Using a stored e-mail address to create a new e-mail message

If you’ve stored names and e-mail addresses, you can retrieve an e-mail address so you don’t have to type it in yourself. To retrieve a stored e-mail address, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Choose Actions -> New Mail Message (or press Ctrl+N). The message window appears.

3. Click the To button. The Contacts dialog box appears.

4. Click a name to select it.

5. Click the To button to copy your chosen e-mail address to the To text box.

6. (Optional) Click additional e-mail addresses and then click the Cc or Bcc button.

Cc stands for Carbon Copy while Bcc stands for Blind Carbon Copy. Anyone on the Cc list will receive your message along with all the e-mail addresses that also received your message. Anyone on the Bcc list will just receive your message but will not be able to see any other e-mail addresses you may have sent your message to.

7. Click OK. Outlook automatically enters your chosen e-mail address in the To text box.

8. Click in the Subject text box and type a brief description of your message.

9. Click in the message text box and type your message. If you click the Save icon on the Quick Access toolbar, you can store the message in your Drafts folder so you can edit and send it at a later time.

10. Click the Send icon to send your message.

Forwarding an e-mail message

Sometimes you may receive a message, but rather than reply to it, you want to send it (forward it) to someone else. Forwarding a message essentially copies a message and sends it to someone else whom the original sender may not even know. (This can be handy for sending incriminating e-mail messages to prosecutors trying to collect evidence to put your boss in prison.) To forward a message, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Click a message that you want to forward to someone else.

3. Choose one of the following:

• Click the Forward icon.

• Choose Actions -> Forward.

• Press Ctrl+F.

A message window appears that contains your chosen message. If you try to forward a message that contains HTML code known as a Web bug, Outlook may display a dialog box warning you that the content of the forwarded message may send information back to the original sender to verify that your e-mail address is valid.

4. Click in the To text box and type an e-mail address. (Or click the To button to choose a stored e-mail address.)

5. Click in the message window and type any additional text you want to send along with the forwarded message.

6. Click the Send icon.

Attaching Files to Messages

Rather than just send plain text, you can also attach a file to your message. This file can be anything from a picture, a song (stored as an audio file), a program, or even another e-mail message. Be careful when attaching files to messages because many ISPs put a limit on the maximum size of an e-mail message, such as 10MB. Also try to keep any file attachments small because if the recipient has a slow Internet connection, downloading a large file attachment can take a really long time. Attaching a file to a message If you want to send someone a picture, video, audio file, compressed file, or even an entire program, you need to attach that file to a message by following these steps:

1. Follow the steps in the earlier section, “Creating E-Mail,” to create a new e-mail message, type a subject, and type an e-mail address.

2. Click the Insert tab.

3. Click the Attach File icon. The Insert File dialog box appears.

4. Click the file you want to attach to your message and then click Insert.

Outlook displays an Attach button and text box in the message window . If you hold down the Ctrl or Shift key while clicking a file, you can select multiple files at once.

5. (Optional) Click the Attach button to display the Insert File dialog box so you can select more files.

6. (Optional) Right-click any file in the Attachment text box; when a popup menu appears, choose Remove if you change your mind about attaching a file to a message.

7. Click the Send icon. Rather than select multiple files to attach to a message, you can compress or zip multiple files into a single compressed file by using a separate program like WinZip or by using the built-in Zip compression feature in Windows.

Attaching Outlook information to another message

Rather than attach a file, you might want to send information stored in Outlook, such as contact information or a task. To attach Outlook information to a message, follow these steps:

1. Follow the steps in the earlier section, “Creating E-Mail,” to create a new e-mail message, type a subject, and type an e-mail address.

2. Click the Insert tab.

3. Click the Attach Item icon. The Insert Item dialog box appears.

4. Click a folder, such as Inbox or Contacts. The dialog box displays a list of the items stored in your currently selected folder.

