Do you have a friend who sends you truly fascinating-to-read e-mail messages replete with digital photo illustrations? Now you can do the same.

Maybe you've wondered how to imbed one of your own property photos directly into the text or body of an e-mail message at precisely the right place for it to deliver the most impact. Alternatively, you could merely provide a link that would lead to a picture.

(Note: Instructions in this column cover only Outlook Express, version 6+, which most people use. To see what you have, go to "Help" atop your Outlook Express Window and click on "Help." The version number will appear. If you do not have the new 6.0 version, you should. Go to Microsoft and download Internet Explorer 6.0. Outlook Express is a component of Internet Explorer 6.0. Then read the rest of this column. If you are on AOL, you should either quit AOL and get a professional ISP or quit real estate. AOL is a grown up's toy and is almost as unprofessional to Web-savvy consumers as is using free e-mail service from either Yahoo or Hotmail.)

To insert a photo or other image into an e-mail message, be sure that you have typed something to begin with inside the e-mail box, or have at least clicked there once. Doing so wakes up the HTML format. Be sure that the last place that you clicked inside the box is exactly where you want the picture to be placed. The picture will only go where your cursor has told it to go.

Next, click on the little square button to the far right of the toolbar directly atop the yet-to-be-filled-in e-mail box. This square button (that looks like a picture of mountains) is just to the right of the little blue world and chain link button that you use to insert text.

Another way to start the picture-inserting process is to click on "Insert" atop the blank e-mail box that says "New Message" in the upper left hand corner. Click on "Insert," and on the drop down menu, select "Picture."

No matter which of these two ways you got there, on the little window that comes up, click on "Browse" and explore your hard drive until you find the NAME OF the photo or other image that you want to insert.

Once you have found the name of the picture that you want inserted, highlight that name (for example, Bobandme.jpg), then click on "Open." Doing so will fill in the box that says "Picture Source" with the file name of the picture that you just selected from your computer.

Finally, click OK and the picture appears magically in your e-mail box---not as an attachment, but as an integral part of your HTML e-mail message, the same way that your text is part of the HTML message. Remember, the picture will appear exactly where your cursor was last sitting in the e-mail box.

You can even highlight the picture and use the Left, Middle, Right buttons on the horizontal toolbar line to move the picture around. There are other ways to move an image around and resize it, too, but you have enough on your plate just learning this.

One last task…on that same open and unsent e-mail message, go to the top of it and click on "Format." See the drop down menu and click on "Send Pictures With Message" unless that choice already has a check mark beside it. Then, you are done and can now insert and send pictures, logos, banners, cartoons, or other digital images.

You can also insert images that you find on other Web sites. (Be mindful of copyright laws, however) To insert remote images, highlight the images, copy them using "copy" on the menu found by making a right-click of your mouse, and then right click again and select "paste" to paste them into your HTML e-mail message.

You can try doing this, but if your cache is too full, settings are off, or other factors apply, you may not be successful. If you are just beginning to do any of this stuff, it is best is to just copy and insert photos that are already on your own computer.

Easy, huh? If I were you, I would print out this column, set it by my side, and then go systematically through the above step-by-step instructions until I could do photo inserts with confidence. It sounds complex, but once you repeat the steps a few times, it becomes a real no-brainer. Most Internet things are easy; you just need the courage to experiment and the confidence to know that you can learn it well.

You cannot imagine, never having done it, how impressed people are by simple graphical things that you do with your HTML e-mails.

Why? Because, amazingly, hardly anyone knows how to do it. Yet, now you do. So, make use of this profoundly valuable advantage that you have over other agents.

Experiment with enhancements such as different colored words or text in different fonts or sizes, or moving, animated banners that make you memorable while promoting your services.

Be creative. Practice making the most bizarre and humorous e-mails that you can think of to send to your friends.

Clients are different. While they will notice and appreciate the clarity that inserts can impart to your e-mails, they may think you unprofessional if you overdo it. Use these tools sparingly and professionally, and they'll start to love you for it, too.

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