Outlook Tip #1: How to Attach Another Outlook Item (Email, Contact, Task, or Calendar Item) to an Email

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Recently, I had to do two things in Outlook 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 techie and all, that there had to be an easier way to do this! Luckily there was!

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. If you’re using a later version of Outlook, you’ll simply see two options: Attach File and Attach Item.

You can choose from Business Card, Calendar or Outlook Item. Click on Outlook Item 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 a Calendar item or Contact card, the person receiving it can simply add it into their Outlook profile 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 the Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages box.