Weekly Computer Tip # 257
23 January 2009


Quickly send an active document by email
(Office 2003-2007)

If you want to send a Microsoft Office document along with an email message you can attach it from within Outlook, by clicking on the paperclip on the Outlook toolbar. But did you know you can send your active Microsoft Office document without having to save it first?

Here's how:

In Office 2003:

  1. Create or Open the, say Word, document, as normal.
  2. On the File menu, point to Send To.
  3. Select Mail Recipient (as Attachment).

In Office 2007:

  1. Create or Open the, say Word, document, as normal.
  2. Click the Microsoft Office Button (the big blob in the top left hand corner).
  3. Point to Send, and then click E-mail.

Microsoft Outlook (or Outlook Express) will open automatically with the active document attached to the new email message. If it's a completely new document that you didn't save as yet, it will be attached to the email message as Document1, Book1, Presentation1 etcetera. If you want to attach additional files, you can add them as normal by clicking on the paperclip in Outlook.

By the way, Microsoft claims you can simply press ALT+S to send an active document by e-mail, but I cannot get it to work. Can you?

Finally, we still have some places left for next week's PowerPoint 2003 Introduction course, planned for Tuesday 27 January. Our last minute discount is 10 percent, bringing the price down to GBP177.30 (+VAT). The price includes lunch, a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) approved seminar handout with a USB stick with exercise files for you to work through and take away, as well as one month post course advice. See ppt2003_intro.html for full details. To book and get your discount, simply drop me an email (with or without an attachment ;-)

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