Outlook Express Tutorial

Outlook Express Tutorial

 

E-mail Delivering  a three-stage process, very much like sending a letter through the local post office.

   1. You take your letter to the post office and mail it.
   2. The postal service delivers your letter to the post office at the far end.
   3. The recipient goes to the post office and picks up the letter.

How e-mail works

  

When you address an e-mail message, you use the format username@domainname.  In this format, username is the account name assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the domainname is *.com at the end. 

Both username and domainname are unique to help ensure that e-mail messages are delivered to the intended recipient. For example Tom McLaughlin has a username of tmclaughlin, and his domainname is digitalsmiles.com. His e-mail address is tmclaughlin@digitalsmiles.com.

E-mail is actually composed of two e-mail systems: the first system is used to send e-mail messages from you to another user's e-mail post office, and the second system is used by you to retrieve e-mail messages so they can be read.

Sending e-mail

The first of these two systems uses the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to send e-mail from one e-mail system or post office to another. When you address an e-mail message, you use the format username@domainname.

In order to send e-mail successfully you must have the right address of the person you are e-mailing, the SMTP server at the far end must be able to find the recipient's mailbox, and be able to write to it.

If these conditions are not met your message will "bounce" (be undeliverable) and you will get some sort of an error message.

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Logging on to Outlook Express

1)   Start Outlook Express. To start Outlook Express, click on Start, then click on Programs, next click on Internet Explorer and finally click on Outlook Express.

2)    From the Outlook Express main menu, select Tools and select Accounts. You’ll see the following:

3)  Click on Add and select Mail.

4)   After entering your full name click on Next >.

5)  Type the e-mail address that will be used in all future mail messages.
    Your email address should look like this: username@domainname.com

6)  After entering your email address, click on Next >.

7)  In the next screen, you will be asked to choose the e-mail server type and supply the names of the Incoming mail (POP3 or IMAP) server and the Outgoing mail (SMTP) server.

Use the following settings

for example:  Mail server type: POP3
Incoming mail server: mail or pop3.provider's name.com, or .net, .org, or .edu
Outgoing mail server: mail or smtp.provider name.com, etc

Example:  mail.shaw.ca  or mail.digitalsmiles.com or mail.tomax7.com

8)  After entering all the information, click on Next >.

9)  In the next screen, you will be asked to enter your login information. In the POP3 account name field, enter your username (e.g. jsmith). In the Password field, put your account password.

NOTE: If you share your machine with other users, DO NOT enter your password here at this time. You will be asked to enter your password later when you retrieve your mail from the server.

10)  After entering the information, click on Next >.

11)  Click on Finish to save your settings.

Final Touches:

From the Outlook Express main menu, click on Tools and select Options. Select the General Tab if it is not already selected. You can tell Outlook Express to check for new mail in minutes. Select Check for new messages every __ minutes. You choose the increment.

By default, Outlook Express is set to send outgoing mail in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) format. It is better that users change this setting to Plain text since other people on the receiving end might be using a mail reader that doesn't understand HTML.

To change this setting, do the following:
From the Outlook Express main menu, click on Tools and select Options. In the options window, click on the Send tab. Check Plain Text option for Mail sending format and News sending format.

To create a Signature file, click on the Signature Tab. Select the New button and type your contact information in the text field. Make sure that the button Add signatures to all outgoing messages is selected. The signature file should not exceed 4 lines and should include information about the person (e.g. affiliation, title, address, phone, fax, etc.).

Then click on OK.

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Checking Your Email

Click on the Outlook Express Icon on your desktop. It looks like this...
 

Make sure that the Inbox folder to the left of the screen is highlighted.

If you have e-mail waiting, Outlook Express will retrieve your messages and will display the new messages in your Inbox.

Outlook Express's main window is divided into three sections.

The top section contains a list of e-mail messages in your Inbox. Your Inbox holds new messages that have been received since you last checked your e-mail plus previously read e-mail that you have not yet deleted or moved to another folder.  

The lower section of the main window displays the contents of the message that is highlighted in the top section.

The left section of the window lists the standard folders that Outlook Express sets up as a part of the configuration process.

Accessing and Displaying Messages
To read a message in your Inbox or some other mail folder, you must:
Open the folder in which the message resides, such as your Inbox. The folder list is found in the left-hand corner. 

To open a message in its own message window, double-click the message's summary in the message list. To return to the index or message list, close the message window.

There will be times when you want to view the "Headers" of a mail message. This information tells you where the e-mail you received came from. To view a mail Header, highlight the message in the top section, choose File, Properties, and Details. (Tomax7)

Updating Your Message List

To download new messages into your Inbox or to update your message list so you can see new messages, from your Inbox or any Message List window, choose the send and Receive button.

Printing Selected Messages
You can print a message from the Message window, or from the Message List window, if the message panel is open and the message you want to print is being displayed.

To print the currently displayed message, click File, then Print.

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Composing e-mail

Sending e-mail differs from replying and forwarding in a number of areas and functions. Perhaps the greatest difference is that sending, in the strictest form, involves creating original messages.

To send a new or original e-mail message, begin by clicking on the New Mail icon.

This will open the message composition window.

Enter the e-mail address of the person you wish to write in the To: field, include a Subject: and then type your message in the body of the e-mail.  Be aware that depending on the mail reader the person you are writing uses,  font type, size, bold, italics, and underscore may or may not look as you intended.

Then press Send.

Recipient Types and what they mean

To:Primary recipients of your message.
CC:Carbon Copy, for secondary recipients.
BCC: Blind Carbon Copy, for secondary recipients not identified to the other recipients. Use this when mass emailing lists or groups of people so you cause people to get 3 screens worth of scrolling down to see the actual emails!

