Tips & Tricks

Pictures in E-Mail - Part 2

OK, in part one we looked at how to resize your photos so they are the right size for e-mail. Today, we'll go through the process of actually sticking them in your e-mail messages.

Outlook Express:

1. First, start a new message, then from the Insert menu, select Picture.

2. A screen will come up that allows you to browse to the picture's location on your hard drive.

3. Hit OK and you're all set.

Note that you can set a few other options from that screen as well. Here's a quick rundown:

Alternate Text - This will be displayed in place of the picture if the recipient's e-mail client is not able to, or not set to, display pictures.

Layout: Alignment - This lets you set your text wrapping. For example, if you set it to Left, the image should appear on the left of the message with your text wrapping around to the right. It's actually kinda cool.

Layout: Border Thickness - If you would like to have a border around your image, set the thickness using this box. The units are in pixels, so 2 or 3 is usually a good size.

Under Spacing - Your horizontal and vertical spacing sets the distance the text will be from the image. By default, there is some space, but you can increase that area by entering values in pixels into these two boxes.

Netscape Messenger:

1. First, start a new message. Then from the Insert menu, select Image.

2. A screen will come up that allows you to browse to the picture's location on your hard drive.

3. Hit OK and you're all set.

Note that you can set a few other options as well from that screen. Here's a quick rundown:

Checkboxes: Leave image at original location - Only use this if the image is on the web. Otherwise when you send the picture, the computer on the other end will try to look on the hard drive for the image. And this won't work.

Checkboxes: Use as background - If you would like to have the image as a background image, you can click this checkbox.

Under Text alignment and wrapping - This sets how your text wraps around the image. Click the button that has the wrapping option that looks best to you. For example, if you click the button for wrapping to the right the image should appear on the left of the message with your text wrapping around to the right.

Under Dimensions - You can set the width & height of the image. This shouldn't be necessary if you sized it in your imaging software first. If you do use it, keep the Constrain box checked to insure the picture remains proportional.

Under Space around image - Your horizontal and vertical spacing sets the distance the text will be from the image. By default, there is some space, but you can increase that area by entering values in pixels into these boxes. If you would like a border around the image, put a value in pixels in the Solid Border box. Usually 2 or 3 is good.

That's the main stuff. There are some other options you may want to explore, but this should get you started.

Final Notes - If you are using an e-mail client other than Outlook or Netscape you'll find that most of the information above probably still applies.

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