Chapter 23: E-Mail and Newsgroups Using Outlook Express

Reading and Posting to Newsgroups

Before you can read and post to newsgroups with Outlook Express, you must set up a news account. Once your account is set up, its folder appears in the folder list of the Outlook Express window, just below your mail folders. To begin using your news account, click its icon.

You can read and post to newsgroups using a Web browser rather than a newsreader. The Google Groups Web site at http://groups.google.com gives you access to a large number of newsgroups.

Notice that a news folder has a different icon than a mail folder, and that selecting a news folder rather than a mail folder changes the Outlook Express toolbar. Many of the news buttons resemble the mail buttons in name and function, but some do not. Left to right, the news buttons are as follows: New Post, Reply Group, Reply, Forward, Print, Stop, Send/Receive, Address Book, Find, Newsgroups, and Get Next Headers. You can choose which buttons should be on the toolbar in the same way that you can with Windows Explorer--right-click the toolbar and choose Customize from the shortcut menu.

Table 23-3 shows configuration settings that affect newsgroup reading and posting. Choose Tools | Options to display the Options dialog box that shows these settings. (Tables 23-1 and 23-2 earlier in this chapter describe other settings in the Options dialog box.)

Tab Setting Description General Default Messaging Programs: This application is the default News handler. Clicking the Make Default button specifies that when you click the URL of a newsgroup, Outlook Express opens to display the newsgroup messages. Read Get xx headers at a time Specifies how many message headers to download when you read a newsgroup. Read Mark all messages as read when exiting a newsgroup Specifies that when you are done reading a newsgroup, Outlook Express marks the unread messages as read, so that they don't show up as unread the next time you read the newsgroup. Send News Sending Format: HTML/Plain Text Specifies whether your newsgroup postings are sent as HTML or as plain text. Always set this option to Plain Text, because very few newsgroups tolerate HTML-formatted postings Compose Compose Font: News Specifies how unformatted messages appear on your screen when you are composing them. Compose Stationery: News Specifies what stationery (standard formatting) your news messages will use. Never use stationery for newsgroup messages, because it uses HTML formatting. Compose Business Cards: News Specifies that your virtual business card (vCard) be included when you compose new messages. Never include business cards in news messages, because most newsgroups discourage attachments (except for newsgroups that specialize in trading files, which are never vCards). Maintenance Delete news messages xxx days after being downloaded Specifies whether old news messages are deleted automatically, and if so, after how many days. Because of the volume of messages in many newsgroups, you are unlikely to want to save all the messages you receive.

Table 3: Configuration Settings for Newsgroup Reading and Posting

Subscribing to Newsgroups

The main thing that a newsreading application does is look at the list of newsgroups to which you subscribe and then check its news server to see whether those newsgroups have any new messages. The first step, then, in learning to use Outlook Express as a newsreader program is to find some interesting newsgroups and subscribe to them.

Downloading the List of Available Newsgroups

The first time that you click your news account icon, Outlook Express informs you that you are not subscribed to any newsgroups, and asks whether you want to download a list of available newsgroups from your news server. Be aware that there are thousands and thousands of newsgroups on most servers, so downloading the whole list takes some time. Fortunately, you have to do this only once for each news account you establish. From time to time you will want to update this list, but updating does not take nearly as long.

Searching for Interesting Newsgroups

Once you have a list of available newsgroups, you can view it by doing the following:

1. Select a news account in the left pane of the Outlook Express window.
2. Click the Newsgroups button on the toolbar. The Newsgroup Subscriptions window appears, as shown in Figure 23-10.

Figure 23-10: Subscribing to newsgroups

In the early days of the Internet, you could choose the newsgroups to which you wanted to subscribe just by scanning the list of available groups. Now, the number of groups has grown so large that this method is like wandering through the stacks of a poorly organized library. Scrolling down the list of newsgroups can be an entertaining way to give yourself an idea of the kinds of things that are available, but it is not an efficient way to look for a particular kind of newsgroup.

Fortunately, the Newsgroup Subscriptions window gives you a few tools to aid in your search. This window has three tabs:

• All Shows the complete list of newsgroups available on this server.
• Subscribed Lists the (much smaller) list of newsgroups to which you have chosen to subscribe.
• New Shows the newsgroups that your server has added since the previous time you updated the newsgroup list.

Above each of these tabs is the Display Newsgroups Which Contain line. When this line is blank, a tab lists all the newsgroups appropriate to it. (That is, All lists all newsgroups.) Typing something onto this line restricts the list to newsgroups containing what you have typed. In Figure 23-10 for example, the All tab lists all newsgroups that have "moby" somewhere in their names--one (alt.culture.mobydick) about the novel Moby Dick and another (alt.music.moby) about the musician Moby.

So, for example, if you want to know whether there is a newsgroup devoted to your favorite author or entertainer, go to the All tab of the Newsgroup Subscriptions window and type his or her last name into Display Newsgroups Which Contain. If you already did that search last week, but want to know whether there are any new newsgroups you should look at, do the same thing with the New tab.

