Internet Mail is an add-on product for Internet Explorer that provides basic Internet e-mail capabilities. Along with its companion product for viewing Internet newsgroups, Internet News, Internet Mail is part of Microsoft's free Internet Add-On
package
for Windows.
Unlike Microsoft Messaging Inbox (formerly known as Microsoft Exchange Inbox) or Exchange Client, Internet Mail doesn't attempt to be a universal inbox with the ability to handle e-mail from other sources such as local area networks and online
services.
Internet Mail just gives you the basic features for handling Internet e-mail messages-and does it in an easy-to-use package.
Internet Mail enables you to
This chapter covers how to use Internet Mail to handle your Internet e-mail messages. Internet Mail is designed to integrate nicely with Internet Explorer; it's simple, easy to use, and makes very modest demands on your computer's resources. However,
if
you need more advanced e-mail handling features, or the convenience of using a single program to handle messages from multiple sources, you might want to consider using Microsoft Messaging Inbox or one of the other e-mail programs covered in Chapter 12,
"Using MS Exchange and Other E-mail Clients."
NOTE
Internet Mail and Internet News are rapidly evolving new products from Microsoft. Like Internet Explorer, they are being released to the public free of charge, first in an open beta program (on which this chapter is based) and then as a finished product. The developers are adding new features and making significant changes to the software throughout the development cycle. The changes are likely to continue even after the "final" version begins shipping. As a result, Internet Mail might boast some significant new features by the time you read this. See the "Coming Attractions" section near the end of this chapter for a look ahead at some of the features that might be in future versions of Internet Mail but were not available at the time I was writing this.
Although Internet Mail and Internet News are two separate programs, they share many common features. As a result, you'll probably find them joined together like Siamese twins for distribution.
As I write this, the final packaging details for Internet Mail and News have yet to be announced. It is likely that you will be able to get the programs from a number of sources. You might be able to get Internet Mail and News bundled with Internet
Explorer 3.0, or acquire the programs separately. You might be able to purchase the package through retail channels or order it directly from Microsoft. Certainly, you will be able to download the software from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com. Web sites are always subject to change, but you can probably find Internet Mail and News by following links to free software or to add-ons for Internet Explorer.
Internet Mail and News are available in several different language editions and in versions for different operating systems. Select and download the appropriate version for your use. After the download is complete, the Internet Mail and News
installation program might start automatically if your Web browser is configured to launch downloaded files. Otherwise, you can locate the downloaded file on your hard disk (it'll probably have a name similar to MAILNEWS.EXE) and double click on its icon
to start the installation process.
A wizard will ask a few simple questions and then it will handle the rest of the program installation for you automatically. For example, you can choose to install Internet Mail, Internet News, or both; and you'll get the opportunity to confirm the
folder where the setup program will install Internet Mail and News. As with all wizards, you read instructions or answer questions in a dialog box, and click on the Next button to proceed to the next page. After you answer the questions and view the
license agreement, click on the Finish button on the final page of the wizard to complete the automatic installation. When the installation wizard finishes copying files and updating your system, you'll probably need to restart your computer in order for
the changes to take effect.
With the basic program installation complete, you're ready to start using Internet Mail. But first, Internet Mail needs some information about your Internet connection and e-mail account. The first time you run Internet Mail, another wizard will appear
to help you configure Internet Mail with the essential information about your e-mail account and the e-mail server that serves as your e-mail post office.
Supply the requested information about your Internet e-mail account and the mail server. (Check with you system administrator or ISP staff for the necessary information.)
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The Outgoing Mail (SMTP) and Incoming Mail (POP3) servers are often the same and might have a name such as mail.domain.com. However, if you have any doubt about the correct server names, check with your system administrator.
The Wizard will configure Internet Mail with the information you supply and then start the program. Later, you can change or add to the information in Internet Mail. You'll find most of the settings on the Server tab of the Options dialog box (choose
Options from Internet Mail's Mail menu and click on the Server tab).
Caution
You can't use Internet Mail to handle to e-mail messages from Microsoft Network, even if they are Internet mail messages. Unfortunately, MSN does not use industry-standard SMTP or POP3 mail servers like most Internet service providers. MSN with eventually switch mail server formats to the compound with the rest of the Internet. Until then, you must use Exchange to access e-mail on MSN.
When you're ready to run Internet Mail, you have several options for launching the program. Perhaps the most convenient way to start Internet Mail is to simply double-click on the shortcut icon the installation wizard created on your desktop. This will
open Internet Mail in its own window, as shown in Figure 11.1.
Note
This feature might not be available in the final production version of Internet Mail. As Microsoft continues to develop this software, features will be added and removed.
Figure 11.1. Internet Mail running in its own window.
