Using Outlook Express

Using the Address Book
Sending E-mail
Attaching Files to Messages
Customizing your messages
How to Setup Multiple E-mail Accounts with Outlook Express
Using Outlook Express to read newsgroups
Preventing children from accessing newsgroups with adult content
Accessing the newsgroups
Downloading a list of available newsgroups
Finding a topic that interest you
Subscribing to a newsgroups vs. viewing a newsgroup
Controlling the number of message headers downloaded
Retrieving and viewing posts
Replying to a newsgroup post
Posting to a newsgroup

Continued from Part 1...

Using the Address Book

The Address Book in Outlook Express provides you with a convenient method of organizing information about your correspondents including e-mail addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and notes. To insert an entry into your address book, follow these steps:

Once the address book is open, press New Contact on the toolbar
Type in as much information as you want about the new contact. First Name, etc. Note: You do not have to fill in all fields. Simply inserting a display name is sufficient.
In the e-mail address, type in the contacts address and click the Add button. Note: The first entry displays (default e-mail) next to the address. If a person has more than one address available, they may be added here as well
Under the e-mail address there is an option to "Send e-mail using plain text only." Check this option if you are unsure whether the recipient's e-mail client is HTML compatible or not
There are tabs for Home, Business, and notes about the contact which you can also fill in
When you are finished entering information, press OK
The new contact is now on your list
Highlighting their name and pressing Properties on the toolbar will display the listing again

If you have a group of correspondents that you wish to write the same message to without having to retype the address multiple times, you can create a Group in your address book.

Open the Address book and press New Group on the toolbar
Type in a name for your group. For example Clients
From the list of existing entries in your address book, choose names to add to the group. Press the arrow pointing to the empty list box to add the names you want on the list
Press OK
You now have a list called Clients listed in your Address Book
The members of this list can be modified by highlighting the Group name and pressing Properties on the toolbar. You can add or delete members as needed

Sending E-mail

It seems as though everyone has an e-mail address these days and people are quickly learning that corresponding via e-mail is easier than the traditional methods. A few rules to follow when sending e-mail are:

Make sure of the address you are sending to. If a correspondent's address is listed as john.doe@domain.com then addressing it to johndoe@domain.com will probably result in a delivery failure.
Make sure you use the proper syntax. A common mistake is to accidentally insert a comma in the place of the period. Generally, Internet Mail will give you a syntax error when it attempts to deliver a message addressed like this.
Even though the number of recipients is not limited, some mail servers will reject messages addressed to a large number of people. Try to limit the number of recipients of a message to 10 or less to ensure proper delivery

We are now going to compose a new message in Outlook Express using entries we have put in our address book

Press the New Message button
Press the tiny rolodex card next to the TO box. This will bring up your Address Book
Double-click on a recipients or group name in the Address Book. Note how their name goes to the right pane under TO. You can add as many names in the TO box as needed.
When you are satisfied with the recipients list, press OK. Note how the Display Name appears in the TO box now
Tab to the SUBJ box and enter a short subject
Tab to the body of the message and type your message
When you are through, press the Send button on the toolbar of the new message
Your message is now in the Outbox waiting to be sent the next time you choose Send & Receive

If you do not have the recipients name in your address book and you do not want to add it, simply type in their e-mail address in the TO box in the above example.

Attaching Files to Messages

Attaching a file to a message using Outlook Express is easy. Perhaps you have a document or picture file you would like to send to a recipient. Using Outlook Express follow these steps:

Press the New Message button
Type the e-mail address of the recipient or choose one from your address book
Tab to the SUBJ box and type a subject
Tab to the message body and type a message
Click the Paper Clip on the New Message toolbar
When the Insert File box appears, browse your hard drive until you locate the file you want to send
Double-click on the file name to insert it as an attachment in your message
You will see the attachment at the bottom of your new message
Press the Send button to send the message to your Outbox

Be careful when sending large files. Large files take more time to transfer. Also, many mail servers will reject messages with files over 3 MB. As a general rule, keep attachments under 1 MB.

Customizing your messages

You can customize the way your messages look in Outlook Express several ways. Add a signature, send it in HTML format, and much more. A word of caution when sending messages in HTML format; If the recipient does not have an HTML compliant mail client, they will simply see the HTML code which may appear garbled to them. It helps to know who your recipients are and what they are using to read e-mail. If you are unsure, you should compose your messages in Plain Text (default).