Replying to e-mail  
  

When you reply to a previously received e-mail message, the text of the message you are replying to is included in your mail message. You can edit this message. Replying to a previously received e-mail message automatically inserts the To: address and eliminates the need to "look up" the senders address.
Reply: To reply to the author of the message by e-mail, click the Reply button on the toolbar.
Reply All: To reply to the author of the message and to all the group, click the Reply All button on the toolbar.

Forwarding e-mail

You can pass a received message to another user.  Messages that are forwarded retain their attachments.

Attachments      
Any file on the user computer or local drives can be sent as an attachment to an e-mail.  A message does not need to be plain text. An attachment can be a document (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, text etc.) or a voice message.



Multiple files can be attached with a single e-mail. How To Attach A File: Open a New Message window.
Enter the message. Click on Insert then File Attachment .

Choose the file from the dialog box:

Common format types include: .pdf, .doc, .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .html, .htm, .xl, .ppt

If possible, before sending messages with attached files, make sure that your intended recipients have the software available to read the attachments. There is no point in sending, for example, an Excel spreadsheet to a person who does not have Excel.

Opening attachments: be careful about opening attachments from someone you do not know. Viruses can be transmitted through attached files via e-mail. If you do not know who an attachment comes from consider deleting the mail without opening the attachment.

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Outlook Express folders automatically created:

Inbox - holds your incoming mail
Outbox - holds your current mail before it is sent
Sent Items - stores copies of all outgoing messages
Deleted Items - contains e-mail that has been deleted
Drafts - stores drafts of outgoing messages
Templates - Mail you have saved with a specific format that you will re-use in the future
Unsent Messages - If you turn off the Option, Send mail immediately, all your sent mail resides in this folder until you terminate your mail session

INBOX
The Inbox is intended for storing incoming e-mail messages. Old messages should not be kept in the Inbox; they should be moved to other folders or deleted once they have been read.

Deleted Items

To delete a message, select the message in the Outlook's top section and click on the Delete button. The highlighted message will now have a small mail icon with a red X through it. To purge the deleted messages, choose Edit, Purge deleted messages.

If you delete a message by mistake and have not yet purged it, open the Deleted Items folder, and then drag the message back to the Inbox or other folder.

New Folder

Messages that you would like to save should be moved into another folder; they should not be left on your Inbox. Folders may be created and used on your local PC.  E-mail messages stored in folders on your local PC are accessible only when you are using that particular PC.

To create a new e-mail folder, select File, Folder, New. This will produce the New Folder window.

Type the name of the folder you want to create (e.g. Minutes) in the upper field. You can name this folder anything you want, a project name, a persons name or topic name. Use the lower field to select the location under which the new folder should be created.

Filing Messages   

To move an e-mail message from your Inbox to another folder, select the message in the top section and then choose Edit, Move To Folder. 

This will open a list of available folders. Click the folder that you want to store the message in. The message will be deposited in the new folder and removed from your Inbox.

Messages that have been stored in other folders can be used the same way you would as if they were still in your Inbox; you can move, delete, reply-to and forward them. To switch from your Inbox to another message folder,  select the folder to be displayed on the left section.

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Adding a Card to Your Personal Address Book
From the Outlook Express toolbar, select the Address Book button.


From the Address Book window, click New, which brings up the choices New Contact, New Group, or New Folder.

In the New Contact dialog add your entry to your Address Book, click OK.

Adding a Group to Your Personal Address Book

From the Outlook Express toolbar, select the Address Book button.


From the Address Book window, click New, which brings up the choices New Contact, New Group, or New Folder.

In the New Group dialog add a Group name to your Address Book. Choose Select Members, and highlight the individuals already in your address book and send them into the right side of the window by clicking on the Select button. Press OK.

Looking Up and Using Addresses from Address Books


To lookup an e-mail address by using the Address Book, follow these steps in order:

1.
Choose the Addresses icon.

2. 
If the person you are looking for is on the list, highlight his name and select the Action icon on the toolbar, then select Send Mail.

3. Compose and Send message as usual.

To add Signature to Outgoing Messagesa)      On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Signatures tab.
b)      To create a signature, click New and then either enter text in the Edit Signature box or          click File, and then find the text or HTML file you'd like to use as your signature.
c)      Select the Add signatures to all outgoing messages check box.

 Emails Netiquette:

“Netiquette” is a term for proper etiquette on the Internet.

1) Don't assume any Internet communication is completely secure. "Never put in an e-mail message anything you would not put on a postcard". Likewise, independently verify any suspect mail, as addresses can be forged.

2) If you are replying to a message, quote only the relevant parts.

3) If you are forwarding or re-posting a message, don't change the original wording.

4) Never send chain letters, they are forbidden on the Internet.  Notify you System Administrator if you receive one.

5) Do not send abusive or heated messages (flames).  If you receive a flame, it is best to ignore it.

6) Allow time for mail to be received, and replied to, keeping in mind time differences around the world and other people's busy schedules.

7) In general it is easy to read e-mail when there are line breaks between paragraphs.

8) If you want your mail to be read, don't make it too long unless the receiver is expecting a verbose message. Over 100 lines is considered long.

9) Send messages in .txt format.  A lot of people do not use web browsers to read e-mail and your .html code may become a sort of gibberish. 

10) Use mixed case, UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING.

11) The e-mail subject header should reflect the content of the message.

12) When attaching files, don't send any larger than about 50k, unless you cannot avoid it.

13) When attaching images, convert them into .jpg format.