Another way to launch Internet Mail is to use the Start menu. Click on the Start button in the task bar, point to Programs, and then to MS Internet, and click on Mail. The effect is the same as double-clicking on the desktop shortcut.
You can also launch Internet Mail from a My Computer window or from the Windows Explorer. However, the procedure is a little different from what you might expect. Internet Mail is an extension of Explorer (Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer). As
such, there is no executable program file that you can double-click to start Internet Mail. Instead, you'll find Internet Mail listed under My Computer along with your hard drive and other system resources. You can launch Internet Mail by double-clicking
on the Internet Mail icon in a My Computer window or on the Internet Mail folder in the left pane of Windows Explorer. When you open Internet Mail in Windows Explorer, the program runs in the right pane of the Explorer window instead of a separate window.
(See Figure 11.2.)
Figure 11.2. Internet Mail running in a Windows Explorer window.
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Running Internet Mail by double-clicking on the desktop shortcut will open the program in its own window. The same goes for Internet News. However, if you open either of the programs from My Computer or Windows Explorer, you can use one window for both programs and switch back and forth between them. To switch to the other program, pull down the drop-down list at the left end of the toolbar and select the program you want to switch to. Repeat the process to switch back.
Internet Mail is designed to compliment Internet Explorer by making certain e-mail handling features available from within Explorer. For example, when you click on a Mailto link on a Web page in Explorer, the program can call on Internet Mail to
provide
the capabilities needed to compose and send a new e-mail message. Although it's not available in the beta versions on which this chapter is based, I expect to see one-click access to Internet Mail from within Internet Explorer, making Internet Mail
function almost as an extension of the browser.
Using Internet Mail to provide messaging services for Internet Explorer is optional. If you don't configure Internet Mail to provide such services, Explorer will use whatever other mail client you have installed—usually, Windows Messaging Inbox.
Normally, you will elect to make Internet Mail your default mail program during installation. However, you can also create the link between Internet Explorer and Internet Mail later. To make Internet Mail the default mail program for Internet Explorer,
start by opening Internet Mail and then choose Options from the Mail menu. When the Options dialog box appears, click on the Send tab (see Figure 11.3). To make Internet Mail the default, simply click on Use Microsoft Internet Mail, by default, to send
messages from your web browser box in the Mail sending settings section on the Send tab and then click OK to close the dialog box.
Figure 11.3. You can configure Internet Mail as the default e-mail program for Internet Explorer with a simple button click.
After you specify Internet Mail as your default mail program, Internet Explorer will use Internet Mail to create mail when you click on a Mailto link on a Web page. Internet News will also use Internet Mail to create messages when you choose to Reply
To
Author of a newsgroup article. However, the File, Send To, Mail Recipient command in Internet Explorer needs to link to a full-fledged MAPI messaging service, not just Internet e-mail. Consequently, using that command will send the current Web page URL to
Windows Messaging Inbox (or your other MAPI messaging service), not Internet Mail, as an attachment in a new message. (A future version of Internet Mail might be capable of interacting with the Send To command.)
Internet Mail might not be as powerful or have as many options as some e-mail programs, but its simplicity makes it fast and easy to use for handling your routine e-mail tasks. You can get your e-mail messages from your mail server with a single click
of your mouse. Then you can browse the list of messages and read, respond, file, and forward them as needed. Creating messages to send to others is a simple task. Internet Mail even handles file attachments with aplomb.
NOTE
Internet Mail is capable of recognizing URLs and e-mail addresses within e-mail messages. Clicking on a URL in a mail message will launch your preferred web browser and load the web page, assuming you are connected to the Internet. Clicking on an e-mail address will begin a new message to that e-mail address.
The first step in handling e-mail is to check your e-mail server for waiting messages and download those messages to Internet Mail where you can work with them. If you have dial-up access to the Internet, you'll probably want to configure Internet Mail
to check for e-mail messages manually. However, if you have a full-time Internet connection through a local network or dedicated line, you have the option of instructing Internet Mail to check your mail automatically every few minutes.
By default, Internet Mail is set up so that you can manually trigger the exchange of messages between Internet Mail and your e-mail server. It's easy to do. Just choose Send and Receive Mail from the Mail menu or click on the Send and Receive Mail icon
in the icon bar. Internet Mail will connect to your e-mail server, download any waiting messages, and also send any messages you have created. (Normally, you should already be connected to your ISP before issuing the command. However, if you have the
dial-up Internet access accessories from the Microsoft Plus Companion for Windows 95 installed, Internet Mail can initiate the connection for you automatically.)
Note
As of this writing, Internet Mail will automatically download all your messages waiting on the mail server when you issue the Send and Receive Mail command. An anticipated enhancement to Internet Mail will give you the option of getting a list of waiting messages and then choosing which ones to download.
