Thursday, 10th August 2006Resizing Images for Emailing with Windows XP

An article covering the Email this File feature of Windows XP automatically resizes batches of photos to an emailable size

A little known but incredibly handy feature of Windows XP is its built in ability to resize images (such as photos) in bulk and automatically attach them to a new email message ready for sending.

To those of us familiar with Photoshop and batch processing, this may not seem that special but for an average user looking to email their holiday snaps to a friend, it is a godsend.

What follows is a step by step guide of how to use the "Email This File" feature of Windows XP.

Please note that using this wizard does not resize your original photos - they are left untouched.

Making sure the feature is available

The "Email this File" feature is accessible as a link in any file browser window, in the example below I simply double clicked My Documents and then My Pictures (although not I made the Window particularly small for the purposes of this tutorial):

If you cannot see the option circled in the picture above, there are 3 possible reasons:

1. You cannot see any of the options on the left, if so, go to TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS, click Show Common tasks in Folders and click ok.
2. You do not have a photo highlighted (single click on an image and see if it appears).
   
3. The File and Folder Tasks box is closed, click on the double chevron to expand it.

Resizing Options

Once you have some files selected (and you can see the E-mail this file option), click the E-mail this file link, which will display the following window:

Make sure that "Make all my pictures smaller" is selected and click "Show more options...", you will be presented with the following options:

Select the size that best fits your needs - if you are on broadband and your recipient is on broadband, I'd recommend opting for Large as this still produces nice small files in the grand scheme of things. Click OK once you have selected the size that best suits your needs, you will be presented with a standard Windows progress bar:

Once this has been completed, Windows will open up a new blank email in your default email application, with a message already written in it similar to this:

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
DSC00637.JPG
DSC00638.JPG
DSC00639.JPG
DSC00640.JPG

Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled.

Now you can customise this message as you see fit and send your photos easily to whoever you need to! No messy Photoshop batch processing, etc!