Outlook Express For Windows
This document was originally a publication of
Academic Technology and Networks at
The University of North Carolina.
They have graciously allowed us to modify and use their material for
use by affiliates of the Dept. of Computer Science at UNC CH. Those
not affiliated with Computer Science should access the original
document at
http://help.unc.edu/cgi-bin/getdocs?docnumber=ieg15
About Outlook Express
Outlook Express is an IMAP email client that comes
with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. IMAP (Internet Message Access
Protocol) is a faster and more efficient client/server protocol than
telnet. If you use Outlook Express, your email address will remain
the same as when you use Pine or another email program, but how you
read and send email will change. IMAP operates without a true login
to the email server and therefore utilizes fewer network resources,
allowing you to read and send email more quickly.
Please note that Outlook Express is not the same thing as MS
Outlook, which is commercial and has additional features.
Outlook Express offers a full graphical user interface, which
means that, unlike in Pine, you can use the mouse to navigate the
program. Outlook Express allows you to read your email locally while
storing your email on the email server. If you have your own copy of
Outlook Express you can also store your email locally. Outlook
Express will also import mail from Netscape and Eudora.
Although this document will focus on Outlook Express as an email
client, you can also use it to read news. Reading news with Outlook
Express is covered briefly at the end of the document.
Getting Outlook Express
Outlook Express is available from the ATN Shareware
page at
http://shareware.unc.edu
using a Web browser such as Netscape, or from the Outlook Express
homepage at:
http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/oe/.
(See the document
Internet
Essentials [iib02] for help using Netscape.) It also ships
with some versions of Office and can be downloaded from the Microsoft
home page.
Getting Started
The First Time You Use Outlook Express...
You will need to configure it to access your email
account. Outlook Express will bring up its Internet Connection
Wizard, which will walk you through the steps of setting your
preferences. You will be shown several windows asking you for
information such as your name, your email address, and your server
information.For use with your CS account, the connection type should
be IMAP, the IMAP server is imap.cs.unc.edu, and the SMTP
server is smtp.cs.unc.edu. You will then be asked for your
user ID, your password (do not fill in your password), and a friendly
name for these settings (this is important if you have more than one
email account). Finally you will be asked how you normally connect to
the network: phone, LAN (if your computer is hard-wired to the campus
network), or manual. Click on Finish when you are done.
Once you are done with the Internet Connection Wizard, you may
still need to adjust your configuration in order to see mail folders
that are saved on your email server. Go to the Tools menu and
choose Accounts.... Select the account you have just created,
and click on Properties. Choose the Advanced tab, and
sure the Root Folder Path says INBOX. Click on
Apply. This illustration shows an Isis account, from the ATN
mail server.
The Outlook Express Main Window
The Outlook Express main window is divided into
several parts. Across the top are the menu and toolbar. Along the
left is the folder list. The right side is divided into a top and a
bottom part. The top part lists the messages in the open folder, and
the bottom part previews the message for you. You can customize this
window by choosing Layout... from the View menu. Here
you can make adjustments to the main window, including the toolbar
and the preview window. (Don't click on Reset or you'll undo your
changes.)
You can customize how you view the message index. You can resize
the columns (Received, From, Subject, etc.) by placing your mouse
over the divider between column headers, clicking, and dragging to a
new size. You can re-order the columns by clicking on a header and
dragging it to a new position. You can also sort the list by category
simply by clicking on the header. Ctrl-clicking will sort the column
in reverse order. Also, you can choose the kinds of information that
is shown in the index; from the View menu choose
Column. You can select or remove columns to be shown.
Reading Messages
Although you can preview the message in the bottom
half of the main window, to actually read a message, double-click on
it in the index. The message will appear in its own window. Across
the top is a button bar; you can find out what each button does by
putting the mouse pointer over the button and waiting for the pop-up
help box. To move to the next message, click on the down arrow, and
to move to the previous message, click on the up arrow.