Internet Mail has the capacity to check your e-mail server automatically every few minutes, thus eliminating the need to manually issue the Send and Receive Mail command. The effect is the same as issuing the Send and Receive Mail command, it just
happens automatically when a specified amount of time has passed since the last time Internet Mail checked the mail server. It's only practical to use this option if you enjoy the luxury of a full-time Internet connection.
To configure Internet Mail to check your mail automatically, choose Options from the Mail menu, then click on the Read tab when the Options dialog box appears (see Figure 11.4). Click on Check for New Mail Every X Minutes to make sure there is a check
in the check box. Enter a number to tell Internet Mail how often to check your mail and then click on the OK button to close the dialog box. Checking this option also causes Internet Mail to check for messages automatically when you start the program.
Figure 11.4. You can instruct Internet Mail to check your mail server automatically every few minutes.
After you download incoming messages from the e-mail server into Internet Mail, you're ready to read your mail. Internet Mail places all incoming messages in the Inbox folder (more on folders a little later) until you read, discard, or take some other
action to dispose of each message. Normally, the Internet Mail window is divided into two panes: the message list and the preview pane (see Figure 11.5). When you first open Internet Mail, the message list will display a list of the messages in the Inbox
folder. For each message, the message list shows the sender's name (or e-mail address), the subject, and the date and time it was received by the e-mail server. Unread messages appear in bold in the message list and messages you've already viewed appear
in
a normal font.
Figure 11.5. The message list and preview pane make browsing through your messages a snap.
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You can rearrange the Internet Mail window and even hide the preview pane if you want. See "Customizing Internet Mail," later in this chapter for more information.
Internet Mail's preview pane makes it easy to browse through your e-mail messages. It isn't necessary to open a message in a separate window in order to read it. Instead, you can simply click on a message in the message list pane and the message text
appears in the preview pane. If the entire message won't fit in the preview pane, scroll bars appear so you can scroll through the text. All the most common message handling commands such as Reply, Forward, and Move To a different folder are available
from
the menus to enable you to manipulate the selected message. When you want to view another message, just select it in the message list; the newly selected message's text will appear in the preview pane, replacing the text of the previous message.
Double-clicking on a message in the message list will open that message in a separate window, as shown in Figure 11.6. The message window has its own set of menus (duplicating those in the main Internet Mail window) and a toolbar with buttons for the
most common message-handling commands. You can use the arrow buttons in the toolbar to load the previous or next message in the message list into the current window.
Figure 11.6. Internet Mail can also display messages in a separate window.
Opening a message in a message window affords you some options that aren't available when viewing a message in the preview pane. For example, you can save the message as a file and copy an address from the header area and save it in your address book
for future use.
Unlike some e-mail programs, Internet Mail doesn't display all the routing information that can make the header of an Internet message longer than the body of the message. However, if you need to refer to those and other message details, you can
display
the properties sheet for the message.
To view the message properties, right-click on a message in the message list and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. This opens the Properties dialog box shown in Figure 11.7. The General tab displays basic information about the message, including
the Sent and Received times. This will show you how long the message was in transit from the sender to your mail server. If you click on the Details tab (see Figure 11.8), you can see the routing information from the hidden message header. Sometimes you
can find information, such as an alternate e-mail address for the sender or what e-mail program they used, that can be useful in troubleshooting problems communicating with the sender of the message.
Figure 11.7. The properties sheet contains more information about the message.
Figure 11.8. The routing information found on the Details tab can sometimes yield useful information about the message.
One of the nice things about e-mail is that it doesn't have to consume paper—you can read and respond to messages entirely on-screen. However, sometimes there is no substitute for a real hard copy of a message. When you encounter one of
those situations, Internet Mail can accommodate you by printing selected messages.
To print a message, select the message in the message list and then choose Print from the File menu in the Internet Mail window or right-click on the selected message and choose Print from the pop-up menu. (You can also choose Print from the File menu
in an open message window to print the message appearing in that window.) Confirm the printer settings and click OK to begin printing. Internet Mail will format your message attractively and send it to your printer.
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After selecting one message in the message list, you can Shift+click or Ctrl+click to select additional messages before issuing the Print command. Internet Mail will print all the selected messages.
You can easily sort the message list to change the order of the messages and group them by sender, subject, or age. You have the option of sorting messages in ascending or descending order in any of the columns appearing in the message list.
The column headings in the message list are really sort buttons. To sort the list, simply click on the column heading by which you want to sort the list. An arrow on the button indicates which column is sorted and the direction of the sort. Click on
the
same heading again to change the sort direction.
For example, you can click on Received to sort the messages in the list by the date and time they were received. The first time you click on the Received column header, Internet Mail shows the oldest messages first. Click on Received again to bring the
newest messages to the top of the list.
