sending attachment from word etc by using send as attachment butto

I have just started using office 2007 and have encountered a problem I have
never had before. If I want to send a document, say from Word, Excel,
Acrobat as an attachment to an email and I do it by using the send email
button (from the drop down menu on the office button), any message that I
type in the outlook message form that opens up is not displayed to the
recipient. They just receive the attachment. If I look in my sent box in
outlook, the email is there but again no message is displayed in the body of
the email. Next to the attachment for the actual document I sent is an
envelope symbol with 'message' written next to it but this doesn't open when
clicked etc. What is going wrong? Hope someone can help me.