by Ed Bott
Outlook Express, the default email client software in Windows 98, includes the basic tools you need to compose, send, and receive mail over the Internet. It uses this basic email interface for a second purpose as well--to let you read and participate in threaded discussions on Internet newsgroups. If you originally set up an email account using the email software included with Windows 95, you have an important decision to make when you upgrade. Should you stick with your old mail software or switch to Outlook Express?
Starting with the first release of Windows 95, every version of Windows has included a desktop icon labeled Inbox. In the original version of Windows 95, this icon launched a program called the Exchange Inbox. Microsoft promised that this universal inbox would be capable of storing email from just about anywhere, as well as faxes, voice mail, and other types of data. If you've used Exchange Inbox, though, you know it's hard to configure, slow, and notoriously buggy; the fax components in particular are a usability nightmare.
In the years since the original release of Windows 95, Microsoft has updated the Exchange Inbox program slightly. The new version, which is included with every copy of OSR2, was renamed Windows Messaging. The update fixed several bugs (and added a few new glitches), and the new name was supposed to help dispel confusion with Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft's mail server package for businesses.
Although the Windows Messaging application is included with Windows 98, the Inbox icon no longer appears automatically on the desktop, and Microsoft no longer recommends that you install it. The program is now officially an orphan, replaced by the new Windows default mail program, Outlook Express. Microsoft also sells a full-featured mail package called Outlook 97 (an Outlook 98 upgrade is due in mid-1998).
If you currently use Exchange Inbox or Windows Messaging, should you switch to Outlook Express? The correct answer depends on how the rest of your mail system works.
When you install Windows 98, you also install Outlook Express. There's no way to avoid adding Outlook Express on initial setup. However, you can uninstall the program if you decide you prefer other mail and news clients. (To uninstall Outlook Express, open the Add/Remove Programs option in Control Panel, click the Install/Uninstall tab, choose Microsoft Outlook Express, and click the Add/Remove button.)
To find the shortcut for Outlook Express, click the Start button, choose Programs, and look in the Internet Explorer group. You'll also find shortcuts to Outlook Express on the desktop and in the Quick Launch bar.
The first time you run Outlook Express, it prompts you to select a location for storing data files (see Figure 34.1). By default, the program creates Outlook Express and Address Book folders in \Windows\Application Data\Microsoft, with separate Mail and News folders within the Outlook Express folder. If your computer is configured to enable multiple users to log in with their own settings, the default folders appear under \Windows\Profiles\profilename.
FIG. 34.1 To avoid problems later, accept this default data location when you first set up Outlook Express.
Your best choice is to accept the default location that Outlook Express offers. What if you want to move these data files after setting up Outlook Express for the first time? There's no simple way to accomplish this chore. You'll have to first use the Windows Explorer to move all the data folders, and then open the Registry Editor, find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Outlook Express, double-click on the Store Root value, and change that value to reflect the new location.
CAUTION: Think twice before using the Registry Editor, and always make a backup. Incorrectly editing the Windows Registry can result in data loss and cause programs to fail to start and run properly.
After you've configured Outlook Express, running the program will take you to the Start Page (see Figure 34.2), which lets you move quickly between your Inbox, newsgroups, and your address book.
FIG. 34.2 From this Start Page, you can jump to your email inbox, follow threaded discussions on an Internet newsgroup, or search for address information.
TIP: You can bypass the Outlook Express Start Page and jump straight to your mail. Choose Tools, Options, click the General tab, and check the box labeled When Starting, Go Directly to My Inbox Folder.
Before you can use Outlook Express to send and receive email, you must supply some basic configuration information. At a minimum, you'll have to enter the name and type of the mail server that stores and forwards your messages, along with the username and email address associated with your mail account. Before you can access newsgroups with Outlook Express, you'll need to enter similar configuration information, including your username and email address as well as the name of the news server you plan to use.
The Internet Connection Wizard handles all Outlook Express setup details, although you can also configure accounts manually. If you did not use the wizard when you first set up IE4, or if you skipped the mail and news steps, the Internet Connection Wizard runs automatically the first time you use Outlook Express.
If you receive Internet mail from multiple sources--from a corporate server and a personal account with an Internet service provider, for example--you'll need to establish separate Outlook Express mail accounts for each one. Each news server requires its own news account as well. There are no limits to the number of mail and news accounts you can set up in Outlook Express.
When you first launch Outlook Express, the program prompts you to set up a default mail account using the Internet Connection Wizard.
Follow the wizard's prompts to enter the following information:
FIG. 34.3 You must enter names for the servers that handle incoming and outgoing mail. In most cases, the same server handles both chores.
NOTE: Outlook Express supports three widely used mail standards. The overwhelming majority of Internet service providers transfer email using servers that run Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). To download messages from an SMTP server, most mail clients use version 3 of Post Office Protocol (POP3). A newer standard, Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), is less widely used.
FIG. 34.4 Leave this password box blank if you want to keep other users from accessing your mail. Outlook Express will ask for your password each time you connect to the server.
To configure additional mail accounts, choose Tools, Accounts. Click the Add button, choose Mail, and the relevant portions of the Internet Connection wizard will run again.
Outlook Express does more than email; it's also a full-featured news-reading client that enables you to download and read messages from newsgroup servers, post replies, and manage locally stored messages. With a few minor exceptions, the user interface is the same one you see when you send and receive mail, and the program uses the same system services to help you compose and send messages to public or private newsgroups.
Before you can read newsgroup messages, you must provide Outlook Express with the name of a news server to which you have access. Most Internet service providers offer a news feed to their customers. If your ISP's name is acme.com, for example, you'll probably find a news server at news.acme.com. The Microsoft Network provides newsgroup access on servers at msnnews.msn.com and netnews.msn.com. Microsoft's public newsgroups are available from msnews.microsoft.com. If you have access to a private news server, it might require that you log on with an account name and password.
ON THE WEB: If your ISP or corporate site does not maintain a news feed, try connecting to a public-access news server. You get what you pay for, of course; most such sites are slow and unreliable for serious news access. There's a well-maintained list of public news servers at
http://wkweb1.cableinet.co.uk/tony.dane/access/public.htm.
As with mail accounts, setting up a news account with the Internet Connection Wizard is a simple fill-in-the-blanks process. The wizard appears the first time you click the Read News icon on the Outlook Express Start Page, or when you choose Tools, Accounts, click the Add button, and choose Mail.
You'll have to enter a name and email address for each news account. Enter the name of your news server when prompted (see Figure 34.5), and check the option at the bottom of this dialog box if the server requires you to log on with a username and password.
FIG. 34.5 You must supply the name of a news server before accessing newsgroups with Outlook Express.
Give the account a friendly name to help identify it in the account list. The default entry is the server name, but a descriptive name like "Microsoft public newsgroups" is easier to understand than msnews.microsoft.com.
TIP: You don't have to be truthful when entering your name and email address. In fact, some experienced newsgroup participants never use their real address when posting, because it's too easy for unscrupulous marketers to skim addresses from newsgroup participants and target them for unsolicited email, or spam.
On many Windows 98 computers, one user gathers mail from one or two Internet mail accounts. However, Outlook Express lets you manage mail in more complex environments, with multiple users of the same computer accessing separate mail accounts.
Before multiple users can store messages in separate mailboxes, you must open the Users option in Control Panel and enable multi-user settings. Each user who logs on to Windows with a separate username and password creates separate data files for addresses and messages when they use Outlook Express.
