If you’re using Internet Explorer, you have Outlook Express Microsoft’s friendly e-mail program. If you’re not sure how to do something in Outlook Express, don’t despair. This article tells you what you need to know to get up and running quickly and efficiently with this program. This article shows you how to master the basics of composing and sending e-mail, how to get fancy by using color and images in your e-mail, and how to print e-mail messages.

Checking for New Mail

After you start sending messages and giving out your e-mail address, your Inbox will fill up with new mail in no time at all. You need to know not only how to access all the latest tidbits headed your way, but also how to reply to these messages.

Setting Outlook Express to check for mail

Normally, when you launch Outlook Express, the program doesn’t automatically tell you when you have new e-mail except when you click the Send/Recv button on the toolbar. If you want, you can have Outlook Express automatically inform you of new e-mail anytime you open the program. If your computer is not connected to the Internet, Outlook Express dials out, connects, and retrieves your mail at this set interval. To set this up, follow these steps:

1. Launch Outlook Express either by clicking the Launch Outlook Express button on the Windows taskbar or by choosing Start -> Outlook Express. You need to launch Outlook Express in this manner because you can’t change any of the program’s settings from a New Message window.

2. Choose Tools -> Options on the Outlook Express menu bar. The Options dialog box appears with the General tab selected.

3. Select the Check for New Messages Every 30 Minute(s) check box and then, in the associated text box, replace 30 with the new number of minutes you desire, or use the spinner buttons to select this interval value. When you enable the Check for New Messages Every “So Many” Minutes check box, Outlook Express automatically checks your mail server for new messages whenever you launch the program and then continues to check at the specified interval as you work in the program.

4. (Optional) To have Outlook Express play a chime whenever new e-mail messages are downloaded while you’re working in the program, select the Play Sound When New Messages Arrive check box.

5. Click Apply.

6. Click OK. The Options dialog box closes, you return to Outlook Express, and the automatic e-mail checking goes into effect. After the automatic e-mail checking goes into effect, Outlook Express informs you of the delivery of new e-mail by placing an envelope icon on the Outlook Express status bar (and “dinging” if you enabled the Play Sound When New Messages Arrive check box). This is very nice for those times when you’re spending a great deal of time working in Outlook Express. However, don’t expect to get this kind of indicator when browsing the Web with Internet Explorer. The only way to know whether you have any new e-mail when working in this program is by clicking the Mail button on the Internet Explorer toolbar and then choosing the Read Mail command.

Reading e-mail

When you use Outlook Express as your e-mail program, you read the messages that you receive in an area known as the Inbox. To open the Inbox in Outlook Express and read your e-mail messages from Internet Explorer, follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook Express by double-clicking the shortcut on the desktop or by choosing Start -> Outlook Express. Alternatively, with the Internet Explorer window active, click the Mail button in the toolbar and then choose Read Mail on the drop-down list that appears. After you choose the Read Mail command, Outlook Express opens the Inbox that is, as long as Outlook Express is configured as your e-mail program.

2. Click the Send/Recv button on the Outlook Express toolbar to download any new messages. As soon as you click the Send/Recv button, Outlook Express opens a connection to your mail server where it checks for any new messages to download for all e-mail accounts on the computer. New messages are then downloaded to your computer and placed in the Outlook Express Inbox. Descriptions of any new messages appear in bold in the upper pane of the Inbox, which is divided into six columns: Priority (indicated by the red exclamation point); Attachments (indicated by the paper clip); Flag Status (indicated by the flag); From; Subject; and Received (showing both the date and time that the e-mail message was downloaded to your computer). Note that mail messages you haven’t yet read are indicated not only by bold type, but also by the presence of a sealed envelope icon in the From column. Mail messages that you’ve read are indicated by the presence of an opened envelope icon.

3. To read one of your new messages, click the message in the upper pane of the Inbox. It doesn’t matter if your mouse pointer is located in the From, Subject, or Received column when you click the message. The message opens and the text appears in the lower pane of the Inbox. The From and Subject information appears on the bar dividing the upper pane from the lower pane. If you want the message to open in its own window, rather than in the lower pane of the Inbox, double-click the message.