Read Options
You can change the default font of the messages you
receive. From the Tools menu choose Options and click
on the Read panel. Click on the Fonts button and choose
the font style you want.
Sending Messages
To send a message, click on the Compose Message
button in the Toolbar or choose New Message from the
Compose menu. In the New Message window, enter an address in
the To: field; you can enter more than one address by typing an
address and pressing Return. Move to the CC: field with your Tab key
or with the mouse; enter any addresses for the CC: and the BCC:
(Blind Carbon Copy) fields. Type in a Subject.
Type the message in the bottom half of the window. Note that you
have a formatting toolbar across the top of the message text area.
You can use items on this toolbar to format the text. However, if the
recipient(s) of the message do not use Outlook Express or another
IMAP client that allows formatted text, they will not be able to see
the formatting. For example, if a recipient uses Pine, he or she will
see a note across the top of the message saying the message has
formatting that can't be shown and will see only the text.
Importing Text from a File
If you want to put text from a file into your email
message, from the Insert menu choose Text from File.
Then you will need to locate and select the file.
Spelling
Outlook Express comes with a spell checker. In the
Compose Message window you can choose Spelling from the
Tools window. You can customize the spell checker by choosing
Options from the Tools menu and clicking on
Spelling. Here you can indicate what kinds of things you want
the spell checker to ignore (things in CAPS, email addresses) and if
you want to Always check spelling before sending.
Send Options
By default, Outlook Express sends messages in HTML
format so that formatting options can be available (discussed above).
However, if people read your messages using Pine, they may be
confused by a message saying that there is an attached HTML file,
which is really the same text that they will see but in HTML format.
If you want to send your messages as plain text, from the
Tools menu choose Options and in the Send panel
make sure the Mail Sending Format is Plain text.
You can also choose to save a copy of all the messages you send;
in the same Send options panel, check Save copy of sent
message in 'Sent Items' folder. Additionally, you can check or
uncheck Send messages immediately; you may want to type a
bunch of messages and then send them all at once by choosing Send
and Receive from the Tools menu in the Outlook Express
main window. This way you can consolidate time waiting for
connections to the network or compose messages while not even
connected to the network and send them later.
Setting Priority
You can give your message a priority marker for the
person who receives it. From the Tools menu choose Set
Priority and then select High, Normal, or
Low.
Saving the Message for Later
If you want to finish composing the message later,
from the File menu choose Save. The message will be
saved to your Drafts folder, which is a folder stored on your
hard drive (which means you won't be able to access the message if
you switch to a different computer). When you are ready to continue
typing the message, to go the Drafts folder, double-click on the
message, and continue composing.
You can also save the message you have written to a file on your
hard drive that you can access with Word or some other program. From
the File menu choose Save As and specify where you want
the file to be saved.
Finally, you may have completed typing the message but not want to
send it (that is, contact the server) just now. This is especially
important if you are not connected to the network at the moment. From
the File menu choose Send Later; the message will not
be sent until you choose Send and Receive from the
Tools menu.
Replying to a Message
You can reply to a message when reading it or after
selecting it in the index. Click on the Reply button to
respond only to the author or on the Reply All button to
respond to the author and all other recipients. (If you choose Reply
All, make sure your reply is really relevant to everybody who will
receive it.)
You will see a Compose Message window with the header information
already filled in and the original message in the text area. Add your
own reply, working with the selected text as necessary.
Reply Options
You can choose whether or not you want to have the
original message included in your reply. From the Tools menu
choose Options and click on Send. Check or uncheck
Include message in reply.
Forwarding a Message
Sometimes you may want to send a copy of a message to
a third person. Click on the Forward button, either when
reading a message or when in the index. You will see a Compose
Message window with the original message in the text area. Fill in
the To:, CC:, and BCC: fields as necessary, and add a note to the
forwarded message if you want.
File Attachments
Sending an Attachment
To send a file with your email message, click on the
Insert button, find the file, and click Attach. The
document icon will appear in a new area divided from the text area.
Note that sometimes attachments will not transfer easily to other
email systems, and if the recipient does not use an IMAP client he or
she will probably have to download the file to read it.
