Outlook Tip #1: How to attach another Outlook item (email, contact, task, or calendar item) to an email

Posted on March 13, 2007 at 9:13 am

Recently, I had to do two things that I’ve never done before and aren’t very common, but can come in handy when the situation might arise. I wanted to send another business colleague a contact that I had in Outlook and also a few emails that I had recieved from that person. As I started to copy the information back and forth from several emails and from the contact card in Outlook, I thought to myself being a computer person that there had to be an easier way to do this!

And there is! If you want to attach something within Outlook to an email, you have to attach an item and not a file. Here’s how you do it. When have your new mail windows open, you’ll see that the attach button that you normally use to attach a file also has a small down arrow button right next to it. Click that arrow and you’ll see another option, Item.

Click on that and you’ll get another screen where you can choose ANYTHING from Outlook itself including a Calendar event, Contact card, any email messages, Tasks, etc.

And the nice thing is that if you send someone like a Calendar item or Contact card, the person recieving it can simply add it into their Outlook without having to type anything!

Note: If you’re using Outlook 2000, then this method will not work because there is no arrow on the attachment button! So in order to get it working for this version, you need to do something slightly different.

First, you have to turn off Word as your email editor! I don’t know why this is required, but I have not been able to figure out any other way yet! Go to Tools (from the MAIN Outlook window, not the one in the new email windows) and Options and click on the Mail Format tab. Uncheck Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages.

Now when you go to write an email, in the new mail window click Insert and and you’ll see there is an option for Item. For some reason, this option does not come up if Word is your email editor.

Enjoy!

» Filed Under MS Office Tips

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Comments

14 Responses to “Outlook Tip #1: How to attach another Outlook item (email, contact, task, or calendar item) to an email”

  1. gajendra said on : April 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    A greate advice, thank you very much. I was looking for this tip already a month, I couldn’t find it.


  2. Dora said on : January 13th, 2009 at 8:43 am

    Thanks a lot, the answer was great, and it worked fine.


  3. Ann said on : February 10th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    Thanks, just the info I needed. So simply, yet I was stumped.


  4. Ruby said on : March 8th, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    Thanks for showing the path.However insert item option did not come up even though I verified that I was not having word as email editor.I right clicked on the tool bar of a new message–>selected customize–>selected Insert–>drag Item option appearing on the right hand side list onto the tool bar.’Item’ icon can now be clicked to attach emails.Thanks..


  5. Naidu said on : May 20th, 2009 at 4:26 am

    Thanks for the Outlook information, this helped me a lot.


  6. Josh said on : June 11th, 2009 at 11:58 am

    This was a great tip and very easy to use. Thank you very much for outlining this. Came up fast on Google search as well, so thank you!!!


  7. Kalia said on : October 21st, 2009 at 9:22 am

    Thanks! I’ve seen this Outlook trick done before but never knew how to do it. I am saving your website in my Favorites!


  8. Amit Kumar said on : November 11th, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    Thanks a lot. I was looking for this option in Outlook for the long time.


  9. Vasantha said on : March 4th, 2010 at 7:05 am

    Many thanks. very useful. also i have searched this for a long time. thx.

    but i dont know my present version of my outlook express!

    there is no “mail format” tab in options in the tools menu of main outlook xpress window (in our outlook express) but some other tabs r there. Kindly advise any other way is there for attaching a email in my email.

    Thank u so much

    warm rgds
    vasantha


  10. Loca said on : April 5th, 2010 at 6:43 am

    Good tutorial, thanks for the MS Office tips. Very useful.


  11. Chuck said on : June 4th, 2010 at 11:21 am

    Thank You for taking the time to share. I needed this info and was a bit embarassed to ask in the workplace since everyone is an Outlook guru except me!


  12. Sujaritha said on : July 12th, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Very useful. Thank you very much.


  13. DES said on : July 29th, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    Genius! Thanks. Just the help I needed and in simple language too.


  14. Derek said on : September 10th, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Thank you for posting this advice. It has solved a very frustrating problem for me.


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