To change the settings for a mail or news account after you've set it up using the Internet Connection Wizard, click Tools, Accounts, select the entry you want to change, and click the Properties button. With minor exceptions, the options for mail and news accounts are identical.
The first account you create in the mail and news group becomes the default account for that category. That's an important distinction, because it determines which information appears on-screen when you click the Read Mail or Read News icon on the Start Page, and it defines which SMTP server Outlook Express uses when sending messages. To change default mail or news accounts, select the account and click the Set as Default button.
For both types of accounts, use the General tab (see Figure 34.6) to change the friendly name for the account or to edit personal information. This dialog box lets you add the name of your organization and specify a different reply-to address. For example, if you send a message using your corporate mail account but prefer to receive replies via your personal Internet mail account, enter the personal address in the Repl_y address box. When recipients reply to your message, their mail software should automatically insert the preferred reply-to address.
FIG. 34.6 Edit the reply-to address for a mail or news account if you want to receive replies at an address other than the one from which you send messages.
The Server tab lets you change the name or logon settings for mail and news servers. The Advanced tab lets you adjust timeout settings (sometimes necessary over very slow connections) and break apart lengthy messages (required by some mail servers running older software). Do not adjust these settings unless specifically instructed to do so by the server's administrator.
For each Outlook Express mail and news account, you can specify how you prefer to connect to the Internet--over a LAN, manually, or by using a modem. If your computer is permanently connected to a network with Internet access, you can set all your accounts for LAN access and be done with it. However, on machines with dial-up Internet access, particularly notebook computers, you should pay close attention to these settings.
Each time you create a new account, you'll have a chance to specify connection properties. To adjust these settings after you've created an account, choose Tools, Accounts, select the account name, click Properties, and click the Connection tab. You'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.7.
FIG. 34.7 The choice shown in this dialog box allows Outlook Express to dial your Internet service provider automatically every time you access a mail server.
What's the difference between the three connection options?
Notebook users might wish to create multiple copies of mail and news accounts, each with a different connection type, to handle different working environments. For example, you would specify a LAN connection when you're connected to the office network, but use the IE4 dialer to make a manual connection when you're working in a hotel room.
Each time you compose a message using Outlook Express, you choose whether to use plain text only or to add graphics, colors, and rich text formatting using HTML. If most of your messages go to users of Outlook Express or other HTML-compatible mail programs, rich text formatting can make your messages livelier and more readable. With HTML formatting, your messages look and behave like web pages; you can specify fonts and their sizes, change text colors, use paragraph styles, and control text alignment. You can add background colors and graphics, bulleted and numbered lists, and hypertext links to other web pages.
All that fancy formatting is lost, though, if your correspondents use email software that can't interpret HTML. They'll see a plain text version of your message, along with a file attachment that they can open in a web browser. In fact, there's a good chance they'll be annoyed when they receive your HTML messages because even a simple one-sentence message typically occupies 1K or more of disk space when translated into HTML.
NOTE: Users of Netscape mail products can send and receive HTML-formatted mail as well, although you may notice minor differences in the look of messages sent between Netscape and Microsoft clients.
Outlook Express lets you set separate default formats for mail and news messages, and it enables you to override those settings on individual messages. Unless you're certain that the overwhelming majority of your email recipients can handle HTML attachments, your best bet is to choose plain text for mail messages. Likewise, on newsgroups where people use a variety of news reader clients, it's good manners to specify plain text as your default format.
To adjust the default settings, follow this procedure:
FIG. 34.8 Using these default settings, all your mail messages go out in HTML format, with plain text the preferred format for news messages.
FIG. 34.9 If recipients complain about stray characters (especially equal signs) in text messages, try changing text encoding from Quoted Printable to None.
TROUBLESHOOTING:Some recipients complain that all your paragraphs appear as a single long line, or that your messages are filled with equal signs. Mail Format options control how Outlook Express encodes your messages using Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). Quoted-Printable MIME replaces line endings and special characters (such as accented vowels) with an equal sign and an optional numeric code. This technique enables you to send some formatting information using ASCII characters. Your recipients are seeing this encoding through a mail reader that isn't fully compliant with the MIME standard. If they're unable or unwilling to switch to another mail client, choose Tools, Options, click the Send tab, and click the Settings button to the right of the mail format you've chosen. Change the text encoding option to None and the problem should disappear; unfortunately, you will also lose the ability to use extended ASCII characters.
If you currently use another email package and plan to switch to Outlook Express, the process is simple and straightforward. Outlook Express can import address books and archived messages from the following popular mail clients:
In addition, you can import messages from Microsoft Outlook 97 or Outlook 98. (See the following section for detailed instructions on how to transfer address information from Outlook 97 to Outlook Express.)
Do you currently use the Exchange Inbox email program that Microsoft introduced with Windows 95? In versions of Windows 95 sold after late 1996, this program may go by the name Windows Messaging. Outlook 97 and Outlook 98 both use the Windows Messaging system services and the same format for messages and Personal Address Books. If you use any of these programs, Outlook Express offers to convert your messages and addresses the first time you run the program, as shown in Figure 34.10.
FIG. 34.10 Switching from the older Exchange Inbox to Outlook Express can be as easy as clicking Next in this dialog box.
Converting data from most mail programs is a simple process, but there's one notable exception. To transfer your Contacts folder from Outlook 97 to the Windows Address Book in Outlook Express, you'll need to go through a cumbersome two-step conversion process. The first step is to export the Contacts information into an Exchange-compatible Personal Address Book (PAB); then you can import the PAB into Outlook Express. Follow these steps:
Note that you can set up more than one mail program on a system running Windows 98. When you install another mail program, however, it might take over as the default email program that starts when you click the Mail icon on IE4's Standard toolbar or click a mailto: hyperlink on a web page. To restore Outlook Express as the default mail client, follow this procedure:
When you choose File, Import, Outlook Express offers a cascading menu with three additional choices. The Address Book and Messages options are self-explanatory; the third choice, Mail Account Settings, lets you reuse the information (server and logon names, for example) that you've entered for one mail account when setting up another. When importing messages or addresses, Outlook Express first asks you to specify the mail program and then checks data-file locations specified for that program in the Registry. If Outlook Express can't find the program on your system, you'll see a dialog box that lets you specify the location.
Each import option steps you through a series of dialog boxes, with slightly different choices that depend on the mail program or data type you start with. If you choose to import data from a text file with comma-separated values, for example, you'll have to specify which Outlook Express fields should receive each column of data in your text file. As Figure 34.11 shows, Outlook Express makes a reasonable guess at mapping fields in your text file to those in your Address Book. You can manually adjust the relationship between fields; check the box to the left of each field to include or remove it from the import operation. Click the Change Mapping button and you'll see a drop-down list of available Outlook Express fields.
You can use the Import choices to bring in messages or addresses even if there's already data in your Address Book or message store. When the program detects that a record you're trying to import already exists in your Address Book, you'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.12. At this point, you can choose whether to keep the existing entry or replace it with the new data.
FIG. 34.11 Outlook Express won't recognize the Organization label in this text file; click the Change Mappings button to tell the program that its data belongs in the Company field.
FIG. 34.12 Click Yes to All and you'll completely replace matching records in your Address Book with new data from an import file.
Unfortunately, Outlook Express isn't nearly as cooperative when it comes to moving messages and address information back to competing mail programs. When you choose File, Export from the Outlook Express menu, you can easily move information into Outlook 97 or Microsoft Exchange. To transfer addresses into other programs, you'll first have to convert the information into a text file with comma-separated values and then find the corresponding import feature in the destination program. There's no easy way to move messages from Outlook Express into another mail client.