To switch from HTML to plain text messages, follow these steps:

From the Tools menu choose Options
Click the Send tab
Under Mail Sending Format check HTML or Plain Text
Press Apply, then OK to close the Options box
You will now be able to write message in the format of your choice

If you would like to sign your messages automatically each time you write a message, follow these steps:

From the Tools menu choose Stationery
Click the signature button
Check the Text box.
Type your signature as you want it to appear in your message

John Doe

Anytown, USA

Please visit my website at http://www.anysite.com

E-mail: johndoe@anydomain.com

Your message here will be inserted in each new message you write

You can also create a file with your signature. In the above steps your would check File on the signature tab and choose your file from a location on your hard drive.

Alternatively, if your correspondents are using a compatible e-mail client, you may attach a v-card to your messages. To do this, you need to make an entry for yourself in your address book. All the information you include will be inserted into your v-card as an attachment. (Currently only supported in certain e-mail clients)

Using custom stationery in your messages

To use colorful stationery in your outgoing messages, follow these steps:

From the Tools menu, choose Stationery
Under the section "When composing new messages use," check "This stationery"
Press the Select button and choose a custom stationery
Click OK, then OK to confirm your choice

Note: Custom stationery will appear as an attachment in e-mail clients that do not support it.

How to Setup Multiple E-mail Accounts with Outlook Express

If you have more than one e-mail account in your household, follow these steps to setup multiple accounts and separate address books.

Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, then double click the Passwords icon
Click the User Profiles tab, and then click "Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings. Windows switches to your personal settings when you log in."
Click OK. When you are prompted to restart your computer, do so.
When prompted to log on to Windows, type in a unique Username and Password for the selected user.
Start Outlook Express and configure the users account.
Exit Outlook Express and choose Start, then Shutdown.
Click "Close all programs and log on as a different user," Click Yes, then log on a different user.
Open Outlook Express again and configure the second users account.

Using Outlook Express to read newsgroups

Topics covered
Preventing children from accessing newsgroups with adult content
Accessing the newsgroups
Downloading a list of available newsgroups
Finding a topic that interest you
Subscribing to a newsgroup vs. viewing a newsgroup
Controlling the number of message headers downloaded
Retrieving and viewing posts
Replying to a newsgroup post
Posting to a newsgroup

A newsgroup is a collection of messages posted by individuals to a news server. News servers are computers maintained by companies, groups, and individuals, and can host thousands of newsgroups.

You can find newsgroups on practically any subject. Although some newsgroups are monitored, most are not, and messages can be "posted" and read by anyone who has access to that group. There are no newsgroup membership lists or joining fees.

Preventing children from accessing newsgroups with adult content

The NetEase News Server uses a unique username and password scheme to allow end users to determine the type of newsgroups their news reader will have access to. To change or determine the type of access users on your computer will have, follow these steps.

From the Tools menu, choose accounts
Click the News tab
Highlight the NetEase News Server account. (Generally news.netease.net)
Click Properties
Click the Server tab
Verify that news.netease.net is the mail server name
Verify that "This server requires me to logon" is checked
Use the following username and password scheme to determine the type of access

Restricted Access: (No binaries, sex newsgroups, etc.)
Username: netease
Password: zippo
Unrestricted Access:
Username: neteaser
Password: zippor

Click Apply, then OK to confirm your changes
Click Close to exit the Account Options box

Accessing the newsgroups

To access the news server in Outlook Express, follow these steps:

In the folder list, highlight the news server name by clicking once on the title
If this is the first time you have accessed the news, you will be prompted if you would like to download a list of available newsgroups. Press Yes. (See Downloading a list of available newsgroups below)
If you have already downloaded a list, Outlook Express will only prompt you if there are new newsgroups available
Clicking the plus "+" sign next to the news server folder will display a list of newsgroups you have subscribed to
Clicking the newsgroup name will prompt Outlook Express to retrieve the latest message headers from the server. (See Viewing and reading posts below)

Downloading a list of available newsgroups

The first time you access any news server, a list of available newsgroups will be downloaded to your computer for you to pick from. Caution, as the list is sometimes quite lengthy and may take longer the first time you access it. For instance, the NetEase News Server currently house well over 20,000 newsgroups. Depending on your connection speed, this could take as long as 30 minutes to download just the available newsgroups.

