Chapter 23: E-Mail and Newsgroups Using Outlook Express

Getting Started with Outlook Express

To begin using Outlook Express, choose Start | All Programs | Outlook Express. If Outlook Express is your default mail program, you can choose Start | E-mail to run it.

When you run Outlook Express for the first time, you may be greeted with a dialog box asking if Outlook Express should be your default e-mail client. In other words, should Windows launch Outlook Express whenever you give a command to send mail from some other application (such as Internet Explorer or Address Book)? Choose Yes or No. If you intend to choose No, uncheck the Always Perform This Check When Starting Outlook Express check box so that you are not nagged. If Outlook Express is your default e-mail program, you can choose Start | E-mail.

Next, the New Connection Wizard may start to help you set up a mail and/or newsreader account. (If you installed Windows XP as an upgrade to some earlier Windows operating system, and if you used Outlook Express on that system, your accounts should already be set up.) If you choose to set up your accounts right away (you can always do it later), skip to "Setting Up Your Accounts" later in this chapter. Otherwise click Cancel, click Yes when the verification box asks if you are sure, and then the Outlook Express window appears, as shown in Figure 23-1.

Figure 23-1: Your first view of Outlook Express

Working with the Outlook Express Window

The Outlook Express window, as shown in Figure 23-1, resembles an Explorer window. At the top is a menu bar, with a toolbar underneath it. Below the toolbar, the window is divided into three panes. The right pane contains links that you can click to do the things that the text describes, such as set up a newsgroup account or create a new mail message. The upper-left pane is a folder list, similar to the left pane in an Explorer window. Outlook Express is at the top of the list and is highlighted, indicating that it corresponds to what is currently shown in the right pane.

The folders immediately beneath Outlook Express on the folder list are necessary parts of the mail system:

• Inbox Where Outlook Express puts the incoming messages that it downloads from your incoming mail server. The messages remain there until you delete them or move them to another folder.
• Outbox Contains the outgoing messages that you have completed and chosen to send, but have not yet been sent. For example, you might complete and choose to send several messages while you are offline. Those messages wait in the Outbox folder until the next time your computer is connected to your outgoing mail server.
• Sent Items Contains messages that you have sent. Messages remain in this folder until you delete or move them.
• Deleted Items Contains the messages (both incoming and outgoing) that you have deleted. Like the Recycle Bin, it is a last-chance folder that gets unwanted messages out of the way, but from which they still can be retrieved. Outlook Express can be set up to clean out the Deleted Items folder automatically, or you can delete messages from it manually. Outlook Express cannot retrieve messages deleted from the Deleted Items folder.
• Drafts Contains unfinished messages that you have chosen to save and work on later. Any time you are composing a message, you can choose File | Save to save the message in the Drafts folder.

As you begin sending and receiving messages, you can set up other folders to keep track of your correspondence. You don't have to do so, but if you plan to keep copies of messages, they will be easier to find if you sort them into folders by topic or by correspondent.

Setting Up Your Accounts

Before Outlook Express can send or receive mail, or allow you to interact with newsgroups, you need to tell it what accounts you have and how it can access them. Have the following information handy:

• The name you want attached to any message you send Do you want to be known as Johnny Public, Jonathan Q. Public, or by some nickname?
• Your return e-mail address If people want to reply to your messages, where should the replies go?
• The names of the servers your account deals with For a news account (which lets you read newsgroups), this is an NNTP server with a name like news.serviceprovider.com. For an e-mail account that is not Web based, you provide two names: one server for incoming mail (a POP or IMAP server) and one server for outgoing mail (an SMTP server). (Your ISP--Internet service provider--should have given you this information--if you don't have it, check their Web site or call them.) Outlook Express can deal with Web-based e-mail accounts if they either offer public HTTP mail access (so far, Hotmail is the only one that does), or if they also have POP or IMAP servers. For Yahoo! Mail, enter pop.mail.yahoo.com for your incoming mail server and smtp.mail.yahoo.com for your outgoing mail server.
• Your user name and password (if any) for logging into the servers This information also comes from your ISP.

