The Dreaded Red X

Problem: You are the SENDER and others are complaining that they can't see images in emails you sent,
Solution: In Outlook Express, Click Tools -> Options -> Send. Under Mail Sending Format, select HTML, then press the HTML Settings button. Make sure the "Send pictures with messages" box is checked.

Problem: You've installed the Windows XP/SP2 updates and you're being bitten by the "Block images and other external content in HTML e-mail" security option. This is automatically turned ON in Outlook Express after you install Windows XP/SP2.
Solution: Click on Tools -> Options -> Security. Then UNCHECK the "Block images and other external content" check box, and click OK

Problem: The image is hosted on a website that's busy, temporarily offline or defunct. Or the image file on the website might have been renamed or deleted.
Solution: Try again later or ask the sender to send it as an attachment instead of an inline image.

Problem: The "Show Pictures" setting has been turned off in Internet Explorer.
Solution: In Internet Explorer's Tools menu, click Internet Options, then click the Advanced tab. Make sure the Show Pictures check box is selected under Multimedia, and click OK.

Outlook Express comes with a default setting that blocks email attachments from being opened or downloaded. This can be overcome by clicking on Tools>Options>Security, and unchecking "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." You also need to have "Block images and other external content in HTML email" unchecked.

Having done this, however, you are admonished to be very, very careful about downloading or opening any attachment that you are not expecting or that you did not ask for.

If the email is one of those cute greeting cards or inspirational messages that has an animated graphic with each paragraph, it was professionally prepared as an HTML document that should look the same to anyone who receives it.

However, not all email programs are completely compatible with all others, and each has a different way of handling pictures — especially when it comes to forwarding a picture-bearing email to someone else. If you are an AOL or CompuServe user, and you use your FORWARD button to send the letter on to others using AOL or CompuServe, there's a good chance the pictures will arrive intact.

If you forward the same letter to users of other services, however, the pictures may or may not arrive intact. If, instead of clicking your Forward button, you use Edit>Select All to highlight the entire contents of the letter and then use Edit>Copy to copy everything, followed by using Edit>Paste to put the contents into a new, blank outgoing email, the pictures are more likely to arrive without problems.

Pasting everything into a new letter also works well with other email clients, including AOL Mail and Outlook Express. Outlook Express users should also click on Format>Send>Picture with Message.

Another way to help ensure that the pictures arrive is to send an image-bearing letter as an attachment to a new, outgoing letter. Juno and Hotmail do this automatically when you click the FORWARD button. When clicking FORWARD in Yahoo Mail you will be given the choice of sending the letter as "in-line text" or as an "attachment." Choose the latter if the email contains pictures.

Outlook Express, however, offers no such choice when its FORWARD button is clicked — but clicking on Message will display a Forward As Attachment option.

If the pictures you are sending are not an integral part of the messages (as in a greeting card) it's better to send them as attachments. Outlook Express offers an Insert>Picture option and an Attach (paper clip icon) option that lets you browse to a picture (or any other kind of file). If you choose Insert, the picture will arrive positioned in the message wherever your cursor was when making the choice. If you choose Attach, the picture will not only arrive as an attachment, it will also show up at the bottom of the text message (at least, when received by another Outlook Express user).

Another thing that can cause enclosed or attached pictures to be dropped along the way is the file size limitation of the recipient's ISP. However, this has become less of a problem since most web-based email services now give you at least 2 megabytes of free storage space.