After you get more than a few messages, you'll need some way to keep track of which messages you've read and which messages you have yet to read. Internet Mail displays unread messages in bold type in the message list and the message icon resembles an
envelope. After you open a message in a message window or the message appears in the preview pane for a specified length of time, Internet Mail will mark the message as read by removing the bold style from its listing in the message list, and the envelope
icon changes to display an open flap (see Figure 11.9).
Figure 11.9. Bold type in the message list indicates unread messages.
You can adjust the amount of time a message will appear in the preview pane before Internet Mail considers it read. Open the Options dialog box by choosing Options from the Mail menu and click on the Read tab. Next, adjust the value in the Mark
Messages
As Read After Previewed For X Seconds by entering a new number. (You can disable this feature completely by clearing the option's check box.) Click on the OK button to close the dialog box.
You can mark a message as read without displaying or opening it. Simply select a message in the message list (you can select multiple messages if needed), pull down the Edit menu, and choose Mark As Read. The message changes from bold to regular text
in
the message list.
You can also return a message that you have previewed or opened to the unread state. (You might want to do this to remind yourself to reread the message later.) Just select the message in the message list and choose Mark As Unread from the Edit menu.
The message will appear in bold.
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The Mark As Read and Mark As Unread commands are also available on the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click on a message in the message list.
After you read a paper letter or memo, you might discard it, file it for future reference, or take some action such as formulating a reply or sending it on to someone else for reference or action. Internet Mail gives you the same options for managing
your e-mail messages. This section addresses message filing; the next section covers replies along with creating new messages.
Most e-mail messages seem to fall in the read and discard category. After you absorb the information in the message, it is of no further use. So, the most common message management action is to delete the message.
Because it's such a common operation, Internet Mail provides several ways to delete a message. For example, if you are working in the message list, you can select one or more messages and then do one of the following:
You can delete the message in an open message window by choosing Delete from the message window's File menu or by clicking on the Delete button in the message window's toolbar.
Regardless of which method you use to delete the a message, Internet Mail doesn't delete the message immediately. Instead, the message is moved to the Deleted Items folder. The process is similar to deleted files making a stop in Windows 95's Recycle
Bin before being truly deleted by emptying the Recycle Bin. Like the Recycle Bin, the Deleted Items folder gives you the chance to change your mind and recover a discarded message from the trash before it is destroyed.
Deleted messages will accumulate in the Deleted Items folder until you complete the removal process by deleting the messages from the Deleted Items folder. This means you must delete a message twice before it's really gone. To keep this double deletion
process from becoming a hassle, you can configure Internet Mail to empty the Deleted Items folder automatically when you exit the program. To activate this feature, pull down the Mail menu and choose Options to open the Options dialog box. Click on the
Read tab and make sure the Empty the 'Deleted Items' Folder Upon Exiting option is checked, then click on the OK button to close the dialog box. When this option is active, Internet Mail dumps the contents of the Deleted Items folder when you quit the
program.
Your paper correspondence would soon become unmanageable if it all stayed lumped together in your inbox. To organize your memos and letters, you probably distribute them into separate in and out boxes and a number of file folders for various projects
or
categories of correspondence. Internet Mail provides the electronic counterpart to those folders. Your incoming messages appear in the Inbox folder initially. Then, you can move each message to another folder as needed to keep things organized.
Internet Mail starts out with four default folders:
That's a pretty sparse list, but you can add new folders as needed to organize your messages according to your own working style. You can create folders to file messages by urgency, by topic, by sender, by date, by project, or any other scheme that
makes sense to you.
To create a new folder in Internet Mail, pull down the File menu, point to Folder, and then choose Create. In the Create New Folder dialog box, type the name of the folder you want to create and then click on the OK button. The new folder is
immediately
available for filing messages.
Caution
Unlike Windows Messaging Inbox and some other e-mail programs, Internet Mail won't enable you to create folders nested within folders. All your folders must be on the same level.
Empty folders don't do much good. After all, they exist to be containers for messages. To move a message from the Inbox (or other folder) into a different folder, simply select the message (or messages) in the message list, pull down the Mail menu,
point to Move To, and click on a folder name. Internet Mail moves the message into the designated folder.
As an alternative, you can right-click on the selected message, point to Move To in the pop-up menu, and then choose the folder name. Oddly, the Move To command isn't available on the file menu in the message viewing window, which means that all your
message movements must occur from the message list.
If you want a copy of a message in more than one folder, you can use the same process except that you choose the Copy To command instead of Move To. Internet Mail will keep the message in the original folder and create a copy of the message in the
selected folder.
