One of the most important new features in Microsoft Outlook 2003: blocked Web content. This feature protects your privacy by blocking “web bugs.”
As you quickly discover, newsletters and advertisements that you receive don’t display the images. While images are the most noticeable blocked item, any downloaded content is blocked, including scripts and external style sheet.
Right click on any picture placeholder or on the Infobar to show the images and internet content. You can add senders or domains to the Safe Senders list if you always want to see the images on some messages automatically. If some contacts frequently send you messages containing web content, use the safe sender list instead of trusting all senders in your address book.
Tip: If you use Outlook on a dialup account, leaving images blocked prevents Outlook from initiating a connection as you read your messages. You can enable the images on each message when you are connected to the internet.
In addition to or instead of blocking internet content, you can configure Outlook to display messages using plain text only. Read messages as plain text is set using Tools, Options, Email options. Like web content, you can enable HTML on any message by clicking on the Infobar but you can’t enable it for some senders through the use of the safe senders list.
My preferences are:
- Leave images off
- Don't trust contacts or use safe lists.
I’ll right click and show images as I read the message—it takes a split second to enable. I don’t use the plain text setting—plain test is harder to read and I’m comfortable with the security of Outlook 2003’s Reading pane.
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Last reviewed on Mar 9, 2012
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