When you first click the Read Mail or Read News icon on the Outlook Express main screen, you'll see a display much like the one in Figure 34.13.
The folder list at the left of the screen includes the default mail folders, any additional folders you've created, all news servers you've set up, and any newsgroups to which you've subscribed. The right side of the screen includes the column-oriented message list, which shows the contents of the currently selected folder or server. Below is a preview pane that shows the contents of the currently selected message. There's a customizable toolbar at the top and a status bar at the bottom of the window.
Two optional parts of the Outlook Express screen--the Outlook Bar and the Folder bar--are hidden by default. The message list is always visible; there's no way to make it disappear. Using a few menu choices and check boxes, though, you can show, hide, and rearrange virtually every other aspect of the Outlook Express interface.
FIG. 34.13 The default Outlook Express layout includes the folder list at left, message list at top right, and a preview pane below.
To alter the basic look of Outlook Express, choose View, Layout. You'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.14.
FIG. 34.14 These options produce a layout that closely resembles the Outlook 97 interface.
These settings rearrange the Outlook Express interface so that it closely resembles the Outlook 97 interface, as shown in Figure 34.15. The Outlook bar at left shows all the default folders plus any top-level folders you've created; it doesn't include icons for subfolders you create. The Outlook bar also includes icons for news servers and subscribed newsgroups. Just above the message list is the drop-down folder bar, which shows all folders in an Explorer-style hierarchy.
FIG. 34.15 The Outlook bar at left resembles the one in Outlook 97, with one difference--you can't change the order of icons.
As you move between messages in the message list, the contents of the currently selected message appear in the preview pane. Use the layout options to change the appearance and behavior of this pane.
TIP: Each entry in the message list first appears in bold to indicate you haven't yet read it. The unread status changes when you open the message or allow it to appear in the preview pane for more than a few seconds. To filter the message list so it shows only those messages you haven't yet read, choose View, Current View, Unread Messages.
After you move past the Start Page, the Outlook Express message list always shows the contents of the currently selected folder, newsgroup, or news server. To move from folder to folder, use one of these three navigational tools:
To view or adjust the properties of any icon, right-click the icon and choose from the shortcut menu.
TIP: Use one of three Internet links at the top of the Outlook Express Start Page to launch Internet Explorer, jump to Microsoft's home page, or navigate to the Outlook Express Start Page on the web. The icon for the Outlook Express Start Page is always available at the top of the folder list, Folder bar, or Outlook bar.
To sort the contents of the message list, click any column heading. Choose View, Columns to add or remove columns and change the order of those that are displayed. (Note that different types of objects provide different choices of columns.) Click the border between two column headings and drag to adjust column widths.
To group mail or newsgroup messages using threads, choose View, Sort By, and toggle the Group Messages by Thread setting.
Double-click any item in the message list to open it in its own window, as shown in Figure 34.16.
FIG. 34.16 This full message window offers more space than the preview pane. Maximize the window and use the up or down arrows to navigate without the message list.
Icons on the message window toolbar let you save, print, or delete the current message.
It's possible to navigate through your entire message list without switching back and forth between the message list and the message window. Here's how:
When you receive an HTML-formatted message, the formatting codes in the message itself control how it looks in the preview pane and in individual message windows. If the message doesn't specify font information, Outlook Express uses default fonts and sizes to control the display of proportional fonts (used for general text) and fixed fonts (used for tabular material that must line up precisely).
When you receive a plain-text message, Outlook Express displays it using the default proportional font and the default font size. On most systems, that means plain-text messages appear in Arial, using the Medium Size setting (12 point). Follow these steps to change the font and font size to improve readability or to see more text in a message window.
To change the look of the Outlook Express toolbar, choose View, Layout; use the check boxes to move the toolbar to either side or to the bottom of the window. Hide the text labels to dramatically reduce the amount of space the toolbar takes up. To add, remove, and rearrange buttons, click the Customize Toolbar button; you can also open this dialog box, shown in Figure 34.17, by right-clicking the toolbar and choosing Buttons from the shortcut menu.
FIG. 34.17 Use the Add and Remove buttons to rearrange the toolbars for mail and news windows.
Note that there are separate toolbars for mail and news windows, so you'll have to customize them individually. You can't customize toolbars used in Outlook Express message windows or those in the Windows Address Book.
TIP: If you use the folder list regularly but don't want to sacrifice the screen real estate it demands, add the Folder List button to your toolbar. It acts as a toggle, revealing or hiding the folder list so you can have more room for the message list and preview pane and still navigate between folders without having to wade through pull-down menus.
Outlook Express organizes email addresses using a module called the Windows Address Book. Each contact record includes fields that enable you to track additional details about a person, including home and business addresses, and phone numbers. The Windows Address Book also lets you create group records so you can send email to several individuals by entering an alias instead of a lengthy list of addresses.
Address Book information is stored in a single file with the .WAB extension. Each user profile on a machine can contain its own Address Book file, but there is no way to maintain multiple address books within a single profile.
NOTE: Although the Windows Address Book appears to be an integrated part of Outlook Express, it's actually a separate application called WAB.EXE. If you use the Address Book frequently, you might want to create a shortcut to this program and place it on the Start Menu or the Windows desktop.
To open the Windows Address Book, click the Address Book icon on the Outlook Express toolbar. As in an Explorer window, you can choose one of four different views for the contents of the Address Book. In the default Details view (see Figure 34.18), click a column heading to sort the records by the values in that field; click again to sort in reverse order.
FIG. 34.18 As the mouse passes over each Address Book entry, a ScreenTip displays the contents of that record.
To create a new record from scratch, click the New Contact button and begin filling in fields on the Personal tab. As Figure 34.19 shows, you can enter more than one email address for a contact. Choose one address and click the Set as Default button to tell Outlook Express to use that email address when you click the Send Mail button.
FIG. 34.19 You can enter multiple email addresses in a contact record--personal and business addresses, for example.
TIP: Note as you enter information in the First, Middle, and Last fields that the value in the Dis_play field automatically fills in as well. This field is what you'll see under the Name heading when you look at the Address list. The drop-down Display list lets you choose from several defaults, but you can enter anything you like here, including a descriptive name like "Caterer," "Travel agent," or "Boss."
A mailing group (also known as an alias or distribution list) lets you send messages to multiple people without having to enter each name in the message. When you enter the name of a mailing group in the address box of a message, Outlook Express substitutes the names that make up that group before sending the message. To create a mailing group, follow these steps:
TIP: A mailing group can contain group entries as well as individual names. You can use this feature to avoid having to update multiple groups. For example, you might create separate mailing groups for each department in your company: Accounting, Sales, Marketing, and so on. Then create an All Employees list consisting of each of the department lists. When a new employee joins the company, update the department list, and the master list automatically updates as well.
To see all the groups in your Address Book, choose View, Groups List.
The easiest way to create contact records in your Windows Address Book is to copy email addresses from messages you receive. Outlook Express lets you add contact records one at a time or automatically.
For one-at-a-time addressing, open a message and right-click any name in the From, To, or CC fields; then choose Add to Address Book from the shortcut menu, as shown in Figure 34.20.
FIG. 34.20 Right-click any address and use the shortcut menu to add the name and address to your Windows Address Book.
