Outlook problem

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confused.com

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Hi.



I am trying to find out if Outlook can attach files to an e-mail without the user actually knowing about it.

Is there a way that the settings could prompt different versions of Outlook to attach a document?




My issue has occurred because I sent an e-mail from home (I use Outlook 2003) with a 2003 word attachment containing some notes and then when I created a new e-mail at work this attachment was sent but in another format. I had saved the word document in a folder at work in the meantime.


The e-mail I have in my sent items on my own PC is a word icon attachment (.doc) but the work e-mail shows three attachments, all in something called message format (.msg). I noticed that the file sizes were slightly lower than the word attachment. One of the attachments won't even open and the other two contain the notes I prepared at home.

When creating a new e-mail I should also point out that I pasted some figures from an excel file in to the body of the e-mail. It was only after an hour that a colleague pointed out the attachments.



So can Outlook/software issues cause a mistake like this or is it simply down to a lack of concentration on my part?


Can anybody shed any light on this or provide links to help?

One reply I have had to date says it is possible "But it all depends on how you made the E Mail sent from work. If you had the Word Document open in the program that's default is Message Format and clicked on E Mail it would most certainly attach itself as well as the backup and partial file that you already had open hence the 3 attachments of different sizes".



But how does this happen and is it possible to recreate such a scenario? Could anybody expand on the above?

Have any of the readers had or heard of any problems like this before?



Thanks.

 
Outlook can't do this - it was either a lack of concentration or some other goof up.

As for the reply that says its possible, I'm not sure i follow what they are trying to say, but the only way you'd send a word document when you have it open is by clicking File, Send by email.

Not knowing your habits, I'd guess that the easiest mistake to make is an accidental drag and drop. I don't think the messages were in the paste from excel, but it's possible you did something to copy them to the clipboard then pasted everything that was on the clipboard.
 
Thanks for the reply Diane.

Going back to the e-mail that I sent at work, if I were to send a word .doc by e-mail why does it not send in word format? The attachments to the e-mail were three .msg messages and I am not sure why.

I think the other poster was referring to these rogue attachments and saying that it is possible if the word document is open in the default message format which perhaps the companies software is using. I do not know the mechanics of how the files attach themselves. It is very strange.

So how has one word .doc become three .msg files? Is this from the accidental drag and drop you have mentioned? Can you expand more on this drag and drop issue and advise how my inexperience could have contributed to the copying and pasting of files that I did not want to copy and paste? Also would it be possible to recreate the drag and drop issue on my own Microsoft package and software from home? And if so, how?

The notes I sent from home were personal notes for a ratings appeal meeting and yet they ended up in the hands of all the recipients of the e-mail. This was not my intention at all.

Thanks.

confused.com
 
Thanks for the reply Diane.

Going back to the e-mail that I sent at work, if I were to send a word .doc by e-mail why does it not send in word format? The attachments to the e-mail were three .msg messages and I am not sure why.

If you send the document as an attachment, its a word document. If you use the feature known as WordMail where the email "envelope" - the to/from/subject fields and a notes field - are displayed at the top of the document, then its sent as the body of the email, which is msg format. I think WordMail was still easy to access in Office 2003.

So how has one word .doc become three .msg files? Is this from the accidental drag and drop you have mentioned? Can you expand more on this drag and drop issue and advise how my inexperience could have contributed to the copying and pasting of files that I did not want to copy and paste? Also would it be possible to recreate the drag and drop issue on my own Microsoft package and software from home? And if so, how?

One doc doesn't become 3, at least not in anyway i can figure out. I'm not even sure they were drag and dropped, but i know a lot of people accidently drag folders around outlook and can't find them so its logical that someone could do this with messages too. But we're back to the problem of how did you get 3...

How/where were the notes at home? Sticky notes will send as msg files.
 
Thanks Diane.

I checked the e-mail in my sent items at work. The only information in the body of the e-mail was the productivity figures I pasted from an Excel spreadsheet. My notes were contained in two of the three message attachments to the e-mail.

The notes I made were in a 2003 word document at home. I am not sure what sticky notes are but I sent the attachment to work and then saved it to another folder at work.

It is a very confusing situation......
 
Definitely confusing and strange. I'm sure there is a logical explanation for it, but I don't know what it is.
 
Hi Diane.Thanks for checking things for me.Well I have been doing endless Google searches in an attempt to establish what happened.I discovered this interesting article yesterday and it does suggest there are some inherent security issues with .msg files and their use.http://windowsitpro.com/outlook/q-w...ormat-and-what-security-problems-come-its-use I should also point out that my employers use Windows Explorer and I believe this application was open when I was getting the figures from the Excel spreadsheet pasted in to the e-mail I was sending. Could all of these factors and my incoherence with the software be the reason why my personal notes ended up in the wrong hands?Thanks.
 
That article is about how easy it is for employees to circumvent mailbox permissions and content control systems by using msg files saved to the hard drive. It doesn't really explain how your notes in a word file made it as msg attachments on a message. A word doc doesn't magically change to a msg file. Attachments don't magically attach themselves. So two things needs to happen: the contents of the word doc were pasted into an outlook message and saved then attached to another email.

It's one of these things that unless it happens again and you realize it as its happening, that you probably won't ever figure out what happened.

What i do know: you can Ctrl+V on an outlook folder or drag a selection to a folder to create a new message containing the clipboard contents. I can see ways of fumbling the mouse or keyboard that results in an 'oops, did i do that?' to create a message containing the document contents, but most people use the ribbon commands so its all but impossible to do this sort of thing accidentally.

But... I don't know any way to add the draft message as an attachment without realizing what is happening. The same fumbling that created the message could attach it, if it was saved. But that is a lot of oops.

If you do things really fast and half asleep, i can see maybe doing something before you realize it was done... or sending the notes in an email to yourself...

Oh. Outlook 2003. Are you using IE11 and the Outlook editor? I have one scenario - but it should result in more than just the attachments as the only issue. Draft the email at home, attach another email containing your notes. Delete the attachments, send the message. When using IE11 and the Outlook editor, the first draft is sent. Outlook 2003 messages are cut off - this would require you to use Outlook 2003/Outlook Editor/IE 11 at work. This would not convert a word doc to a msg file.
 
Thanks very much for the detailed reply Diane.

I am sure my employers do not use IE11 and are using a much earlier IE version.

I guess I will just have to accept the mistake was user error and that it will be extremely difficult to replicate the exact circumstances which caused the issue. What I do know is that I did not want the attachment to be sent to 16 of my colleagues and face the implications of its content so I will need to be more careful in the future.

Thanks again for taking the time to help. I am really grateful that you shared your expertise.
 
If you are using Windows XP, I don't think you can use IE11, so that theory could be a non-starter anyway... but it's the only cause I can think of that blames Outlook - but again, it also needs a little help from you to put the attachments on the message. Outlook just screws up when you delete the attachment.
 
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