Assuming you have been following the last three sections, are connected to the internet and have opened Windows Live Mail; I will now show you how to Attach A File to an e-mail.

Remember. An e-mail must have the TO, SUBJECT and MESSAGE edit boxes filled in before it can be classed an e-mail. These are the three main components that make up an e-mail, just the same as a Letter for posting must consist of a Letter, a Stamp and an Envelope. And just the same as a Letter can have something enclosed inside the envelope, such as a Photograph or a Cheque, so can an e-mail. One external file, such as a photograph file, enclosed inside an e-mail is known as an Attachment and two or more external files are known as Attachments.

Although a photograph file for example could be inserted into an e-mail, as a signature or background for example, most of the time it is easier to just insert the photograph file as an Attachment (as an external file). That way people can separate the photograph file from the message. In other words. They can read the message and then save the attached photograph file, as a separate file, onto their computer for example.

To attach a file to an e-mail you first need to create an e-mail. You do this in the same way as the last (Create An E-Mail) section. So click directly on the NEW button (Fig 1.0) and then fill in the TO, SUBJECT and MESSAGE edit boxes (Fig 1.1).

Fig 1.0  Click directly on the NEW button to create a new e-mail




Fig 1.1  Fill in the TO, SUBJECT and MESSAGE edit boxes to continue

When you fill in the TO edit box; As you start typing the first letter of an e-mail address the AutoComplete feature will try and match what you are currently typing with an e-mail address from your Address Book (Contacts list), if you have any contacts (address book entries) of course. For example. If you have yoingco@live.co.uk and yoingco@live.com in your address book and type the letter y into the TO edit box Windows Live Mail will automatically suggest the two e-mail addresses. It will also suggest e-mail addresses that have y in their domain name (such as y for yahoo.com). Hence why deniseoakdale@yahoo.com also appears in the e-mail address suggestions list.

If you want to use one of the suggested e-mail addresses either use the Up/Down Cursor keyboard keys to highlight an e-mail address and then press the ENTER keyboard key to select it (insert it) or simply click on an e-mail address to select it (insert it). And if you do not want to any of the suggested e-mail addresses carry on typing out your wanted e-mail address.

Fig 1.2  Type a letter into the TO edit box to bring up the e-mail address suggestions list




Fig 1.3  The selected e-mail address has been inserted into the TO edit box

The e-mail address, by default (normal behaviour), will not be shown when it is inserted into the TO edit box. The contacts name will be shown instead, which is a good thing if you do not want people looking over your shoulder to know the e-mail address of your contact.

To add a contact to your address book simply click on the drop-down menu of the NEW button (on its right-hand-side) and select the CONTACT menu-item (Fig 1.4). From there, fill in the FIRST NAME, LAST NAME and PERSONAL E-MAIL ADDRESS edit boxes before clicking on the ADD CONTACT button (Fig 1.5).

Fig 1.4  Click on the NEW drop-down menu and select CONTACT to create a new contact inside your address book




Fig 1.5  Fill in the FIRST NAME, LAST NAME and PERSONAL E-MAIL ADDRESS edit boxes before clicking on the ADD CONTACT button

Adding an e-mail address to your address book (contacts list), instead of hand typing it all the time, is a good idea. Especially if you are using a Junk E-Mail Safe List that blocks certain e-mail addresses but at the same time allows/trusts the contacts in your address book.

If you want to e-mail more than one person, type each person's e-mail address into the TO edit box separating each e-mail address with a Space and a Semicolon. Alternatively. Type their name (or the first letter of it) and then insert it by clicking on it or by highlighting it with the Up/Down cursor keys and then pressing the ENTER keyboard. Remember. This will only work if that person's name (or e-mail address) is inside your address book.

Fig 1.6  Type the first letter of a name, highlight it if necessary and then click on it to insert it

Another thing you can do is click on the TO button to open the Send E-Mail (below) and then double click on each Name/E-Mail Address you want to e-mail. When you have finished adding Names/E-Mail Addresses click on the OK button to continue with the rest of your e-mail construction.

Fig 1.7  Double click on each Name/E-Mail Address you want to e-mail and click on the OK button when you have finished

To select more than one Name/E-Mail Address in one go either hold down the CTRL keyboard key as you select each name/e-mail address or click on the first name/e-mail address and then hold down the SHIFT keyboard key before clicking on the last name/e-mail address (below). This causes a range of names/e-mail addresses to be selected whereas the CTRL keyboard key method allows you to select/deselect a particular name/e-mail address. So if you select a range of names/e-mail addresses (with the SHIFT key method) you can still deselect/reselect a name/e-mail address within that range using the CTRL keyboard key method.

