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Attachment Editing
Here’s a good video about this for Outlook: Attachment Editing In Outlook
The most common mistake that novice computer users make is to try and open an email, open an attached file on that email, and begin to modify the contents of the attachment! In short, attachment editing should not be done! The first clue that this is not going to work is that the attached file will be opened in the appropriate application, but it will be in “Read Only” mode. Some programs will allow you to think you are editing the file, but when you click “Save” it won’t know how to do that. (Note: Newer versions of Windows will allow you to do this, but I would discourage you from forming this habit!)
What is the correct solution? First, you need to “Save” the attachment to a folder or location that you choose and can remember. Then open that “copy” of the attachment, where you saved it, and then begin to modify the file. This will allow you to edit a copy of the attachment to your heart’s content and save the changes.
If you need to send the changed file via email to someone else, then after creating a new email, you need to attach the modified copy of the file from the folder or location where you saved it and edited it. This solution applies to any type of attached file (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, photos, etc.), whether you are using an Apple computer, a Windows computer, or a Linux computer.
The solution is obvious once you begin to understand how a computer operates, and that’s why I’m writing this article, because you probably have no idea how a computer really works! Computer programmers started attaching files to their emails many years ago. And when such an attachment is created, the contents of the attached file are “embedded” into the contents of the email itself.
This is why the applications for accessing the attached files cannot understand how to save the changes you are trying to make to the attachment. Anyway, if you think about it, you would not logically want someone to be able to edit the contents of an attachment, why? Because that would not preserve the integrity of the communication that was sent to your email address by the sender. It would allow you to take the sender to court and say that they sent you something that, in fact, they did not send.
This way of relating to attachments is very important to understand! It will help you save countless hours of frustration and yelling at your computer!
Remember, direct attachment editing is NOT what you really want to do!
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