Sending and Receiving E-mail


In case you're new to e-mail, it's time to present a quick Outlook Express e-mail how-to. Read on to learn how to use Outlook Express' most common operations.

Reading an E-mail Message

If you've received new e-mail messages, they will be stored in Outlook Express' Inbox. To read a new message:

1.

Click the Inbox icon in the Folder list. All waiting messages will now appear in the Message pane.

2.

Click the message header of the message you want to read. This displays the contents of the message in the Preview pane.

3.

To display the message in a separate window, double-click the message in the Message pane.

Replying to an E-mail Message

TIP

Unless reconfigured otherwise, Outlook Express does not automatically send your new messages out over the Internet when you click the Send button. The Send button only "sends" the message to your Outbox. To send all waiting messages from your Outbox out over the Internet, click the Send and Receive button on the main Outlook Express toolbar.


Replying to an e-mail message is as easy as clicking a button. Just follow these steps:

1.

Select the message in the Message pane, then click the Reply button on the toolbar. (Alternatively, you can click the Reply to All button to reply to all recipients of the message or you can click on the Forward button to send the message to a completely different recipient.)

2.

A Re: window appears, as shown in Figure 9.5. The original message sender is now listed in the To: box, with the original message's subject referenced in the Subject: box. The original message is "quoted" at the bottom of the text area of the window.

Figure 9.5. Replying to a message is similar to creating a new one but with the original message's text automatically quoted.


3.

Type your reply in the text area above the quoted text.

4.

Click the Send button to send this reply to your Outbox.

Creating a New E-mail Message

NOTE

Separate multiple addresses in the To: or Cc: fields with a semicolon (;) but no spaces, like this: fflintstone@bedrock.com;gjetson@sprockets.com.


Creating a new e-mail message is similar to replying to a received message. Follow these steps:

1.

Click the New Mail button.

2.

When the New Message dialog box appears, enter the e-mail address of the recipient(s) in the To: field and the address of anyone you want to receive a carbon copy into the Cc: box.

3.

You also can select names from your Address Book by clicking the Address Book icon next to the To: or Cc: fields. When the Select Recipients dialog box appears (as shown in Figure 9.6), select the name(s) of whomever you want to send the message to and click the To: button. Select the name(s) of whomever you want to send a carbon copy of the message to and click the Cc: button. Click OK when done.

Figure 9.6. Use the Address Book to automatically add recipients to your new message.


TIP

If you type a standard Web URL into an HTML e-mail message, Outlook Express will automatically create a hyperlink for you you don't have to do it manually

4.

Enter the subject of the message in the Subject: field.

5.

Move your cursor to the main message area and type your message.

6.

You can choose to send your message in either plain text or HTML format. (HTML messages are discussed in the next section.) If you choose to send it in HTML format, you can use the formatting buttons on the toolbar to add boldface, italic, underlined, or aligned text. To select HTML formatting, select Format, Rich Text (HTML).

7.

If you're sending the message in HTML format, you can add background colors and graphics. If you simply want to use a background color, select Format, Background, Color, and then pick a color from the color list. If you want to use a background picture, select Format, Background, Picture, and then enter the name of the graphics file you want to use. You also can add a background sound to your message by selecting Format, Background, Sound.

CAUTION

Some older or corporate-oriented e-mail programs will not be able to display fancy HTML formatting and might reject HTML e-mail outright. So if you're sending message to a user and you don't know whether they can receive HTML e-mail, you'll want to send that message as a text-only (not HTML!) message.

8.

When your message is complete, send it to the Outbox by clicking the Send button.



Microsoft Windows XP for Home Users Service Pack
Windows XP for Home Users, Service Pack 2 Edition
ISBN: 0321369890
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 270

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