Fig 1.8  Select one or more names/e-mail addresses, click on the TO button and then on the OK button

When you have finished your selection click on the TO button to have your selected name(s)/e-mail address(es) inserted into the TO edit box. From there, click on the OK button to continue.

Getting back to the original email in Fig 1.1 above, with no contacts in the address book. When you have filled in the TO, SUBJECT and MESSAGE edit boxes click on the ATTACH button (Fig 2.0) to bring up the Open file requester (Fig 2.1). It will allow you to open a file that is then attached to the e-mail.

Fig 2.0  Click on the ATTACH button to attach a file




Fig 2.1  Find and select the file you want to attach to this e-mail and then click on the OPEN button to continue

Once you have found, selected and then OPENed the file you want attaching to the e-mail the Open file requester will close and you will be sent back to the New Message window.

Fig 2.2  Click on the SEND button to send the e-mail and any attachment(s)

Underneath the SUBJECT edit box you will notice a Paper Clip icon with the name and size of the attachment (attached file) next to it. The Paper Clip icon represents a photograph paper clipped to a letter in this example. Or put another way, a photograph file attached to an e-mail message. If you want to remove the attachment, for whatever reason(s), simply click on it and then press the DELete keyboard key (or right click on it and select the REMOVE menu-item). Note - You do not get any Delete file requester asking you to confirm the removal. The attached file will be removed straight away, without warning.

To attach another file follow the above two steps again (Figures 2.0 and 2.1) - In this example I am only attaching one photograph file (john.jpg). When you have finished attaching your file(s) click on the SEND button to send the e-mail (Fig 2.2 above).

File Size Matters! - With regards to the size of each attached file (attachment) it is always a good idea to calculate the combined file sizes, as many e-mail accounts are restricted on how much data they can send/receive at any one time. Not only that. It is always curteous to send only a few files at a time due to the storage capacity of someones INBOX. For example. If my friend's INBOX has a capacity of 10 Megabytes and I send her 7 Photos of 1 Megabyte each, that leaves only 3 Megabytes for her other friend's and/or herself to use. And how would I know the storage capacity of my friend's INBOX? Answer. I would not know. The only way I would know is when I send her an e-mail and I get an error: "Could not send e-mail", "Recipient's INBOX is full" or errors to this affect.

File Type - If you need to preview an attached file, perhaps because you have forgotten what is inside it, you can double click on it and it should open - usually by the program that made it or by a program associated with its file name extension (file type). For example. If you double click on a photograph file (i.e. john.jpg) the Windows Photo Viewer program might be the program to open that file, if it is the default program associated with the .jpg file extension. On the other hand, if you have a Microsoft Office 2007 file attached (i.e. essay.docx) the recipient might not have any program on their computer to open that type of file.

After clicking on the SEND button look immediately to the bottom-right corner of the windows live mail Status Bar (window) and you will see various status notifications appearing, quite fast sometimes. So even though you might not see all of them! those you do see are worth noting because they can help in diagnosing problems and confirming a sent e-mail for example.

The first status notification is Connecting... which means windows live mail is trying to connect to your particular E-Mail Account, in this example the Yoingco (John) e-mail account, in order to authorize the sending of this e-mail. Your broadband company (isp) for example wants to know who (which e-mail account) is sending this e-mail. So basically, the e-mail account's User Name & Password will be authorized (if they can be) before the e-mail is sent to the recipients INBOX (via various e-mail servers).

This connecting process uses an extended internet connection, to connect to those various e-mail servers, which means if the extended internet connection fails for whatever reason(s) your ISP's main internet connection (i.e. Broadband connection) will not be affected. If the extended internet connection cannot connect to a certain e-mail server (computer) you say "The Server is down". The same applies when checking your e-mail. If your ISP's e-mail server cannot fetch (receive) your e-mail, from the OUTBOX on the Yahoo server for example, you say "The Yahoo server is down". In other words, do not blame your ISP! It could be the Yahoo e-mail server that causes problems in this scenario.

Fig 3.0   Connecting... to this particular E-Mail Account in order to authorize its User Name & Password with the ISP

The second status notification is Authorizing... which means windows live mail is now verifying/authorizing, with your ISP's computer, the User Name & Password of this particular E-Mail Account.

Fig 3.1  Authorizing... access to this particular E-Mail Account

The third status notification is Sending Mail... which basically means windows live mail has been given permission to send the e-mail to the recipient's INBOX, via your isp and its extended internet connections to the various other e-mail servers - Eventually ending up on the Yahoo e-mail server in this example. Your ISP's computer is allowing the e-mail to be sent because the User & Password for this particular e-mail account has been verified/authorized. If there is a problem sending the e-mail, for whatever reason(s), you will see an Error notification instead.

