Background sound support in Outlook...
Many fledglings that are moving from Outlook Express to Outlook 98
and 2000 quickly discover that inserting a background sound is not
as simple as selecting the Sound option under Format | Background while composing a
message.
I am hoping that by the end of this brief tutorial, you will see
that you can insert a background sound tag into Outlook 98/2000 HTML
formatted messages.
| Setup |
To start, we must configure Outlook's default message
format to HTML and disable Word being our editor.
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Select Tools | Options | Mail Format and change the
default message format to HTML.
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If you are using Outlook 2000, please uncheck the option
of using Word as your email editor.
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Select OK to return to the main Outlook window.
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| Preparation |
Since we have already established that
Outlook does not have the menu option needed, we are going to
create an HTM document with the necessary
information and use it a little later to accomplish the task
at hand.
- Start Notepad by selecting Start | Run.
- Type notepad.exe and
select the OK button.
- Type the following information into Notepad.
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<base href="file:///c:\path_to\stationery">
<base href="file:///d:\path_to\sounds">
</head>
<body>
<div> </div>
<p><img id="muse1" src="sound.mid"
height="10" width="10"
style="display: none">
<font face="Arial"
color="#FF0000" size="2"
style="display: none"><b><== Sound byte
is here! This line of text will not be seen by the
recipient of the message.</b></font></p>
<script language="vbscript">
Dim music1
Dim line1
music1 = muse1.src
line1 = "<bgsound loop=1
src="&music1&">"
document.writeln line1
</script>
</body>
</html>
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The first base href path statement in red should
be changed to match the drive/directory you have your stationery
files installed. In most cases, this will be C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery
if you have a US/Canadian version of Outlook installed.
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The second base href path statement in red should be changed to
match the drive/directory where you have your sound file
located. If the sound file is stored in the same
directory as the first base href tag, you can delete
this entire line.
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Change sound.mid to the name of the sound file you want
played when the message is opened.
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Okay, now that you have updated the HTML tags to reflect
the right paths and filename, select File | Save and
save this example to C:\My Documents as example1.htm.
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Exit Notepad by select File | Exit.
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| Lets do it! |
Now that we have the HTM file built, start Outlook and
compose a HTML message. Note: Those using
Outlook 2000 must not being using Word as the email editor.
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Select Actions | New Message Using | HTML (No Stationery).
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Compose your note as you normally do.
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Select Insert | File.
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Use the File Open dialog to locate the example1.htm
file that we saved in C:\My Documents.
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[For Outlook 2000] Select the down arrow next to Insert and choose the Insert
as Text option.
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[For Outlook 98] Select the radio button next to Text
Only and select the OK button.
With Outlook 98/2000, it is very
important that you insert the file as text. If you fail
to select the Text Only option, the HTM file will be added as
an attachment.
If all goes well, you will see a small box with the tag line of where the sound is.
Your message is ready to send.
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| Notes |
Currently this method works for Outlook 10,
Beta 2.
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Updated
31 Jan 2001
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