ToDO: Animated GIFs in Outlook 2007

[Arthur Dent]

Hello all... and hopefully any Microsoft people maybe are reading this...

Before Outlook 2007 goes final, PLEASE i hope that rendering of Animated
GIFs will be enabled again.
Even if i select HTML as my format for mail, it does not render them. And it
never renders them either in incoming mail.
This is EXTREMELY frustrating! I have people, who send me message with
little animated pictures and smilies to make points, liven it up and have a
little fun, and all i see is static images. The only way i ever see my
friend's creative sides is to go to the browser, open up my email providers
web interface, and read the messages through there. This is not what i want
to do. If i wanted to have to read all my email in the web browser, then i
would not have installed outlook.
The whole point of using Outlook is to have all my email easily
accessible in one place, instead of having to go to numerous different
websites to check my different mail accounts (such as personal, business,
etc.) If i wanted to check all my emails on the web, i wouldnt be paying the
extra to have POP access to my account.
But if outlook can't display the emails properly (animated gifs,
background images, those are the two i've found), it kind of takes a major
drop in its usefulness... esPECIally given how more and more web-emails are
moving to DHTML/Ajax rich-client type functionality... [almost] putting
themselves on par with Outlook in terms of usability. Unless, maybe
Microsoft is deliberately TRYING to send outlook to a slow grave?

I really hope they will fix this before sending Outlook/Office gold.
My thoughts,
- Arthur Dent.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

And I sincerely hope not. A complete waste of bandwidth.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Arthur Dent asked:

| Hello all... and hopefully any Microsoft people maybe are reading
| this...
|
| Before Outlook 2007 goes final, PLEASE i hope that rendering of
| Animated GIFs will be enabled again.
| Even if i select HTML as my format for mail, it does not render them.
| And it never renders them either in incoming mail.
| This is EXTREMELY frustrating! I have people, who send me message with
| little animated pictures and smilies to make points, liven it up and
| have a little fun, and all i see is static images. The only way i
| ever see my friend's creative sides is to go to the browser, open up
| my email providers web interface, and read the messages through
| there. This is not what i want to do. If i wanted to have to read all
| my email in the web browser, then i would not have installed outlook.
| The whole point of using Outlook is to have all my email easily
| accessible in one place, instead of having to go to numerous different
| websites to check my different mail accounts (such as personal,
| business, etc.) If i wanted to check all my emails on the web, i
| wouldnt be paying the extra to have POP access to my account.
| But if outlook can't display the emails properly (animated gifs,
| background images, those are the two i've found), it kind of takes a
| major drop in its usefulness... esPECIally given how more and more
| web-emails are moving to DHTML/Ajax rich-client type functionality...
| [almost] putting themselves on par with Outlook in terms of
| usability. Unless, maybe Microsoft is deliberately TRYING to send
| outlook to a slow grave?
|
| I really hope they will fix this before sending Outlook/Office gold.
| My thoughts,
| - Arthur Dent.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If you want to provide feedback to Microsoft on Office 2007 Beta 2, get the Send a Smile tool from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=A2E1F4E2-BC0F-4403-B09F-7A677D55F274. This tool will transmit your comments and a screenshot back to Microsoft. As Jensen Harris explains at http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/06/23/644160.aspx, all SaS comments do get read and routed to the right people at Microsoft.

I'll echo Milly's comment, though. Microsoft is unlikely to change their thinking on this issue.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Arthur Dent]

At least they could do would be to make it an option, off by default even if
they want if bandwidth concerns or whatever, but at least let us have the
option to turn it on.

I am a technical person, a professional programmer, web, windows,
database... not a home user just looking for the "pretties". I HATE when MS
(or any other company) takes away functionality just to "save" or "protect"
us from ourselves, or cuz "they know better".

If you want to provide feedback to Microsoft on Office 2007 Beta 2, get the
Send a Smile tool from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=A2E1F4E2-BC0F-4403-B09F-7A677D55F274.
This tool will transmit your comments and a screenshot back to Microsoft. As
Jensen Harris explains at
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/06/23/644160.aspx, all SaS
comments do get read and routed to the right people at Microsoft.

I'll echo Milly's comment, though. Microsoft is unlikely to change their
thinking on this issue.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[The Old Bloke]

Hi Arthur,

I agree that Microsoft should cater for animated gifs. In most cases these
are tiny compared with some attachment. And bandwidth, well I pay for it,
not Microsoft.