How copy article from Internet,paste into document,send as email attachment

Question

A friend has asked me to do some research for her. She has limited online hours. She wants me to copy articles from Internet, paste them into a document, then send that document AS AN ATTACHMENT to an email. I know how to copy the article, BUT I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PASTE IT INTO A DOCUMENT, NOR DO I KNOW HOW TO SEND THAT DOCUMENT AS AN ATTACHMENT TO EMAIL.
Normally when I copy and paste, it goes directly into the email. The goal of this method I have been asked to use, is so that the recipient can download the document and read it off line. Thanks for any advice on this.

Answer 1

Others give good advice, here - but, to answer your question...
First, you'll need to use a text editor to create the document that will contain the pasted information, and which will become the attachment to your email. TextEdit, which probably came with your Mac, will work. Whatever text editor or word processor you use, be sure to Save the document in a format she can open. Rich text is probably the safest choice, because almost any word processor can open that format.
So, start TextEdit, and when the new document appears, select Save from the File menu. When the Save window pops up, give the new document a name, and select your Desktop for the location. Down at the bottom of the Save window, for File Format, choose Rich Text Format (RTF). If she is not on a Mac, be sure the Hide Extension box is NOT checked. Click the Save button.
Now you can start copying and pasting from websites. The process will go like this:
Select some text, then choose Copy from your browser's Edit menu. Next, switch to TextEdit, put your cursor where you want the text to appear, and select Paste from TextEdit's Edit menu. (If you are going to do a lot of this, it will pay to learn the keyboard shortcuts.)
Selecting text on web pages can be somewhat frustrating. For really long selections, click once to put your cursor where you want to start copying, scroll down to where you want to end, and - while holding down the Shift key - click again; everything between the clicks will be selected. Try to select text, only. If you paste any graphics into your RTF document, TextEdit will prompt you to re-Save the document in RTFD format. If she really needs graphics, you can do that, but before you do, be sure she can open documents in that format. Most tables on web pages are impossible to copy and paste without the columns and rows going all out of alignment, so screen shots - which are images - are the best bet for tables. (If she can't open a RTFD document, you can convert the FINISHED file to a non-editable, but easily viewable, PDF document by choosing that option from the Print window. Be warned that if you create a long document with many graphics, and then convert it to PDF, the file size can get big - possibly preventing some mail servers from delivering it.)
When you start pasting into TextEdit, you are going to get all sizes of text in various colors and fonts. If you paste text from a web-page that has white text on a black background, you will not see the white letters on your white page (tip: select the white area). After the first text is pasted into TextEdit, go to the Format menu and select Font>Show Fonts and a new tool window will appear. Select the text you just pasted, and format it to a readable size and font, then de-select the text. From now on, whenever you want to paste: from TextEdit's Edit menu, select Paste and Match Style.
When you are ready to send the file, Save and Close your TextEdit document. From Mail's File menu, select Attach File. Navigate to your Desktop, select your document, and, if she is using Windows, check the box to Send Windows Friendly Attachments. Click Choose File, to add the attachment to your email.