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.

• The Attachment icon means that the message has one or more files attached to it. You’ll learn how to work with attachments later in this article.

• The Unread Message icon indicates that a message has not been read.

• The Read Message icon indicates that a message has been read. You can mark a message as unread or read by right-clicking its header and choosing Mark As Unread or Mark As Read, as appropriate, from the context menu.

• A flag is a mark you can set on a message to indicate that you need to deal with it. To set or remove a flag, click in the Flag column beside the message’s header.

• If a message is marked as high priority, it displays a red exclamation point in the Priority column.

To read a message in the Preview pane, click it in the message headers listing. Windows Mail displays it in the Preview pane. To read a message in a separate window, double-click its message header listing. Windows Mail displays the message in a separate window. To sort your messages by one of the column headings, click the heading once for an ascending sort alphabetical order or twice for a descending sort reverse-alphabetical order. To view a subset of your messages, choose View Current View Hide Read Messages or View Current View Hide Read or Ignored Messages. To restore the view to all messages, choose View Current View Show All Messages. If you have multiple messages from the same conversation on the same topic, with the same subject, choose View Current View Group Messages by Conversation to group the messages. Issue the command again to ungroup the messages. To ignore a conversation that’s going on, select one of the messages and choose Message Ignore Conversation.

Sending E-mail

You can generate e-mail in Windows Mail by creating new messages, replying to messages you’ve received, or forwarding either messages you’ve received or messages you’ve created and sent before.

Troubleshooting: “Server Not Found” Error

A “Server not found” error from Windows Mail may mean that your Internet connection isn’t working when Windows Mail expects it to be. If you want Windows Mail to dial the connection automatically when necessary, select the Dial Whenever a Network Connection Is Not Present check box on the Connection page of the Options dialog box.

Composing a New Message

To create a new message, take the following steps:

1. Click the Create Mail button on the toolbar. Windows Mail opens a message window containing a new message.

• To create a message using Windows Mail’s stationery, click the Create Mail button’s drop-down list button and choose the type of stationery from the drop-down menu. If you’ve set Windows Mail to use a type of stationery as the default, choose No Stationery from the drop-down menu when you need to create a blank message.

• To create a message to a contact, click the Contacts button. Windows Mail opens an Explorer window showing your Contacts folder. Click the contact, and then click the E-mail button on the toolbar.

2. If you have multiple e-mail accounts, choose the account from which you want to send the account by using the drop-down list at the right end of the From text box.

3. Enter the e-mail address of the recipient or recipients in the To text box and the names of cc: recipients in the Cc: text box. Separate multiple addresses with semicolons. You can either type each address in or choose it from Address Book as follows:

• Click the To: button. Windows Mail displays the Select Recipients dialog box.

• In the Type Name or Select from List list box, select the name and click the To: button, the Cc: button, or the Bcc: button to add the selected name to the appropriate box of message recipients.

• Add further names to the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lists as applicable, and then click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Select Recipients dialog box and adds the recipients to the appropriate boxes in the New Message window.

4. Click in the Subject text box and enter the Subject line for the message. The more descriptive, informative, and concise the Subject line is, the more useful it will be to the recipients of the message - and the more likely they will be to read the message.

5. In the message box, enter the text of the message:

• You can enter and edit the text using the standard Windows commands such as cut-andpaste, and drag-and-drop and format the text if you’re sending a formatted message by using the buttons on the Formatting toolbar, .

• To switch the message from plain text to rich text HTML or vice versa, choose Format Rich Text HTML or Format Plain Text.

• To insert a horizontal line, click the Insert Horizontal Line button on the toolbar.

• If you type a recognizable hyperlink, Windows Mail automatically converts it to a hyperlink. To insert a hyperlink manually, select the text to include in the hyperlink and click the Create a Hyperlink button on the toolbar. Windows Mail displays the Hyperlink dialog box shown next. Choose the type of hyperlink from the Type dropdown list for example, http for a regular connection, https for a secure connection, mailto for an e-mail link, enter the URL or address in the URL text box, and then click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Hyperlink dialog box and inserts the hyperlink in the message.

• To insert a picture, click the Insert a Picture button. Windows Mail displays the Picture dialog box, which is a standard Windows Open dialog box given a new name. Select the picture, and then click the Open button. Windows Mail closes the Picture dialog box and inserts the picture in the message at the insertion point. If you want to control how the picture appears, right-click the picture and choose Properties from the context menu. Windows Mail displays the Picture dialog box, shown next. In the Alternate Text text box, enter text to be displayed in case the recipient cannot view the picture. Choose alignment and border thickness options in the Layout group box and horizontal and vertical spacing options in the Spacing group box, and then click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Picture dialog box and applies the changes to the picture in the message.

6. If you want to override for this message your default setting for requesting read receipts, choose Tools Request Read Receipt. If you’ve turned on digital signing and want to request a secure receipt, choose Tools Request Secure Receipt.

7. If you want to override for this message your default setting for encrypting messages, choose Tools Encrypt.

8. If you want to override for this message your default setting for digitally signing messages, choose Tools Digitally Sign.

9. You’re now ready to send the message. Read through the message quickly to make sure it conveys what you want it to and that you haven’t written anything rash or ambiguous. Spell-check the message if necessary by clicking the Spelling button or choosing Tools Spelling. Then click the Send button or choose File Send to send the message on its way. If you try to send an encrypted message without having a digital certificate with which to encrypt it for yourself, Windows Mail displays the Security Warning dialog box shown next. Choose the Yes button to send the message unencrypted, or choose the No button to cancel sending the message so that you can change the encryption setting or find your digital certificate.

If you try to send an encrypted message to someone whose digital certificate you don’t have, Windows Mail displays the Windows Mail dialog box shown next. Click the Don’t Encrypt button to send the message without encryption. Click the Cancel button to cancel sending the message.

Creating More Complex HTML Messages

As you’ve seen in this section, Windows Mail offers some basic formatting options for HTML messages. But if you want to create a complex layout for a message, you’ll do better to use a custom web-design program for example, FrontPage to create it as a web page. Then paste the contents of the page into the message in Windows Mail. Before sending the message to others, send a copy to yourself to make sure everything works.

Replying to an E-mail Message

To reply to a message from the Inbox, click the Reply button on the toolbar, or right-click the message header and choose Reply to Sender from the context menu. Alternatively, press Ctrl+R. To reply to a message from a message window, click the Reply button on the toolbar in the message window. If you weren’t the only recipient of a message, you can use the Reply to All feature to reply quickly to all the recipients of that message and to cc: everyone on the Cc: list, if the message has one. From the Inbox, click the Reply All button on the toolbar, or right-click and choose Reply to All from the context menu. Alternatively, press Ctrl+Shift+R. From a message window, click the Reply All button on the message window’s toolbar. Windows Mail opens a message window for the reply. Compose your reply, add any extra recipients, and send the message as usual. When you reply to a message, Windows Mail adds RE: to the Subject line so that the recipient can easily see that the message is a reply.

Adding a vCard to Your Outgoing Messages

You can include a vCard - a virtual business card - with your outgoing messages either automatically or manually. Usually it’s better to include vCards manually when necessary so that you don’t barrage your friends and colleagues with useless vCards. vCards are small, but they travel as attachments to messages, so they can make attachments folders silt up. To send a vCard with every message, select the Mail check box in the Business Cards area of the Compose page of the Options dialog box Tools Options, then choose the appropriate contact entry from the context menu. To send a vCard manually, specify the vCard as described in the previous paragraph, but then clear the Mail check box in the Business Cards area. You can then choose Insert My Business Card from a message window to add the vCard to a message.