The message list pane of the Internet Mail window displays a list of messages in one folder. The first folder you're likely to view is the Inbox folder (as in the previous figures), but you can choose to display the contents of any folder—any of
the four default folders or any of the folders you've created.
The title bar above the message list pane shows which folder is currently displayed. It's also the key to selecting a different folder to view. To select a different folder, click on the down arrow at the left end of the title bar above the message
list
pane. A menu appears listing the available folders. When you choose a folder from the menu, the new folder name appears in the title bar and the message list shows the contents of that folder. You can select and view messages from the message list.
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You can also select a different folder by pulling down the Mail menu, pointing to Go To Folder, and choosing a folder from the menu.
Eventually, some of your folders will become obsolete. When that happens, you can remove the unneeded folders from Internet Mail. To delete a folder, pull down the File menu, point to Folder, then point to Delete, and choose the folder name you want to
discard. Confirm the action by clicking Yes in the message box that appears. When you do, Internet Mail deletes the folder and all its contents.
Caution
You can delete only the folders you created. You can't delete any of Internet Mail's four standard folders (Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, or Deleted Items).
Internet Mail stores all your e-mail messages in its own file structure. It doesn't keep a separate file for each message. However, there are times when you might want to save an e-mail message in a separate file. Having a message saved as a file can
be
useful to archive the message on disk or transfer it into other programs.
To save a message as a file, first open the message (double-click on the message in the message list), then choose Save As from the File menu (or click on the Save button in the message window's toolbar). This will open a standard Save As dialog box
where you can specify the destination and filename for the file. When you click on the Save button, Internet Mail will save the message in a file with the .EML extension.
If you open a My Computer or Windows Explorer window and double-click on an e-mail file created in this way, your system will launch Internet Mail and open the message in a message window just like opening the message from the message list. Despite the
link to Internet Mail, however, the file is really just a plain text file. You can open it with Notepad, another text editor, or import the file into other applications.
Eventually, moving and deleting messages from folders will result in files that no longer store your messages as efficiently as possible. To prevent Internet Mail's message files from occupying unnecessary disk space, you can compact the message
folders. To compact a folder, pull down the File menu, point to Folder, then point to Compact, and then choose the folder name. Unfortunately, you must compact each folder individually—a tedious job if you've created many folders.
It's a good idea to do this on a regular basis. Also, before compacting a folder, delete any old, outdated messages it might contain. And don't forget to empty the Deleted Items folder.
So far, you've seen how to read and manage incoming e-mail messages. Although reading e-mail messages is fun and informative, e-mail is a two-way communication medium, and you'll need to send messages to others as well as read incoming messages.
Internet Mail gives you the tools you need to create messages from scratch and send them to anyone with a valid Internet e-mail address. The program also has features to facilitate replying to a message and forwarding a message to someone else.
When you create a new message in Internet Mail, you do so in a New Message window such as the one shown in Figure 11.10. You open the New Message window by choosing New Message from the Mail menu or by clicking on the New Message icon in the icon bar.
Figure 11.10. The window you will use to create new e-mail messages.
After opening the New Message window, the next step is to address your message to its intended recipient. (Actually, you could type the message first and then address your message, but we have to start these instructions somewhere.) Simply type the
recipient's e-mail address in the message box's To field (click on <click here to enter recipients> and begin typing). You can enter multiple names separated by semicolons.
Repeat the process to enter addresses in the CC field for recipients to which you want to send courtesy copies.
You can type e-mail addresses directly into the To and CC fields. Just be sure to enter the addresses accurately and in the correct name@domain format. You can also choose e-mail addresses from your address book or enter the display name for an
address book entry and let Internet Mail supply the associated e-mail address. (The Address Book is discussed a little later in this chapter.)
With the addressing out of the way, you can turn your attention to the content of your message. Begin by entering a subject line. This is important because it helps the recipient identify your message and what it's about. In most cases, the subject you
define stays on the message even after the recipient reads and files the message on their system. To enter the subject, click on <click here to enter the subject> in the Subject box and type in the appropriate text.
Next, move your cursor down out of the header area of the New Message window and into the large pane where you can type the body of your message. Type just as you would in a word processor, letting Internet Mail automatically wrap your paragraphs to
fit
within the New Message window. Don't worry about pressing Enter at the end of each line. Internet Mail will add line breaks to fit standard line lengths before sending the message.
Internet Mail lets you create a standard signature for your messages. (An e-mail signature is a few lines of closing text, usually giving your name, e-mail address, and perhaps a quote or your title and company affiliation.) You can configure Internet
Mail to add your signature to every message automatically or you can add a predefined signature to an individual message by choosing Signature from the Insert menu or by clicking on the Signature button on the toolbar. Internet Mail will add the
predefined
signature text to the bottom of the message you're creating. (See the section called "Customizing Internet Mail," later in this chapter, for instructions on how to define a signature and configure Internet Mail to add it to your messages
automatically.
