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Outlook Express Tips


Outlook Express is the mail client that comes with Internet Explorer. It is NOT Outlook97/98, which comes with Office.

Inbox Assistant Rules=Message Rules:

They aren't called Inbox Assistant Rules anymore. Now they're called Message Rules, and you can use them to automate your handling of newsgroup messages. The rules can examine and then act upon received newsgroup messages. Choose Tools, Message Rules, News. Then, in the New News Rule box, you can create your first rule. Click a condition box to tell the rule what to look for in a message. Then click on the blue-highlighted bits in Section 3 and get specific for each. Then choose an action -- such as to delete the message -- in Section 2 and click OK.

Have it your way:

Did you know you're not stuck with the default Outlook Express window? With just a few clicks in the Layout dialog box, you can display or hide the Outlook bar, the folder window and the folder bar. Here's how:

You can also customize your Outlook Express toolbar by changing its position in the window and adding or removing toolbar buttons:

Now for customizing the Preview Pane, which lets you view the messages in your inbox without opening a separate window:

NAV 2000 VERSUS MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS:

If you use Norton Antivirus 2000 and Microsoft Outlook Express, you may get the following error message: "XIMS: Outlook Express POP3, Error 0x800ccc0e, Socket Error 10061". However, Symantec (maker of Norton software products) assures us this stems from a simple misconfiguration in the ports on the Microsoft Exchange Server. If you use these two programs on the same system and are experiencing the error, search the Knowledge Base for instructions on how to reconfigure MS Exchange Server ports:

http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp

Or check out the document "Unable to Send or Receive Messages in Outlook Express" at

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q195/4/58.ASP?LNG=ENG&SA=ALLKB&FR=0

Personalizing Your Columns:

What do you need to know about an item listed in Outlook? Percentage complete, due date, subject for a task, size, and so on? You can't show it all, because each has about 20 different fields of information. So you can either live with the defaults, or you can choose a more personal set by following these steps:
1. Choose View + Show Fields.
2. In the Show Fields dialog box, from the Available Fields list, click a field you want to see and then click Add.
3. Repeat Step 2 for all the fields you need.
4. In the list on the right, click any field you don't need and then click Remove.
5. If there's a field you don't see and do want, first make sure it's not in any other group. If it's not, click New Field and create the field.
6. To rearrange the order of a field, in the Show These Fields List, click the field you want to move and then click either the
Move Up or the Move Down button to position it properly.
7. Click OK.

Open Sesame:

Until you tell it to do otherwise, Outlook Express neatly organizes and displays the status of your messages in its opening display. Each time you start the program, you find a vertical list of the following:

- E-mail: With buttons you can click to access unread messages, create a new message, and review messages you've already read.
- Newsgroups: With buttons you can click to access both unread and read postings.
- Contacts: With buttons that let you open your address book or find people.

Below all these items is a check box labeled When Outlook Express Starts, Go Directly to My Inbox. Select this option and, naturally, the next time you run Outlook Express, you see the Inbox instead of the overall list.

Open or save it?

When you open an attachment in Outlook Express or download a file from the Internet with Internet Explorer, you get by default a dialog box asking you whether you wish to open this file or save it to disk. In this dialog box is also a check box to Always ask before opening this type of file. If you accidentally unchecked this box, you won't get this dialog anymore and are stuck with whatever action you chose the last time. But you can easily fix this and get the
dialog back. Open Windows Explorer, go to View/(Folder) Options, and select the File Types tab. Find the file type that you have the problem with and double-click it. In the resulting dialog box, put the check mark back in the box to Confirm open after download.

Flag It!

Outlook Express does not indicate which opened messages have been replied to, but here is one way to handle it: Flag each message that you reply to. Find the message in the list and click on its Flag column.

Customizing Your Toolbar:

The Outlook Express toolbar is a wide swath of your screen and the easy way to quick action. Make it your own, with the tools that fit your needs:
1. Right-click the toolbar and choose Buttons from the pop-up menu. The Customize Toolbar dialog box shows a list of available buttons on the left and a list of the actual buttons in the bar on the right.
2. From the list on the left, click any buttons you want to add; then click Add.
3. From the list on the right, click any button you want to remove and click Remove.
4. To move the buttons around, click a button you want in a different position on the bar and then click the Move Up or Move Down button.
5. Click Close.

