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Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

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I was just reading this post about why this guy doesn’t accept Word attachments via email.

Please don’t send me Microsoft Word documents
http://www.nothingisreal.com/dfki/no-word

I found it amusing, as I too have received my share of needless Word docs.

The whole thing got me thinking… what’s a GOOD reason to use Word as an email editor? Are there any practical applications? (I understand its use as a word processor, even though there are alternatives, but why would you need it for email?)

Also, do you mandate an email editor for your users? Do you ban the use of Word as an email editor even though it’s an option in Outlook?

Topic

I can’t say I use it or recommend it.

In reply to Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

Basically, I found it to be a drain on system resources. When Word is your e-mail editor, even if you do not have the application open, it is running in memory. Just flip open your task manager and you will see it listed using resources.

I can understand users wanting to use the advanced editing features of WORD in their e-mails. I do a lot of requirements work and I either attach the WORD document or provide a link to it on a share area (in company, not when going outward). Generally the person also knows it is coming.

Banning word as an email editor

In reply to Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

Absolutly, every company should. THe reason is winmail.dat.

Winmail.dat is how any non-microsoft email editior will see attachments and formatting if the sender used word as an email editor.

So when we moved to exchange/outlook, the first thing I did was set up group policy to force Outlook rich text (i wanted html but was overruled) as the email format.

Ditto

In reply to Banning word as an email editor

We couldn’t enforce the policy before Group Policy, but we disabled it during installation.

Using Word as the e-mail editor gives you a lot of formatting options, but it results in larger files. We often saw problems with Outlook 97 when a user enabled it, problems that disappeared when we disabled it. Then there are the already mentioned security issues.

People like to use what they are comfortable with.

In reply to Ditto

Some people actually LIKE Word. They are comfortable using it, and *THINK* they know it well enough to use it as the default e-mail editor. Granted it creates larger files, but how else can you get a “novice” computer user to send e-mails with watermarks, pictures and/or sound right in the e-mail? I’ve discovered that the majority of my workforce users are NOT computer literate, and don’t like learning new software unless forced to. Once they have learned to use a product, they hate the idea of learning yet another product that does essentially the same thing.

“Novice” users???

In reply to People like to use what they are comfortable with.

Anybody who can format watermarks or embedded pictures and sounds in a Word document is not a “novice” user, and has already acquired skills far beyond those needed to compose a text-only or rich text e-mail message.

By the way, I like Word.

I know people who do

In reply to Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

there are a few reasons, but I do not recall most of them. I usually tell them not to because of many other issues that it brings.

But using the same spell checker means that they dont need to add to the dictionary 2x, some things do not work properly in Outlook that do in Word (inserting items), and more fonts are avail in Word.

Using this feature is not the same as receiving Word attachments, although it can cause a lot of problems as well.

Copy/Paste

In reply to Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

I have created an icon leading to my E-Mail, i.e. without going through Outlook Express and then whenever I need to have an editor or spellchecker, I just hit the icon, up pops the new e-mail.
I write my comment in the E-mail, do a spell check and make all corrections that are needed. Then I simply Highlight the whole thing,copy and paste into the document that I am writing.Such as this one.
Just having this little icon on my taskbar has saved me a ton of aggravation and grief. Nor do I have to go to any special lengths to edit,or use it as a processor or spellchecker.
It’s quick,to the point and works every time, you can’t ask for better than that. 😉
Regards
Aaron 🙂

There are a few reasons…

In reply to Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

I’m of two minds on this issue – I generally advise users NOT to use Word as an email editor, although I use it myself. Back in the bad old days of Office 97, I used to actually mandate that users NOT use Word as an email editor because it was a resource hog and froze up most of the time anyway. With Office XP and 2003, I have found that it usually works pretty well and rarely causes problems. So, these days I give my users the option, although I do think for most users it’s not necessary. When we set up new workstations, we change the default settings to use Rich Text and not use Word as an email editor. But we don’t prevent anyone from changing it back, if they’re sophisticated enough to know how to do it and why.

The reasons I use it myself have to do with formatting issues. Because of the types of information I send to my users, like instructions on how to use various programs (like Word itself, etc.), I often will insert some graphics (a screen capture, for example) into an email message, and I also frequently use formatting such as indented, numbered or bulleted paragraphs. Other formatting functions I use occasionally include tables and multiple fonts. But it’s all in the interests of clarity – I use this formatting to make the information easier to read and understand. Using Word as an email editor makes it 1,000 times easier to write my email message without having to use manual formatting or leave Outlook, create a separate Word doc, and then attach it to an email message.

Makes perfect Sense

In reply to There are a few reasons…

It’s logical, to the point and in many instances you are quite correct.
I was thinking along the lines of a spell checker, hence my Blank E-Mail however after having read your take on this, I see an infinite amount of possibilities.
Used the way you do and in the manner that you do, it’s makes perfect sense to continue,.
For those who don’t know how, I would advise, that they learn, truly a worthwhile way of doing things.
Kudos to you for bring up this aspect.
I hadn’t thought of it quite that way.
Thank you 😉
Regards
Aaron

Yes – and I need help with Outlook + Word 2007

In reply to Does anyone actually use Word as an e-mail editor?

My main reason for needing Word in Outlook is to be able to use a Word plug-in that makes my writing more effective.
In Outlook 2007 I don?t see how I can make Word the email editor.
Can anyone help me ?

Wrong place to post….

In reply to Yes – and I need help with Outlook + Word 2007

You have posted your question as a response to a discussion which is nearly 2 years old.

You would probably get an answer faster if you posted it as a new question in the Question area of this forum. To do that, click the Forums tab at the top of this page, then click the Ask A Question link.

So compose the message in Word

In reply to Yes – and I need help with Outlook + Word 2007

then copy and paste into an e-mail message.

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