Fig 3.2   Windows Live Mail is now sending this e-mail to the recipients INBOX via your ISP's computer and various other e-mail servers




Fig 3.3  Oh dear! There seems to be an Error. Double click on the Yellow Exclamation Mark icon for more information.

At this stage, because a file is being sent with the e-mail as well, the sending time will be longer. It is times like these, especially with a large file, when a simple Sending Mail... notification is not adequate. You could be looking at the Sending Mail... notification for 10 seconds (broadband) or 10 minutes (P.A.Y.G) for example. So it would be nice if windows live mail had some sort of progress guage. And fortunately it does. Just double click on the Sending Mail... icon and the green progress guage will appear.

Fig 3.4  Double click on the Sending Mail... icon to see the green progress guage




Fig 3.5  The progress guage shows how much of the e-mail has been sent

The final status notification just defaults back to the number of e-mails you have in your own windows live mail INBOX. In this example, because it is the first time to use windows live mail, there are no e-mails inside the windows live mail INBOX (If you do not count the original "Welcome To Windows Mail" e-mail, which I have deleted for this category).

Fig 3.6  E-Mail has been sent - Defaulting back to the number of e-mails inside the windows live mail INBOX

After clicking on the SEND button look immediately at the main windows live mail Folders window pane (known as the Folder Pane). It contains folders called INBOX (Received E-Mail), DRAFTS (Stored/Unfinished E-Mail), SENT ITEMS (Sent E-Mail), JUNK E-MAIL (Unclassified/Unwanted/Spam E-Mail), DELETED ITEMS (Deleted E-Mail) and OUTBOX (Waiting to be sent E-Mail). These folders work in the same way as a "Normal" folder. In this example you need to be looking at the OUTBOX folder and the SENT ITEMS folder.

Each time you click on the SEND button the e-mail to be sent is put into the windows live mail OUTBOX first, in a "Ready To Be Sent" state. The reason for this is because your e-mail account needs to be verified/authorized before the e-mail can be sent (see above). If your e-mail account cannot be verified/authorized for whatever reason(s) the e-mail will not be sent. It will remain in the OUTBOX until it can be sent, or until you delete it or move it from the OUTBOX for example. If you are Working Offline (writing the e-mail without being connected to the internet) you can still click on the SEND button. The e-mail will then go into the OUTBOX, just the same as if you were Working Online (writing the e-mail whilst being connected to the internet), and be sent (if it can be) later.....when you are Working Online.

Fig 4.0  One e-mail is waiting to be sent

Fig 4.0 shows that there is one e-mail inside the windows live mail OUTBOX folder. When the e-mail account has been verified/authorized the e-mail will be sent to the recipient's INBOX on their e-mail client's computer (i.e. on the Yahoo e-mail server). There are two ways of knowing your e-mail was sent. Firstly, the windows live mail OUTBOX will become empty and you should not of received any errors from windows live mail (or from your ISP). And secondly, there should be a record of the sent e-mail inside the windows live mail SENT ITEMS folder. To check the windows live mail SENT ITEMS folder simply click on its folder name.

Fig 4.1  Click on the SENT ITEMS folder to check if your e-mail was sent

As you can see; The e-mail, and its attached file, was successfully sent to my friend Denise Oakdale. I say successfully meaning successfully from windows live mail. If my ISP's computer has any problem(s) sending the e-mail to Denise's e-mail account (INBOX) my ISP's computer will inform me of this by e-mailing me back with a message such as "E-Mail could not be sent....etc". This is known as a bounced e-mail (like a Bounced Cheque or Return To Sender).

If you have more than one e-mail to be sent then obviously the OUTBOX will have more than (1) displayed next to it. Also. A 100KB sized e-mail will be sent quicker than a 900KB sized e-mail for example.

So just to recap. You create an e-mail, attach one or more files to it and then click on the SEND button. Your ISP's computer (e-mail server) then verifies/authorizes the e-mail account details sent to it by windows live mail (i.e. the Yoingco (John) e-mail account details). If all goes well the e-mail is then sent from windows live mail's OUTBOX to the INBOX of the recipient's e-mail account.....via various technologies and e-mail servers. Your ISP's computer, and the other various e-mail servers and technologies along the way, should verifying your SEND e-mail further (for Viruses and Spam/Junk content for example) before it arrives in the recipient's INBOX clean (without viruses and so on).

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.