Hi, Billie.
Vanguard and Stan are correct. SO MANY viruses and other harmful pests are
being sent by email attachments that Microsoft ships OE with the default
setting to protect us from inadvertently opening such an attachment. You
can easily change the setting and see the attachment. After all, it's your
computer and only you can decide whether to take this risk.
If you trust the sender's motives (AND his/her computer savvy) enough that
you're comfortable with opening the attachment, then click Tools |
Options... | Security. Under Virus Protection, remove the check from the
bottom box, "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could
potentially be a virus". Then you can see the attachment. For your own
protection, you probably should return to that screen and check the box
again after getting the trusted attachment.
Another way to see many kinds of attachments is to view the source code of
the message. Highlight the message, then click File | Properties | Details
| Message Source (or take the shortcut by pressing Ctrl+F3). This screen is
too full of information for most readers, but many kinds of attachments can
be read in this window (scroll down) without actually opening the message.
(Comes in handy for all those friends - especially AOLers - who simply
Forward messages endlessly; you can scroll past all those lists of all the
sender's friends' names and email addresses (which Spammers LOVE to
collect!) to see the Joke or Inspirational Message of the Week. We wouldn't
have to do this if those friends would invest just a few minutes to learn
how to edit a message before forwarding it.)
RC
