Outlook 2003 Attachments

[Big Al @ RHS]

Hi

I work in a school where the support staff use Outlook 2003 as their mail
client and the teachers and students use a webmail client. We have a
situation where emails sent from an Outlook 2003 client to a webmail client
will lose any attachments. The exception is me - I use Outlook 2003 and
webmail clients can receive attachments that I send. Here's more detailed
explanation:

If I send an email using Outlook 2003 with attachments, regardless of
whether the message is formatted as plain text, HTML or rich text, the
webmail client receives the email with the attachments intact.

If another user with Outlook 2003 sends a message as plain text with
attachments, it is received okay. If they use HTML or rich text, the email
is received as plain text and the message 'TNEF Attachments Suppressed' is
displayed where the attachments should be.

I think there must be a difference in how my Outlook 2003 is configured. In
all cases, we are using XP SP2, Office 2003 with SP2 and Word 2003 as the
email composer for Outlook 2003. Although we have an Exchange 2003 server
for our users with Outlook 2003, messages sent from Outlook 2003 to the
webmail client do not go via the Exchange server.

 

[CMM]

It sounds like the messages are actually being sent as Rich Text (RTF)
eventhough you've set HTML as the default (in Tools | Options | Mail
Format)..... it turns out that this option is also set on a *per recipient*
basis if the recipient is in your address book....

Go into the problematic user's Contacts folder, open a contact that you know
has received the bad e-mail from him or her, double-click on the e-mail
address. In the resulting window you'll see an option that says "Internet
Format" and make sure it says "Let Outlook decide best format" and NOT "Send
using Rich Text."

 

[Big Al @ RHS]

It sounds like the messages are actually being sent as Rich Text (RTF)
eventhough you've set HTML as the default (in Tools | Options | Mail
Format)..... it turns out that this option is also set on a *per recipient*
basis if the recipient is in your address book....

Go into the problematic user's Contacts folder, open a contact that you know
has received the bad e-mail from him or her, double-click on the e-mail
address. In the resulting window you'll see an option that says "Internet
Format" and make sure it says "Let Outlook decide best format" and NOT "Send
using Rich Text."

Thanks for that, but the senders don't have the recipients in their contact
folders.

I've just noticed that the recipients that are affected are mailbox enabled
on Exchange since we will be moving everyone to Exchange in the near future.
Could this be important? Still doesn't explain why emails from me are okay
and not from the other Outlook users.

 

[CMM]

Big question: When these users compose an e-mail.... if they type in the
e-mail address in the To field and then double-click on the e-mail address
(after it resolves and gets the underline), what does the resulting window
display? Do you see a box that says does it say "Internet Format: Let
Outlook decide" or does it say "Internet Format: Rich Text?"

If so, these recipients are being stored *somewhere.* Outlook actually
maintains dual address books for (programmatic) backwards compatibility. Not
sure about this one... but you may be able to see these recipients in Tools
| Address Book (which is not necessarily synonymous with the Contacts
folder). Make sure to look at the "Show Names from" drop down box. These
recipients may have been added into one of the address books automatically
as the user replied to messages.

 

[Big Al @ RHS]

Big question: When these users compose an e-mail.... if they type in the
e-mail address in the To field and then double-click on the e-mail address
(after it resolves and gets the underline), what does the resulting window
display? Do you see a box that says does it say "Internet Format: Let
Outlook decide" or does it say "Internet Format: Rich Text?"

If so, these recipients are being stored *somewhere.* Outlook actually
maintains dual address books for (programmatic) backwards compatibility. Not
sure about this one... but you may be able to see these recipients in Tools
| Address Book (which is not necessarily synonymous with the Contacts
folder). Make sure to look at the "Show Names from" drop down box. These
recipients may have been added into one of the address books automatically
as the user replied to messages.

A window titled '<username> Properties' appears with tabs for General,
Organization, Phone/Notes, Member Of and Email Addresses. They are being
added from the Global Address List. However, I am doing it exactly the same
way.

I've tested the theory that it's the Outlook installation that is causing
the problems by getting one of the other staff users who uses Outlook to log
into my PC and then configure Outlook for them to use. When they send a
message with attachments from my PC, the affected recipients receive the
email and attachments successfully.

 

[CMM]

OK, so the problem is local and not Exchange, right? Have you looked in the
following two places (I originally assumed that you had):
In the main Outlook application window (on the problem sender machines...
not yours, which appears to be working fine).
1) Tools | Options -> Mail Format. Make sure "Compose in this message
format" says HTML... NOT Rich Text.
2) Same place -> Internet Format. In the resulting dialog box make sure it
says "When sending..." "Convert to HTML format."

Aside from that. I can't think of anything else. If I do, I'll let you know.

 

[Big Al @ RHS]

OK, so the problem is local and not Exchange, right? Have you looked in the
following two places (I originally assumed that you had):
In the main Outlook application window (on the problem sender machines...
not yours, which appears to be working fine).
1) Tools | Options -> Mail Format. Make sure "Compose in this message
format" says HTML... NOT Rich Text.
2) Same place -> Internet Format. In the resulting dialog box make sure it
says "When sending..." "Convert to HTML format."

Aside from that. I can't think of anything else. If I do, I'll let you know.

Thanks - yes, I checked these settings on all the affected machines and they
are all set correctly. This has really got me stumped.

 

[CMM]

At this point, I'd blow away their local Outlook profile and create a new
one (Control Panel -> Mail)....

...... Though I also have nagging inkling that this an Exchange-side
problem.... though I can't see how if the user can log into your machine and
his/her attachments get sent fine. Eh, whatever, blow away and recreate the
Outlook profile.