Making Folders:

When it comes to e-mail, do you keep all your messages around, just in case? In itself, message hoarding isn't too much of a problem. But what IS a problem is keeping all the messages in the same place--most likely your Inbox folder. The solution? Move the messages out of Inbox and into a well thought-out system of folders. Number one, your messages will be easier to find. Two, you'll leave your Inbox free and clear to do its job--receive new messages. Here's how:

As you create new folders, they appear in your Folder List.

Folder Organizing:

Set Outlook's mail to organize messages the way you want. In fact, each and every folder can sort your messages a different way:
1. Click the Mail bar.
2. Right-click a folder you want to sort and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Administration tab.
4. In the Initial View on Folder drop-down list, choose one of the following: Normal, Group by From, Group by Subject, Group by Conversation Topic, or Unread by Conversation.
5. Click OK

Folder List:.

See that list of folders along the left side of your Outlook Express window? Sure, this list is convenient, but if you'd rather use that space for your message list and preview, try the collapsible Folder Bar:

Compressing Your Folders:

Compress your folders so that they take up less space and perform more efficiently. To compress your folders:

1. Choose Tools + Services.
2. In the Services dialog box, select Personal Folders.
3. Click Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, select Compact Now and click OK.
5. Click OK again.

How to change your default name in the FROM field:

When you created your e-mail account, you told Outlook Express which name to attach to outgoing messages. If, in a fit of whimsy, you told it to identify you as Goofy, you may want to change it back to your real name. Here's how:

1. Click Tools + Accounts.
2. Click the Mail tab.
3. Select the appropriate e-mail account, then click Properties.
4. In the Name Box (under User Information) type the name you want displayed in the From field in outgoing messages.
5. Click OK.

You're ready to go! From now on, the right name will be on your outgoing e-mail messages

One Or All?:

As you read an e-mail, you may have noticed that you have two buttons you can use to reply:

- Reply: Create a new message, addressed only to the message sender.
- Reply All (or Reply To All, depending on what version of Outlook Express you have): Create a new message but address it to everyone listed as a recipient of the message.

Be frugal with Reply All; you don't want to fill people's inboxes with trivial mail.

Adding a signature to your mail:

Do you receive messages that always have the senders' names, e-mail addresses, possibly some more contact information, and maybe even a fancy quote at the bottom of the message? If you want, you can have Outlook Express "sign" every one of your messages like that too. Here's how:

1. Choose Tools + Stationery.
2. On the Mail tab, click the Signature button.
3. Select the option Add This Signature to All Outgoing Messages.
4. With Text selected, type your signature--your name, title, e-mail address, a quote, whatever--in the text box. 5. Click OK twice.

Now every time you open the New Message dialog box, you see this signature, ready to take its place at the bottom of your message. Compose your message as usual but forget about the signing part. It's already done! If for some reason, you do not want it on a particular mail, just simple highlight it and then delete it.

Separate Accounts:

Need to set up an extra e-mail account in Outlook Express? Need to keep these two accounts separate? To set up another account, run Outlook Express and choose Tools, Accounts. When the Internet Accounts dialog box opens, click the Mail tab, then click Add, Mail. Now enter all the necessary information. Once you've entered your account information, click Close to dismiss the Internet Accounts dialog box.
To test out your new account, click Compose Message and enter a message to yourself. Now choose File, Send Mail Using, and the name of your new account.

Headers:

Outlook Express doesn't automatically show you all of the details of a message header. It hides most of them, just showing what most e-mail readers need. You can still see the rest of the details if and when you need them by right-clicking the message, then opening Properties, Details.

