Attach a file to an email

Send somebody a document, and save one they have sent you.

An email is a letter. An attachment is what you put in the envelope alongside it.

The button is nearly always a small paper clip, and it is nearly always near where you type. Pressing it opens a window showing your own folders, and you go and find the thing you want to send.

Key points

• Attach a document with the paper clip, and check the line that appears before sending
• Recognize that attaching copies a file rather than moving it
• Save an attachment with Save as before you fill it in
• Accept the offer of a link when something is too large to send

What to remember

• The attach window is the same folder list as File Explorer. Everything you know about finding files works here.
• Save an attachment before you work on it. Save as, into Documents, and then open it from there.
• Two extra presses at the moment it arrives saves half an hour of hunting later.

Try this

Write an email to yourself and attach anything at all. When it arrives, save the attachment into Documents with a name you have chosen.

Practice: Attach a file to an email. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.

Related guides

• Several attachments, and where they land
• Attachments, going out and coming in
• Writing one, and knowing it has gone
• Sending one photograph to one person
• Sending twenty photographs at once