Outlook Express - Tips & Tricks

Note: Many of these tips & tricks also work in Outlook -  and many of the Outlook Tips & Tricks also    work in Outlook Express - Also See our Outlook Tips & Tricks

Sending e-mail messages on stationery

With Outlook Express, you can add stationery backgrounds to your messages to make them look more attractive. Want to know the quickest way to add a background?

1. Click the arrow on the Compose Message button.
2. Click the stationery background you want to use.

Creating New Folders

To organize and save your e-mail messages, you can create folders to put them in. Here's a quick and easy way to create a folder: 1. Right-click the folder where you want to put the new folder (for example, Inbox or Outlook Express), and then click New Folder. Type a name for the new folder, and then press ENTER.

Custom Signatures

With Outlook Express, you can personalize your e-mail messages by creating a custom signature to include in messages you send. For example, maybe you'd like to include your name, phone number, and a favorite saying or quote. Here's how:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Stationery.
  2. On the Mail tab, click the Signature button.
  3. Click Text, and then type the information you want to include in your signature.
        If you already have information in a file, you can click File and then specify the name
         and location of the file you want to use.
  4. If you want this signature to be included in all outgoing messages, click Add this signature to all
        outgoing messages.

Hide Messages

Newsgroups are a great way to get up-to-date information, but sometimes there are so many messages, it's hard to sort through them all. With Outlook Express, you can hide the messages you've already read, so that you know all the messages on the list are new to you. Here's how: On the View menu in Outlook Express, click Current View, and then click Unread Messages

Sorting Messages

Outlook Express has a handy feature you can use to sort through your messages quickly. Look at the headings at the top of the columns in your message list: From, Subject, and Received. To sort by any of these categories, just click the column heading. To rearrange the order of the columns, drag the column headings to the left or right. To resize a column, point to the vertical bar separating the columns, and then when the pointer turns to a double-headed arrow, drag it to the left or right.

Want to find people or businesses online in a jiffy?

Try Directory Services, the powerful built-in search tools of Outlook Express. Here you have access to several popular Internet directory services, and you can add other services from your Internet service provider. Because they use different methods for collecting data, try more than one service and compare the findings. Here's how to get to them:

  In the Address Book, click the Find People button on the toolbar. Or, in Windows, click the Start button, point to Find, and then click People. In either case, type as much information as you can into the search boxes, and then click Find Now.

Autocomplete

The new AutoComplete feature in Outlook Express saves you typing time by automatically completing addresses that you type when composing e-mail messages. However, if you don't want to use this feature, you can easily turn it off. Here's how:

   1. On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Options.
   2. Click the Send tab, and then clear the Automatically complete e-mail addresses when composing
           check box. You can always turn this feature back on by following these steps again.

Subscribing To Newsgroups

If there is a newsgroup you like and visit often, you can make it easy to use by subscribing to it in Outlook Express. When you subscribe to a newsgroup, it is listed in the folder list for easy access. Here's how:

  If you are viewing the newsgroup you want to subscribe to: On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Subscribe to this newsgroup.

  If you've added a news server but haven't subscribed to any groups:
     1. Click the news server name in the folder list, and then click the News groups button on the toolbar.        
     2. Click the newsgroup you want to subscribe to, and then click Subscribe.

Using more than one e-mail account

Do you and your partner have separate e-mail accounts, but share the same computer? Or do you have two different e-mail accounts for yourself, such as one for home and one for work?

With Outlook Express, you can manage multiple e-mail accounts from the same place. You can even have the e-mail from the different accounts delivered to different inboxes. Here's how:

To set up different e-mail accounts:
   1. On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Accounts.
   2. Click the Add button, and then click Mail.
   3. Follow the instructions in the wizard to set up the new account.

To choose which account you want to use:
   On the Tools menu, click Send and Receive, and then click the account you want to use, or click All Accounts to deliver e-mail to and from all of the accounts you have set up.