Subscribing to a Newsgroup (or Not)

Once you have found a newsgroup you want to try out

1. Select its name in the Newsgroup Subscriptions window. (In Figure 23-10, alt.music.moby is selected.)
2. Click the Subscribe button.

The newsgroup is now listed on the Subscribed tab of the Newsgroup Subscriptions window, and a folder corresponding to the newsgroup is automatically created as a subfolder of the news account folder. Whenever the newsgroup appears in the Newsgroup Subscriptions window, it has a newsgroup icon next to it. For example, in Figure 23-10, alt.culture.mobydick has been subscribed to.

To unsubscribe, right-click the newsgroup in the folder list of the main Outlook Express window and choose Unsubscribe from the shortcut menu. Or you can select the newsgroup in the Newsgroup Subscriptions window and click the Unsubscribe button.

You can examine a newsgroup without subscribing to it by selecting it in the Newsgroup Subscriptions window and clicking the Go To button rather than the Subscribe button. Outlook Express downloads the headers of recent articles on a one-time-only basis. When you stop looking at the newsgroup, Outlook Express asks whether you want to subscribe.

Reading a Newsgroup

Outlook Express displays newsgroups in a format that is similar to the way it displays mail folders: the left pane contains a folder list, the upper-right pane contains a message list for the currently selected newsgroup, and the lower-right pane previews the currently selected message. (You can alter this layout in a variety of ways.) Most newsgroup messages are sufficiently short that the preview pane is all you'll really need.

Unread articles are displayed in bold in the message list, and their icons are slightly brighter than the icons of messages that have been read. Newsgroups containing unread messages are displayed in bold on the folder list, with the number of unread messages in parentheses next to the name.

The message list groups all the messages that reply to a particular message. A plus box appears in the margin next to the original message; when clicked, it changes to a minus sign, and the replies are displayed underneath (and slightly indented from) the original message.

Reading a Newsgroup Online

If you are online, selecting a subscribed newsgroup from the folder list causes Outlook Express to download the headers of the messages on that newsgroup. In other words, the message list window fills up automatically. The messages themselves, however, are not downloaded until you select them in the message list. (The point of this is to save both download time and disk space on your computer.) When you find an intriguing header in the message list, click it to see its text in the preview pane, or double-click it to give the message a window of its own.

Reading a Newsgroup Offline

To read a newsgroup while spending the minimum amount of time online, download the headers as in the preceding section, and then disconnect by choosing File | Work Offline. You can then examine the headers of messages offline. When you find one you want, select it in the message window and then choose Tools | Mark For Offline | Download Message Later. The next time you are online and synchronize your new account, Outlook Express downloads all the marked messages, which you can then read either online or offline.

Using Message Rules to Filter a Newsgroup

Message rules for newsgroups work very much like message rules for e-mail. They instruct Outlook Express to handle certain kinds of messages automatically. In particular, you can tell Outlook Express not to display messages written by particular people by adding them to your Blocked Senders list. Applying message rules to a newsgroup also gives you a more focused list of headers and saves download time.

Conceptually, establishing a new message rule has two basic steps: you list the criteria that define a class of messages, and you tell Outlook Express what to do with the messages in that class. More precisely, you follow these steps:

1. Select Tools | Message Rules | News. The Message Rules dialog box opens with the News Rules tab on top. (If you have no other rules defined, Outlook Express may open the New News Rule dialog box as well; if so, you can skip step 2.)
2. Click the New button. The New News Rule dialog box opens.
3. Check boxes in the Select Conditions For Your Rule section of the New News Rule dialog box. These boxes correspond to criteria that describe messages. You may need to choose several of these boxes to get the exact messages you want to act on. When you check a box, the corresponding text appears in the Rule Description section of the New News Rule dialog box. Most of the criteria need some other piece of information to make sense. For example, Where The From Line Contains People needs you to specify which people the rule should apply to. In these cases, the phrase that needs to be specified appears in blue. You'll insert this extra information in step 5. (A more detailed description of how to work with these criteria is contained in the section "Filtering Your Mail with Message Rules," earlier in this chapter.)
4. Check boxes in the Select The Actions For Your Rule section of the New News Rule dialog box. These boxes correspond to the actions you want Outlook Express to perform on the messages described in step 3. Like the Conditions in step 3, the Actions contain phrases that may require additional specification. For example, Highlight It With Color doesn't say which color should be used. You'll insert this extra information in step 5.
5. Examine the Rule Description section of the New News Rule dialog box. If any word or phrase is highlighted in blue, click it. A dialog box appears to allow you to insert the extra information needed to make the phrase specific.
6. When you have specified all the highlighted phrases in the Rule Description section, type a name into the Name Of The Rule section of the New News Rule dialog box.
7. Click OK. The Message Rules dialog box returns. Your new rule is included in the list of message rules.
8. Click OK.

Mark all messages from yourself as watched so that you can easily spot replies to them.

