Customizing the Inbox and Backing Up Your Mail

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This section shows you how to customize the columns displayed in your Inbox, how to configure the Inbox layout and the toolbar, and how to back up your e-mail items.

Customizing the Columns Displayed in the Inbox

By default, the Inbox displays six columns: Priority, Attachment, Flag, From, Subject, and Received. For most purposes, these are the most widely useful columns. Windows Mail offers five more columns - Mark for Offline, Sent, Size, To, and Watch/Ignore - that you can add if you want. You can also remove the default columns, specify widths for all the columns you display, and change the order in which they appear. To customize the columns displayed in the Inbox, take the following steps:

1. Right-click a column heading and choose Columns from the context menu, or choose View Columns. Windows Mail displays the Columns dialog box .

2. In the list box, clear the check box for any column that you don’t want to appear. Select the check box for any column you want to add. For any column you display, you can specify a suitable width in the The Selected Column Should be NN Pixels Wide text box.

3. To rearrange the order of the columns, select a column and use the Move Up or Move Down button.

4. Click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Columns dialog box and implements your changes to the Inbox.

Customizing the Inbox Layout and the Toolbar

In addition to changing the columns displayed, you can customize the layout of your Inbox, displaying only the elements you want, arranging the Preview pane where you need it, and customizing the toolbar. Take the following steps:

1. Choose View Layout. Windows Mail displays the Layout page of the Window Layout Properties dialog box .

2. In the Basic area, select the check boxes for the components you want to see, and clear the check boxes for the components you want to hide. Most of the items you’ve seen already, but there are a couple you haven’t:

• The Folder bar is a vertical bar that you can display at the left side of the Inbox to provide navigation between the main Windows Mail folders the Inbox, the Outbox, the Sent Items folder, the Deleted Items folder, and the Drafts folder. Normally, you won’t need to use the Folder bar.

• The Views bar is a horizontal bar that appears below the toolbar and provides a dropdown list of different views: Show All Messages, Hide Read Messages, or Hide Read or Ignored Messages.

3.In the Preview Pane area, choose options for the Preview pane:

• Clear the Show Preview Pane check box if you don’t want to use the Preview pane.

• If you do use the Preview pane, choose the Below Messages option button or the Beside Messages option button to determine its placement.

• Select the Show Preview Pane Header check box if you want to have the Preview pane header displayed. The Preview pane header is the gray strip at the top of the Preview pane that shows information about the current message.

4. If you want to customize the toolbar, click the Customize Toolbar button. Windows Mail displays the Customize Toolbar dialog box, as shown here. Work as follows:

• To remove a button from the toolbar, select it in the Current Toolbar Buttons list box, and then click the Remove button.

• To add a button to the toolbar, select the item in the Current Toolbar Buttons list above which you want the item to be added. Then select the item in the Available Toolbar Buttons list box and click the Add button.

• To move a button up or down the toolbar, select it in the Current Toolbar Buttons list box, and then click the Move Up button or the Move Down button.

• To control how text appears for items, choose Selective Text on Left, Show Text Labels, or No Text Labels in the Text Options drop-down list.

• To control how icons appear, choose Small Icons or Large Icons in the Icon Options drop-down list.

• If you mess up the toolbar and need to reset it, click the Reset button.

• When you’ve finished choosing toolbar options, click the Close button. Windows Mail closes the Customize Toolbar dialog box and returns you to the Windows Layout Properties dialog box.

5.Click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Window Layout Properties dialog box and applies your choices.

Backing Up and Restoring Your Windows Mail Folders

If you use Windows Mail extensively, and you use most of the features discussed in this article, you’ll soon have not only a large quantity of data stored in Windows Mail but also a considerable amount of effort invested - writing and responding to messages, building your list of contacts, configuring your accounts and the Junk E-mail options, and constructing rules to highlight important mail and deflect as much unwanted mail as possible. It only makes sense to back up your Windows Mail folders and configuration so that you can restore your data and your configuration should disaster strike. The easiest way to back up your Windows Mail data is to use Backup Utility as discussed in Article 16. If you store your Windows Mail data in the default location within your user profile folders, you can back it up by backing up your profile, and restore it by restoring your profile. This data includes your folders, Internet accounts mail, news, and directory services, mail rules, news rules, and blocked senders. Alternatively, you can back up individual components by using the following commands:

• You can export and import individual mail, news, or directory service accounts by using the Export button and the Import button on the All page or the Category page Mail, News, or Directory Service of the Internet Accounts dialog box Tools Accounts.