Receiving an Attachment
Any attached files sent to you will appear as icons in
a divided area below the message text area. You can double-click on
an icon, and you will be asked if you want to open the file or save
it. In the message index, you can select a message that has an
attachment, and from the File menu choose Save
Attachment... to save the file to a disk.
Managing Messages
All of the following functions can be performed in
several ways. You can use the options when you are reading the
message itself or when you select the message in the message index.
To perform the function, you usually have a choice among a button on
a toolbar, a menu option, or the option to right-click and use a
drop-down menu.
Deleting a Message
Open or select the message. Click on the Delete
button in the Toolbar. The message will be marked for deletion. To
undelete a message, select the message in the index and choose
Undelete from the Edit menu.
Deleting a message in the above way only marks a message to be
deleted; it does not actually delete the message. To remove the
message permanently, from the Edit menu choose Purge
Deleted Messages.
Printing a Message
With Outlook Express you can print directly to your
local printer. When reading a message, you can print it by clicking
on the Print button. In the message index, select the message
and choose Print from the File menu.
Saving a Message to a File
You can save a message to a file on your hard or
floppy disk. When reading the message, click on the Save
button. In the index, select the message and from the File
menu choose Save As.... In the Save dialog box indicate where
you want the file saved.
Using Folders
Folders are a way of organizing your email. For
example, you can save all the messages from one person or about a
certain topic in one folder where you can find them easily. In the
Outlook Express main window, the left column is a list of all the
folders to which you have access. Folders can be saved on your hard
drive or on your email server; if you have your own computer and
always use it to read your email, you might want to create local
folders to reduce downloading time. If you don't have your own
computer or sometimes want to be able to check email from another
computer, you should save all your folders on the server. Saving
email on the server also has the advantage that it is regularly
backed up. See below on Creating Folders for how to create a folder
on the server.
Creating and Renaming a Folder
You can either right-click in the folder index or from
the File menu choose Folder. Then choose New
Folder. Give the folder a name and indicate the folder in which
the new folder is to be created; choose Inbox on your CS
account to have the folder saved on the server.
To rename a folder, select the folder in the list and either right
click or from the File menu choose Folder. Then choose
Rename and give the folder a new name.
Putting a Message in a Folder
You can drag messages from one message index to the
name of the folder you want the message saved to. The message will be
marked for deletion in its original folder.
Deleting a Folder
Select the folder name and either right-click in the
folder index or from the File menu choose Folder. Then
choose Delete. You will be given a warning when you do this
because you cannot undelete folders.
Shared Mailboxes
Shared mailboxes allow you to store email in a folder
that other people have access to. You can give different people
different access levels, so that they can just read mail, read and
reply to mail, etc. For more information see the ATN document
Setting Up Shared Mail Folders (ieg19).
The Address Book
The Address Book is a way to store email addresses
electronically; instead of memorizing or writing down everybody's
email address, Outlook Express will remember them for you. Then when
you are writing a message you can access these addresses quickly. To
access the Address Book, click on the Address Book button.
Adding an Individual
To add someone to your address book, click on the
New Contact button. You will be asked to fill in certain
information, including name, a nickname, and an email address. Note
that you can include more than one email address; if you enter
multiple addresses, select one to Set as Default (this will be
the address Outlook Express uses when you are composing). You can
also use different panels to include information about the person's
home and business and other information. Click on OK when you
are done and the person will appear in the address book list.
Adding an Address from a Message
You can also take an address from a message sent to you and put it
in your address book. When reading the message, from the Tools
menu choose Add to Address Book. You can then choose either
the Sender's address to be entered or another address that is
mentioned somewhere in the message.
Adding a Group
If you send email often to a group of people--say, a
work group or a circle of friends--you might want to make those
addresses into a group. Click on the New Group button. Give
the group a name. You can add individuals in this window; any
individual entries you create here will also appear in the main
address book window. You can also select individuals to be part of
the group who are already in your address book. Click on
Select and you will see a divided window. On the left side you
will see a list of people in your address book; select a name and
then click on the Select-> button and the name will appear
in the group list. Click on OK when you are done. You can then
send email to the group just as you would to an individual.
