In Outlook 2013, must downloaded pictures in an email always be retained?

[TonyC]

I have just started to use Outlook 2013 after using Outlook 2003 for many years.

In my main view in Outlook 2003, I used to have the folder pane down the left hand side of the window, the email list in the middle, and the reading/preview pane down the right hand side. If I double clicked on an email in the list, a new window appeared containing the email. If the email contained the text “Right click here to download pictures”, I could right click the text to download the pictures. After reading the email, I would close the window. At that point, a prompt would appear asking me whether I wanted to save the changes I had made to the email by downloading the pictures. I would normally select “No” on the basis that I didn’t want pictures in emails clogging up my disk space. The email would then remain in the reading/preview pane without the pictures.

I have now set up my “home” view in Outlook 2013 in the same way, and I can do everything described above up to the point where I close the window containing the email I have just read. In Outlook 2013, I do not get a prompt asking me whether I want to save the changes made to the email by downloading the pictures. And the email in the reading/preview pane now contains the downloaded pictures which I can’t get rid of.

Ideally, I would like to emulate what I used to do in Outlook 2003. Is there some option in Outlook 2013 that I have missed? Or is this just the way things work in the era beyond Outlook 2003? Is it simply the case that, if you don't want downloaded pictures in your emails, you just don't download them?

 

[larry]

That wasn't a facture of Outlook 2003 - an add-in (possibly Acrobat?) caused that dialog to come up.

 

[TonyC]

Thank you for the reply. However, what is a "facture" in this context? Or did you mean "feature"?

I don't believe I had any add-ins in Outlook 2003, and I certainly didn't have Adobe Acrobat.

Outlook 2013 does have a similar feature. If you receive a email with an attachment, double click it to view it in a full window, remove the attachment, and then try to close the window, you receive a prompt asking you whether you want to save the changes to the email or not.

Outlook 2003 works in exactly the same way, but it also works in this way if you download pictures while viewing it in a full window. Outlook 2013 doesn't - once you have downloaded pictures in an email, there appears to be no way of returning the email to the state in which you received it - that is, without the downloaded pictures.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I think he means feature. At least it's not as bad as some of the typos I've made over the years. lol

Anyway, it was a bug and also caused by a Word addin, if you used Word as the email editor. See http://www.slipstick.com/problems/problem-do-you-want-to-save-changes/ for details. The bug was fixed by updates (it was very annoying).

When you change the message with actual attachments it's expected that you'll be asked to save, but external content isn't saved with the message and it shouldn't ask it save it.

 

[TonyC]

If it was a bug that is now supposed to have been fixed by updates, well, my Outlook 2013 is now right up to date (15.0.4605.1003) and I still have the same problem (if it really is a problem). I double click on an email's header in the central column of the home view in order to open the email in a full window, accept the invitation to "Click here to download pictures", press "Esc" to leave the full window, and I am not asked whether I want to save changes. And the downloaded pictures remain with the email in the reading pane on the right.

I'm not sure that the "problem" that I am describing is exactly the same one that is described in the link you provided. If I open a message by double clicking it, read it without downloading the pictures, and then close it, I don't get any prompt or message at all.

You appear to have clarified something that Larry wrote. He mentioned "add-in", whereas you refer to "Word add-in". I've looked at my Word add-ins (all configured by my Office 2013 installation) and none are concerned with Adobe Acrobat (I don't have that product anyway). And, in Outlook 2013, I don't know whether Word is being used as my mail editor. It was in Outlook 2003. But, if it is the default editor for mail as configured by the installation and you don't specify otherwise, then I am probably using Word.

Is this really a problem with Outlook 2013, or is Outlook 2013 behaving exactly as intended?

 

[TonyC]

I've just found the following article on MSOutlook.info: http://www.msoutlook.info/question/175. The section entitled "You have downloaded pictures for the message from the Internet" states:

As downloading the pictures for an email item is considered a change, you’re prompted for the message to be saved.

Outlook 2013 will no longer prompt you to save the changes if all you did was downloading the pictures of the message.

If the information is correct, I think it answers my question. It implies that, prior to Outlook 2013, if you open an email and download pictures, you are prompted to save the changes, which is exactly my experience with Outlook 2003. But, apparently, this does not happen in Outlook 2013.

I confess that I am a little annoyed about this. I would like to be able to preview an email by downloading pictures but, if I subsequently decide to save the email, I would like to be able to save it without the pictures. I don't want masses of pictures clogging up my .pst files.

 

[larry]

You aren't saving the pictures (or CSS and other external content) to the pst file. The content is downloaded from the external webserver and saved to the Temporary Internet Files folder, they are not saved in the pst with the message. They are not permanently saved; when the internet cache is cleared, the content is deleted. This is the exact same behavior you had with Outlook 2003, the only difference is you don't receive that annoying and erroneous message.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

That warning in Outlook 2003 wasn't doing what you thought it was doing. You aren't actually saving the external content in Outlook (any version). The external content - usually images - is never saved in the pst, it's saved in the TIF. Outlook will read it from the TIF until it expires (based on your IE settings.)

 

[TonyC]

Diane, Larry, that is good news, thank you.

I know that disk space is becoming cheaper and more plentiful as time passes, but I'm a member of the "old school". I still like to manage my disk space and I don't like the thought of storing masses of data that I don't need.