Last updated 2/25/02

Attaching a File to an Email Message Using Hotmail

When you attach a file to an email message, the email message is composed and sent just as you normally would. But somewhere in between first seeing the window where you create an email message, and the time that you send it, you also attach an existing computer file to the message. For a Windows PC, when you first create this file, say in your word processor, you must note (write down?) the following information about the file (see illustration below this list):

1. Drive. That is, A: for the floppy drive, C: for the hard drive, or you may have other drives available on your computer.
2. Sequence of folders that the file is in, for example "\My Documents\Essays\"
3. File name. This is the part following the last folder. If you see a dot in the file name (for example, "My documents\Essays\Essay1.doc") then the file name is the part of the name to the left of the dot ("Essay1" in the example above).
4. File extension. On a Windows PC, all files have an extension, but Windows may be configured not to display the extension. If you do see a dot in the file name, then the extension is the part to the right of the dot ("doc" in the example above). In Windows, the extension specifies the type of file it is (for example, "doc" for Word, "xls" for Excel, etc.).

Right pane: sequence of drive and folders - c:\doc\cll. Folder cll is inside folder doc.
Left pane: list of files in folder cll. Also list folders inside this folder. Here, extension are displayed.

Once you have created a file and made note of its name and location, then you can email the file by attaching it to a normal email message following the steps below. The figures were created using Internet Explorer; if you use Netscape the appearance may be altered.

1. Log in to Hotmail as usual.
2. Click on the Hotmail "Compose" tab to send an email, just as you would normally.
3. In addition to entering "To:", "Subject:" and message body as usual, click on "Add/Edit Attachments" button just below "Subject:" (NOTE: You can do these steps in any sequence you want, just as long as you do the attachment before you send the message. However, a common mitake is to send the email without actually doing the attachment, which is embarrassing. If you do the attachment first, you are less prone to this error.)
   
   "Add/Edit Attachments" button is outlined in red
4. On the Attachment page which opens up, click on the "Browse" button to browse or navigate through your drives, folder and files to find the file you want to attach
   .
   "Browse" button is outlined in red.
5. In the "Choose File" dialog which opens up, double-click on "My Computer" and choose the "C:" drive (most likely choice, could also be "A:" if file is on a floppy diskette). Make sure that "Files of type" shows "All Files (*.)" as outlined in red below. To change "Files of type:", click on the down-pointing arrowhead at the right of the red box below, and select the desired type(s).
   
6. Keep on double-clicking on the drive, and the folders one by one, until you get to the right folder, then double-click on the file you want to attach. (Alternate: single-click on the file to put the name in the "File name:" box, and then single-click click on the "Open" button). Once the file is displayed in the "Find File:" box just to the left of the "Browse" button, as shown below, click on the "Attach" button (outlined in red below) to attach it to the message
   
7. Attach more files if desired. You can also highlight a file and click "Remove" to remove a file from the list of files to be attached to the email message. In this case, the file "dirviews.doc" (outlined in red) is attached to the message. When all of the files that you want to attach are displayed in the "Attachments:" box, click on the "OK" button in the bottom right of this picture.
   NOTE 1: Your computer may not be configured to show extensions, in which case you would simply see "dirviews", not "dirviews.doc".
   NOTE 2: If you do not have antivirus software installed, or it is not McAfee, then the notice about scanning for viruses may be missing, or may be different than what is shown below.
   
8. Continue preparing and sending the message as usual. Notice that the attached file(s) (outlined in red below) is shown beside "Attachments:".
   

So that's it. Pretty much all you have to do to attach a file is identify the file to attach. The process will be different for different email systems, but the process will be very similar.