Editing and Deleting Address Book Entries
To make changes to an address book entry, select the
entry and click on the Properties button. Also,
double-clicking on an entry will open up the Properties window. To
delete an entry, select it and click on the Delete button.
Find
The Find button will allow you to search your
address book for information, which is especially useful if you have
a lot of entries. In the Find window, enter in the information you
know and click on Find and the matches will be listed below.
Sending Mail with the Address Book
You can send email from the Address Book: select the
entry and click on the Send Mail button.
You can use the Address Book from the Compose Message window.
Click on the little icon next to the To:, CC:, or BCC: fields, and
you can call up the Address Book. Click on entries and select them
for the To:, CC:, or BCC: fields.
You can also make use of the nicknames that you entered in the
Address Book. When composing a message, type in the nickname for each
person you are sending to (in all fields) and from the Tools
menu choose Check Names.
Address Book Options
You can use a function that will automatically
complete any email address you start to type. To turn on this
function, from the main window (not the Address Book window)
Tools menu choose Options. In the Send panel,
make sure Automatically complete email addresses when
composing is checked.
In the General panel you have the option to
Automatically put people I reply to in Address Book. If you
turn this option on, you will be asked to fill out an Address Book
entry for anyone you reply to.
Signatures and Stationery
Outlook Express allows you to add a signature to your
messages through its stationery feature. Stationery contains preset
options you can use for formatting your email and news messages.
Adding a Signature
What you may be used to thinking of as a signature
file is, in Outlook Express, a stationery file with just your
signature information. To create one, from the Outlook Express main
window choose Stationery from the Tools menu and click
on the Mail tab. Click on the Signature button.
In the next window, decide whether you want to Add this
signature to all outgoing messages. If you decide not to check
this box, you can still add the signature to specific messages when
you are composing: in the Compose window click on the Signature icon
(it looks like a pen) or from the Insert menu you can choose
Signature. Then you can either click on the Text button
and type the text you want for your signature, or you can click on
the File button and specify a separate file that you want to
use as your signature.
Using Stationery
Outlook Express has preset some files you can use as
stationery for your email messages. Note, however, that many of these
stationery files contain formatting and graphics that will not be
readable to recipients using a text-based email program like Pine. To
use one of these preset stationery files, click on the down arrow
next to the Compose Message button on the Toolbar. You will see a
list of stationery files, and at the bottom is an option for More
Stationery... if you want to browse further. The No
stationery option is useful if, for example, you have made a
signature file that is supposed to appear on all messages but you
don't want it on this one.
Reading News
To read news you need to be subscribed to a news
server; you can subscribe when you first use Outlook Express with the
Internet Connection Wizard. If you didn't fill in a news server at
that time, you can subscribe to a news server by choosing
Accounts from the Tools menu and clicking on the
News tab. Create a new account by clicking on Add and
then News.... You will be taken through the Internet
Connection Wizard where you can fill in the server name; at UNC-CH
the news server is news.cs.unc.edu. This server will appear in
the Accounts window.
Reading news with Outlook Express is much like reading email. Your
news server will appear in the folder list, and you can click on it
to see the groups you are subscribed to. Read messages by
double-clicking on them; reply to them using the reply feature; and
post new messages with the Compose Message function.
This document was originally a publication of
Academic Technology and Networks at
The University of North Carolina.
They have graciously allowed us to modify and use their material for
use by affiliates of the Dept. of Computer Science at UNC CH. Those
not affiliated with Computer Science should access the original
document at
http://help.unc.edu/cgi-bin/getdocs?docnumber=ieg15
You can reach the ATN Documentation group at
atndocs@unc.edu.
Author: Jennifer Haytock & Ann Brookhart. Editor: Jennifer
Haytock.
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last updated 3.15.99