To deliver e-mail to separate inboxes:
   1. If you need to create a new folder for the new mail account, on the File menu, click Folder, and then
            click New Folder. For example, you could create a folder named "Dave's Account."
   2. On the Tools menu, click Inbox Assistant, and then click the Add button.
   3. Click the Account option, and then select the name of the account whose mail you want to deliver
          to a different inbox. Click the Move To option, and then click the Folder button to specify the name
          of the folder where you want the mail delivered.

Automatic Message Sorting

If you get a lot of e-mail messages, you may want to use automatic sorting to make it easier for you to manage your messages. With Outlook Express, you can use the Inbox Assistant to send messages to different folders, depending on certain criteria you specify. For example, you can have all messages with a certain subject line be put into a separate folder. Here's how:
1. On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Inbox Assistant.
2. Click Add.
3. Specify the criteria you want to sort messages by.
       If you want all messages from a certain person to be sorted, specify that person's address in the From box. If you want to sort messages with a particular subject line, specify that subject in the Subject box.
4. Specify what should happen to these messages.
   If you want to move them to a particular folder, click Move To, and then specify the folder you want to use. You can set up multiple rules for sorting incoming messages. To set your priorities, you can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Inbox Assistant dialog box.

E-Mail A Shortcut for a Web Page to A Friend

If you want to let a friend know about a Web page, you can send a shortcut to the page via e-mail. And with Outlook Express, you can easily send the shortcut by dragging and dropping. Here's how: ? Drag the Internet shortcut into the e-mail message. You can drag a link from the page you're viewing, the page icon from the Address bar, or any other Internet shortcut - for example, if you've saved one to your desktop or a folder.

Distribution Lists

Do you find yourself sending e-mail to the same group of people often? Tired of adding each name to the To line in your messages? With the Outlook Express Address Book, you can create a "distribution list" of people. Then, you just type the list name in the To box, and your e-mail message is sent to each person in the group. Here's how to create a distribution list:
   1. On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Address Book.
   2. Click the New Group button on the toolbar.
   3. In the Group Name box, type a name for the group.
   4. To add names to the group, click Select Members, and then select names from the Address Book list. If you want to add someone who is not in your Address Book, click New Contact, and then complete the form.

Adding Commands to the Outlook Express Toolbar

Is there a menu command that you always use in Outlook Express, such as Find or Print? Want to add this command to the toolbar? It's easy! Here's how:
    1. Right-click the toolbar, and then click Buttons.
    2. To add a button, select the button on the left, and then click Add.
            To remove a button, select it on the right, and then click Remove.
            To separate toolbar buttons with a thin vertical line, add a separator.
            To rearrange the toolbar buttons, select one on the right, and then click the Move Up or Move
                Down button.
   3. When you have finished, click Close.

How often does Outlook Express check for e-mail while you are connected to the Internet?

It's up to you! You can choose to check for new mail as often as once a minute. Here's how:
   1. On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Options.
   2. On the General tab, make sure the Check for new messages every check box is selected.
   3. Specify the number of minutes that you want.

Note If you clear the check box, Outlook Express will not check for new messages automatically. It will check only when you click Check for new messages on the Tools menu.

Outlook Express Reading Newsgroup Messages Offline

Some newsgroups contain so many messages that you could spend hours reading them! But why tie up your phone line for that long? With Outlook Express, you can download newsgroup messages and then read them offline, without being connected to the Internet. You can save time by downloading only the message headers and then choosing which messages you are interested in downloading. Here's how
to set up newsgroups for offline reading:
    1. In the folder list in Outlook Express, select a newsgroup.
    2. On the File menu, click Properties.
    3. Click the Download tab.
    4. Select the When downloading this newsgroup retrieve check box, and then click the option you
           want.

  To download messages? On the Tools menu, click Download All.
  To download specific messages after you've downloaded headers
      1. Click the message header that looks interesting.
      2. On the Tools menu, click Mark for Retrieval, and then click Mark Message.
      Repeat for other messages. On the Tools menu, click Download All.

Outlook Express News - View Replies to Your posts

If you just want to view replies to your posts: From the View menu choose Current View > Replies to my posts