Section 12.5. Configuring Windows Mail: All Versions | Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

12.5. Configuring Windows Mail: All Versions

Mail has enough features and configuration options to fill a very thick book. You can see them for yourself by choosing Tools Options. Heres a brief overview of some of the most useful options (Figure 12-15).

Figure 12-15. The Options dialog box has ten tabs, each loaded with options. Most tabs have buttons that open additional dialog boxes. Coming in 2008 : Windows Mail Options: The Missing Manual.

12.5.1. General Tab

Most of the controls here govern what Mail does when you first open the program. Take note of the options to connect automatically; you can opt to have Mail check for messages every few minutes, and then use the drop-down list to say how, and whether, to connect at that time if you're not already online.

12.5.2. Read Tab

Use these options to establish how the program handles messages in the Inbox. One of these options marks a message as having been readchanging its typeface from bold to non-boldif you leave it highlighted in the list for five seconds or more, even without opening it. That's one option you may want to consider turning off. (This tab is also where you choose the font you want to use for the messages you're reading, which is an important consideration.)

12.5.3. Receipts tab

You can add a return receipt to messages you send. When the recipient reads your message, a notification message (receipt) is emailed back to you under two conditions: if the recipient agrees to send a return receipt to you, and if the recipient's email program offers a similar feature. (Windows Mail, Outlook, and Eudora all do.)

12.5.4. Send Tab

The options here govern outgoing messages. One option to consider turning off here is the factory-set option, "Send messages immediately." That's because as soon as you click the Send button, Mail sends messages immediately, even if you haven't fully had time to consider the consequences of the rant inside itaimed at an ex, a boss, or a co-workerwhich could land you in hot water.

It's also a good choice if you're on a dial-up connection. All of this dialingand waiting for the dialingdrives some people crazy, especially in households with only one phone line.

If you turn this option off, clicking the Send button simply places a newly written message into the Outbox. As you reply to messages and compose new ones, the Outbox collects them. They're not sent until you click the Send/Receive button, or press Ctrl+M. Only at that point does Mail send your email. If you're on dial-up, it sends all the waiting outgoing mail at once.

Tip: To see the messages waiting in your Outbox, click the Outbox icon at the left side of the screen. At this point, you can click a message's name (in the upper-right pane of the screen) to view the message itself in the lower -right pane, exactly as with messages in your Inbox.Don't bother to try editing an outgoing message in this way, however; Mail won't let you do so. Only by double-clicking a message's name (in the upper-right pane), thus opening it into a separate window, can you make changes to a piece of outgoing mail.

The Send tab also includes features for configuring replies. For example, you can disable the function that includes the message in the reply.

Finally, the "Automatically put people I reply to in my Contacts list" option can be a real timesaver. Each time you reply to somebody, his email address is automatically saved in your Contacts list. The next time you want to write him a note, you won't need to look up the addressjust type the first few letters of it in the "To:" box.

12.5.5. Compose Tab

Here's where you specify the font you want to use when writing messages and newsgroup messages.

This is also the control center for stationery ( custom-designed templates, complete with fonts, colors, backgrounds, borders, and other formatting elements that you can use for all outgoing email). Needless to say, sending a message formatted with stationery means that you're using HTML formatting, as described earlier, complete with its potential downsides.

To choose a stationery style for all outgoing messages, turn on the Mail checkbox, and then click the Select button. You're offered a folder full of Microsoft stationery templates; click one to see its preview. You can also click the Create New button, which launches a wizard that walks you through the process of creating your own background design.

Tip: You don't have to use one particular stationery style for all outgoing messages. When sending a message, instead of clicking the Create Mail button on the Mail toolbar, just click the

next to it. Doing so opens a window that lists several stationery styles, letting you choose one on a message-by-message basis.

12.5.6. Signatures Tab

As noted earlier in this chapter, you use this tab to design a signature for your messages. By clicking the New button and entering more signature material in the text box, you can create several different signatures: one for business messages, one for your buddies , and so on.

To insert a signature into an outgoing message, choose Insert Signature, and then choose the one you want from the list that appears.

12.5.7. Spelling Tab

The Spelling tab offers configuration options for the Mail spell-checking feature (which requires that you have Microsoft Word). You can even force the spell checker to correct errors in the original message when you send a reply, although your correspondent may not appreciate it.

12.5.8. Security Tab

This tab contains options for sending secure mail, using digital IDs, and encryption. If you're using Mail in a business that requires secure email, the system administrator will provide instructions. Otherwise , you'll find that most of these settings have no effect.

A few settings worth exploring appear under "Virus Protection" and "Download Images," shown in Figure 12-16.

Figure 12-16. The factory settings shown here may be too restrictive . Under Virus Protection, consider choosing Internet Zone (less secure, but more functional). If you find that you have trouble opening attachments from people you know and trust, turn off "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus."

Tip: One of these options is very useful in the modern age: "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me." That's a thinly veiled reference to viruses that, behind the scenes, send out hundreds of infected emails to everybody in your Contacts list. This option ensures that if some softwarenot youtries to send messages, you'll know about it.

12.5.9. Connection Tab

Here, you can tell Mail to hang up automatically after sending and receiving messages (and reconnect the next time you want to perform the same tasks ). As noted in the dialog box, though, Mail otherwise uses the same Internet settings described in Chapter 9.

12.5.10. Advanced Tab

This tab is your housekeeping and settings center for Mail. You can configure what you want Mail to do with your contact's vCards (virtual business cards), if you want to compose your replies at the bottom of emails instead of the top, and whether or not you want to mark message threads in newsgroups as "watched."

Don't miss the Maintenance button. It lets you clear out old deleted messages, clean up downloads, purge newsgroup messages, and so on.