Microsoft Outlook Express
Outlook Express, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Mail and News is a new SMTP/POP3 mail client enables you to work online or offline, send and read HTML formatted messages, sort and store mail any way you like, and view messages quickly in a preview pane. Our new newsreader enables you to connect to multiple news servers, decodes binary files, and supports the same preview pane as our mail client. Frustrated with hard-to-use e-mail and newsreader software? Try Microsoft Internet Mail and News, and start communicating with ease. There’s simply no easier way to send and read electronic mail and news than with Microsoft Internet Mail and News. Faster than using a pencil, and easier than licking a stamp.
Whether it’s e-mail between you and a select few, or newsgroup messages between you and the world, reading e-mail and newsgroup messages should be fast, fun, and easy. And with Internet Mail and News, it is! If you haven’t run them already, our setup wizards will get your mail and newsgroups up and running in no time. Once you’re connected, you’ll find viewing and storing messages is fun, not a full-time job.
And you won’t need a second job to pay for connection times. With offline marking and viewing, you can download e-mail and newsgroup messages now and view them offline later. That will give you more time for those creative and witty messages you’ll be sending out.
Finally, we’ll help you clean up your old news and mail, so you can get back to having fun!
You’re not getting the most out of this page unless you’re running Internet Explorer 3.0 and Internet Mail and News.
Set Up and Connect
It’s easy with Internet Mail and News:
- Use the Internet Connection wizard when you set up Internet Explorer. Or use the Internet Mail or Internet News Configuration wizard when you first start either program.
- In News, you can add multiple news servers and even use different connections for each.
- In Mail, you can manage your dial-up connection to your Internet service provider.
Manage and Sort Messages
Whether you are reading your e-mail or checking newsgroups, it’s easy to sort and view messages:
- Create message folders in Internet Mail.
- In Internet Mail, click the File menu, point to Folder, and then click Create. Type personal and then click OK.
- Sort mail messages to folders.
- In Internet Mail, select a message in the message list. On the Mail menu, point to Move To, and then click a Folder.
- Let Internet Mail automatically do the sorting: set up a rule that tells Internet Mail to catch incoming messages that contain specific words or names, and sort them to specific folders instead of the Inbox.
- On the Mail menu, click Inbox Assistant, and then click the Add button. In the From box, type Jim. In the Folder list, click Personal (or some other folder, if you did not create a Personal folder), and then click OK.
- Hide the newsgroup messages you’ve already viewed.
- On the View menu, click Unread Messages Only.
- View e-mail or newsgroup messages in the preview pane or in a separate window.
- In Internet Mail or News, click the View menu, point to Preview Pane, and then click Split Vertically or Split Horizontally. Click a message in the message list. The body of the message appears in the preview pane. If you double-click a message in the message list, it appears in a separate window.
Customize the icon bar: add or remove buttons, move the bar to the side or top of the window, or use it with or without text labels.
In Internet Mail or News, click the View menu, and make sure Icon Bar is checked. Right-click the icon bar, and then:
- To add or remove buttons, click Customize Toolbar.
To change the position of the icon bar, point to Align, and then click Left or Top.
Click Icons With Text or Icons Only. - Reduce Connect Time: View Messages Offline
Connection costs can add up, so Internet Mail and News offers a number of ways to manage and limit connection time: - Download new e-mail messages and view them after disconnecting.
- In Internet Mail, click the Mail menu, and then click Send And Receive. Internet Mail connects to your Mail server, sends your outgoing messages if you have any, downloads new incoming messages, and then disconnects.
- Limit the size of mail messages that can be downloaded.
- On the Mail menu, and then click Options. On the Server tab, click the Advanced button, and then select the following check box: Do Not Download Messages Over x KB.
- Mark newsgroups, or individual newsgroup messages or threads, for downloading.
- On the Offline menu, click Mark Newsgroups. Then you can mark any or all newsgroups you subscribe to, as long as you are downloading them from the same Internet service provider.
If you want to just download the headers now, you can select individual messages or threads later for downloading. Just select the message or thread in the message list, click the Offline menu, and then click Mark Message For Download or Mark Thread For Download. When you’re done marking messages, just click the Offline menu, and then click Post And Download.
Compose and Format Messages
Whether you are posting to newsgroups or sending e-mail messages, your messages can be sharp and clear:
- Use different fonts, colours, sizes, and bullets with HTML format.
HTML formatting in mail messages - Add e-mail names and create distribution lists in your address book.
- In Internet Mail, click the File menu, and then click Address Book. In Address Book, click the File menu, and then click New Contact or New Group.
- Or, to quickly add a name to your address book from an existing message, right-click the name in the message or reply window, and then click Add To Address Book.
- If you also use Microsoft Exchange, you can import all of your Personal Address Book names into the Internet Mail Address Book.
- In Internet Mail, click the File menu, point to Import, and then click Address Book. Click the Import button.
- Or, if you think you may have duplicate entries in both address books, click the Options button to select how you want to handle them.
- Add a unique flair with an auto-signature: insert your name and a little quip in your outgoing messages and replies.
- In Internet Mail or News, click the Mail or News menu, and then click Options. Click the Signature tab, and then specify what you want to appear in your outgoing messages, and whether you want it in all original messages or in replies and forwards too.
Keep It Clean on Your Machine
Without regular maintenance, mail and news message files can grow quite large on your computer. Internet Mail and News offers several ways to reclaim disk space on your hard disk. You can:
- Compact or delete message folders.
- Automatically delete news messages when they are older than a specified number of days.
- Automatically remove read newsgroup messages.
- Manually delete all messages or headers from selected newsgroups.
- Automatically compact newsgroup messages when their space exceeds a specified limit.