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How do I print an email with its attachments?

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I want to be able to print an email with an attachment. The attachment is on the bottom of the email. I don't want to exactly print the attachment but the email so I can see that it has an attachment. Most of the emails that I receive have the attachments on the bottom of the screen, I want them in the body so I can print them.

Attachments are a source of great confusion for many people. In concept they're very, very simple. Excruciatingly simple, as a matter of fact.

Then some email programs try to get "helpful", and all heck breaks loose.

Attachments are nothing more than files that accompany an email message. There's nothing special about them, there's nothing magical. It's just a file. Save it to disk, and you can do anything you want with that file, assuming you have the proper tools on your machine to act on it.

Some email programs try to get fancy when they display an email message that has accompanying attachments. Outlook Express, for example, will notice if the attachments appear to be images, and if they are, it will helpfully display those images below the email message body. The problem is that while it looks like the images are below the message, in fact they are not. That very same message viewed in a different email program (say, Microsoft Office's Outlook) will not display the images below the body. Outlook will only display the icons that indicate that the message has attachments. If you want to open them, you'll need to do so explicitly.

It's a source of frustration and confusion for people moving from Outlook Express to Outlook, because they find Outlook Express's behavior convenient.

It's also a source of frustration for people attempting to send mail that will look the same everywhere.

HTML mail and Rich Text mail can get even more confusing, because images that appear in-line in one person's mail program may appear as separate attachments to someone else looking at the same message. Or worse ... the entire email message may appear as an attachment.

And so it goes with printing. There's no standard way to print an email message that has attachments. Some programs will print an indicator that there are attachments. Others will not. Some will print the attachment, if they know how, others will print a placeholder or nothing at all.

So in short, there is no blanket answer to what you're looking for. You'll have to experiment with your email program to see if it supports printing email the way you want. Be sure to look for "Page Setup" and advanced printing types of options. Your email program may call them something else, but they hold the keys to what will be possible.

Article C2408 - August 20, 2005

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Recent Comments
23 Comments

I need to send an email with the attachment included, and I cannot get it to print. I also don't know what ( Output To File Name ) means.
Can you help me with this problem.

Posted by: Evelyn Dewar at October 29, 2007 2:21 PM

You cannot print an HTML format email with the evidence of attachment. Only plain text will print that way. But you have got a work around :)

1. Open the HTML email from your inbox
2. Go to 'edit' menu and select 'edit message'
3. Then go to 'format menu' and select 'Plain text' and press 'Yes'
4. Then go to 'File menu' - Page setup - and select 'Memo style'
5. Then print and you will get it with the attachment on it.
6. If you want the content of the attachment also printed, then tick 'Print attached file with item(s)'option from the print window.

Posted by: Gireesh at June 23, 2008 10:01 AM

Emails are PARTIALLY PRINTING, ONLY the "visible" text PRINTS.
Worse, the FONT SIZE is probably a 6!! I need to print all the body/text in a SIZE I can read without resorting to a magnifying glass.
This QUIRK just happened and I need instructions to RESTORE 1) ENTIRE Message and 2) Font SIZE of 10 , 12 preferred
Thanks Bob

Posted by: Bob Kosmidek at March 21, 2009 7:28 AM

I cannot print a sent e-mail IF it has attachments. No, attachments, prints fine.

Posted by: Jim Mallory at November 29, 2009 10:08 AM

I have some pictures in my email account.How can
I print these pictures off of my email.

Posted by: Donna at March 8, 2010 10:12 AM

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