When the user selects more than one message in a view, Exchange implements its Compose - Forward command by including each selected message as an attachment on the new message. Forwarding a message as an attachment can be very useful, since the recipient of such an attachment may examine all of the original properties of the enclosed message, not just those that Exchange included in the text of the new message. Curiously, however, Exchange provides no way to forward only a single message in this manner.
Forward as Attachment exists to provide this missing command, Compose - Forward as Attachment.
Forward as Attachment also provides the related Compose - Forward as Link command, which instead of forwarding a complete embedded copy of the message, forwards a link to the message, just as does using the command Insert - Message - Link attachment to original item.
If you send attached messages in a message without specifying that the recipient receive rich text information, intervening mail gateways may modify the attached message within the envelope, changing the attachment before it reaches its destination. For example, the attached message may appear to have the same sender as its envelope message.
Forward as Attachment will not work within the note form of MS Office 95 WordMail, since the WordMail forms don't support client extensibility. For the same reason, it will not work with the simplified send note included in the Windows 95 Messaging Update. Note that these will only prevent it from appearing on the menu of the form. The view menu version will still work in either case.
In order for your mail recipient to read a linked message, your recipient must be using Microsoft Exchange, and must have access to the same message store that hosts the linked object. Typically, this means that the object must reside within a Microsoft Exchange Server public folder.
The Forward as link command will not work on Microsoft Outlook 97.
Download fwdasatt.zip (available in both Intel and Alpha flavors) from this Web page, and unzip it. Copy the DLL fwdasatt.dll into your system directory (\windows\system on Windows 95, \windows\system32 on Windows NT). Check your system directory for the file msvcrt40.dll on Alpha, or msvcrt.dll version 4.20.6201 on Intel; if you lack this, see the runtime installation instructions. Finally, merge the contents of the file fwdasatt.reg into the registry, either by double-clicking its icon in the Windows Explorer or by selecting Merge from its right-mouse-button context menu.
Exit and log out of Exchange. Fire up regedit, open the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software \Microsoft \Exchange \Client \Extensions
and delete the "Forward as attachment" tag and its value. Delete the file fwdasatt.dll from your system directory.
On the Compose menu of the viewer and read form windows, you will see two new commands, Forward as Attachment and Forward as Link. Select the former to forward the current message as an attachment, the latter to forward it as a link. You may place either command on the toolbar if you like, even replacing the standard toolbar Forward button with it.
You may forward any kind of message, including schedule requests and other custom message types, as an attachment. Of course, the recipient must have the correct form or application installed in order to open such a custom message attachment.
When forwarding a link, keep in mind that the recipient will be able to resolve the link (i.e. read the message named by the link) only if the recipient has access to the message store hosting the link. Links are most useful on Microsoft Exchange Server public folders.
Forward as Attachment should offer to splice into the standard Exchange forward sequence, supporting the standard keyboard accelerator, instead of working as a separate command.
Since Exchange already implements forwarding multiple messages as attachments, this extension disables itself when the user selects more than one message in a view. Use the standard Forward command in that case. Unfortunately, the extension disables Forward as Link in this case, too.
The extension does not honor the setting of When replying to or forwarding an item, close the original item on the Exchange Options - Read page. Instead, it always closes the original item.
Forwarding an already forwarded message introduces another level of envelope with every forwarding.
Last modified: 22 November 1996
Copyright © 1996, Ben Goetter. All rights reserved.