Outlook Express
Other Useful features: Changing Outlook Express Default options
For even more control over Outlook Express, change send/receive and other options.
Click Tools>>Options, the options window features 7 tabs that let you control every aspect of Outlook Express.
General tab
Set outlook express to check for new messages every X minutes. This feature is quite useful if you spend time on the Internet. Make sure you open Outlook Express, after
the specified time (minutes), it will connect to the mail server and retrieve your mail.
The default is 30 minutes, unless you get lots of messages.
"Play sound when new messages arrive" will notify you of new messages with a distinctive sound. To set/change the sound simply go to Control Panel (My Computer) and double-click Sounds, in Events window find "New Mail Notification" under Windows. In Sound Name drop down menu choose the sound you want to use for notification.
In Customizing Windows 98 we'll learn more about Events and how to create custom sounds for notification.
Outlook Express can empty the Delete Items folder when you exit the program.
I don't recommend this feature, sometimes you'll need to get back to deleted messages.
"Automatically put people I Reply..." is quite useful, Outlook express will automatically add the email address of sender to your Address Book if you click Reply.
If you're running more than one email program, you might want to set Outlook Express as default application for emails. "Make Outlook express my default email program"
"Make Outlook Express my Default Simple MAPI client" will allow you to send emails even from outside Outlook Express. In a previous tutorial we've talked about Send to command:
r-click on any item (e.g on your desktop) and click Send To, select Mail Recipient -this will launch Outlook Express, and the file will be inserted as an attachment into the message.
"Make Outlook express my default news reader" has similar function to default mail program (used for newsgroups): Outlook Express allows you to discuss and share ideas in so called forums or Newsgroups. You have to subscribe to a group of interest and start sending and receiving messages. We will learn how to do it later in the tutorial.
If you want Outlook Express to go directly to Inbox without displaying the graphic window each time it starts simply check "When starting, go directly to my 'Inbox' folder"
"Notify me if there are any new newsgroups" is also related to news sending.
"Automatically display folders with unread messages" is default settings, it will display folders with received and unread messages.