Can't attach files. Out of memory error -- for no good reason

[Gary Burton]

Until now, I have been able to attach JPG files or any other kind of
files to my emails; but now I
get the following error.
"Out of memory or system resources. Close some Windows programs and try
again."

There should be no reason for this. I have 512Mb of memory, and the
only programs I have open at the time are Outlook and Windows Explorer. I
am using WinXP home, SP2. Outlook came from Office 2002. I just updated
both Windows and Office, but that didn't help. I haven't made any changes
to my applications software since I last sent attachments.
The first thing I would suspect would be an Outlook setting, but I can't
find one that applies to attachments.

 

[Gary Burton]

I'm hoping this will provide another clue.

I am using Word as my email editor.

What I described before (the out of memory error) is what happens when I
drop an attachment into the paper clip icon instead of just dropping it into
the document, I get a different response. Instead of an out of memory
error, I get one of two possible responses.
1. If the attachment is a text file, it opens up Word, and displays the
text. But it shows no attachment to the email and gives me no idea what to
do with the new Word document. This is really confusing.
2. If the attachment is a PDF or JPG, a dialog opens saying "Select the
encoding that makes your document readable"

I also just noticed that I only have the problem when I choose the Rich
Text message format. If I choose plain text or HTML, I can still add
attachments just as I used to. I thought I had been using the rich text
format for many months, but perhaps not.

Can anyone explain what is going on with the rich text selection?

By the way, is there any reason to prefer HTML or plain text? Obviously
rich text is a poor choice.