How to Attach an Email as an Attachment in Outlook

Most people know how to attach a file to an email. But attaching an entire email as an attachment — so the recipient receives it as a separate, openable message rather than a forwarded thread — is a different skill, and one that Outlook handles quite well once you know where to look.

This is the difference between forwarding an email and attaching one. When you forward, the original content is pasted into the body of your new message. When you attach, the original email travels as a discrete .msg file that the recipient can open, save, search, or print independently.

Why Attach an Email Instead of Forwarding It?

Forwarding works fine for casual sharing, but there are situations where attaching is the cleaner choice:

• Legal or compliance contexts — attaching preserves the original message headers, timestamps, and metadata in a way that inline forwarding doesn't.
• Escalating to a third party — sending an email chain to IT support, HR, or legal teams often works better as an attachment so they receive the complete, unaltered record.
• Archiving workflows — some users attach emails to project threads or ticketing systems to keep documentation intact.
• Avoiding thread clutter — a long forwarded thread embedded in a message body can be hard to read. An attachment keeps things clean.

The Two Main Methods in Outlook

Method 1: Drag and Drop (Fastest)

This works in Outlook for Windows (both classic and the new Outlook) and is the quickest approach:

1. Open or start a new email in Outlook.
2. Find the email you want to attach in your inbox or folder list.
3. Click and drag that email from the message list directly into the body or attachment area of your new message.
4. Release. The email appears as a .msg attachment — not embedded text, but a separate file icon.

That's it. The dragged message arrives as a proper attachment the recipient can open in their own Outlook client.

Method 2: Forward as Attachment (More Deliberate)

Outlook has a built-in command specifically for this:

1. Select the email you want to attach (single-click it in the message list — don't open it).
2. Go to the Home tab in the ribbon.
3. In the Respond group, click the small dropdown arrow next to the Forward button.
4. Select "Forward as Attachment" from the dropdown.
5. A new compose window opens with the original email already attached as a .msg file.
6. Address it, add any message in the body, and send.

You can also right-click any email in the message list and look for "Forward as Attachment" in the context menu, depending on your Outlook version.

Method 3: Attach from an Open Compose Window

If you're already writing a new email and want to attach a message partway through:

1. In the compose window, go to Insert in the ribbon.
2. Click Attach Item → Outlook Item.
3. A dialog box opens showing your mailbox folders.
4. Browse to the email you want, select it, and click OK.
5. Choose to insert it as an attachment (not inline text).

This method gives you the most control when you're working across multiple folders.

What the Recipient Actually Gets

When someone receives an email attached as a .msg file, they can:

• Double-click to open it as a full email in Outlook
• See original sender, recipient, date, and subject fields intact
• Forward or reply to the original message from within the attachment
• Save it locally for records

This is meaningfully different from an inline forward, where that metadata is typically rendered as plain text in the message body — easier to accidentally edit or lose.

Factors That Affect How This Works 📎

Not every Outlook setup behaves identically. A few variables worth knowing:

The recipient's email client is the biggest wildcard. If you're attaching an email to send to someone who uses Gmail, Apple Mail, or a web-based client, they may see the .msg file but not be able to open it cleanly without Outlook installed.

Attaching Multiple Emails at Once

You can select multiple emails in the message list using Ctrl+Click (Windows) or Cmd+Click (Mac) and then drag them all into a compose window at once. Each selected message becomes a separate .msg attachment. This is useful for sending a batch of related emails to a colleague or moving documentation in one go.

The "Forward as Attachment" ribbon method, by contrast, typically only processes one email at a time — so drag-and-drop is more efficient when you're working with several messages.

When .msg Format Creates Friction 🗂️

The .msg file format is proprietary to Microsoft. It's excellent within an all-Outlook environment, but if your workflow involves people on different platforms, that's a meaningful consideration. Some organizations convert emails to PDF before attaching them precisely because PDFs are universally readable — though PDFs sacrifice the interactive email metadata that .msg preserves.

Whether the native Outlook attachment format or a converted PDF better fits your situation depends on who you're sending to, what they'll do with it, and whether preserving the original message structure actually matters in your context.