Stupid Questions

[Lindsey Buckinghmof]

Should have kept my original three-book set. I have no idea.

[mo]

When you get an email in MS Outlook, and the email itself is an "untitled attachment", how do reply to that so that the text in the attachment is visible? I guess this email was created in Word? There were two people cc'd on this particular email, and I had to reply to all, and I thought it would be weird if the question I was replying to wasn't visible.

I opened the attachment, hit reply on it, and entered all the email addresses manually. It doesn't show a subject, and it seems like there ought to be a better way.

[random axe]

Copy and Paste?

[Lindsey Buckinghmof]

When you get an email in MS Outlook, and the email itself is an "untitled attachment", how do reply to that so that the text in the attachment is visible? I guess this email was created in Word? There were two people cc'd on this particular email, and I had to reply to all, and I thought it would be weird if the question I was replying to wasn't visible.

I opened the attachment, hit reply on it, and entered all the email addresses manually. It doesn't show a subject, and it seems like there ought to be a better way.

I'm not sure I understand. There was no header information in the email separate from the attachment?  Is that even possible?

Oh wait, it's Outlook. It's probably a feature.

[mo]

Copy and Paste?

Yeah, I guess that would be as simple, or simpler than what I did, and it would still have the subject line.

I'm not sure I understand. There was no header information in the email separate from the attachment?  Is that even possible?

Oh wait, it's Outlook. It's probably a feature.

I didn't view the source or whatever it's called in Windows, but yeah, no visible header. I mean, it's not like Mac's Mail, where you can view long headers or the raw source. When I open the email, there's nothing there but an untitled attachment, and when I open that, I see what you would expect to see in a normal email, except the header is blank.

I seem to remember the first time I launched Word, that it asked me if I wanted Word to be the "default email editor" (or something like that), and I clicked yes, and it did made the message an attachment, I think... I dunno, it's been several years.

I get these from time to time, and it's kind of aggravating. I guess I'm curious if anyone else ever gets them. Maybe it's something in my Outlook settings, like "show html messages as attachments" or something

[Lindsey Buckinghmof]

Wow. It reminds me of a line from the old Stroustrup C++ book, something like "obscurity is enforced through data hiding" or something like that. Seems like Microsoft took that literally.

[random axe]

We use Thunderbird, I think, at the shop, which is kind of an old-school and relatively low-BS email program of the Mozilla family.  We get emails from people with Outlook all the time that have an attachment that just has an exact duplicate of the body text.  What's annoying is that sometimes they don't show up as attachments (beats me) until or unless you reply or forward the note, and then if you're not paying attention you send the attachment as well.

We get a lot of email that's actually for the owner, and we forward it to him, and the attachment that's the original email again confuses him EVERY TIME.


Still, this is WAY down the list of annoyances behind:  People sending us emails in PDF format; people sending giant attachments; people sending 12 photos that are all 4 MB or more; people sending us MS Office spreadsheet lists of the books they want or want to sell.  Seriously, we no longer have any machines that have the full Office BS.  We're down to one machine that has Word.  Office is ridiculously expensive and full of programs we would never want to use except to easily read the files other people send us.

[mo]

I just found an article from 2003 that explains it. The email was created, as suspected, in Word in Rich Text Format and extra formatting codes are saved into the message that I assume Outlook can't read, so the entire message is saved as a separate attachment unless the sender chooses to send as Plain Text. It didn't offer a workaround though.

I guess I'll just add it to my list of favorite things, like when someone links their company logo in their signature from their server, and I have to grant permission to download the logo before I can view the message. The guy that sends every single email with the little high priority ! is one of those people.

[Lindsey Buckinghmof]

#include <obligatory_reference_to_openoffice.h>
#include <invective_directed_at_microsoft.h>

[random axe]

I always look askew at emails signed with a cursive font in a special color.  It's just email, man.  I know you didn't put a pen to the bottom of that.

[robin]

"after I flush the old oil out do you want me to put new oil in your crank case?".  Just a little while ago at Pennzoil.

[random axe]

"You're not going to save the old oil?"

Meh.

[eldiem]

I'd be like, "No, it's okay. I can do it when I get home."

[random axe]

How come 95% of toolbags, despite being insanely expensive, don't have a flapover so if you happen to be outside and it happens to rain, the tools don't get wet?

A zillion briefcase bags and shoulderbags and backpack-satchel things and computer bags nowadays lack a flapover, too.  Or if they have one, it has a non-water-resistant pocket in the flap, which is also pretty damned stupid.

Meh.

[mybabysmomma]

I would guess for two reasons.  If you were working outside in the rain, wouldn't your tools be getting wet anyway?  A flap would get in the way of taking tools out and putting them back.  Do I win a prize?