Don't Want it All?:

When you click on the Send & Receive button, OutlookExpress starts pushing out and grabbing in all of your mail. What if you don't want it to? What? Not want your mail? How could that be? Well, for email accounts. Perhaps you use one computer at home for a personal account most of the time, but do want the option of receiving business mail on it too. Both of those accounts must be set up in the Tools + Accounts area. However, you can set one of them--the business account in this example--to not automatically get its mail. On those rare occasions when you do want that home personal computer to grab the latest in your business box. Here's how you set up an account without automatic Send & Receive:

1. Open Tools + Accounts.
2. In the Internet Accounts dialog box, click to select the account, then click on Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, click on the General tab.
4. Near the bottom of the dialog box, click to remove the checkmark from Include this account when doing a full Send and Receive.
5. Click on OK and then on Close.

Getting Rid of SPAM:

Outlook Express offers a way to get rid of most of it. When you get a message from someone you never want to hear from again, just select the address and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Now choose Tools, Inbox Assistant. Click Add and then click in the From entry box. Press Ctrl-V to paste in the address, then select the check box labeled Move To and click Folder. When the Move dialog box opens, click Deleted Items and click OK. Click OK again to return to the Inbox Assistant dialog box. Click OK to close the Inbox Assistant and save your changes. The next time e-mail appears from the unwanted address, you'll never even see it. It will go straight to the Deleted Items folder.

Inserting a HyperLink in a mail:

1. Click the Compose Message icon on the toolbar. (If you don't see a toolbar of options just below the Subject line, choose Format + Rich Text [HTML] to make the toolbar appear.)
2. Type the body of your message, including some text you'd like to link to a Web page. (For example, you might type, "Click HERE if you want to see my Web site.")
3. Select the text you want to link to the Web page (in our example, "HERE").
4. Click the Insert Hyperlink button.
5. Type the address to the link in the URL text box (for example, http://www.mysite.com).
6. Click OK.
7. Finish composing your message.
8. Click Send.

When the recipient clicks your hyperlink (assuming he or she has a browser installed), the link takes that person directly to your Web site.

Filtering Out Read Mail:

Do you have a lot of messages in a folder--some read, some unread? When you're ready to tackle those unread messages, don't waste your energy scanning the message list for bold text. (As you may have noticed, unread messages appear in bold.) Ask Outlook Express to filter out everything you've already read. Just choose View > Current View > Unread Messages. Ta-da! All but the unread messages disappear from the message list (and the message lists of every other folder). To make all the read messages reappear, choose View > Current View > All Messages.

If you decide to use this option, you should be aware that, by default, Outlook Express marks as "read" any message that's been sitting in the preview pane for five seconds. (A "read" message no longer appears in bold in the message list.) But just because a message hangs out in the preview pane for a bit doesn't mean you've actually had a chance to READ it. If you want to be sure you don't miss anything, turn off this automatic marking:

Outlook Express marks a message read only if you scroll through the message in the preview pane, double-click a message to open it in a separate window, OR manually mark the message read (select the message and choose Edit > Mark as Read).

Blocking:

Using the Block Sender command:

1. Click a message from the sender you want to block.
2. Choose Message + Block Sender. An Outlook Express dialog box appears, telling you that the sender of this message has been added to your Blocked Senders list. You won't be seeing any more mail from that person: It's liquidated before it reaches your Inbox.
3. Click Yes in this box if you want to delete all current messages from this sender; click No if you want a last look at them.

Outlook Express 5 lets you block any messages sent from a particular sender. If you make a mistake, though, and start blocking messages from someone you still need to contact, you can edit the Blocked Senders list.

1. Choose Tools + Message Rules + Blocked Senders List.
2. In the Message Rules dialog box, with the Blocked Senders tab showing, click the address you need.
3. Click Remove and then click OK.

Now you'll receive any messages sent from that address.

Colorful Email:

Outlook Express 5 can slap a background color across the entire window of an e-mail.

1. In the New Message window, choose Format + Background.
2. From the menu that appears, select a color (click it).

Your chosen color fills the message window.

With Outlook Express 5, you can pretty up an e-mail by putting a background image on it:

1. In the New Message window, choose Format + Background + Picture.
2. In the Background Picture dialog box, click Browse and choose a picture from your disk drive.
3. Click OK.

Want Some Stationery?:

If you like to use stationery for some of your E-mail, you should go to CloudEight Stationery site at

http://www.thundercloud.net/stationery

and take a look at what it has to offer. You'll find over 550 stationery designs.

