings button, then check the "Send pictures from the Internet" box. Now, that's if you choose to use HTML as your default mail format. If you're a text guy (like me), you can embed images on a case-by-case basis. In each HTML message, under the Format menu, select the "Send Pictures from the Internet" / "Send Pictures With Message" option. Now HTML messages will leave your Outbox with their images as attachments. This will make small e-mail messages turn into gargantuan downloads, so be kind to dial-in users that may be on the other end.