E-mail hypertext question

[Just thinking]

I'm using Windows XP and am wondering if there is a way using Outlook Express (e-mail) to do the following ...

By clicking on a piece of text in the bulk of the e-mail, a file opens. It could be a photo, mp3 or something else I send along. This would not be like an attachement where one sees the file, but can only be opened by clicking on designated text.

PS: I know how to hypertext links.

Thank you.

 

[Psi Baba]

I think you would have to know the precise location and name of the file on the recipient's hard drive for the link to work. If you and your recipient share a network drive, that should be easy enough.

 

[Just thinking]

I think you would have to know the precise location and name of the file on the recipient's hard drive for the link to work. If you and your recipient share a network drive, that should be easy enough.

I am looking to send it as my file -- along with the e-mail.

 

[Psi Baba]

I am looking to send it as my file -- along with the e-mail.

The only ways I can imagine that working is a) the recipient has a direct link to your computer or b) that the file is placed on a webserver allowing them to click on a link to download the file. The file must come from somewhere--if you don't attach it to the message, the recipient must be able to access it somehow.

If I'm misunderstanding you in that perhaps you do want to attach the file, but you want to recipient to see only a link and not have the file displayed inline, I don't think you can control that, that's up to how the recipient has his/her mail reader configured (whether or not to display attachments inline). In that case, you could send the file as a zip file (or some other file type), which will not display in the body of the message, but then the recipient will have to go through a couple extra steps to open the file.

Of course, I may be overlooking something obvious here.

 

[Rat]

You could, with an image, use css to set its visibility property to off, but, again, some mail client set-ups will still show the attachment however they want to. Linking to a web server is the only way I can think of to achieve this reliably.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[kevin]

By clicking on a piece of text in the bulk of the e-mail, a file opens. It could be a photo, mp3 or something else I send along. This would not be like an attachement where one sees the file, but can only be opened by clicking on designated text.

No. If you send a file along it will show up as an attachment. You can link to files on web servers that won't show as attachment, but you won't be sending the file along.

additionally, if you don't care if it shows as an attachment, you can't link to a file in an e-mail message. Especially if you don't know the mail server & client the receipient uses. For example at home I have a IMAP server for my mail. Attached files don't exist on my computer until I download them from the IMAP server. Microsoft Exchange and web mail clients work this way too.

 

[Just thinking]

It's looking like it pretty much can't be done in the manner I would like ... you see a hypertext word in an e-mail message, and when clicked on it opens up a window with a picture -- or music begins to play.