Knowledge Base

OL2000: Attachment in E-mail Message Has No Icon

Article ID: 198006

Article Last Modified on 3/18/2005


APPLIES TO


This article was previously published under Q198006

SYMPTOMS

When you insert a file as an attachment into an e-mail message or when you receive an e-mail message with an attachment, the attachment has no file name and does not display an icon to represent the file type. You see an outlined, empty box in place of an icon.

NOTE: Instead of an empty box, you may see "{ EMBED Outlook.FileAttach }" (exactly as it appears, except without the quotation marks). See the "Disable Show Field Codes" section in the "Resolution" section of this article for information about how to correct this.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs if you are using Microsoft Word 2000 as your e-mail editor and at least one of the following conditions is true:
  • The Picture Placeholder option is enabled in the Word e-mail template.

    -or-

  • The Show Field Codes option is enabled in the Word e-mail template.

RESOLUTION

Use one of the following methods to correctly display the attachment icon.

Do Not Display Picture Placeholders

  1. Open the e-mail message, and on the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the View tab, click to clear the Picture Placeholders check box.
  3. Click OK.
The outlined box displays the attachment icon and its file name.

Disable Show Field Codes

Field codes are identified by braces ({}) surrounding the field code.

  1. On the File menu, click Exit And Log Off.
  2. In Word, on the Tools menu, click Options.
  3. On the View tab, click to clear the Field Codes check box, and click OK.
  4. On the File menu, click Exit.
  5. Restart Outlook and view your message.

Do Not Use Word as the E-mail Editor

To not use Word as your e-mail editor, follow these steps:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Mail Format tab.
  3. Click to clear Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages check box.
  4. Click Apply, and then OK.

MORE INFORMATION

With Word as your e-mail editor, most of the editing features available in Word are available when you work with e-mail messages. The Picture Placeholder option in Word displays an empty box in place of each graphic in your document. This increases the screen refresh speed, and enables you to display and scroll through a document that has many graphics faster than you could if all the graphics were displayed.

Additional query words: square rectangle frame blank

Keywords: kbprb KB198006