TIP: You can automatically create a new entry in your Windows Address Book whenever you reply to a message. Choose Tools, Options, click the General tab, and check the box labeled Automatically Put People I Reply To in My Address Book.
What's the best way to find someone's email address? Copying it from an email or a business card is still the surest way to be certain your message will reach its destination. However, the next best technique is to use a public directory server. When you click the Find button on the Windows Address Book toolbar, you'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.21.
FIG. 34.21 Use a public directory server to track down email addresses and add them to your address book.
Outlook Express gives you a choice of several public servers that use the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), an Internet standard for exchanging directory information. Select a server in the Look In list box, and then click in the Name text box and enter all or part of the name you're searching for. Click Find Now to begin the search.
ON THE WEB: For more information about how LDAP works, check this web site, managed by the university where the protocol was invented:
http://www.umich.edu/~dirsvcs/ldap/index.html
Matching records appear in a list at the bottom of the Find People dialog box. Select a name and click the Properties button to view more information about that directory entry. Right-click and choose Send Mail to begin composing a message to that person. Click Add to Address Book to save the contact's name and address in your Windows Address Book.
To begin a new mail or news message from scratch, click the New Message button or press Ctrl+N. You'll see a blank New Message window (see Figure 34.22).
Although you can simply begin typing your message within the New Message window, it's easier to start by filling out the address box. Enter the main recipient(s) for the message on the To: line, and then use the Tab key to move to the Cc:, Bcc:, and Subject lines before tabbing into the body of the message.
FIG. 34.22 Follow these prompts to begin addressing and composing a message.
Click the small Address Card icon at the beginning of any line in the address box to open a special window on your Windows Address Book. This Select Recipients dialog box, shown in Figure 34.23, lets you pick names from a list and add them to the address box.
FIG. 34.23 Click the small index-card icon at the beginning of any address line to open this view of the Windows Address Book.
Use other buttons in this dialog box to create a new contact and add it to the list, to see more details about an address-book entry, or to find an address on a public directory server. To clear a name from any of the three message recipient boxes, select the name, right-click, and choose Remove from the shortcut menu.
When you've finished adding recipients, click OK to return to the New Message window.
You don't need to use the Windows Address Book to add recipients. Simply type one or more valid email addresses and continue; be sure to separate address entries with a semicolon or comma.
If you know a name is in your address book, enter a few characters from the first or last name. Outlook Express fills in matching names as you type; this AutoComplete feature works almost exactly like its equivalent in Internet Explorer. When the correct name appears in the address box, press Enter to add the address and a semicolon, with the insertion point positioned for you to add another address. Press Tab to move to the next address field.
CAUTION: Check the contents of the address box carefully before sending a message. If you type even a single incorrect character here, the AutoComplete feature might insert the wrong address, and you might wind up sending a sensitive or personal message to someone other than the recipient you intended.
If you don't like this AutoComplete feature, turn it off. Choose Tools, Options, click the Send tab, and deselect the check box labeled Automatically Complete Email Addresses When Composing. Even with this feature disabled, you can still enlist the help of the Address Book in completing addresses; just type a few characters from the first or last name, and then click the Check Names button (see Figure 34.24). If only one address-book entry matches the characters you typed, that entry appears in your address box; if there's more than one match, you'll have to pick the correct address from a dialog box. After Outlook Express has verified that the address is valid, it adds a link to that address entry; you know the process was successful when you see the underline beneath each address entry.
FIG. 34.24 The Check Names button returns address records that contain the characters you typed in any position.
If you've chosen HTML format for your message, the Formatting toolbar appears just above the box in which you enter the message text. Use the toolbar buttons to change font and paragraph formatting, colors, and alignment. The three rightmost buttons, shown in Figure 34.25, insert a rule, a hyperlink, or a graphic image.
The New Message window includes most of the features you expect from a formatting editor, including the ability to specify fonts, colors, and alignment. There's even a multilevel Undo. Press Ctrl+Z to roll back changes you made or text you typed.
FIG. 34.25 Use these formatting buttons to control the look of an HTML message. Buttons at the far right let you insert this rule and hyperlink.
TROUBLESHOOTING:You tried to check the spelling of your message, but the Tools, Spelling command was grayed out and unavailable. Outlook Express does not include its own spell-checking module; instead, it borrows the spelling checker from other Microsoft applications, such as Word and Works. You must install one of these applications before you can check the spelling of an Outlook Express message.
To create a hyperlink in a message, follow these steps:
To change the format of a message from HTML to plain text and vice versa, choose the appropriate entry from the Format menu. You can use the General tab of a contact record to specify that an addressee always receives messages in plain text. By default, when you respond to a message, Outlook Express uses the same format as the original. When you reply to an HTML-formatted mail message, your reply uses that same format unless you specifically tell Outlook Express not to do so.
When you create a message from scratch, you start with a blank slate. Your electronic messages lack basic information that you take for granted when you print correspondence on letterhead, such as your name, company name and logo, your job title, and your phone number. Outlook Express offers two features that help you apply a consistent look to your messages and supply some of this missing information.
With HTML-formatted messages, use templates called stationery to add background graphics, fonts, paragraph formatting, and other standard elements to mail and news messages. Use signatures with all kinds of messages, including text messages, to add standard information at the end of every message you create.
Using Signatures
For daily use, especially in a business setting, create a standard signature to make sure important information goes out with every message you send. A signature might include your name, return email address, company affiliation, and telephone number, for example. At some companies, employees routinely add a disclaimer stating that the views expressed in email messages are personal opinions and do not represent the company. To set up a personal signature, choose Tools, Stationery, click the Mail or News tab, and click the Signature button. You can compose a simple text signature, like the one in Figure 34.26. You can store your signature in a text file if you prefer, or use FrontPage Express to add graphics and formatting codes and then store the result in an HTML file. To use a file as your signature, choose the File option and specify its location.
FIG. 34.26 Netiquette dictates that signatures should be short and to the point. At five lines, this signature is long enough.
Check boxes on the Signature dialog box let you specify whether you want Outlook Express to automatically add the signature to every message you create. There's also an option to skip signatures on replies and forwarded messages. Leave both check boxes blank if you prefer to add a signature only to selected messages.
To add a signature to a message while composing it, choose Insert, Signature.
Applying a Look with Stationery Outlook Express includes a collection of HTML templates called stationery. These starter documents typically incorporate background graphics, standard fonts, and a few styles. To see and use the sample stationery, choose Compose, New Message Using, and then select an entry from the cascading menu. Most of the sample stationery, built around personal themes including party invitations and greeting cards, is inappropriate for business use. However, it might supply some ideas for stationery you can create for your own use. For example, you might use a company logo as a background graphic, and add your signature in a formatted block of text set off from the main text by HTML rules.
To modify one of the sample stationery formats, follow these steps:
To use a stationery file for all mail or news messages you compose, make sure its name is selected in the Stationery box. To compose an HTML message without using the default stationery, choose Compose, New Message Using, No Stationery.
When you meet a new business contact in person, you exchange business cards. To send the digital equivalent of a business card in an email message, Outlook Express uses the vCard format. When you attach a vCard to your mail or news messages, recipients with a vCard-compatible address book (the Windows Address Book or Netscape Communicator, for example) can merge the attachment into their personal address book, which creates a new record that includes all of your address information.
Before you can send a vCard, you have to create a personal record in the Windows Address Book and then tell Outlook Express to use that card as your business card. Choose Tools, Stationery, and click the Signature button to choose your card.