Adding Sound to an Email:

Want to liven up that outgoing message? In Outlook Express 5:

1. In the New Message window, choose Format + Background + Sound.
2. In the Background Sound dialog box, click the Browse button and find the tune you want. Select the tune and click OK to get back to the Background Sound dialog box.

3. Back in the Background Sound dialog box, select either of these two options: Play the Sound for a set number of repeats or Continuously--if you want to drive your recipient crazy. (The lucky ones without sound hardware won't hear your handiwork.)
4. Click OK.
5. Complete your message and send it.

Drag and drop email attachments:

Need to add a file attachment to the e-mail you're composing? Don't bother with all those commands inside your e-mail editor. (For example, in Outlook Express, you'd select Insert, File Attachment, and so on.) Try a drag and drop--it's much faster.
Minimize your open message window and locate the file(s) you want to attach (for example, on the desktop). Click and drag the file(s) down to the open message's taskbar item, hold the mouse there for a second until the window opens, then drop the file(s) inside. Done!

Moving Messages:

You have two ways to move a message from the Inbox (or any other folder) to a new folder, depending on whether you have your Folder List showing or not.

If you can see the Folder List or Outlook Bar:

If you can't see the Folder List or Outlook Bar:

Multiple Emails Accounts:

Having more than one e-mail account is pretty common these days. True, more e-mail accounts may mean a little more work. But you can do some pretty cool stuff with Outlook Express once you're juggling those multiple accounts around in your Inbox. For example, you can use your Inbox Assistant to filter your incoming messages by account. One benefit of doing so is being able to set up separate auto-reply messages when you go on vacation. In such a situation, you may want to set up one reply for incoming business messages and another reply for incoming personal messages.

To create an auto-reply message, follow these steps:

Subject: I'm Away From The Office

Sorry I missed your message. If you need to get in touch with someone, please e-mail my associate Skippy (skippy@nutco.com) or wait until the 23rd, when I'll be back.

To create more than one autoreply message at a time--for example, to create a personal reply as well as a business reply--simply choose File > New after you save your first message (Step 6) and then repeat Steps 2 through 6.

In the following steps, I will explain how you use these autoreply messages into Inbox Assistant rules so that anyone who sends a message to your business or personal account automatically receives a targeted business or personal reply:

How to change the default account:

1. Choose Tools + Accounts.
2. On the Mail tab, select the account you want to use as the default.
3. Click the Set as Default button. This account now says "mail (default)" in the Type column.
4. Click OK.

Forwarding Messages:

Do you have a whole bunch of saved messages you want to share with a friend? As long as the messages are all in the same folder, you can forward them to a recipient in one fell swoop:

Just reading, thanks:

Would you like to just read the current messages you have, without OE dialing up your ISP? Well, here's how you can make OE do that:

Run OE and choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box appears, click the Dial-Up tab. Then select the radio button labeled 'Do not dial a connection' and click OK to close the dialog box and save your new settings. Finally, quit Outlook Express and restart it. From this point on, Outlook Express will not automatically dial the ISP. To get new mail messages, you'll have to click Send And Receive.

Automatic Outlook Express:

Is it possible to have Outlook Express start when the computer starts and then check for mail on a regular basis?
Yes, it is possible. In fact, Outlook Express does this very well. To set it up, run Outlook Express and choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Now select the check box labeled "Check for new messages every" and set the time to whatever you need--15 minutes, 30 minutes, and so forth.

Click the Dial Up tab now and select the check box labeled "Hang up when finished sending, receiving, or downloading". Now click OK to close the dialog box and continue.

To set up your Outlook Express to run automatically, right-click Start and choose Open. Double-click Programs, then double-click StartUp. Now use the right mouse button to drag the Outlook Express icon to StartUp. When the menu opens, choose Copy Here.

Next, right-click the Outlook Express in StartUp and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Next, click the arrow at the right side of the Run list box and select Minimized. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your changes.

The next time you start your computer, Outlook Express opens minimized and checks your mail at the selected time interval.

After you read your mail, click the Minimize button in the upper right corner of the Outlook Express window (its icon is a dash). Keep in mind that if you close Outlook Express, it can't check your mail.

