12.4 Configuring Outlook Express

Outlook Express has enough features and configuration options to fill a very thick book. You can see them for yourself by choosing Tools Options from the Outlook Express window (see Figure 12-7). Here's an overview of some of the features you'll find.

Figure 12-7. The Options dialog box has ten tabs, each loaded with options. Most tabs have buttons that open additional dialog boxes. Coming in 2006: Outlook Express Options: The Missing Manual.

12.4.1 General tab

Most of the controls on the General tab govern what Outlook Express does when you first launch it. Take note of the options for configuring automatic connection to your ISP. You can select the option to check for messages every few minutes, and then use the drop-down list to tell Outlook Express how, and whether, to connect at that time ”if you're not already online.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Canning Spam

Help! I'm awash in junk email! How do I get out of this mess?

Spam is a much hated form of advertising that involves sending unsolicited emails to thousands of people. While there's no instant cure for spam, you can take certain steps to protect yourself from it.

1. If you have more than one email account, consider using one each for online shopping, Web site and software registration, and newsgroup posting. Spammers have automated software robots that scour every public Internet message and Web page, automatically locating and recording email addresses they find. These are the primary sources of spam, so at least you're now restricting the junk mail to one secondary mail account. (Reserve a separate email account for person-to-person email.)

2. Whenever you receive a piece of junk mail, choose Message Block Sender from the Outlook Express toolbar. Outlook Express will no longer accept email from that sender.

3. When filling out forms or registering products online, always look for checkboxes requesting permission for the company to send you email or share your email address with its " partners ." Just say no.

4. When posting messages in a newsgroup, insert the letters NOSPAM somewhere into the email address you've specified in the News Account dialog box (Section 12.5). Anyone replying to you via email must manually remove the NOSPAcM from your email address, which is a slight hassle; meanwhile, the spammers' software robots (which aren't very bright) will lift a bogus email address from newsgroup posts.

5. Create message rules to filter out messages containing typical advertising words such as casino, guaranteed , loan, and so forth. (You'll find instructions in this chapter.)

6. If you really have a spam problem, get a new email address. Give it to people you trust; use the old address only for junk mail, and check it for messages only infrequently.

12.4.2 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 read ”changing its typeface from bold to non-bold ”if 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 is also where you choose the font you want to use for the messages you're reading, which is an important consideration.)

12.4.3 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. (Outlook Express, Outlook, and Eudora all do.)

12.4.4 Send tab

The options on the Send tab govern outgoing messages. One option to consider turning off here is the default option, "Send messages immediately." That's because as soon as you click the Send button, Outlook Express tries to send the message, even if that means triggering your modem to dial. All of this dialing ”and waiting for the dialing ” drives some people crazy, especially in households with only one phone line.

If you turn this option off, then 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 choose Tools Send and Receive (or click Send/Recv on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+M). Only at that point does Outlook Express command your modem to dial the Internet. It then sends all the waiting outgoing mail at once.

NOTE

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, since Outlook Express 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 puts the original message at the bottom of a reply.

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

12.4.5 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; it houses 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 on the toolbar, which launches a wizard that walks you through the process of designing your own background design.

NOTE

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 Outlook Express toolbar, just click the tiny down-arrow triangle next to it. Doing so opens a window that lists several stationery styles, letting you choose one on a message-by-message basis.

12.4.6 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 that's for business messages, one for your buddies , and so on. (Outlook Express calls them Signature #1, Signature #2, and so on. To rename a signature, click its name and then click the Rename button.)

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

12.4.7 Spelling tab

The Spelling tab offers configuration options for the Outlook Express 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).

12.4.8 Security tab

This tab contains options for sending secure mail, using digital IDs, and encryption. If you're using Outlook Express 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.

NOTE

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 virus programs that, behind the scenes, send out hundreds of infected emails to everybody in your address book. This option ensures that if some software ”not you ”tries to send messages, you'll know about it.

12.4.9 Connection tab

You change options for making and sustaining the connection to your ISP in the Connection tab. For example, you can tell Outlook Express 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, Outlook Express otherwise uses the same Internet settings described in Chapter 10.

12.4.10 Maintenance tab

This tab is your housekeeping center. These options let you clear out old deleted messages, clean up downloads, and so on.