Many a workplace project relies on the ease with which essential documents can be sent via Microsoft Outlook to recipients, but it's not always a straightforward process.

There are lots of email providers vying for customers on the World Wide Web. Some are more concerned with sending short, fun messages that allow you to insert emoticons and other features that personalise your mail. Other providers concentrate on developing email services that make your working life easier, and they may do this by expanding the amount of data you can send or including tools, such as calendars, that help you schedule events and arrange tasks.

Will your messages get there?

If you need to be in contact with customers or workers, you can't be sure that the attachments you send will definitely get to the desired location or even be opened if they do. This is because some providers limit the size of inboxes, meaning files you send my not be accepted and consequently this could affect business. To get around this, email companies have launched features that tell you when your message hasn't been delivered, but quite often there may not be an explanation as to why this occurred.

If you use Outlook and Exchange you'll be able to see these kinds of problems before they occur. For example, if the recipient email address is packed then you know that the message will probably not get through, so you're free to send it to an alternative address or recipient. Other times, your emails may not be read around the time of sending because the person concerned is out of the office.

Before you send the mail, Outlook can tell you via MailTips that your co-worker has left an out-of-office alert before you press send. This means that your attachments can be re-directed. Other tools allow you to see if the recipient does not work for your firm or if the email address is invalid.

Adapting your attachments

As well as taking a preventative stance on sending messages that might not get to the person concerned, Outlook sees you being able to adapt them so they are more likely to be read or received. You may not know that some emails grow in size when they are sent, so even if you're mail is below the number of MB allowed it could still be prevented from leaving your account or arriving in someone else's inbox. This is down to encoding that takes place when messages are prepared for delivery, meaning if you're close to the size limit you might exceed it once you press send. In order to prevent this happening, you're able to compress the sizes of files so they don't take up as much room.

This function can be used for both text and images, so they become more streamlined. If you find that files still won't send then you may like to consider sending them in separate emails, or in the case of images reducing the resolution and quality in order to cut document sizes. Additionally, if you prefer, you may like to use software tools to publish them via a secure location, rather than send them.

Looking ahead

If you're strapped for time and simply want to browse you inbox to keep a lookout for important files then you might want to preview your attachments. This is possible via Outlook and is a good way to see what's been sent by taking a look at the Reader Pane. This does not work for suspicious files as they are often blocked to keep out potential viruses and malware.