Indiana University
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Using attachments in OWA

Note: OWA now has the same functionality across major browsers in most cases; see OWA "Premium" and "Light" interfaces For more information on using OWA, with your Inbox displayed, click ? (the question mark) at the top right.

Using Outlook Web App (OWA), you can send and receive attachments much as you would with many other mail clients. See the instructions below to add and remove attachments from an outgoing email message or to retrieve an attachment from a message in your Inbox.

Adding an attachment to an outgoing mail message

To add an attachment to an outgoing email message, follow these steps:

  1. In the outgoing message composition window, click the paper clip icon.

  2. Browse the directories on your computer and select the file you wish to attach. Click the file's name or icon to select it. You may shift-click or control-click to select multiple items

  3. Once the file(s) you want to attach is selected, click the Open button below the file name.

  4. If you wish to add add additional attachments, you may do so by clicking the paper clip icon again.

  5. If you wish to remove a file from the list of added attachments, simply click the "x" next to the attachment name.

Retrieving an attached file

Note: Use caution when opening attachments, especially from senders you do not recognize. Scan all attachments for viruses, even those from trusted sources. At Indiana University, some types of attachments are blocked from your Inbox. For more information, see Attachments that are blocked from email accounts

To retrieve a file attached to an email message, follow these steps:

  1. After opening the message, click the filename of the attachment you wish to open.

  2. In some browsers, a dialog box will appear with the title Downloading filename.xyz, where filename.xyz is the name of the file in question. Choose from these options:

    • Open the file: Opens the file using the program OWA associates with the file type. You can change this by clicking Advanced and working with the options there.
    • Save this file to disk: This option allows you to save the file before opening.

  3. Click OK to perform the action you selected; click Cancel to return to the message body.