Internet Mail can check the spelling in your e-mail message if you have the spell checker from Microsoft Office installed on your system. To begin checking the spelling in your message, choose Check Spelling from the Mail menu. Internet Mail opens the
familiar Office Check Spelling dialog box and begins checking the text of the message.
If you don't have Office or one of the Office programs—Word, Excel, PowerPoint—installed, this option won't be available.
By default, Internet Mail automatically saves a copy of each outgoing messages in the Sent Items folder. You don't have to do anything special to activate the feature, but you can disable it if you want. I show you how in the "Customizing Internet
Mail" section later in this chapter.
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If you decide to disable the automatic copies of all outgoing messages, you can make copies of selected outgoing messages by using a very simple technique. Just add your own e-mail address to the CC field to send yourself a copy of the message.
Internet Mail lets you specify the delivery priority for each outgoing message. Pull down the Mail menu, point to Set Priority, and choose High, Normal, or Low. You can also click on the stamp icon in upper-right portion of the New Message window and
choose the delivery priority (High Priority, Normal Priority, or Low Priority) for the message.
The delivery priority doesn't really make any difference in the way the message is handled as it goes through most Internet e-mail systems. Choosing High Priority probably won't get the message to its destination any faster. However, some e-mail
programs display the message priority so your recipient will have the option of reading high priority messages first. Some systems even alert the recipient with a special sound when a high priority message is received.
Before sending your message, you can have Internet Mail check the list of recipients to make sure they are all valid Internet e-mail addresses. (Actually, the program can't confirm each and every address, but it can make sure that each address is
entered in the correct Internet mail address format. That's enough to catch many of the typing errors that might make a message undeliverable.)
To check the addressees, choose Check Names from the Mail menu in the New Message window. Internet Mail will check each address in the To and CC fields. If a name matches an Address Book entry or appears in the standard name@domain format,
Internet Mail underlines it to indicate that it passed the check. If a name isn't recognized, Internet Mail opens the Resolve Name dialog box where you can choose a name from your address book or create a new address book entry for the name. Select (or
create) the appropriate address book entry and click on the OK button or click on the Cancel button to return to the New Message window and retype the problem name.
When you've finished composing your message, you're ready to send it on its way. Choose Send Message from the File menu to close the New Message window and place the message in the Outbox folder. Internet Mail will deliver the mail to your mail server
the next time you check for new mail.
If you're connected to your Internet account and you want to send the message immediately, choose Send And Receive Mail from the File menu.
The speed of e-mail makes it possible to send a message and get a response much faster than with postal letters. The result is a two-way dialog of message, reply, and response that can be more immediate and useful than you are likely to find in paper
correspondence.
Over time, conventions have developed for handling quick replies to an e-mail message. Of course, Internet Mail has features to support these conventions and generally facilitate replies.
To use the reply feature, open a message (or select a message in the message list), then pull down the Mail menu and choose Reply To Author or Reply To All. Which command you choose will depend on how you want the reply message to be addressed. If you
want to respond with a message addressed only to the sender of the original message, choose Reply to Author. However, if the message you're responding to was addressed to a number of recipients and you want your response to go to the same list (including
the sender), choose Reply To All.
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You can also reply to a message by right-clicking on the message in the message list and choosing Reply To Author or Reply To All from the pop-up menu that appears.
When you choose one of the Reply To commands, Internet Mail opens a window very similar to the New Message window. (See Figure 11.11.) The difference is that the message has the address, subject, and much of the body text already filled in. The message
is addressed to the sender of original message (or to all recipients of the original message, if you chose the Reply To All command). The subject line from the original message appears in the Subject field, preceded by RE:. Internet Mail even copies the
original message text into the body of the reply and marks it as quoted material by indenting each line and preceding it with the > character. (You can change this quote character if you want.)
Figure 11.11. Internet Mail does much of the work of preparing a reply automatically.
Use Quoted Material Wisely
Quoting text from the original message in a reply can facilitate quick responses by reminding the sender of previous material and providing context for your response without making the recipient refer back to previous messages. However, it's all too easy to get too much of a good thing. Indiscriminately quoting long messages or replies to replies to replies can make your reply unnecessarily long. Such long messages are time-consuming to download and cumbersome to read and handle.
To avoid creating overly long messages, you can edit the quoted text to keep pertinent portions of the quoted material in your reply and delete the rest. That way you get the advantages of quoting the original text and still keep the reply short and to the point.
Much of the work of preparing the reply is done for you. All you need to do is type your response. (You can also edit the addresses, subject, and quoted text if needed.) When the reply is finished, pull down the File menu and choose Send Message to
send
the reply on its way.
