Outlook Express
Working around
If you click on Inbox you'll notice that some icons are added to the toolbar, and the folder's content is displayed on the right.
If you want Outlook Express to automatically go to Inbox each time it starts, click Tools>>Options, under General tab check "When starting, go directly to my 'Inbox' folder"
As you receive emails, the Inbox increases in size, browsing through your all messages won't be an easy task. In many cases you might be sharing the program with another person and you don't want your messages to get mix up.
Having one Inbox is no problem since Outlook Express let you add you own folders to
the list, simply click File>>Folder>>New Folder, type a name for your folder, make sure it's under Inbox and click OK. Create as much folders as you like e.g MyInbox, OtherInbox. Now you can share Outlook express without worrying about losing your messages.
You still receive all emails in Inbox, you'll have to move your messages manually to your folder, later on you will see how to set Outlook Express to automatically place your messages in your own folder. To move or copy any message from one folder to another simply go to the Folder select the message, r-click and select Copy To/Move To, next choose your destination folder and click Ok
After reading a message you might want to reply to its author, simply click
or r-click the message in Inbox and select Reply to Author.
Re: appears in the message subject indicating a reply. If the original message
is hello the reply would be Re:hello
Write your reply in the message body above Original message line, click Send to send it right now, or File>>Send Later if you would like to compose or reply to another message.
Press Send and Receive, connect to your ISP to send the message(s).
Remember that Send and Receive will send all messages in Outbox and check for new mail. Two tasks in one click.
If you ever receive a message from someone and want to send it to a friend,
click
, you will
notice Fw: at subject,
press To, Cc, Bcc to specify a recipientand click Send. You can also r-click on the message in any folder and select Forward
from the menu.
Every fresh (received) message in your Inbox has
, click on the message and the envelope opens
. The two icons refer to UNREAD and READ messages, you
can usethe unread feature to view messages later, r-click and select Mark as Unread
Usually messages are sorted by date, this is how we all track our emails - the latest message is at bottom of Inbox window. You can easily change the sorting and order:
to sort messages by sender click FROM button, you can also sort by Subject.
Sorting your messages by sender can be quite useful if you want to track how many messages you've received from one particular email address.
The arrow on each column (From, To, Subject, Received) let you change the sorting order (Ascending, Descending).
The arrow up indicates Ascending so if you sort by subject or sender messages are
sorted alphabetically from 0-Z (numbers come first).
If you sort by date (press Received), arrow up means your latest message is at the
bottom of Inbox window- which is the default.
You can also access the sorting feature from View>>Sort By.
Outlook Express let you specify a different sorting method for each folder, remember
that subfolders follow the sorting order of the main folder.
For instance if you created a folder under Inbox and if the later is sorted by date your
folder will also be.
One interesting feature in email is called Attachment, this feature allows users to send pictures, sounds, anything with an email message.
To send an attachment click
, in Insert
Attachment window specify the location of the file you
want to send - it could be anything you want (picture,
sound), next click Attach. Notice the file
icon at the bottom of your message in a separate frame.If you changed your mind about the attachment, select it and press Delete on keyboard or r-click Remove. To add another file to our email simply r-click in the attachment frame and click Add... again specify a location and click Attach, continue as usual, Compose your message and send it.
Everyone loves attachments, this feature available in almost every mail program extends the email capabilities to exchanging photos, sounds, files. The bad news is that too many people don't know how to correctly send an attachment.
In the article "How to send Attachments", you can find a detailed explanation on how to send attachments by email.
In brief, when you want to send an attachment don't send huge files like 500K, always keep the size under 50K. You can annoy the recipient with your huge files.
Another annoying thing is that people get attachments they cannot open: A friend once received an email with an PSD file (image extension for Adobe PhotoShop) he could not open it because he did not have Adobe PhotoShop installed on his computer.
So if you want to send an image, send it as GIF or JPEG: these are universal formats "understood" by major applications.
Some people even send an attached Word file (.doc), since Outlook Express can
handle formatting like writing in Bold, Italic and adding images, don't send text as
Word Documents unless it's urgent.
Make sure you check the article for sending sounds and other files by email.