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Outlook Express comes a close runner up to Windows and Word as a source of woe and frustration but for all of it’s faults – and it has a few – Outlook Express is actually a very sophisticated e-mail “client” and offers far more functionally than most users will ever need.
It is also very easy to set up and use, but many never get past the basics to discover the wealth of hidden features.
The aim of these hints and tips is to hopefully make Outlook Express a little less daunting. They’re mostly intended for the current version 6, but many are applicable to earlier versions.
If you are using an old version, it is well worth upgrading to version 6. In addition to new features most of the worst security loopholes have been plugged. Outlook Express 6 is FREE – it is bundled with Internet Explorer 6 – and can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp. It’s a fair size (up to 17Mb) so look for it on computer magazine CD’s.
I’ll kick off with a simple tip that notifies you when an e-mail has been received and opened. The recipient also has to be using Outlook Express or a compatible e-mail client program and has to manually acknowledge receipt or set their client program to do it automatically.
To ask for a receipt for an individual e-mail go to the Tools menu on the message window and click Request Read Receipt. To enable it for all outgoing messages go to the main Tools menu, select Options then the Receipt tab and check the box. If you want to oblige others, check the item Always send a Read Receipt.
You may have noticed that as your mailboxes fill up, Outlook Express slows down. It’s a good idea to compact messages from time to time (Tools > Options > Maintenance) or better still, archive your old messages.
If there’s a lot of them, hold down the Ctrl key, click the one at the top of the list and press and hold either the down arrow or Page Down keys. Right-click the highlighted messages and select Forward As Attachment. This will open a message window with your selected messages inserted as attachments. Be patients – it can take a while.
Now go to Save As on the File menu, choose a location and give your message archive a name. You can read the messages at anytime simply by clicking on your archive file in Windows Explorer. This will automatically open Outlook Express and from there you can read messages or restore them by dragging and dropping them back into folders. When you are satisfied it’s working you can delete the messages you have archived to free up space.
It’s not a good idea to have the Preview Pane enabled as it can open the door to viruses. (To disable the Preview Pane go to Layout on the View menu). However, it’s sometimes useful to have this facility on call, so here’s how to add a Preview Pane button to the Toolbar. Right-click on an empty area of the toolbar and select Customise, scroll down the list of Available Toolbar Buttons and highlight Preview and click the Add button. You can alter it’s position by highlighting it and moving it up or down the list in the right hand Current Toolbar Buttons window.
If you have a lot of e-mail’s with large attachments cluttering up your Inbox simply save the e-mail without the attachment. Open the message and select Save As on the message window’s File menu then in the Save As Type drop-down menu choose Text File. The e-mail will now be saved as plain text, which can be opened and read using a word processor. You can save the attachment separately by right-clicking on it in the message window.
I’ll round off with a list of the many and various keyboard shortcuts in Outlook Express.
ALT + Enter: View properties of selected message.
ALT + left arrow: Go to previous message
ALT + right arrow: Go to next message
ALT + S: Post message
CTRL + <: Go to previous message in list
CTRL + >: Go to next message in list
CTRL + A: Select all messages
CTRL + D: Delete mail message
CTRL + ENTER: Send (post) a message
CTRL + ENTER: Mark message as read
CTRL + F: Forward message
CTRL + G: Reply to all (news only)
CTRL + I: Go to Inbox
CTRL + J: Go to next unread newsgroup/folder
CTRL + M: Send and receive mail
CTRL + N: Open or post new message
CTRL + O: Open selected message
CTRL + P: Print selected message
CTRL + Q: Mark message as read
CTRL + R: Reply message to author
CTRL + SHIFT + <: Go to previous message in list
CTRL + SHIFT + >: Go to next message in list
CTRL + SHIFT + A: Mark all news messages as read
CTRL + SHIFT + F: Find text
CTRL + SHIFT + M; Download news for offline reading
CTRL + SHIFT + R: Reply to all
CTRL + SHIFT + S: Insert signature
CTRL + SHIFT + U: Go to next unread news thread
CTRL + U: Go to next unread news message
CTRL + W: Go to a newsgroup
ESC: Close message
F1: Open Help topics
F3: Find text
F5: Refresh news messages and headers
F7: Check spelling
CTRL + T: Mark thread as read.
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More tips to follow.
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