Do I Have Mail?:

Wish you had a private assistant to run down the hall and check your mailbox every half hour (or some other interval)? You can set Outlook Express to check your e-mail for you at the interval of your choice.

As long as Outlook Express is running, it automatically checks your mail for you and sends anything in your Outbox, so make sure anything you put in there is ready to go out. If you prefer to check your mail manually, deselect this option and then use the Send and Receive button or the Tools + Send and Receive command when you're ready.

Beep! Beep!

To make Outlook Express beep when you have new messages:

Of course, if you frequently step away from your desk, out of beep earshot, you have to rely on the icon.

Address Book Tips:

When you open the Address Book, you see a list of the names you've entered. Most documentation says to click a name you're interested in and then click the Properties button in the toolbar. But, all you have to do to open the Properties dialog box is double-click the name.

Also, if you want to see some details about a group in the Address Book, just move the mouse pointer over the group's icon and wait a few seconds. A tool tip will open showing you the names of the people entered in the group.

Adding a name to the Address book:

This is simple! All you have to do is double-click the message your received from someone to open it and then right click on the sender's address (From). Now choose Add to Address Book. Once the address is added, you may want to edit the name. To do this, choose File, Address Book, select the name, and choose File, Properties. Edit the name and click OK.

Back Up Your Address Book:

The Address Book isn't in the same location on all computers--its location depends on where you chose to put it the first time you ran Microsoft Mail. The default location for the file is \\Windows\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Address Book. But many people click on some other folder during installation. To locate the Address Book, start > find > files or folders. Now search Drive C and its subfolders for *.wab. Once you've located the file, put a blank formatted floppy disk into Drive A and then right click the Address Book's icon (in Find). Now, choose Send To > 3-1/2 Floppy A. This will copy the file to a floppy in Drive A. You have just backed up your Address Book.

OR

Address Book for the Road:

If you do a lot of traveling, why not export your Address Book to a text file? This way, you can carry the Address Book information on a single floppy disk and not have to worry about being able to read it--everyone has Notepad.. Here's how to do it:

And don't forget to take that floppy disk with you on your next trip.

How to print out a hard copy of phone numbers from address book:

1. Click the Address Book button (or press Ctrl + Shift + B).
2. Choose File + Print.
3. Under Print range, select All.
4. Under Print Style, select Phone List.
5. Click OK.

The result is an alphabetized list of all your contacts, complete with home and business numbers (including faxes, pagers, and cellular numbers).

Keep Out the Trash:

Do you receive a lot of junk mail from a certain address? Does a certain someone continually pester you with e-mail? Use the Inbox Assistant to keep these messages from ever making it into your Inbox. This "bouncer" deletes any messages you receive from a certain address before they're downloaded from the server.

You can turn this rule off temporarily by deselecting its check box. To remove it altogether, select it and click the Remove button.

Dictionary:

Ever receive an e-mail loaded with typos? Somehow, a mistake-riddled e-mail just doesn't make the best impression. To be sure that you make a good impression, even when you don't have time to look a message over, keep Outlook Express's spell checker up and running:

When you click Send, the spell checker kicks in and stops at the first misspelling (if any). Select one of the offered suggestions or type a correction on the Change To line and then click Change. Or click Ignore to skip over a "misspelling."

Filter This Out:

When you use Outlook Express to view newsgroup messages, you may want to filter certain types of messages. For example, you might like to nix any messages from a particular company that places multiple ads in your newsgroup. Or perhaps you don't want messages concerning a specific subject.

To set up your filters,

You can enter an address into the From entry box or you can enter a subject that you'd like to filter in the Subject entry box. You can enter multiple words in the Subject entry box, but they will be 'anded' together. As an example, if you enter sell, cheap , the filter will be If subject contains 'sell' and 'cheap' then...

