OK, so let's go over something that is a nuisance to most, a pet peeve to me. Did you get that really cool e-mail yesterday? You know, the one with all of the cool pictures embedded in it? Oh, you mean you were like me ... just a bunch of red x's where the picures were supposed to be?

Did you ever feel like you had done something wrong when you got an email like that? So did I ... until I scoured through my Outlook Express settings and discovered it wasn't something on my end ... it was something done by the sender of the email!

So, the next time you get an e-mail without the "fantastic" pictures you're supposed to enjoy, just send a friendly note to the sender informing them that they need to fix their email options. For Outlook Express, you can simply cut and paste the instructions below :-). Other email clients will be somewhat different, but should have similar options available.

To send pictures with an e-mail, do the following:

1. In Outlook Express, click on "Tools" and then "Options"

2. Click on the send tab, and ensure that under "Mail Sending Format", the option for HTML should be checked off.

3. Now click on the HTML Settings button.

4. Ensure that the "Send Pictures with Messages" option is checked off.

This will make sure that the people who you forward messages to with pictures will get them. It is up to the sender of the e-mail, not the reciever to determine the e-mail's format and what is included.

This will help with those who don't know how to fix computer problems.

Until next time ... happy email viewing!