OL97: Attachment in E-mail Message Has No Icon (175716)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Outlook 97
This article was previously published under Q175716

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Outlook 97, when you insert a file as an attachment into an e- mail message or you receive an e-mail message with an attachment, the attachment has no file name and does not display an icon to represent the file type. What you see in place of an icon is an outlined, empty box.

NOTE: Instead of an empty box, you may see "{ EMBED Outlook.FileAttach }" (exactly as it appears, except without the quotation marks). See "Disable Show Field Codes" in the "Resolution" section of this article for information about how to correct this.

CAUSE

This occurs if both of the following conditions are true:
  • You are using Microsoft Word 97 as your e-mail editor.

    -and-
  • The Picture Placeholder option is enabled in the Word e-mail template.

RESOLUTION

Choose one of the following to correctly display the attachment icon.

Do Not Display Picture Placeholders

  1. Open the e-mail message, and on the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the View tab, click to clear the Picture Placeholders check box.
  3. Click OK.
The outlined box may display the attachment icon and its file name.

Do Not Display Picture Placeholders in Word

  1. In Outlook, on the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the E-mail tab under "Use Microsoft Word as the e-mail editor" is the name of the template you use in WordMail. Email.dot is the default. If you use a different template, make a note of the name and substitute yours in the following steps.
  3. In Word, on the File menu, click Open.
  4. Click to select the Email.dot template file, and then click Open.

    NOTE: You may need to change "Files of type" in the Open dialog to display Document Templates (*.dot). The default location for the Email.dot is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office. If you receive a warning that "The document you are opening contains macros or customizations," click Enable Macros. If you click Disable Macros, the template opens as read-only and does not allow changes.
  5. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  6. On the View tab, click to clear the Picture Placeholders check box, and then click OK.
  7. On the File menu, click Save.
  8. On the File menu, click Close.

Disable Show Field Codes

  1. On the File menu, click Exit And Log Off.
  2. In Word, on the Tools menu, click Options.
  3. On the View tab, click to clear the Field Codes check box, and click OK.
  4. On the File menu, click Exit.
  5. Restart Outlook and view your message.

Do Not Use Word as the E-mail Editor

If you use Outlook 8.0 or 8.01, follow these steps:
  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the E-mail tab.
  3. Click to clear the Use Microsoft Word as the e-mail editor check box, and then click OK.
If you use Outlook 8.02:

On the Tools menu, click to clear the Use Word as the E-Mail Editor check box.

MORE INFORMATION

With Word as your e-mail editor, most of the editing features available in Word are available when working with e-mail messages. The Picture Placeholder option in Word displays an empty box in place of each graphic in your document. This increases the screen refresh speed and enables you to display and scroll through a document containing many graphics faster than if all the graphics are displayed.

REFERENCES

For more information on attachments without icons, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

172719 Programmatically-Created Attachment Loses Icon

For more information about using Word as the e-mail editor, type "WordMail" in the Office Assistant, click Search, and then click to view each of the related topics.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:3/18/2005
Keywords:kbprb KB175716
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