So, no filtering will take place unless both sell and cheap appear in the same message subject line. To deal with this, you can type in a single word and click OK. Then you can click Add again and add another word. With one line assigned to sell and another line to cheap, a message that has either word in the subject line will be filtered. After you make your selections, click OK to continue. Back in the Newsgroup Filters dialog box, click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

Attach it:

If you use Internet Mail to open an e-mail message that's coded in HTML, all you see is the HTML code. That's because Internet Mail doesn't support HTML. However, you can still send an HTML-encoded document to someone; just send it as an attachment. Ask those who send you e-mail to do the same and you'll be able to save the attached HTML files to disk and view them using your browser. Here's how to send an HTML file as an attachment. After you write your new message, choose Insert, File Attachment and select the file you want to send. Sorry, but that's the only way to do it in Internet Mail that I am aware of.

When you read a message in the Internet Mail preview pane, you might like to copy the sender's address so you can paste it into another document. The problem is that the address isn't ordinarily visible. Usually, however, if you click Reply to Author, the sender's address will appear in the To entry box. Right click the address and choose Copy. After you make the copy, you can choose File, Close to close the 'Reply to Author' window.

Saving Outlook Express mail:

You can save Microsoft OutlookExpress messages without saving attachments. When you open a message and choose File, Save As, you can click the arrow to the right of the Save As Type list box to expand the list. If you select Mail (*.eml), the message will be saved in Outlook Express format, and any attachments will be saved along with the message. If you select Text Files (*.txt), the message will be saved in text format without the attachment. If you like, you can save the attachment separately by choosing File, Save Attachments.

Save Your Messages as Text Files:

Select a message, select File, Save As, navigate your way to the desired location of the file, name the file, and click Save. The result is a single *.txt file. (Note: This technique does NOT save attachments, so you'll need to save them in another location. Just be sure to change the attachment reference in the *.txt file to match your new storage location.)

Saving Only the Attachment:

When an email or newsgroup postings arrive with an attachment--a file traveling along with the main message--you can choose to save those attachments to your hard drive.
1. Click on the paperclip icon that comes with the email or posting.
2. From the pop-up menu, choose Save Attachments.
3. In the Save dialog box, choose a location on disk for saving the attachment.
4. Click on OK.

Animated Mail:

If you use Outlook Express and have FrontPage Express loaded, there's nothing to stop you from creating animated stationery. Locate (or make) an animated GIF that you'd like to use. Now run FrontPage Express and choose Insert, Image. When the Image dialog box opens, click Browse and then locate and double-click the animated GIF that you want to use. You can now do whatever you want in the way of a background or other images. When you're happy with the page, choose File, Save As. This will open the Save As dialog box. Click As File and give the file a name. Now go to Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Stationery and click Save. To see how your new animated stationery looks, run Outlook Express and choose Compose, New Message Using, More Stationery. In the Open dialog box, click the file you just saved and then click Open.

How to Show Pictures in the Message:

To tell Outlook Express to display attached pictures in your messages, run the program and choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Read tab. Select the check box labeled "Automatically show picture attachments in messages" and then click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new selection.
From this point on, all attached pictures appear in the body of a message.

HTML code:

If you'd like to take a look at the HTML source code of some of your mail messages, just press Ctrl-F2. Notepad will open displaying the source code for the current message.

Saving Web Page:

Trying to find a way to save a Web page in e-mail format? This works great:

If you navigate to a Web page that you'd like to save as e-mail, choose File, Send, Page by Email. When Outlook Express opens, enter any e-mail address (you aren't going to actually send it anyway, so you could use something such as nothing@dummy.com). Next choose Tools, Send Pictures With Message, and then choose File, Send Later. At this point, the file is in your Outbox. So, go to the Outbox and double-click the file you just created. Finally, choose File, Save As, and enter a name for the file. Locate a folder to store the file in and click Save. This will save the new file as a mail file. You can now delete the file from the Outbox, since you no longer need it.

OE and Netmeeting:

Outlook Express can use Microsoft's NetMeeting software for collaborative Internet conference calls. All the people in the meeting can see what others are typing, as well as some of the program information. They can also hear the other's voices. When you first want to use this feature, you have to configure NetMeeting:

1. Open the Address Book.
2. Choose Tools + Internet Call (or in Outlook, choose Tools + Place a NetMeeting Call).
3. In the Microsoft NetMeeting dialog box, click Next to stick with the default meeting server (the remote computer that keeps track of who is online to join meetings).
4. Enter your own information--such as name and address (you only need to enter the very basics) and click Next.
5. Select a use category for your information on the directory--personal, business, or adults-only (personal is fine for most of us)--and click Next.
6. Specify your modem speed and click Next.
7. In the Audio Tuning Wizard dialog box, click Next to set up your sound hardware. You need earphones (or speakers) and a microphone plugged in. (Note: You have to re-tune this if someone else wants to use your PC for a NetMeeting.)
8. Click Finish.