CAUTION: You can set an option in the Signature dialog box that automatically adds your electronic business card to every mail message. Think twice before you check that box, though. Your regular correspondents probably won't appreciate the extra disk space consumed by every one of those redundant business card attachments, and correspondents without a vCard-compatible address book will probably also resent the useless attachments. It's far better to selectively attach business cards, by choosing Insert, Business Card.
Composing a message to a newsgroup uses tools that are virtually identical to those you use to create mail messages, with one major exception. Instead of picking addresses from your Windows Address Book, choose Tools, Select News_groups (or click the News Server icon to the right of the To: in the address box). You'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.27, which you can use to fill in one or more newsgroup names in the address box.
FIG. 34.27 Posting the identical message to multiple newsgroups, as in this example, is generally considered bad Netiquette.
TIP: Before posting a question to a newsgroup, see if it's already been answered in a FAQ--a list of frequently asked questions. It's the fastest way to get answers, and you'll also avoid being flamed for not reading the FAQ. The mother of all FAQs, with upwards of 900 files, is news.answers. There, you'll find information ranging from the laughably trivial (every cult TV program ever made is there, along with more information on body piercing than any human should need) to the deadly serious. (You can read about a half-dozen religions or find detailed information on organ transplantation, depression support groups, and other sober topics.)
After you've finished addressing and composing your message, you have a variety of options for actually launching it on its way.
In addition to formatted text and graphics, you can attach a file to any message you compose using Outlook Express. Binary files, such as images and programs, can safely travel across the Internet, but only if you encode them into ASCII text before sending. When an incoming message includes an attachment, Outlook Express and other MIME-compatible mail clients are capable of converting the encoded text back into binary files.
To add a file attachment to a message you're composing, click the Paper Clip icon on the tool bar. You can also attach one or more files by dragging them from an Explorer or folder window into the message window.
CAUTION: Not all mail client software is capable of decoding all attachment formats. If you're certain the recipient uses Outlook Express or another modern, MIME-compatible program, you should have no problem exchanging attachments. If you're not certain what mail software the recipient uses, try sending a small test attachment to verify that the process works before you send important files via email.
To view or save a file attachment in a message you've received, look for its icon.
FIG. 34.28 Right-click its icon to open, save, or print a file attachment. When composing a message, you can also right-click to add or remove files.
TROUBLESHOOTING:Your recipients report that file attachments appear as gibberish in messages they receive from you. Your recipient is probably using a mail client that is not fully MIME-compatible, or their Internet service provider's mail server can't process the attachments correctly. If you can't convince them to change mail clients, try resending the attachment using the Uuencode format instead of MIME encoding. You must send the message as plain text; choose Tools, Options, click the Send tab, and click the Settings button opposite the Plain Text option to adjust the format for outgoing attachments. Many older mail clients that don't handle MIME formatting can process Uuencoded attachments just fine. If that still doesn't work, your recipient will need to find a third-party program that can decode attachments. There are free and shareware programs that can help convert MIME-formatted and Uuencoded text to its original binary format.
Exchanging messages with a mail server is an interactive process. A mail server does not automatically send messages to your computer; to begin the transfer process, your mail client has to send a request to the server. Outlook Express can poll for mail at regular intervals, or you can send and receive messages on demand by clicking a button.
If you have a LAN connection, Outlook Express automatically checks for new messages and sends outgoing mail every 30 minutes. To check for mail more or less frequently, follow these steps:
FIG. 34.29 On a LAN connection, Outlook Express checks for new mail every half-hour. To pick up messages more frequently, adjust this setting to 5 or 10 minutes instead.
How do you know when new mail has arrived? Outlook Express gives you two cues when you've received mail. A letter icon appears in the notification area at the right of the taskbar, and the program also plays a sound. If you find the sound disturbing, it's easy to kill the noise. Choose Tools, Options, click the General tab, and remove the check mark for that option.
You can also choose a different sound file to play when new mail arrives. Open the Control Panel and use the Sounds applet to assign a different .WAV file to the New Mail Notification event.
TIP: As Outlook Express checks for mail, look in the status bar for messages that display the results of the connection attempt. Double-click the icon at the far right to display a dialog box with more details, including any error messages you might have received.
Of course, you can check for new messages anytime by using the Send and Receive button. This technique works even if Outlook Express is set to check messages at regular intervals. The Send and Receive command automatically connects with every mail account and your default news account. To add or remove a server from this group, follow these steps:
If you have multiple mail providers and you want to connect with only one of them, regardless of the default settings, choose Tools, Send and Receive from the menus. Outlook Express presents a cascading menu that lets you choose which mail providers you want to connect with.
Outlook Express lets you file and save all the messages you send and receive. But what happens when you need to read your email from a machine other than the one you normally use? This might be the case if you normally use an office PC but occasionally check your email from home or the road. If you use the default settings, you'll end up with a collection of messages on different PCs.
The cure is to adjust the account settings on your away PC so that it downloads messages but does not delete them from the mail server. Later, when you return to the office, you can connect to the server and download all the messages, saving and filing the important ones.
You must specifically set this option for each account you intend to check. Choose Tools, Accounts, select the account, and click the Properties button. Click the Advanced tab, then check the Delivery options (see Figure 34.30).
FIG. 34.30 If you check your mail when you're away from the office, tell Outlook Express to leave messages on the server so you can retrieve them when you return to work.
The other two Delivery options help you avoid cluttering up the mail server by automatically deleting messages after a set number of days or when you delete them from your away machine.
The simplest way to compose a message is to reply to one you've received. The format for replies varies slightly between mail and news messages.
When you select a message and click the Reply button, Outlook Express opens a New Message window, selects the same format as the message to which you're responding, fills in the To: line with the sender's address from the original message, adds Re: to the beginning of the original Subject line, and positions the insertion point at the top of the message. When you click the Reply to All button, Outlook Express picks up every addressee from the To: and Cc: lines in the original message and adds them to your new message.
By default, all replies include the full text of the original message, with a separator line between your reply and the original text. How that message appears depends on the format of your reply.
Choose Tools, Options, and click the Send tab to adjust these defaults (see Figure 34.31).
FIG. 34.31 If you routinely reply to replies, lower the default text wrap to 72 characters. That will lessen the chance that your prefix character will cause lines to wrap inappropriately.
To change the default setting so all replies start with a blank message, uncheck the Include Message in Reply option.
When reading newsgroup messages, you have a choice of two reply buttons. Click Reply to Group to begin composing a message to the current newsgroup; just as with a mail message, your reply includes the original posting, although the format of the separator text is different.
To reply in a private email to the person that posted the original newsgroup message, click the Reply to Author button. Although there's no Reply to All button, that option is available: Choose Compose, Reply to Newsgroup and Author to post your reply to the newsgroup and send a copy to the author via email.
CAUTION: Check the email address carefully when responding to newsgroup postings. Many newsgroup contributors deliberately corrupt the Reply-To address in their messages to frustrate junk emailers. You might need to edit stray characters or words to see the real address.
You have two choices when you forward a message you've received to another person. Select the message and click the Forward button to open a New Message window containing the original message; the message uses the same indent settings as if you had chosen to reply to the sender. Enter one or more addresses, add any comments of your own, and click the Send button.
You can also forward an email message as an attached file; choose Compose, Forward as Attachment. That's the correct choice when you want another person to see the message exactly as you saw it, without prefix characters or other reply formatting.
By default, Outlook Express includes five top-level mail folders. There's no way to delete these basic mail folders, which perform the following crucial functions:
NOTE: You can't organize newsgroup messages using mail folders, although you can drag a newsgroup message from the message list and copy it into a mail folder.