5. Click an item, such as an e-mail message stored in the Inbox folder.

6. Click OK. Outlook attaches your chosen item to the message window.

7. Type an e-mail address, subject, and any text in the message window.

8. Click the Send icon.

Formatting E-Mail

Plain e-mail will just look like black text against a white background. If you want to spice up the appearance of your e-mail messages, you can use stationery or text formatting tools. You can also use signature files to display unique information in every message you send, such as your name and phone number. Formatting text You can format text in an e-mail message just the same way you can format text in a Word document, such as changing fonts, choosing different colors, underlining text, or creating numbered lists.

To format text, follow these steps:

1. Select the text you want to format.

2. Click the Message or Format Text tab. The Format Text tab displays additional formatting tools such as creating numbered and bullet lists, and aligning text to the right, center, or left. Adding signatures to your messages Signatures contain text that appears at the bottom of every e-mail message you send. Signatures can be useful for displaying your name, company, Web site address, or short message that you want everyone to read when they receive a message from you.

Be careful about including personal information in a signature, such as your home phone number. If someone forwards your e-mail that has your signature at the bottom, some stranger could read your signature text and use your information against you to hack into your computer or steal your identity. As a general rule, only put information in your signature file that you don’t mind sharing with a world full of strangers. To create a signature, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Choose Tools -> Options. The Options dialog box appears.

3. Click the Mail Format tab

4. Click the Signatures button.

5. Click the New button. The New Signature dialog box appears.

6. Type a descriptive name for your signature file and then click OK.

7. Click in the text box and type the text that you want to include in your signature file, such as your name, company, Web site, and so on. You can also format your text at this point. Just be aware that some computers and e-mail programs may not be able to display all the formatting correctly.

8. Click the Save button.

9. (Optional) Click in the Replies/Forwards list box and choose the name of your signature file that you defined in Step 6.

10. Click OK twice. Now every time you create a new e-mail message, Outlook automatically inserts the text you saved in your signature file.

Creating and using multiple signatures

You can actually create multiple signature files although Outlook will attach only one signature file to your e-mail messages automatically. Creating multiple signature files lets you create one signature file for personal use and one for business use. (Just make sure you don’t get the two of them confused and send out personal information in your signature file to your business contacts.) To create additional signatures, follow Steps 1–10 in the preceding section, “Adding signatures to your messages.” After you create multiple signature files, you can define which one to use by following these steps:

1. Follow Steps 1–5 in the “Creating a new e-mail message” section to create a new message.

2. Click the Insert tab.

3. Click the Signature icon in the Include group. A pull-down menu appears that displays a list of your existing signature files.

4. Click the name of the signature file you want to use. Outlook displays that signature file’s text in your e-mail message.

5. Type your message in the text box.

6. Click the Send icon to send your message.

Editing and deleting a signature file

You can always edit a signature file at any time to add or delete text. To edit a signature file, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools -> Options. The Options dialog box appears.

2. Click the Mail Format tab.

3. Click the Signatures button. The Signatures and Stationery dialog box appears.

4. Click a signature filename. Outlook displays the contents of that signature file in the text box below.

5. (Optional) Click the Delete button. When a dialog box appears to warn you that you are about to delete the signature file, click Yes (or No).

6. Click in the text box and edit your text.

7. Click the Save button to save your changes.

8. Click OK.

Reading and Organizing E-Mail

When Outlook retrieves e-mail, it organizes messages according to time. Messages received today appear under the Today heading, messages received last week appear under the Last Week heading, and messages received last month appear under the Last Month heading. Outlook gives you two ways to read an e-mail message:  In the Preview pane  In a separate window The Preview pane can be handy for browsing the content of different messages to see if you really want to read them or not. Because the Preview pane shows only part of the message, some text may appear cut off. Viewing a message in a separate window is more useful when you want to read the entire message.

To view an e-mail message, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Click a message in the Inbox pane. Outlook shows your chosen message in the Preview pane.