4. When you’re finished reading your e-mail, click the Close box in the upper-right corner of the Outlook Express Inbox window.

Replying to a message

Often, you want to reply to a message right away especially if the e-mail message uses the High Priority (!) icon. Follow these steps:

1. To reply to the author of the message, click the Reply button. To reply to the author and send copies of the reply to everyone copied on the original message, click the Reply All button instead.

2. In the message window, type the text of your reply above the text of the original message, and then send the reply by clicking the Send button.

Forwarding a message

Sometimes, in addition to or instead of replying to the original message, you need to send a copy of it to someone who was not listed in the To: or Cc: field. To do so, you forward a copy of the original message to new recipients of your choosing. When you forward a message, Outlook Express copies the Subject: field and contents of the original message to a new message, which you then address and send. To forward the e-mail message to another e-mail address, click the Forward button on the Outlook Express toolbar and then fill in the recipient information in the To:, and, if applicable, Cc: and Bcc: fields. Add any additional text of your own above that of the original message; then click the Send button to send the forwarded message on its way.

Composing E-Mail Messages

Outlook Express makes it easy to compose and send e-mail messages to anyone in the world who has an e-mail address.

Drafting a message

You can follow these steps to create a new e-mail message:

1. In Outlook Express, click the Create Mail button on the toolbar. Alternatively, from the Internet Explorer toolbar, click the Mail button and then choose New Message on the drop-down list that appears. Whichever method you choose, you see an Outlook Express New Message window.

2. Type the recipient’s e-mail address in the text box of the To: field and click OK. If the recipient is already listed in your Address Book, click the word To: to open the Select Recipients dialog box. Then in the Name list box, click the name of the recipient and click the To:-> button. If you don’t want to send the message to anyone else, click OK.

3. (Optional) Click somewhere in the Cc: field, type the e-mail addresses of everyone you want to add to the list, separated by semicolons (;), and then click OK. When composing a new message, you can send copies of it to as many other recipients (within reason) as you want. To send copies of the message to other recipients, type their e-mail addresses in the Cc: field (if you don’t care that they’ll see all the other people copied on the message) or in the Bcc: field (if you don’t want them to see any of the other people copied on the message). To access the Bcc: field, click the To: or Cc: button and indicate Bcc: in the Select Recipients dialog box.

4. Click somewhere in the Subject: field and type a brief description of the contents or purpose of the e-mail message. When your message is delivered, the descriptive text that you entered in the Subject: field appears in the Subject column of each recipient’s Inbox.

5. Optional) To boost the priority of the message, click the drop-down list next to the Priority button and choose High Priority, Normal Priority, or Low Priority. In Outlook Express, you can change the priority of the e-mail message from normal to either high or low by using the Priority button. When you make a message either high or low priority, Outlook Express attaches a priority icon to the message that indicates its relative importance. (Keep in mind that whether the recipient sees this icon depends on the e-mail program he or she uses.) The high-priority icon places an exclamation mark in front of the envelope; the low-priority icon adds a downwardpointing arrow.

6. Click the cursor in the body of the message and type the text of the message as you would in any text editor or word processor, ending paragraphs and short lines by pressing Enter. When composing the text of the message, keep in mind that you can insert text directly into the body of the message from other documents via the Clipboard (using the old Cut, Copy, and Paste commands) or, in the case of text or HTML documents, by choosing Insert -> Text from File and selecting the name of the file in the Insert Text File dialog box.

7. (Optional) To spell-check the message, click the cursor at the beginning of the message text and click the Spelling button. When spell-checking the message, Outlook Express flags each word that it can’t find in its dictionary and tries its best to suggest an alternative word. • To replace the unknown word in the text with the word suggested in the Change To text box of the Spelling window, click the Change button or, if it’s a word that occurs frequently in the rest of the text, click Change All. • To ignore the unknown word and have the spell checker continue to scan the rest of the text for possible misspellings, click Ignore or, if it’s a word that occurs frequently in the rest of the text, click Ignore All.

8. To send the e-mail message to the recipient(s), click the Send button on the Outlook Express toolbar.