| Paper stationery usually adds a personal touch to your correspondence, especially when compared to the standard 81/2 x 11 blank sheet of paper. In Outlook Express, you can also create email stationery to add a more individual flair to outgoing messages. Included in most of OE's stationery is a background image, unique text font colors, and custom margins. You can apply stationery to all outgoing mail automatically. Here's what to do: 1. | From the Outlook Express Tools menu, choose Options, and then select the Compose tab.
| 2. | Under the Stationery section, select the Mail or News check box (or both), and then click Select.
| 3. | The Select Stationery dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 12-1. Choose a stationery style and choose OK. The selected stationery now appears on the Compose tab of the Options dialog box.
Figure 12-1. Applying stationery to outgoing messages. 
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Note that if you edit one of the predefined templates, it opens in a default Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) editor such as FrontPage. (I touch on how to set this default editor later in the chapter.) Notice, too, that you can create new stationery. Click the Create New… button to launch the New Stationery Wizard. If you want to create email stationery that uses company letterhead, this is where you'll do it. But maybe not every message needs stationery. You can also use stationery on a onesey-twosey basis with the following steps: On the Message menu, point to New Message Using, and then select a stationery style (the Create Mail toolbar includes an arrow that accomplishes the same thing), or After you've already started composing a message, choose the Format menu, select Apply Stationery, and then select a stationery style.
Why You Might Not Be Able to Use Stationery If you can't seem to apply email stationery, make sure you're composing your emails in Rich Text (HTML) format. You can ensure HTML formatting is selected by using the Format menu in a new message window, and then choosing Rich Text (HTML). If selected, a black dot appears next to the menu item. For global HTML settings, open the Options dialog box and select the Send tab. Make sure your "Mail Sending Format" is set to HTML, as shown in Figure 12-2. Figure 12-2. Setting the default mail sending format. 
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