Why is Outlook 2010 Changing my Embedded Spreadsheet to a GIF?

Question

Years ago I figured out how to embed a spreadsheet in an Outlook email to automate a task I do regularly. Whenever I want to send a new quote request I open an old email, tell Outlook I want to resend it, fill in the new values in my embedded spreadsheet and then send it off. This method worked well for years.

After switching to a new computer however, I have found that when I open the latest emails I have sent, I cannot edit the embedded spreadsheet because Outlook interprets it now as a GIF. Saved emails that I sent with the old computer however, still work fine - I can still open, edit and resend and Outlook interprets the embedded spreadsheet correctly.

I would like to figure out how to setup Outlook in the new PC correctly so that the embedded spreadsheet is interpreted correctly when the email is reopened. Some sort of security setting, maybe? Any help anyone could provide would be appreciated.

Edit:
I developed the spreadsheet originally in Excel. Then I went into Outlook, created a new email, did Insert->Object->Excel Spreadsheet. At that point I had a blank spreadsheet in my email. Then I copied and pasted the spreadsheet from Excel into the blank spreadsheet in Outlook and it worked perfectly (until this recent problem)

Answer 1

When you send emails, make sure they are sent as Rich Text, not HTML (which is the default in Outlook 2010). Rich Text is the only hope you have of saving the full document. This is found in the Format Text tab of the ribbon in a new message window.

Sadly, there's no way to recover the original spreadsheet(s) from the emails that have already had the conversion done on them.

Answer 2

When you insert a OLE object into your office product (word, excel, outlook, etc) it creates an object and links this to the program ascociated to it. When you are done editing, it creates a screenshot of the content and uses that as an image placeholder.

When you open a document/sheet/email that has such embedded file in it, and opening doesn't work, it means it cannot establish a connection with the program ascociated, or it is linked to a non-existing file.

When you embed a file into your document/sheet/email, you have the option to embed it fully, or link to it. If you've chosen to link to it, the actual file has to be in the exact same location for it to open correctly.

Additionally, it is very likely that the linked program has to be exactly that linked program. Eg: excel 2013 is not the same as excel 2010. But any updates installed for your office product won't matter.

So what you need to make sure, is how the latest emails are setup. Are they linked to a file rather than fully embedded, and did the versions from the old pc and new pc are the same?