Sometimes you'll want to send a copy of an e-mail message you received to someone else. The process of forwarding a message is very similar to creating a reply. First, you open the message you want to forward to someone else, and then you choose the
Forward command from the Mail menu. (Alternatively, you can right-click on the message in the message list and choose Forward from the pop-up menu that appears.)
Internet Mail opens a new message window. This time, the address areas (the To and CC fields) are blank, ready for you to address the message by typing e-mail addresses or selecting addresses from your address book. The subject is copied from the
original message and preceded by Fw:. The body of the message is copied into the new message and moved down a few lines to make room for you to add a preface to the forwarded material.
Address the message, type a note to precede the forwarded material and then send the message on its way by choosing Send Message from the File menu.
Internet Mail includes its own "little black book" where you can keep track of the e-mail addresses of your correspondents. Each entry in the address book can associate a display name with an e-mail address. Then, you can use the display name
(John Doe) to address messages instead of having to type the recipient's full e-mail address (jdoe@server.domain.com). Internet Mail will take care of substituting the associated e-mail address for the display name when it sends the completed message to
the e-mail server for delivery.
Using an address from the address book is easy. You can use it any time you need to supply an address, whether it is in a To or CC field in a new message or a reply or forwarded message. Instead of typing an e-mail address, position the cursor in the
To
or CC field and choose the Choose Recipients command from the Mail menu. (Alternatively, you can click on the address book icon—it looks like a rolodex card—in the To or CC field.) Internet Mail opens the Choose Recipients dialog box as shown in
Figure 11.12. Simply select a name from the list and click on the To button or the CC button to add the selected name to the appropriate recipient list. Repeat the selection process to add other recipients if needed. When the recipient list is complete,
click on the OK button to close the dialog box. The addresses (actually, the display names) will appear in the proper fields of the message window. To remove a name from either recipient list, select it and press Delete.
Figure 11.12. Selecting names from your address book makes addressing a message easier.
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By the time you read this, a sort of auto-completion feature for addresses should be working. You can start typing a name into the To field of a message you are creating. If Internet Mail finds a match in the display names in your address book, it will complete the entry for you and supply the correct e-mail address.
Of course, you'll need to have some entries in your address book before you can use them to address your outgoing messages. Fortunately, it's easy to copy an address from an incoming message and save it in your address book. You'll quickly build a list
of people you exchange e-mail messages with.
To copy an address from an incoming message, first open a message containing the address you want to add to your address book. (The address can be either the sender of the message or one of the recipients). Right-click on a name or address in the From
or To fields and choose Add To Address Book from the pop-up menu that appears. In the Properties dialog box you can complete the entry by adding information in the Name and Email sections on the Personal tab. The remaining tabs are covered in the next
section. Click OK to return to the mail message.
You can edit address book entries to update the information or add a display name to go with an e-mail address copied from a message. To open the address book, choose Address Book from the File menu. This will open the Address Book dialog box as shown
in Figure 11.13. To edit an entry, select an item (click on the display name), and then click on the Properties button. This will open the Properties dialog box (see Figure 11.14) where you can edit the display name (First, Middle, and Last Names) and
e-mail addresses. Use the Set as Default button to choose which e-mail address is used most often. Click the Home tab and enter the personal information of the person. Use the Business tab to record the person's corporate information. The Notes tab is a
free text area for your miscellaneous information about the person. After editing the entry, click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
Figure 11.13. The Address Book dialog box enables you to edit your address book entries.
Figure 11.14. Edit an address book entry in this dialog box.
You can also create new address book entries by entering them directly into the address book. Click on the New Contact button to open the same dialog box you use to edit an entry. You can type in the information instead of copying it from a message.
After entering the information, click on the OK button to add the entry to the address book.
If you need to delete an entry from the address book, select the entry and click on the Delete button, then click Yes to confirm that you want to remove the item from the address book. When you're through editing address book entries, click on the OK
button to close the Address Book dialog box.
You can do some rudimentary sorting of the entries in your address book by clicking on the column headings in the Address Book window. Click the Display Name heading to sort the list of entries by display names. Click again to reverse the order of the
sort. Clicking on the E-Mail Address heading will sort the list by address.
Note
More robust capabilities for sorting address book entries is one of the many anticipated enhancements to Internet Mail.
Note
An important feature of the Address Book that wasn't operational at the time I wrote this is the commands that will enable you to import and export address book entries. This feature should enable you to copy information to and from the address book in Windows Messaging.
The Internet e-mail system is designed to handle text messages. Simple ASCII text (based on 7-bit data) works great, but the system simply can't handle the extended characters (and larger 8-bit binary numbers) found in binary files. (In this
context a binary file is any file other than a simple text file. That includes picture files, executable program files, font files, word processor files containing formatting data along with the text, and so on.)