You can add an unlimited number of top-level mail folders and subfolders to Outlook Express. The easiest way to create a new folder is to follow these steps:
To move messages, drag them from the message list and drop them on the folder icon in your folder list. To copy messages to a folder while leaving the original file intact, hold down the Ctrl key as you drag the messages.
If you use folders extensively, use right-click shortcut menus in the folder list to move and copy messages. As Figure 34.32 shows, these commands let you create a new folder on-the-fly. Better yet, add the Move To button to the toolbar for instant access to this dialog box.
FIG. 34.32 Use the New Folder button to create a folder and move or copy messages from the same dialog box.
TIP: Adding a new top-level folder creates a matching shortcut on the Outlook bar. If you create a folder within an existing folder--under the Inbox, for example--it appears in the folder list but not on the Outlook bar.
Open the folder list and simply drag folder icons to move them from one location to another. Right-click and use the shortcut menus to delete or rename a folder. You can freely move, delete, or rename any folders you've created, but you can't change any of the five default mail folders.
As you receive new messages and organize them into folders, the size of your mail file grows. When you move and delete messages, Outlook Express removes the messages but leaves the empty space in the mail file. Over time, this can cause your mail folders to waste a significant amount of space. To eliminate wasted space in a single folder, select its icon and choose File, Folder, Compact. To remove slack space from every mail folder, choose File, Folder, Compact All Folders.
TIP: After you compact your mail folders, it's a good idea to back up all your mail files. Click the Start Menu, choose Find, Files or Folders, and search for the data files for each folder; these files use the extension .MBX, while a matching index for each file has the same name but the .IDX extension. Folders you create go by the name FOLDER1.MBX, FOLDER2.MBX, and so on.
In some busy organizations that live and die by email, it's not uncommon for workers to receive dozens or even hundreds of messages per day. Managing that torrent of messages can be a full-time job, but Outlook Express can do at least part of the work. The secret is a tool called the Inbox Assistant, which lets you define rules for Outlook Express to follow when you receive new mail.
To define rules that automate mail processing, choose Tools, Inbox Assistant. Click the Add button and you'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.33.
FIG. 34.33 To create a mail-processing rule, define one or more criteria in the top of this dialog box, and then select an action to be performed when a message meets that condition.
Each rule consists of two parts: a set of criteria and a matching action. Each time a message arrives in your Inbox, Outlook Express compares it with the conditions defined in your Inbox Assistant rules; when it finds a match, it performs the action defined for that rule.
You can define a variety of conditions to trigger mail actions:
NOTE: If you're familiar with filtering options in other mail programs, such as Eudora Pro, you might be disappointed in the limitations of the Inbox Assistant. For example, you cannot define complex "or" conditions; when you specify multiple criteria, Outlook Express acts only on messages that meet all those criteria. Nor can you check the text of the message itself or see whether a message has a file attachment.
When a message meets the conditions you define, you can order Outlook Express to move or copy it to a folder, forward it to another recipient, reply automatically with a saved message, leave the message on the server, or delete the message from the server.
Figure 34.34 shows some rules you might find useful for weeding out junk mail and helping to identify important messages:
FIG. 34.34 Use Inbox Assistant rules to help identify important messages and eliminate junk mail.
Note that rules are applied in the order in which they appear in your list. If two or more conditions apply to the same message, the Inbox Assistant can apply only the first rule. This type of conflict between rules can produce effects you didn't anticipate.
TIP: To clean up a cluttered mail folder, select a rule, click the Apply To button, and pick a folder from the dialog box that pops up. The Inbox Assistant will process all the messages in that folder and any subfolders.
By its very nature, an ordinary email message is as insecure as a postcard. It takes only the most rudimentary technical knowledge to spoof a message so that it appears to be coming from someone other than the actual sender. In fact, a favorite hacker trick is to send bogus mail messages that appear to have come from famous individuals such as Bill Gates. Additionally, because email travels in packets across the Internet, it's theoretically possible for anyone to intercept a transmission, read a message sent to someone else, and possibly change the contents of that message.
Outlook Express includes two features that enhance email security, although neither offers foolproof protection from a skilled and determined data thief. Encryption lets you encode the contents of a message so that only a recipient with a matching code key can decipher the text. A digital signature tacked onto the end of a message guarantees that the message originated from the sender and was not tampered with in transit.
Before you can use either security feature, you'll first have to acquire a digital certificate from a certifying authority and add it to Outlook Express. You'll also need to enable that certificate for every mail account with which you plan to use it, as in Figure 34.35.
ON THE WEB: Internet Explorer 4.0 includes a special offer for a free Class 1 digital ID from VeriSign, Inc. Read full details at http://digitalid.verisign.com.
FIG. 34.35 Before you can encrypt or digitally sign an email message, you'll need to enable a certificate like this one. Click the button at the bottom of the dialog box for more information.
To install your digital ID, follow the instructions provided by the certificate provider. The certificate includes two parts: a public key, which you distribute freely to others, and a private key to which only you have access. Anyone can encrypt a message using your public key, and once they've done so, only you can unscramble it using the private key.
The basics of cryptography aren't difficult to understand. School children, for example, use simple ciphers to create secret messages by substituting letters: A in place of B, B in place of C, and so on. Of course, these encryption systems are ridiculously easy to crack, rendering them unsuitable for applications where privacy is essential.
Computer technology enables users to create far more complex encryption systems that are essentially impervious to all but the most determined attempts at cracking. The more complex the system, the more time and computer power it takes to break the code. With the 128-bit keys used to encrypt secure browser connections, for example, it would take several millennia for even the most powerful desktop computer to run through all possible combinations and decode the original text.
Today's computer-based cryptographic systems use a variety of standards. The official encryption technique of the United States government, for example, is the Data Encryption Standard (DES). This system, originally developed in the mid-1970s and standardized in 1981, requires that both parties exchange a secret key consisting of a randomly generated 56-digit number and then use this key to scramble the encrypted data. Without access to the key, you would have to try more than 200 trillion combinations to read the encrypted text. DES encryption is widely used by banks and other financial institutions.
For everyday use, DES encryption has an enormous drawback. It requires that you exchange digital keys with the party on the other end, either physically (on a floppy disk, for example) or over an electronic connection. Of course, if you had a secure electronic connection, why would you need to use encryption? The solution is to use the RSA Public Key Cryptosystem. With this technique, you generate a matched pair of keys, one public and one private. You freely distribute the public key, via email, on your company's intranet, or on public servers, for example. The private key, on the other hand, stays on your system, where only you have access to it.
NOTE: RSA isn't a technical acronym. Rather, the name identifies the three Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors who invented the process in 1977--Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Len Adleman. The patents for the RSA technology belong to a company they later founded, called RSA Data Security.
The beauty of the RSA system is that it's asymmetrical; you can use either key to encrypt a message, and the only way to decrypt it is by using the matching key of the pair. When you exchange secure mail with another person or organization, the other party has a pair of public and private keys as well. By exchanging public keys with one another, you can work with two types of secure messages:
Outlook Express supports a standard called Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), which uses RSA encryption technology. At the core of any S/MIME client, you'll find support for the Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS). PKCS is ancient by Internet standards; it was first adopted in 1991 by a consortium of computer industry pioneers from private industry and the research community. S/MIME clients (including Outlook 98 and Netscape Communicator) use the PKCS #7 Cryptographic Message Syntax, which defines the basic structure of the digital signature and envelope. This technology is also at the core of Microsoft's Authenticode technology, which is used to verify the integrity of ActiveX controls, and other vendors, including Netscape and Sun, have incorporated it into code-signing mechanisms used with Java applets.
