How to make Outlook link to images on the web in HTML mail

I had a note to describe this setting in a future blog
entry, but since I saw
this question
I figured I'd put this ahead of the other items on my to-blog
list:

By default, when you send HTML mail and include pictures
inline in the body, Outlook
creates Mime-HTML or MHTML which is a message that includes both the HTML text
as well as the inline pictures as part of the message. This of course does increase
the size of the message.

Note: This
is in regard to pictures displayed inline in the mail - i.e. you
can see the picture when you're reading the mail - not image files that
are attached via Insert | File. While this might seem obvious to some, to Outlook
Express users it could be confusing because OE has a feature whereby it displays image
file attachments inline at the end of a message.

If you want Outlook
to send a reference to the file (<img src="https://foo.bar/image.jpg">) instead
of including it:

1. Tools | Options |
Mail Format | Internet Format

2. Uncheck "When an HTML message contains &pictures located on the Internet, send
a copy of the pictures instead of the reference to their location"

3. OK out of the dialogs

The next time you send
a mail with an inline HTML image, Outlook will just include a reference to the image
in the HTML rather than attaching it.

Note #1: This setting applies regardless of where the
image exists - internet, local hard drive, intranet, fileshare, etc. So if you have
a web page on your intranet and you right click on a picture on that page and copy
it, and then paste that into an email, the recipient will receive a message with an
HREF to that intranet site. If the recipient doesn't have access to your intranet,
they will not be able to see the image. Similarly, if the image was copied from your
local hard drive, a reference to C:\foo.jpg will be included.

Note #2: If the recipient is using OWA 2003 or Outlook
2003 and has content blocking enabled and you are not on their safe sender's list,
they will not see the inline image until they click on the infobar and choose to enable
it or add you to the safe sender's list. Trust me when I say, to channel Martha, "this
is a good thing".

Note #3: To muddy the waters even further, when the
above setting is unchecked, there are still some ways to get Outlook to include the
image in the message, such as opening it in mspaint and copying it from there.

 

...Well,
I hope this answers more questions than it raises. Let me know if not :-)