You can turn a message rule on or off by choosing Tools | Message Rules | News and then checking or unchecking the rule's check box in the Message Rules dialog box. To remove a rule, select it from the list in the Message Rules dialog box and click Remove. To edit a rule, select it from the list in the Message Rules dialog box and click Modify.

You can use a rule to organize newsgroup messages that you have already downloaded, in the same way that you can use a rule to organize downloaded mail messages.

Saving Messages

By default, Outlook Express saves the text of downloaded news messages only for five days after you download them. When you close Outlook Express, messages older than that are thrown away, unless you save them by selecting File | Save As. Messages are saved in files with the extension .nws. Alternatively, you can tell Outlook Express to save messages longer--choose Tools | Options, click the Maintenance tab, and set the Delete News Messages xx Days After Being Downloaded setting.

Participating in a Newsgroup

Many people read a newsgroup for years and never respond to it in any way, neither writing e-mail messages to the authors of the messages they read, nor posting messages of their own. This is called lurking, and is a widely accepted practice. In fact, even if you do intend to post your own messages to a group eventually, we recommend that you lurk for a while first to learn the social norms of the group.

To avoid asking obvious questions that a newsgroup's regular readers are sick of seeing, find out if the question is already answered in the newsgroup's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). You can look up the FAQs of many newsgroups at the International FAQ Consortium at http://www.faqs.org/faqs. A search engine at this Web site will help you find the FAQ you are looking for.

One alternative to lurking is to examine the archives of the newsgroup, or to browse the last week or two of messages. Many newsgroups are archived at the Web site http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/news.lists/newsgroup_archives.html, at Google Groups http://groups.google.com, or (for a fee) at http://www.supernews.com.

Very few newsgroups tolerate posting HTML formatted messages or messages with attachments. Be sure to post messages as plain text.

Replying to Authors

Replying to the author of a newsgroup message is no different from replying to the author of a mail message. Just select the message and click the Reply button on the toolbar. Outlook Express opens a mail message window with the author's e-mail address entered automatically in the recipient list. You can create and edit this message just as you would any other mail message. To send your reply to the entire newsgroup rather than just the author(s), use the Reply Group button.

Posting a Message to a Newsgroup

To begin creating a newsgroup message, select a newsgroup from the folder list of the Outlook Express window, so that the Outlook Express News toolbar replaces the Mail toolbar. You may then create a message in either of these ways:

• Composing a new message from scratch Click the New Post button on the Outlook Express toolbar.
• Replying to a message Select a message from the message list of a newsgroup and click the Reply Group button on the toolbar. (Clicking the Reply button creates a mail message addressed to the author of the selected message and does not create a message to the newsgroup.)

In either case a New Message window opens. Like an e-mail message window, it has a header and a body, as shown here:

A news message header has three (or possibly four) lines:

• News server Lists the news server the message will be sent through. If you only have an account with one news server, this line does not appear.
• Newsgroups Lists the newsgroup(s) to which the message is to be posted. If you are replying to a message, Outlook Express inserts the newsgroup of the original message automatically. If you are composing a new message, Outlook Express inserts the currently selected newsgroup. If you are forwarding, this line is initially blank. To add newsgroups to the list, click the icon on the Newsgroups line of the header. The Pick Newsgroups dialog box appears. Its right pane lists the newsgroup(s) the message is currently addressed to, while its left pane lists the newsgroups you subscribe to. Clicking off the Show Only Subscribed Newsgroups button causes the left pane to list all newsgroups, not just the ones you subscribe to. The line at the upper-left of the Pick Newsgroups window is labeled Type Name Or Select From List, which is what you do. When this line contains the name of a newsgroup you want to add to the Newsgroups To Post To list in the right pane, click the Add button. Repeat this process until the right pane lists all the newsgroups to which you want to post your message.

If you change your mind about any of the newsgroups you have selected, select those newsgroups in the right pane and click the Remove button. When you are satisfied that you have just the right list of newsgroups, click OK to make the Pick Newsgroups window vanish.

• Cc If you want your message sent (as e-mail) to other people, list their e-mail addresses in the Cc line of the header. Click the index card icon if you want to choose an address from the Address Book, or type your best guess and then click the Check Names button on the toolbar, just as you would for an e-mail message.
• Subject Give your message a title. If you are replying or forwarding, the subject line is automatically the same as the original message, preceded by Re or Fwd. Short, specific subject lines are the best.

After you have completed the header of your message, type the text into the body of the New Message window. You can use the Check Spelling button to check your spelling, just as you would in an e-mail message.

When you have the message exactly the way you want it, click the Send button. The message is then sent to your Outbox, where it is treated the same as your outgoing mail messages.

If you want to test your newsgroup-posting ability, you can use a newsgroup that Microsoft set up for that very purpose. It lives on the msnews.microsoft.com news server, which (unlike most news servers) anyone can access. Set up an msnews.microsoft.com account in Outlook Express, and then subscribe to the newsgroup microsoft.public.test.here. Send your message to this newsgroup and see if it appears. You can also post test messages to the test.test newsgroup on most public news servers. Don't send test messages to other newsgroups--you'll get irate responses