When you install a digital certificate in Outlook Express, Windows 98 asks you to select a cryptographic key (see Figure 34.36). The key you choose defines the encrypting algorithm that the program will use; the more bits, the more secure the encrypted results will be.
FIG. 34.36 Any of these cryptographic providers will be sufficient to encrypt ordinary mail messages with a high degree of security.
NOTE: If you have multiple mail accounts, you'll need a separate certificate for each one because each certificate is tied to a unique email address. Outlook Express selects the correct certificate based on the account you use to send messages.
Windows 98 includes the following four encryption algorithms:
For all intents and purposes, these cryptographic providers are identical. They use slightly different mathematical formulas to generate keys, but the results are fully interoperable with other S/MIME-compatible clients.
To add a digital signature to a message, click the Digitally Sign Message button on the toolbar in the New Message window. A red icon in the lower-right corner of the address box tells you this is a signed message.
CAUTION: Outlook Express includes the option to digitally sign and/or encrypt all your messages. Don't activate this feature unless you're certain that most of your correspondents use mail software that can accept digital certificates. For the overwhelming majority of email users, it's best to choose secure email options one message at a time.
To scramble a message so that only a trusted recipient can read it, click the Encrypt message button in the New Message window. A blue padlock icon in the address box lets you know the message is encrypted. You must have a copy of the recipient's public key before you can encrypt a message to that person. (You can ask a correspondent to send you their public key; you can also find public keys on some directory servers.)
ON THE WEB: Pretty Good Privacy, Inc. has one of the best online sources of information about encryption and secure email. You'll find it at
http://www.pgp.com/privacy/privacy.cgi.
Anyone can encrypt a message and send it to you, as long as they have a copy of your public key. When you receive the encrypted message, Outlook Express uses your private key to unscramble the text so you can read it. When you receive a digitally signed message, you'll see an introductory message like the one in Figure 34.37.
Although the encryption tools in Outlook Express are extremely powerful, their feature set is basic at best. The underlying design assumes that the user has an SMTP account with an Internet service provider, and it also assumes that the user will acquire a digital certificate from an independent certifying authority, such as VeriSign, Inc.
Organizations that require secure email within the company should consider installing Microsoft Exchange, which supports the use of digital certificates that comply with the X.509 standard. These certificates might be issued by an Internet certificate authority such as VeriSign, but a more manageable corporate solution uses the Certificate Server in Internet Information Server 4.0 and later. Most organizations that choose this configuration will also want to replace Outlook Express with a more robust, full-featured email client, such as Outlook 98.
FIG. 34.37 Outlook Express offers this help screen when you receive a digitally signed message. Note the additional information in the address header, too.
TIP: Organizations that require exceptional levels of security should not rely on software and passwords to protect sensitive systems and data. An increasing number of hardware devices support the Microsoft Cryptography Application Programming Interfaces (CryptoAPI). These supplement software-based security with smart cards, fingerprint recognition, and other types of hardware that uniquely identify a particular user.
Although newsgroup messages appear in the same window as mail messages, the mechanics of downloading and managing newsgroup messages are dramatically different. Unlike mail messages, which are addressed directly to you, newsgroup messages are posted on public servers for all to see. You probably don't want to read every message in busy newsgroups, which can get hundreds of new messages per day.
Getting the maximum benefit from Internet newsgroups takes careful setup and management. Before you can get started, you have to identify potentially useful or interesting newsgroups.
Newsgroups are nearly as old as the Internet itself. They get only a fraction of the publicity that goes to the newer and flashier World Wide Web, but that doesn't mean they're less useful. On the contrary, public peer-support newsgroups can be an excellent source for quick answers to thorny software and hardware support questions. Newsgroups are also popular among hobbyists ranging from BMW enthusiasts to cat owners, and moderated newsgroups are important gathering places for computer and science professionals.
Don't be misled by the name; newsgroups have nothing to do with the New York Times or CNN. They function more like public bulletin boards, organized by topic, where individuals post messages (sometimes called articles) that anyone with access to that group can read and reply to. Just as web servers use Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, to communicate, news servers use Network News Transfer Protocol, or NNTP, to share information.
The oldest collection of newsgroups is called Usenet, a distributed network of servers that continually exchange messages with one another. When you post a newsgroup article to your local news server, it works its way across the network until every Usenet news server has a copy.
ON THE WEB: For the definitive description of what Usenet is and isn't, read this web page:
http://www.netannounce.org/news.announce.newusers/archive/usenet/what-is/part1
Not all Usenet news servers carry all newsgroups, and it's up to the manager of a news server to decide when older messages "expire" and drop off the server. The past few years have seen a steady increase in the number of private newsgroups as corporations have seen how easy it is for employees to communicate using these forums.
CAUTION: Don't expect to find useful information in a newsgroup just because the name sounds appealing. As the Internet has grown, newsgroups have become increasingly vulnerable to spam--posts (usually commercial in nature) that are unrelated to the stated purpose of a newsgroup and simply serve to clutter the listings of articles. On some once-popular newsgroups, the only traffic these days consists of variations on chain letters and enticements to visit X-rated web sites.
The first time you connect to a news server, Outlook Express offers to download a list of all the newsgroups available there. On a well-stocked server, that can represent thousands of newsgroups. Click the Newsgroups button to view the complete list of groups available on a news server. If you've defined multiple accounts, make sure you select the correct server from the list at the left of the window (see Figure 34.38).
FIG. 34.38 To see a complete list of available newsgroups, first select a news server icon from the list at left.
Newsgroups use a dotted naming convention like those found elsewhere on the Internet, with strict hierarchies that identify what subscribers can expect to find in each one. To read a newsgroup name, follow the hierarchy from left to right as it goes from general to specific. In Usenet newsgroups, for example, the first entry is the top-level domain. Table 34.1 lists many (but not all) of the most common top-level domains.
| Top-Level Domain | Description | Sample newsgroup |
| comp | general computer subjects | comp.os.ms-windows.networking.tcp-ip |
| rec | hobbies, the arts, pop culture | rec.music.beatles |
| soc | social issues and world culture | soc.culture.irish |
| sci | science-related, many highly specialized | sci.space.policy |
| gov | government newsgroups | gov.us.fed.congress.documents |
| news | newsgroup administrative issues | news.newusers.questions |
| misc | miscellaneous, often commercial groups | misc.taxes.moderated |
There are a variety of unofficial newsgroup hierarchies as well, including the infamous alt category. When people complain about pornography on the Internet, they're talking about newsgroups whose names begin with alt.sex and alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.
There are also local newsgroups, whose top-level domain identifies a geographic region. (Try ba.food for San Francisco Bay Area restaurant recommendations, or nyc.jobs for employment in the Big Apple.) Additionally, there are private groups intended for subscribers of Internet service providers like Netcom.
Microsoft now provides its first level of technical support through newsgroups in the microsoft.* hierarchy. You'll find them on msnews.microsoft.com, and an increasing number of Internet service providers are replicating the Microsoft news feed to their own news servers.
On Microsoft's public news servers, there are nearly 600 separate groups. Some well-stocked Usenet news servers include more than 15,000 distinct newsgroups. Instead of scrolling through the full Newsgroups list to find relevant ones, use the text box at the top of the dialog box to show only groups whose names contain certain letters or words. If you're looking for information about Outlook Express, for example, type the word Outlook to see a filtered list like the one in Figure 34.39.
