Outlook 2007: Forward As Attachement Hotkey

2009, Nov 12    

So, I was trying to figure out what the quickest way to forward as an attachment is using Outlook 2007. Here were some of the options that I found:

1. Insert Item
   1. Open a New Message (CTRL+N)
   2. Click the Insert tab
   3. Click Attach Item
   4. Browse to and select the Outlook Item that you want to attach
   5. Click OK
2. Multiple Attachments and Filter
   1. Select two emails
   2. Click Forward
   3. Select the one you DO NOT want to forward
   4. Delete it
3. Drag it in
   1. Open a New Message
   2. Click and Drag the Item you want to attach

All of these are perfectly legitimate and usable ways of Forwarding Emails off as an attachment, but I want more!! Or should I say less? I knew there had to be a simple easy quick way.

Before I tell you the simple easy quick way, let me tell you why I was so determined. I am The Postmaster for a college in North Texas. When a user gets a bounce error or a phishing/malicious email, they like to send them to me. My first step when looking into issues like this is to tell the user to Forward the to me as an attachment so that the message headers remain in tact and I can do some useful investigation.

There’s a lesson for you there: When sending an email to an authority figure (ie: The Postmaster) for investigation, ALWAYS SEND IT AS AN ATTACHMENT. If the message is forwarded inline, it’s far less useful.

With that said, my simple easy quick way is:

CTRL + ALT + F

That’s it! All this typing to tell you that the quickest way to send a message as an attachment is to:

• Select the Email you wish to Forward as an Attachement
• Press CTRL + ALT + F all at the same time

Of course, you could have easily found this for yourself by clicking the Actions with one or more messages selected.

For the novices out there…

When you see a combo like this, it doesn’t mean that you have to get your timing between your fingers to match. You just need to know that there are four possible trigger keys and an action key when doing a key combo.

Possible Trigger Keys:

• Shift Key
• Ctrl Key
• Alt Key
• Windows Key

When you see a combo like the one above, it really means this: While holding down CTRL and ALT, press the F key.

So …

1. Press and hold (until I tell you to release) the CTRL and ALT keys. They do not have to be pressed at the same time, just be held down at the same time.
2. Press and release (don’t hold) the F key. Just like you would type the letter F in a text field or in Microsoft Word.
3. Release the CTRL and ALT keys.

You experts only laugh at me for typing all this because you’ve seen people trying to time their key presses all at the same time … Heading style Horizontal rule Bullet Code block style Fence Em delimiter Strong delimiter Link style Link reference style turndown is copyright © 2017 Dom Christie and is released under the MIT license