howff: [scottish] meeting place, shelter, haunt....
howff: [scottish] meeting
place, shelter, haunt....
If you have used any other Microsoft products in the past, such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange or even Windows itself you will find the layout of the program and the location of the controls familiar.
Double clicking the "Outlook Express" icon on your desktop should
open up your email. 
To write an email, click the "New Mail" button. In the Message pane, type your recipients Email address into the "To:" field. In "Subject" you'll want to describe what the message is about and "CC:" is for other recipients Email addresses. The large white box in this pane is where you type your message. When you are finished, click the "Send" button to queue or send the mail.
Once you are ready to send any new messages or to check for any mail that might be waiting for you, just follow these steps. The first thing to do is to click on "Tools" and then "Send and Receive". You can check one account or all accounts if more than one account is set up within the program. Outlook Express will first send any messages that are waiting in your Outbox. It will then check to see if there is any new mail for you awaiting collection. If there is either of these then you will see a message in the centre of your screen telling you how many messages have to be processed and how many have been processed so far.
So now that you have new messages, where are they kept? Well if you think of this program as a simple filing system it will help to explain where things are.If you click on the arrow on the left-hand side you will see something similar to the picture below:
As you can see there are four main folders in the program.
1. Deleted Items - This acts in the same way as the Recycle Bin or Trash Can. If you delete a message or messages it/they will be moved into this folder until you tell Outlook Express that it is time the empty this folder. Once you do this you will not be able to get the message or messages back again. If in doubt, keep them.
2. Inbox - This folder is where all new mail is kept until it is filed elsewhere. So when you receive new messages they will be placed in this folder.
3. Outbox - This folder contains all messages that are waiting to be sent out from your computer. This is not the same as messages that have already been sent from your computer. These can either be completed or draft copies of messages. If you highlight a message that is in your Outbox you will be able to edit it via the preview pane. This can also be accomplished by double-clicking on the message so that it opens in its own window. You can then edit it and when you click the "Send" button it will be returned to your Outbox in its edited form to await delivery again.
4. Sent Items - This folder contains a copy of all the messages that have been sent out onto the Internet. If someone has not received a message you have sent to him or her or requires another copy then this folder is the place to look. You can then open the message and send it again if required.
Going to "Tools" "Options", will allow you to customise Outlook Express.
These customisations are too numerous to mention here, but some of the more important ones are -
Under "General" - You can play a sound upon receipt of new mail.
Under "Send" - You can save a copy of outbound mail, send immediately and copy the original message into reply.
Under "Spelling" - You can choose to always check spelling before sending.
Under "Connection" - You can hang up after sending and receiving.
A very important option that you can change from "Tools", "Options" and "Signatures" is the ability to add a signature to your mail. In this section choose "New" and then "Text" and type in your signature. You then might want to put a tick in "Add signature to all outgoing messages".
In order to prevent your Inbox from becoming cluttered and difficult to manage, you should prepare mail folders of your own to accommodate new messages. It is advisable to do this by topic or by sender. To create a folder, from the menu bar select "File" then "Folder" then "New Folder". In the name box, type the name you wish to refer to this folder to. Click the "OK" button and the folder will appear in the folders list. Right clicking on a message will allow you to move the mail into this folder, or you can set up a rule for certain mail to be delivered here.
First of all select "Tools" then "Message Rules" and "Mail". This will show you a window as below.
Sections 1 and 2 allow you to select how to filter the mail - eg. by a particular word appearing in the subject or Email address for example.Clicking on the blue links lets you specify what these are, and where to copy or move the mail to.