Each time you access the news server after this, Outlook Express will check for new newsgroups and prompt you if you would like to view the list. Press Yes, to see what has been added. These are usually short list.

To view the list at anytime, click the Newsgroup button on the Outlook Express toolbar. Note: You will not have to download the list a second time. The list is stored in Outlook Express.

Finding a topic that interest you

Once the list of available newsgroups has downloaded to your computer, type in keywords in the "Display newsgroups which contain" box to locate topics of interest. For example, typing "railroad" will display all newsgroups with "railroad" in the title. There are thousands of topics available. Check to see if something you are interested in is available.

Subscribing to a newsgroups vs. viewing a newsgroup

You may wish to view the contents of a newsgroup before actually subscribing to it. To do so, follow these steps:

Access the news server by click its title in the folder list
Click Newsgroups on the Outlook Express toolbar
Locate the newsgroup you wish to view and highlight the title by clicking on it
Click Go To
Outlook Express will add this group to your folder list temporarily and it will download the message headers for that newsgroup
If you wish to subscribe to the newsgroup after viewing it right click the title and choose Subscribe to this newsgroup. Otherwise, when you exit Outlook Express, the newsgroup and its message headers will be removed from your folder list

To subscribe to a newsgroup, follow these steps:

Access the news server by clicking its title in the folder list
Click Newsgroups on the Outlook Express toolbar
Locate the newsgroup you wish to subscribe to and highlight the title by clicking on it
Click Subscribe
Outlook Express will add this newsgroup to your folder list to be checked each time you access the news server

Controlling the number of message headers downloaded

By default, Outlook Express is set to download 300 message headers at a time. You can adjust this number by following these steps:

From the Tools menu, choose Options
Click the Read tab
In the "Download "x" message headers at a time" set the amount you desire

Note: Outlook Express will always retrieve the latest message headers first. For example: If a newsgroups contains 2000 messages, Outlook Express will download the last 300 messages headers that have been posted. To get more earlier posts, click the Tools menu and choose "Get next 300 headers."

Retrieving and viewing posts

Newsgroup posts may be retrieved online or downloaded for offline viewing. For large newsgroups, you may want to mark either selected or all messages for download so that you may read them offline. If you are just browsing, you may want to read selected messages while still connected to the news server.

To mark selected messages for offline reading, follow these steps:

Highlight the selected message header in the header pane
Right-click the header and choose "Mark message for download"
The entire message will be downloaded when you choose "Download news.netease.net" from the Tools menu

To mark all message headers in a particular newsgroup for download, follow these steps:

Highlight the selected newsgroup in the folder pane
Once the message headers have been retrieved, right click the title and choose "Mark for retrieval"
Select whether to mark new headers, new messages, or all messages. You can also choose to unmark your selections here

Note: Some posts may have multiple threads. Meaning that others have replied to the post. This is usually indicated by a plus "+" sign next to the message header. Marking a single message for retrieval does not mark the follow-up threads.

To view a post while connected to the news server, follow these steps:

Highlight the selected newsgroup in the folder pane
Once the message headers have been retrieved, select the desired message by clicking the header
Outlook Express will retrieve the message and display it in the preview pane
To view the message in a full screen, double-click the header

Replying to a newsgroup post

To reply to a post, follow these steps:

Highlight the selected message in the header pane
Click the Reply to Group button on the Outlook Express toolbar
Outlook Express will fill in the TO and SUBJ box for you
Type your message and click Post on the toolbar

Note: If your reply contains less text than the quoted message, you will be prompted to delete parts of the original quote to reduce wasted space on the news server. Make your corrections and click Post again.

Posting to a newsgroup

Highlight the selected newsgroup and click Compose Message on the Outlook Express toolbar
Outlook Express automatically fills in the address for you
Type in your subject in the SUBJ box
Tab to the message body and type your message
Click Post on the toolbar

Outlook Express has many features built in to make it easier for you to read and post message in newsgroups. We encourage you to explore the included help files to learn more about using Outlook Express.

If you have any questions or experience problems, please feel free to contact NetEase at comments@netease.net.