3. (Optional) Double-click the message in the Inbox pane. Outlook displays your message in a separate window.

4. Click the Close box to make the message window disappear. Categorizing messages One problem with receiving messages is that you may have personal and business messages mixed together, and trying to find an older message later can involve tedious searching through your past messages, one by one. To solve this problem, Outlook lets you categorize messages according to color. You may use red to highlight important messages, yellow to highlight personal messages, green to highlight business messages that involve money, and so on.

Color categorizing a message To categorize a message, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Click a message in the Inbox pane.

3. Choose Actions -> Categorize.

4. Click a category. Outlook displays your chosen color in the Category icon of the message. (If this is the first time you’ve chosen a color, Outlook displays a dialog box, giving you the chance to give the color a more descriptive name.)

After you color-categorize your messages, you can organize them in groups by choosing View -> Arrange By -> Categories. Clearing color categories from a message To clear color categories from a message, follow these steps:

1. Click a message that contains a color category.

2. Choose Actions -> Categorize -> All Categories.

3. Select the check boxes to add or remove a color category from the message you selected in Step 1.

4. Click OK. If you want to clear color categories from all messages, choose Actions -> Categorize -> Clear All Categories.

Retrieving a file attachment from a message

Rather than just send text, people might send you pictures, word processor documents, or databases as file attachments. When you receive a message with a file attachment, Outlook displays a paper clip icon next to the message . Never open a file attachment unless you absolutely trust its contents. Many hackers send viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses as file attachments, so if you’re not careful, you could accidentally infect your computer and lose your data.

To open a file attachment, follow these steps:

1. Click a message that displays a paper clip icon. Outlook displays the message’s contents in the Preview pane along with displaying a file icon and the actual file attachment name.

2. Double-click the file icon displayed in the message’s Preview pane

3. Click Open.

If you click Save, you can save the file in a folder and examine it with an antivirus or antispyware program before opening it.

4. Click a program to use and then click OK. Another dialog box appears, asking whether you really want to open the file.

5. Click Yes (or Cancel if you change your mind and don’t want to open the file after all). Your chosen program loads and displays the contents of the file attachment. You can often open file attachments using more than one program. If you receive a text file as a file attachment, you can open it using Notepad, WordPad, or Microsoft Word.

Deleting E-Mail Messages

To keep your Inbox folder from getting too cluttered, you can always delete messages that you’re sure you’ll never need to read again. To delete a message, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Click a message in the Mail pane that you want to delete.

3. Press Delete or choose Edit -> Delete. If you accidentally delete the wrong e-mail message, you can undelete it by pressing Ctrl+Z or choosing Edit -> Undo right away. When you delete messages, Outlook stores them in the Deleted Items folder so you can always retrieve them later. To retrieve a previously deleted message, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Click the Deleted Items icon in the Mail Folders pane.

3. Click a message that you want to retrieve.

4. Choose Edit -> Move to Folder.

5. Click a folder (such as Inbox) to store your message and then click OK. Outlook removes your message from the Deleted Items folder and stores it in the folder you chose.

If you delete a message from the Deleted Items folder, that message will be gone for good. To clean out your Deleted Items folder (to save space or to destroy incriminating e-mail messages), follow these steps:

1. Choose Go -> Mail. (You can also press Ctrl+1 or click the Mail button in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.) Outlook displays the Mail pane.

2. Choose one of the following:

• Click a message.

• Choose Edit -> Select All to select all the messages stored in the Deleted Items folder.

• Hold down the Ctrl key and click each message you want to delete.

• Hold down the Shift key, click the first message you want to delete, and then click the last message you want to delete.

Outlook selects all the messages in between the first and last messages you selected.

3. Press Delete or choose Edit -> Delete. A dialog box appears, asking whether you’re sure you want to delete your selected messages.

If you delete any messages from the Deleted Items folder, you will not be able to retrieve them ever again for the rest of eternity.

4. Click Yes (or No).