• You can back up the message store for an identity by backing up the Windows Mail folder in the appropriate folder. The easiest way of getting to the message store is to display the Store Location dialog box by clicking the Store Folder button in the Maintenance dialog box, copy the path to the folder, press Windows Key+R, paste the path into the Run dialog box, and click the OK button. Windows opens an Explorer window to the folder.

• Similarly, you can back up an individual mail folder within the message store. Open the message store as described in the previous paragraph and back up the appropriate DBX file.

• To restore a mail folder, choose File Import Messages, and then follow through the steps of the Windows Mail Import Wizard.

Collect the information you need to get started with Windows Mail To use Windows Mail, you need an Internet connection either broadband or via a modem and an account with an ISP or e-mail provider. Make sure you know your logon name and password, your e-mail address, your incoming mail server and its type POP or IMAP, your outgoing mail server, and whether to use Secure Password Authentication SPA. Choose Start E-mail, and then follow through the process of setting up your e-mail account.

Choose options for Windows Mail Windows Mail comes with default settings that work well for many people, but to get the most out of Windows Mail, you will probably need to customize some settings. Choose Tools Options, and then work on the many pages of the Options dialog box.

Suppress junk e-mail messages To help you reduce the amount of spam that arrives in your Inbox, Windows Mail provides features for blocking junk e-mail messages. Choose Tools Junk E-mail Options to open the Junk E-mail Options dialog box. You can then choose a preset level of junk e-mail detection, create a Safe Senders list and a Blocked Senders list, block messages by domain or by language encoding, and choose settings for identifying phishing messages.

Read, send, and reply to e-mail To read incoming e-mail, go to the Folder List on the left of the Windows Mail window and click the Inbox for the mail account you want to read. Windows Mail displays your Inbox, which lists the messages and displays icons to indicate information about the message headers. Click the message you want to read. To create a new message, click the Create Mail button on the toolbar, and then work in the resulting message window. To reply to a message, click the Reply button on the toolbar. To forward a message, click the Forward button on the toolbar, and then address the message.

Manage your e-mail messages To delete a message from the Inbox, select it and click the Delete button the  button on the toolbar. Windows Mail moves the message to the Deleted Items folder. To empty the Deleted Items folder, right-click the folder, choose Empty “Deleted Items” Folder from the context menu, and then click the Yes button in the confirmation message box that appears. To move a message from the Inbox to a folder, click the message header and drag it to the appropriate folder in the Folders pane. To clean up messages, choose Tools Options, click the Advanced tab in the Options dialog box, and then click the Maintenance button. In the Maintenance dialog box, click the Clean Up Now button, select the account, and then choose which messages to remove.

Filter your e-mail to make it more manageable Apart from filtering out junk mail, you can create rules to apply filtering to your messages. Choose Tools Message Rules Mail, and then use the options in the New Mail Rule dialog box to define the rule.

Add, remove, and configure mail accounts To add another e-mail account to Windows Mail, choose Tools Accounts, click the Add button in the Internet Accounts dialog box, and then work through the Internet Connection Wizard. To remove a mail account, select the account in the Internet Accounts dialog box and click the Remove button. To change the properties of an account, click it in the Internet Accounts dialog box, click the Properties button, and then work in the Properties dialog box.

Customize the Inbox To customize the columns displayed in the Inbox, choose View Columns, and then use the controls in the Columns dialog box to specify which columns Windows Mail should display and the order in which you want them. To customize the layout of your Inbox, choose View Layout, and then work in the Window Layout Properties dialog box.

Back up your e-mail To back up your Windows Mail data, use Backup Utility see Article 16. If you store your Windows Mail data in the default location, you can back it up by backing up your user profile.