# AOL (I know!) E-mail Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453 "2006-05-27T14:55:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/1 "2006-05-27T14:55:25Z")
My neighbor recently got her first computer and promptly signed up for AOL 9.0. She wanted me to show her how to use the internet and e-mail. I showed her about search engines, making bookmarks, opening e-mail and attaching photos. But I couldn’t find a way to open attachments on incoming e-mails without first saving them to a folder. There was no way just to click the attachment and have it ask “do you want to open this or save it”. Does anyone have any ideas? She may switch providers when her free trial ends. I was showing her IE, but right now she’s going with what AOL provides. StG ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/2 "2006-05-27T16:32:04Z")
As far as I know, it’s not possible with AOL 9.0. It is possible in AOL Communicator (which is what I use), but that’s not really aimed at novice users. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/3 "2006-05-27T16:46:16Z")
**ultrafilter** - I don’t think she’ll have the patience for that. I may set her up with a hotmail account. She’s older and only has a computer so she could send and receive photos from friends. StG ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/4 "2006-05-27T16:50:21Z")
If her friends are also AOL subscribers, they can use the You’ve Got Pictures feature to share photos. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/5 "2006-05-27T17:03:37Z")
As I understand it, AOL does not send the attachment with the email, it is kept on their servers until you ask for it. ( download it to your computer ) They don’t let you stream form the email server. It seems to be a security deal. If it never gets it your computer unless you deliberately ask for it, it can’t cause you to have a virus or some such because you accidentally opened it. You have to really want it before they send it. Why show her how to make all attachments go to the desktop or a particular folder and then open them? A 3X5 card with simple directions taped to the monitor should do it. If she can’t do even that much, then you are in for a long struggle of fixing her computer on a daily basis even with a hotmail mail account. AOL has one of the safest emails set ups for the newbie and the clueless. She will get far less chances for trouble with it. If she turns out to be an ‘open anything and everything’ type, keep her on AOHell and your life will be much less trouble. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/6 "2006-05-27T17:08:27Z")
**GusNSpot** - I’ve already told her not to open anything from anyone she doesn’t know. And really, with regular attachments, it’ll ask you if you want to open or save it, so you make that choice. She won’t do all the steps to save it to a file and them open the file and view them. She’s not used to sitting still, and she’ll only spend about an hour a week on the computer. If she can’t get things working smoothly, she just won’t use it. She probably figures she’s gone 60 years without a computer, she doesn’t need to start now. StG ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/7 "2006-05-27T18:08:10Z")
Hotmail? Gmail invites are all over the place. Email me for one of mine if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/8 "2006-05-27T18:18:10Z")
**rowrbazzle** - Whatever I set up has to be very easy to use. Gmail might be good because her e’s are likely to be large. However, Hotmail is now 2 Gb, so that should be sufficient. StG ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/9 "2006-05-27T21:54:50Z")
Rumor has it that keeping a Hotmail account spam-free is extremely difficult. gmail might be the better choice. ---
**Author:** ![Sxyzzx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sxyzzx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sxyzzx)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/10 "2006-05-28T02:54:57Z")
If the AOL Client doesn’t have that ability, she could use AOL Webmail. It displays attached images inline when you read a message. (full disclosure: I’m a software engineer on AOL Webmail) ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/11 "2006-05-28T03:17:41Z")
**Sxyzzx** - Thanks for the help - can she use her same sign-on? How does that work? StG ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-i-know-e-mail-question/358453/12 "2006-05-28T03:20:28Z")
Point her towards [http://webmail.aol.com](http://webmail.aol.com). Same bat screenname, same bat password.