Except that it isn't. There's nothing in the Help about "Automatically
download pictures from senders in my Address Book."
Sorry, you're right. The final decisions on these prefs were made long after
the Help was prepared. (At one point, there was not going to be an option to
allow automatic downloads from members of the Address Book, since spammers
and virus-mongers so frequently spoof addresses which may well be in your
address book if you were in the address book where you address was found in
the first place. In the end, it was decided that providing the option is
something many users would want. It's off by default so that it's your own
responsibility if you turn it on. Even on, messages purporting to come from
you yourself will not automatically download web pictures since that is the
most common sort of virus spoof.
And there are two
big problems with that:
(1) It is utterly unclear what happens if the box is unchecked. The
reason is that this imperative has two opposites; it might be:
(a) "Don't automatically download any pictures", or
(b) "Automatically download all pictures, not just those from the
Address book folks."
OK, you've got a point there. But it's pretty obvious what happens, since
the defaults are in fact to display complex HTML but NOT to download
pictures automatically form members of your address book. You will see that
the very first such message from someone not in your address book (as,
frankly, most complex HTML comes from companies trying to sell you
something) does not download pictures.
(2) It is not clear how this option interacts with various other
options, such as leaving big email partially on the server, and the
display of complex HTML.
In any case, *no* combination of settings has enabled me to see those
rare images I do want to see. Since they are rare, I don't much care; I
can (and do) ask my correspondents to resend with the images as pure
attachments. But the fact remains that this feature is working
undependably and that it is not very well documented. What's needed is a
case-based explanation, e.g. "If you want to be able to see images in
HTML mail, do this." m.
This is the first I've heard of people not being able to get this to work.
Honestly. Yes, if you only download 20 KB or whatever of a message, you'd
first have to download the complete message.
The prefs and the Help are also not at all clear that there are two,
actually three, very different kinds of "pictures" in email messages. One
kind is this sort of image uploaded on a website somewhere, with the HTML
message providing a link to it. This is the sort of picture that "Download
pictures" and "automatically download from Address Book" provides. and
because of the links is the sort that might invade your privacy.
But there is a completely different kind of picture ; graphics sent as
attachments or inserted inline (by those email apps which can insert) by the
senders. That kind of picture is controlled by a completely different
preference, in Preferences/Mail & News/View/Show attached pictures and
movies in messages. (This pref _is_ discussed in the Help.) That one is on
by default , I think, but I've forgotten. Perhaps you turned that off?
Again, you absolutely would have to fully download a message before this can
work. In fact this is the major reason why people on dialup would use the
"partial download" account option: graphics attachments and insertions are
usually very large.
Matt, with all these options set correctly, there's no reason why you should
not be able to "download pictures" once you have downloaded the complete
message. Simply downloading the complete message should give you the
attached and inserted graphics, and the "Download pictures" link should get
you complex HTML display if complex HTML is also on. If that isn't working,
then I think the problem must be with your ISP and it's method of storing
messages on the server. I've really never heard of this problem before. Can
you try in Entourage X, or if you don't have that, in Outlook Express (free
download) in Classic?
Agreed the Help isn't at all clear on these various preferences. It's not
entirely the Help writers' fault since the prefs weren't in place when they
made the Help. (The Help is written long in advance of release since it then
has to be translated into the various localizations.)
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <
http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
