Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Authors: Stinson C.,  Siechert C
 Published year: 2000
 Pages: 141-143/317
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Working with Multiple Identities

A single installation of Outlook Express can handle multiple users. Each user is known as an identity , and each identity maintains its own set of mail and newsgroup folders.

To create a new identity:

  1. Open the File menu and choose Identities, Add New Identity.
  2. In the dialog box that opens, type a name for the new identity.
  3. If you want to require a password for access to this identity, select the Require A Password check box. Then type and confirm the password.

To switch from one identity to another, choose Switch Identity from the File menu, select the identity you want, and type the password if required.

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Performing Maintenance in Outlook Express

Mail and news messages can quickly accumulate and consume large amounts of disk storage space. The maintenance tab on the Outlook Express Options dialog box lets you set options to regain some of that storage space.

Reducing Wasted Disk Space

Every time Outlook Express adds a new message to a mail folder, it expands the size of the folder to make space for it. However, it doesn't automatically reduce the size of a folder if you delete a message. Therefore, your folders will eventually take up more disk space than necessary. To reclaim wasted space:

  1. Open any mail folder.
  2. Choose Folder from the File menu and Compact from the submenu. Or choose Compact All Folders to reduce the wasted space in all of your folders.

You can also eliminate wasted space in your news folders:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu, and click the Maintenance tab.
  2. Click Clean Up Now.
  3. Click Compact to eliminate wasted space in news folders, or click Remove Messages to delete the local copies of news messages, leaving only the headers in place. (If you want to see the message bodies again, you can download a new copy from the server later.) Or click Delete to remove all messages and headers.

Backing Up Your Message Store

Outlook Express doesn't include a command for backing up messages. You can simply include your message files in your normal file backup routine, however. Each Outlook Express folder is stored in a separate file with the extension .dbx. To find out where these files are stored, choose Options from the Tools menu and click the Maintenance tab. Then click Store Folder. If the path to the folder is too long to see, click on the path and press the keyboard's End key to scroll to the end.

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Chapter 20

Sending and Receiving Faxes

If you have a fax device, such as a fax modem, installed on your system, Microsoft Windows 2000 automatically installs the fax service and a driver for your fax device, allowing you to send and receive faxes. The visible manifestation of the fax driver is an item in your Printers folder called Fax. (It can be renamed , of course, but that's its default name .) To fax a document, you need to do little more than open the document in its parent application, choose the application's Print command, and specify Fax as your output device.

You can make multiple copies of the fax driver and create distinct properties for each copy. For example, you could set up separate copies with separate billing codes. Or you could use one copy for immediate transmission and another for offpeak hours. Windows 2000 doesn't support shared fax devices, however.

Along with the fax driver, Windows 2000 supplies a cover page editor and four sample cover pages. You can use the samples as they are or modify them, or use the editor to build your own from scratch.

Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Authors: Stinson C.,  Siechert C
 Published year: 2000
 Pages: 141-143/317
Buy this book on amazon.com >>

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