Excel: Send an Excel File as an Attachment

This page is an advertiser-supported excerpt of the book, Power Excel 2010-2013 from MrExcel - 567 Excel Mysteries Solved. If you like this topic, please consider buying the entire e-book.


Problem: I need to send my currently open Excel workbook as an attachment to an Outlook e-mail message.

Strategy: You can select File, Save and Send, Send Using E-Mail, Send As Attachment.

Excel will open something that looks a lot like the Outlook Send Mail dialog. Fill out the addressee list and the subject line and click Send.

Gotcha: Although this looks like Outlook, it is actually an Excel version of the dialog. While this dialog is displayed, you cannot access other Outlook e-mails. This can be a problem. What if you receive a file from someone not in your address book, edit the file, and then need to send it back? You will find that you need to access the original e-mail to get the sender's e-mail address, but you cannot switch to another e-mail message until you've sent this one.

The solution is to click the Save icon in the Outlook Quick Access Toolbar. Then click the Close Window (X) icon in the upper-right corner of the window. The unfinished e-mail will be saved from Excel to the Outlook inbox, and you will be returned to Excel. You can now safely switch back to the original Outlook e-mail to get the address.

Additional Details: In previous versions of Excel, you had the option to send the current worksheet in the body of an e-mail. This option enabled you to send a worksheet to a recipient who did not have Excel. That original command is still in Excel, you can customize the Quick Access toolbar and find the icon in the Commands Not in the Ribbon section.

A better option would be to save the worksheet as a PDF file and send the PDF file.