NetMeeting launches.

Keyboard Shortcuts in Outlook Express:

- To get to the Inbox, press Ctrl-I.
- To open a selected message, press Ctrl-O.
- To create a new message, press Ctrl-N.
- To print the selected message, press Ctrl-P.
- To delete a selected message, press Ctrl-D or Delete.
- To reply to a selected message, press Ctrl-R.
- To forward a selected message, press Ctrl-F.
- To open the Go To Folder dialog box, press Ctrl-Y.
- To change your layout to display the folder list, press Ctrl-L.
- To check your mail, press Ctrl-M.

Unclickable Links:

People have told me that after upgrading from Windows 95 to Windows 98 and IE 4 to IE 5, when they read mail from Outlook Express, they used to be able to click onto a link from the email received and it would bring up a page on the browser. Now, since upgrading the software, they can't do this.They now get a message as follows: WINDOWS CANNOT FIND PROGRAM. THIS PROGRAM IS NEEDED FOR OPENING FILES OF TYPE "URL: HyperText Transfer Protocol" LOCATION OF PROGRAM : C:

This basically means that Windows can't find your browser. If the error message dialog box lets you locate the browser, you should click through to the Programs, Internet Explorer, and the Iexplore.exe itself. If that doesn't work, and it sometimes doesn't with Windows, you may want to uninstall IE and OE and then reinstall them, or even reinstall your entire Windows.

HTML Mail:

If your recipient can accept HTML mail, you can use special formatting options to separate important points in your message. Here's how to organize items into a numbered or bulleted list:

1. Click the Compose Message icon on the toolbar. (If you don't see a toolbar of options just below the Subject line, choose Format + Rich Text [HTML] to make the toolbar appear.)
2. Type the body of your message, including your list.
3. Select the items you want to transform to a numbered or bulleted list.
4. Click the Formatting Numbers button or the Formatting Bullets button. (Tip-in-a-tip: To undo the change, click the same button again or click the Undo button at the top of the New Message window.)
5. Click the Send button.

Alternatively (or additionally), you can click the Increase Indentation button to set the selected text off from the rest of your message.

How to add a separator (a dividing line) to a message:

1. Click the Compose Message icon on the toolbar. (If you don't see a toolbar of options just below the Subject line, choose Format + Rich Text [HTML] to make the toolbar appear.)
2. Type the text of your message.
3. Place the cursor where you want the separator to appear and then click the Insert Horizontal Line button (it has--of all things--a horizontal line on it).
4. Click the Send button.

To use a different font, font size, or font color for your text:

1. Click the Compose Message icon on the toolbar. (If you don't see a toolbar of options just below the Subject line, choose Format + Rich Text [HTML] to make the toolbar appear.)
2. Select a font and font size from the Font and Font Size drop-down lists. (Tip-in-a-tip: If you're not sure which buttons these are, hold your mouse pointer over each button to see its name.)
3. Click the Font Color button and select the color you want.
4. Type your message.
5. Click the Send button to fire your message off.

Want to send someone a photo? Instead of sending the picture as an attachment--in which case, the person has to open the photo separately--insert the photo directly into the message. (First make sure that your recipient can receive HTML messages.) To include a photo directly into a mail message:

1. Click the Compose Message icon on the toolbar. (If you don't see a toolbar of options just below the Subject line, choose Format + Rich Text [HTML] to make the toolbar appear.)
2. Type the body of your message.
3. Place the cursor wherever you want to insert the picture.
4. Click the Insert Picture button on the toolbar (it looks like a postcard with mountains on it).
5. Click the Browse button and navigate your way to the picture you want to use.
6. Select the picture and then click Open.
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Send button.

There's your picture, exactly as the recipient will see it when he or she opens the message.

2001 NLC