attachment field improvements

[alex]

1
When composing a new message, pasting attachments works in the message body,
but not inside the attachment field which appears under the bcc field.

2
When moving attachments (to sort them) by dragging them inside the
attachment field, outlook copies the dragged attachement to the end of the
line instead.

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[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

When composing a new message, pasting attachments works in the message body,
but not inside the attachment field which appears under the bcc field.

That's because you're using Rich Text format instead of Plain Text or HTML
format. RIch Text displays attachments in the body of the message. Plain
Text and HTML display them on the separate Attachment field.

When moving attachments (to sort them) by dragging them inside the
attachment field, outlook copies the dragged attachement to the end of the
line instead.

So? What difference does it make? If there's some order dependency you need
to maintain, attach them one at a time in the order you want them.

 

[alex]

That's because you're using Rich Text format instead of Plain Text or HTML
format. RIch Text displays attachments in the body of the message. Plain
Text and HTML display them on the separate Attachment field.

I'm not talking about attachments in the body. I do use HTML.

When pasting an attachment in HTML, a field labeled 'Attached:' appears
below the BCC field. When the focus is on that field, pasting new attachments
is not possible.
Pretty unlogical behaviour for an attachment field.

So? What difference does it make? If there's some order dependency you need
to maintain, attach them one at a time in the order you want them.

That's not really userfriendly when there are many attachments to be sent,
is it?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm not talking about attachments in the body. I do use HTML.

Sorry. I misunderstood.

When pasting an attachment in HTML, a field labeled 'Attached:' appears
below the BCC field. When the focus is on that field, pasting new
attachments
is not possible.
Pretty unlogical behaviour for an attachment field.

Works for me. I added one attachment using the Attach (paper clip icon)
button. Then I clicked within the Attach field. The cursor was in stat field
and flashing. I then opened a Windows folder and dragged another file to that
field. It attached just fine. With the cursor still in that field, I clicked
Attach (to the left of the attachment field) and selected another attachment.
It inserted just fine.

That's not really userfriendly when there are many attachments to be sent,
is it?

I believe it's the nature of how email messages are formed by the client.
Attachments aren't really separate items, they're in the body of the message
and a mail message is a sequential piece of data with no actual internal
structure. When you attach a file it gets placed sequentially in the message.
If you add an attachment, it gets appended to the end because that's the only
place in the sequential message it can so. Trying to insert an attachment
between two others would require a complete rebuild of the message to that
point, the encoding of the new piece you're adding, and then the appending of
the remaining data that was already in the message. It's so much simpler to
add to the end in terms of programming logic.

That said, you can cut an attachment, so the client must be capable of some
level of rebuilding the message, but that's also a much simpler operation,
requiring only that the part of the message containing that removed attachment
be skipped when sending, but adding will always append, never insert.

Of course, this is only my theory of how Outlook is handling it, since I had
no hand in designing it and thus don't know for sure, but I'm very familiar
with the general construct of a mail message and how it passes from the client
to the server, so it seems like a plausible explanation.

 

[alex]

Sorry. I misunderstood.


Works for me. I added one attachment using the Attach (paper clip icon)
button. Then I clicked within the Attach field. The cursor was in stat field
and flashing. I then opened a Windows folder and dragged another file to that
field. It attached just fine. With the cursor still in that field, I clicked
Attach (to the left of the attachment field) and selected another attachment.
It inserted just fine.

Now try to paste the attachment in the 'attached'-field, using the ctrl-v.

I believe it's the nature of how email messages are formed by the client.
Attachments aren't really separate items, they're in the body of the message
and a mail message is a sequential piece of data with no actual internal
structure. When you attach a file it gets placed sequentially in the message.
If you add an attachment, it gets appended to the end because that's the only
place in the sequential message it can so. Trying to insert an attachment
between two others would require a complete rebuild of the message to that
point, the encoding of the new piece you're adding, and then the appending of
the remaining data that was already in the message. It's so much simpler to
add to the end in terms of programming logic.

That said, you can cut an attachment, so the client must be capable of some
level of rebuilding the message, but that's also a much simpler operation,
requiring only that the part of the message containing that removed attachment
be skipped when sending, but adding will always append, never insert.

That sounds logical.
But on the other hand, it shouldn't be too hard to rebuild the message in
the background while the user is draggin attachments around. That's just a
simple operation for a pc.

Alex