Inserting Photos in Mac Mail

[GovtLawyer]

I have a 2008 24 iMac. I am using the latest Snow Leopard OS.

When I send an email in which I'd like to insert a photo, I see the following issues.

1) At the top of the mail screen there is a button for a Photo Browser. It seems that you can only browse for photos on iPhoto. Well, I don't use iPhoto. I manage my photos with Adobe products. Is there a way to get my photos through that button?

2) I don't seem to be able to simply show a photo. I have to attach it, as well. In that case, although it appears in the text, which I want, it is also an attachment, which I don't want. Conversely, how can I attach a photo without it appearing in the email?

It seems to me that what I want to do seems simple enpough that I ought to be able to do it. Perhaps, I'm missing something.

Thanks - Steven

 

[GGJstudios]

Just drag any picture(s) from Finder to the Mail.app icon on your Dock to start a new message with the picture(s) attached, or drag them to the body of any email you're already composing.

 

[GovtLawyer]

Only Half Way There

Thanks for the answer, but it is only half way there. Dragging from the finder or just selecting "attach" and finding the photo in the application finder is practically the same thing. In either event, you end up doing more than simply putting the photo in the body of the mail; you are sending an attached copy. Suppose I don't wish to send the photo, just have the recipient look at it. Conversely, suppose I want to send several photos as attachments, but do not wish them to show in the body of the email. I can think of many reasons to do that. If I attach them, they end up opened in the body of the email.

So, it seems as if the mail app has some shortcomings, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the answer, but it is only half way there. Dragging from the finder or just selecting "attach" and finding the photo in the application finder is practically the same thing. In either event, you end up doing more than simply putting the photo in the body of the mail; you are sending an attached copy. Suppose I don't wish to send the photo, just have the recipient look at it. Conversely, suppose I want to send several photos as attachments, but do not wish them to show in the body of the email. I can think of many reasons to do that. If I attach them, they end up opened in the body of the email.

So, it seems as if the mail app has some shortcomings, as far as I'm concerned.

Whether the picture appears in the body or not, it's always going as an attachment. Whether the attachments show in the body or not depends on the recipient's mail client and how it's configured. You have no control over that. Some people configure their mail client to not display images in the body of emails, but only as attachments. You can't override the recipient's settings.

 

[miles01110]

So, it seems as if the mail app has some shortcomings, as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, Mail has shortcomings. Just like Thunderbird, Postbox, Outlook, Pine, Alpine, and any other Mail client has shortcomings.

This particular issue, however, has nothing to do with Mail.

 

[GovtLawyer]

Yes, Mail has shortcomings. Just like Thunderbird, Postbox, Outlook, Pine, Alpine, and any other Mail client has shortcomings.

This particular issue, however, has nothing to do with Mail.

Well, it does have to do with mail. That other mail clients perform the same way may be a fact, but it doesn't change my wish list for a mail client.

I was a Windows user for many years (happily changed last year) and when I was using AOL, you could insert a photo in the body of the mail without sending an attached copy as well.

 

[nrajack]

Well, it does have to do with mail. That other mail clients perform the same way may be a fact, but it doesn't change my wish list for a mail client.

I was a Windows user for many years (happily changed last year) and when I was using AOL, you could insert a photo in the body of the mail without sending an attached copy as well.

What you're not getting is that no matter whether the picture shows in the body of the email or as an attachment, the mechanism for getting to the end viewer is the picture goes as an attachment to the email message. And only one copy of the picture gets transmitted from your computer. You changed from AOL which is a lame setup to begin with to something a lot more elegant which works different - get over it and get used to it!

 

[miles01110]

Well, it does have to do with mail. That other mail clients perform the same way may be a fact, but it doesn't change my wish list for a mail client.

I never said it did. You're still missing the point though. Say you send me an inline photo from mail client X. I turn on the setting in my mail client Y to never show photos inline and always show them as attachments. Is that mail client Y's fault? No.

I was a Windows user for many years (happily changed last year) and when I was using AOL, you could insert a photo in the body of the mail without sending an attached copy as well.

Maybe to other AOL users who had the setting turned on to show inline photos, but I promise you that if they had the setting turned off it would be shown as an attachment only. You simply cannot argue with this.

 

[snberk103]

Its a question of semantics.

When you send a photo in an email, you friend gets a copy. That is just how email works (though there is a way around it). Some email clients may call it an "attachment" and others will call it something else perhaps. But regardless, you are sending a copy.

What the person sees at the other end is entirely up to them. By default, IIRC, Apple Mail will display received photos and single page PDFs "in-line". Meaning, they will open the attachment (because there is always an attachment) and show it to you.

You may be able to change this default behaviour for emails you receive, but it's not so easy to do for ones you send - which makes sense because do you really want someone else reconfiguring your own email client.

I am not familiar with AOL, in the sense that I have every used it, but I am familiar with the way another web-mail service works. With AOL I don't believe you are not really sending email if your friend is also an AOL member. You are typing your message into a web-page, adding your "attachments" and addressing it. If your friend is an AOL member, then they look at a web-page on the same set of servers and see a reformatted message that never really went anywhere. So, AOL can call the photos anything they want.

However, if your friend is not an AOL (or affiliated organization) member then the AOL servers will have to "attach" the photos to send the message over the internet since that is the usual protocol.

When you were using Windows, the whole process may have been transparent to you, but it was essentially working in this way.

Hope this helps.

 

[nrajack]

I am not familiar with AOL, in the sense that I have every used it, but I am familiar with the way another web-mail service works. With AOL I don't believe you are not really sending email if your friend is also an AOL member. You are typing your message into a web-page, adding your "attachments" and addressing it. If your friend is an AOL member, then they look at a web-page on the same set of servers and see a reformatted message that never really went anywhere. So, AOL can call the photos anything they want.

However, if your friend is not an AOL (or affiliated organization) member then the AOL servers will have to "attach" the photos to send the message over the internet since that is the usual protocol.

When you were using Windows, the whole process may have been transparent to you, but it was essentially working in this way.

Hope this helps.

You are right in the way AOL email works. I used to be on AOHell when I first started on the net back in the 90's. They don't use a standard email client but rather a web-based system as you state. Let me tell you, sending or receiving email from someone who's not an AOL member and you are is a real adventure as you'd never be sure of what you'd get (or your recipient would get - just like Forest Gump's box of chocolates).

 

[monokakata]

So maybe what he needs to do is mimic this (AOL) behavior.

Put the photo up on something like Flickr, send the link to the image, and assume that the recipient isn't going to work very hard at circumventing the downloading prohibition.