Once you have assembled this information, you need to tell Outlook Express. You configure Outlook Express for your e-mail account in two ways:

• From the Outlook Express window (see Figure 23-1) you can choose the appropriate task, Set Up A Mail Account or Set Up A Newsgroups Account, from the right-hand pane.
• From the Outlook Express menu bar choose Tools | Accounts. When the Internet Accounts dialog box opens, click the Add button and select the type of account you want to define: mail, news, or directory service. Choose Mail for an e-mail account.

You have to go through this process once for each account you want to establish. Outlook Express runs the Internet Connection Wizard, which collects the necessary information about your e-mail account.

Importing Messages from Other Mail Programs

If you've been using e-mail for a while, your message files are an asset. Continuity can be an important reason to stay with whatever mail program you've been using. Outlook Express 6 lets you convert your message files from these other mail programs:

• Previous versions of Outlook Express.
• Eudora Pro or Eudora Light, versions 1 through 3. For later versions, the import program runs but the results may be inaccurate. (When we imported messages from Eudora Pro 4.1 plain text messages appeared with HTML codes embedded.) In previous versions of Outlook Express, the importation program got the messages right, but sometimes garbled the dates.
• Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Internet Mail for Windows 3.1, or Windows Messaging.
• Netscape Mail or Netscape Messenger (part of Netscape 6 or Netscape Communicator).

Migrating into a Microsoft product is easier than migrating out of one. The Outlook Express export feature only exports to other Microsoft e-mail clients. If you decide to go back to your old e-mail client later on, you'll be relying on that client's ability to import Outlook Express messages. If you plan to try Outlook Express for a few days before choosing between it and your old mail program, set Outlook Express to leave your incoming messages on your incoming mail server, and collect your mail using both programs until you make up your mind. Choose Tools / Accounts, click the Mail tab, select your e-mail account, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and select the Leave A Copy Of Messages On Server check box. Above all, you should inspect your imported files for completeness before throwing away the originals, or just archive the originals somewhere.

To import messages from one of these mail applications, select File | Import | Messages from the menu, and then answer the questions asked by the Outlook Express Import Wizard. The wizard needs to know the application from which it is importing, and where the files are located. If your old e-mail program isn't installed, you may need to install it for the import to work (for example, if are moving your e-mail files to a new computer).

Folders of imported messages show up in the Outlook Express folder list, from which you can move them into whatever folders you like. The imported folders retain their names and structure. For example, say you import a folder from Eudora named People At Work, with subfolders Bob and Jenny. When it arrives in Outlook Express it should still have the subfolders it contained, and those subfolders should contain all the messages they had in Eudora. (However, in our experience, subfolders don't always import correctly.)

Importing Addresses from Other Mail Programs

Outlook Express can import addresses in these formats:

• Eudora Pro or Eudora Light address books, versions 1 through 3
• LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format) directories
• Microsoft Exchange Personal Address Book or Internet Mail for Windows 3.1 Address Books
• Netscape Address Book (from Netscape version 2 or 3) or Netscape Communicator Address Book (version 4)
• Text files created by any program, with one line per entry and fields separated by commas

To import addresses from one of these mail applications

1. If you want to import a Windows Address Book (.wab) file select File | Import | Address Book from the menu. If you are importing addresses from another program, select File | Import | Other Address Book.
2. Answer the questions asked by the Outlook Express Import Wizard.

If all goes well, the addresses wind up in the Windows Address Book.

You can import your Windows Address Book from another computer. Look in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book (replace user name with your Windows XP user account name) on the other computer to find the .wab (Windows Address Book) file that corresponds to your identity. Transfer this file to your computer, and then open Address Book and select File / Import / Address Book. When the Select Address Book File To Import From window opens, browse to find the file you want to import and click Open. If the other computer is on your LAN, you can skip the step of transferring the file to your computer, and browse through the other computer's files over the LAN.

Choosing a Layout for the Outlook Express Window

Like Windows Explorer, the Outlook Express window provides a number of features that you can choose to display or not display. When all the features are made visible, you get a busy, complicated window, as shown in Figure 23-2.

Figure 23-2: All the features of Outlook Express, if you choose to display them

You can make any of these features (other than the working area) appear or disappear as you like. Choose View | Layout to display the Window Layout Properties dialog box, check the features that you want to have in your Outlook Express window, and click OK.

We recommend displaying the folder list, toolbar, and status bar. You might also find the Contacts list useful. If you like the Views bar, you can drag it up to the right end of the menu bar.