FIG. 34.39 After you've found the newsgroup you're looking for, double-click its name to add it to your list of subscribed groups.
ON THE WEB: You can't use Outlook Express to search the contents of a newsgroup for specific information, but web-based news archives like Deja News can search newsgroups for messages and threads that match your interests. If you find a wealth of information in a particular newsgroup, use Outlook Express to go there directly. You'll find Deja News at
http://www.dejanews.com
On Usenet servers in particular, it's common for new groups to appear and old ones to disappear regularly. If you suspect that there are new groups available on a server,
Don't be confused by the buttons to the right of the Newsgroups list. Subscribing to a newsgroup doesn't cost anything, and it doesn't require that you send any information about yourself to a news server. (There's also no connection with web subscriptions.) In Outlook Express, subscriptions are simply a way of managing the Newsgroup list to show only your favorite groups.
Follow these steps to manage your newsgroup subscriptions:
TIP: You needn't subscribe to a newsgroup to see its contents. Select a name from the Newsgroups list, and then click the Go To button to open the newsgroup. Use the choices on the Tools menu to manage subscriptions for the newsgroup you're currently viewing.
FIG. 34.40 When you select a news server in the folder list at left, the list at right shows only newsgroups to which you've subscribed.
Before you can read the messages in a newsgroup, you have to download them from the server to your computer. That process is not as straightforward as it sounds. For starters, you can't tell from the Newsgroup list how many messages are currently available for each newsgroup. Some obscure groups generate only a handful of messages, but popular groups might contain thousands of messages at one time, with some containing binary attachments or graphic files that occupy significant amounts of disk space. Downloading every message without first checking the newsgroup's contents is clearly a bad idea.
To make newsgroup traffic more manageable, Outlook Express distinguishes between message headers and bodies. Regardless of the size of the message itself, the header contains only the subject line, the author's name, and the message size. By default, when you open a newsgroup for the first time, Outlook Express connects with the server and asks it to transfer the 300 most recent subject headers.
Look at the status bar (see Figure 34.41) to see how many headers were left on the server. To download more headers, choose Tools, Get Next 300 Headers. Outlook Express always chooses the most recent headers that have not yet been downloaded.
FIG. 34.41 The status bar tells you how many message headers you've downloaded from the total available on the server.
TIP: To adjust the number of headers Outlook Express retrieves on each pass, choose Tools, Options and increase or decrease the number shown on the Read tab.
The window in which you read news messages works much the same as the mail window, with a single notable exception. Outlook Express organizes news messages so you can follow a discussion that takes place over days or even weeks.
Newsgroups facilitate threaded conversations, in which one user posts a message and others reply to that message. News servers keep track of the links between original posts, replies, and replies to replies. By default, Outlook Express maintains these threads regardless of the sort order you've chosen for messages in a given newsgroup. These messages remain grouped together even when the reply title begins with the Re: prefix.
Replies to a message are indented below the original message, and replies to replies are indented another level. To see all the messages in a thread, click the plus sign to the left of the message header that begins the thread. To collapse the thread so you see only the first header, click the minus sign to the left of the thread.
Navigating through threads with the keyboard is fast and easy. Use the up and down arrows to move through the list of messages. In the default view, where all message threads are collapsed, the up and down arrow moves from thread to thread. To work with threads from the keyboard, use the right arrow to expand and the left arrow to collapse each thread.
If messages are not grouped together properly, choose View, Sort By, Group Messages by Thread.
As long as the connection between Outlook Express and the news server is active, you can read messages by opening a message window or by using the preview pane. When you select a header, Outlook Express automatically retrieves that message from the server and adds it to your file. When you double-click to open a message window, or if you keep the preview pane open for more than 5 seconds, the header text changes from boldface to normal type, indicating that you've read the message.
If you'd prefer to keep your connection open while you scroll through the headers and retrieve only those messages that look most interesting, choose Tools, Options, click the Read tab, and clear the check mark from the box labeled Automatically Show News Messages in the Preview Pane. As Figure 34.42 shows, with this option set you must select a header and tap the spacebar to retrieve a message.
FIG. 34.42 Note the different icons in this list: Downloaded messages show a full page, and the corner is turned down after reading.
The most efficient way to work with large newsgroups is offline. Outlook Express lets you download a batch of headers, then scroll through the list and mark the ones you want to download. The next time you connect to the server, Outlook Express retrieves the marked messages, which you can read anytime.
Follow these steps to work offline:
FIG. 34.43 The tiny arrow to the left of some headers means they've been marked for retrieval the next time you connect with the news server.
FIG. 34.44 Check the option at the bottom of this dialog box to retrieve messages whose headers you've marked.
Unless you've set up your news account to hang up immediately after downloading messages or headers, the connection remains active while you work with messages and headers. By default, Outlook Express disconnects from the server after a minute; when that happens, the text in the status bar changes and you'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.45.
FIG. 34.45 After a period of inactivity, you might lose your connection to the news server. To reconnect, choose File, Connect, or press F5.
If you're using a dial-up connection, you might need to redial at this point. Click the Connect button or choose File, Connect to redial the server. If you're connected through a LAN, you can re-establish the connection by pressing the Refresh key, F5.
After a while, the sheer bulk of downloaded headers and messages from some newsgroups is overwhelming, and navigation can become nearly impossible. To cut the display down to manageable proportions, use filters to show only messages that meet specific criteria. Outlook Express includes three built-in filters, or you can create your own.
News filters are analogous to mail-processing rules created by the Inbox Assistant. Unlike those rules, however, newsgroup filters can't move or forward messages or reply automatically on your behalf to messages.
To use a built-in filter, choose View, Current View and pick one of these three choices:
You can also create your own filter based on one or more rules, which can be used in conjunction with the built-in filters. To create the rules for your filter, choose Tools, Newsgroup Filters, and then click the Add button. You'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 34.46.
You can apply filters to a single newsgroup or server or to every server. Filters let you suppress messages from specific individuals or domains, or messages with a key word or phrase in the subject line. You can also hide messages that are too old or too big.
FIG. 34.46 Use filters to reduce the amount of clutter in crowded newsgroups. This filter, for example, hides all "make money fast" postings.
To apply all active filters to the current display, choose View, Current View, and make sure Filtered Messages is checked.
To temporarily disable a single rule, clear the check box next to its entry in the Filters list. To change the order in which rules are applied, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons. To edit a rule, select its entry and click the Properties button. To eliminate a rule permanently, click the Remove button.
Eventually, as you develop experience, you'll build up a list of favorite newsgroups, each with its own characteristics. Outlook Express lets you create different settings for each one, so that you can download messages and/or headers according to your preferences.
To set up each newsgroup, open the folder list, right-click a newsgroup entry, and choose Properties. The General tab provides information about the number of messages and headers; click the Download tab (see Figure 34.47) to tell Outlook Express whether you want only headers or full messages each time you download a newsgroup.
FIG. 34.47 Be careful with this option; downloading extremely active newsgroups can consume more disk space than you think.
After you've set your preferences for each newsgroup to which you're subscribed, use one of the Download choices from the Tools menu to gather mail and news. Figure 34.48 shows the status screen you'll see if you choose Download All Messages.
FIG. 34.48 Watch this status screen for details as Outlook Express gathers mail and news from all your accounts.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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