Fortunately, special protocols have been developed to work around this limitation of the e-mail system by converting binary files to plain text so they can be handled by the text-based system. The converted binary file looks like gibberish, but the
recipient's e-mail program can usually employ a complimentary conversion protocol to reconstruct the file and convert it back to its usable form. The text of the converted binary file is included in a standard e-mail message, which acts as an envelope and
provides the address and routing information that lets it move through the e-mail system from the sender to its destination.
Internet Mail supports MIME and UUencoding, the two most common file conversion protocols. The program handles the details of converting binary files to text and attaching the converted text to your outgoing message. You only need to select the file
you
want to send as an attachment. Internet Mail can usually recognize file attachments in incoming messages and makes it equally easy to separate the attached file from the text message and to convert it back to binary form so you can open the file or save
it
on your disk.
The first step in attaching a binary file to an e-mail message is to choose which of the two file conversion protocols to use. By default, Internet Mail uses MIME encoding unless you change the message format to UUencoding. MIME is the newer of the two
standards, and it's widely supported by most of the current crop of e-mail programs. However, you might need to specify UUencoding if you need to send a file to someone using an older e-mail program, particularly some of the UNIX-based programs.
Generally,
you won't need to change file transfer protocols and settings every time you want to send a file attachment. Just set Internet Mail for the protocol you need to use for compatibility with most of the recipients of your file attachments. If you encounter a
problem with a recipient who is unable to decode a file attachment sent using one protocol, you can try sending it using a different setting.
To specify which file conversion protocol Internet Mail should use for encoding file attachments, choose Options from the Mail menu to open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, click on the Send tab. In the Mail sending format section,
place the bullet mark by Plain text and press the Settings button. This will open the Plain Text Settings dialog box shown in Figure 11.15. The main setting you need to be concerned with is Message Format—choose MIME or UUencode as needed.
Figure 11.15. The Plain Text Settings dialog box enables you to control the details of handling file attachments.
In addition to choosing the message format, you might occasionally need to adjust other settings in order to facilitate sending file attachments to some recipients. In the Encode Text Using area, you can choose None, Base 64, or Quoted Printable. Leave
this set at None unless you know that the recipient needs files formatted with one of the others. The Automatically wrap text at X characters when sending option enables you to set the width of the e-mail message to the recipient's screen size. After
adjusting the settings, click on the OK button to close the Advanced Settings dialog box, then click on the OK button to close the Options dialog box. The file attachment settings will remain active until you change them again—Internet Mail doesn't
revert to its default settings after sending the next file or rebooting the program.
Note
The Break Apart Messages Larger Than X KB option on the General tab enables you to instruct Internet Mail to break a large file into several smaller pieces and send them as separate messages. This option is useful when you are sending files to a recipient on a system that limits the size of e-mail messages.
After you select the message format and other settings for file attachments, the rest of the process is easy. Start by creating a normal e-mail message. Address the message to the recipient (or recipients), enter a subject, and type the appropriate
text
in the body of the message. Then, to attach a binary file to the message, choose File Attachment from the Insert menu. This will open the Insert Attachment dialog box (actually a standard Browse dialog box) that you can use to locate the file you want to
send. Select the file and click on the Attach button. Internet Mail does the rest. The program will convert the binary file to text using the protocol you specified and attach it to your e-mail message. After the conversion, the file appears as an icon in
a new file attachment pane at the bottom of the New Message window (see Figure 11.16).
Figure 11.16. Attached files appear in a separate pane at the bottom of the message creation window.
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An even easier way to attach a file to a message is to drag the file icon out of a Windows Explorer or My Computer window and drop it into the New Message window. Internet Mail adds the dropped file to the message as an attachment automatically.
Caution
Although you create one message with an attached file, the message and attachment can arrive at the destination as two (or more) separate messages. The text portion will be in one message and the attached file will be in a different message. This is a normal byproduct of the way some e-mail systems and e-mail programs handle messages that include attached files and, except for the added step of having to open separate messages, should not affect the ability of the recipient's e-mail program to handle the attached file.
When you receive an e-mail message containing an attached file, Internet Mail will automatically decode the attachment, making it available for immediate use. As long as the attachment is encoded using one of the protocols Internet Mail can recognize
and it's all in one piece, you don't have to go through any separate steps or procedures to decode the file before you can access and use it.
When you receive an e-mail message containing an attached file, Internet Mail displays the attachment symbol (a paper clip) beside the message icon for that message in the message list. Unlike some e-mail programs, Internet Mail doesn't display
separate
items in the message list for the text message and the attached file.
Caution
Internet Mail will handle the attached file automatically provided the file is encoded and attached to the message in a way Internet Mail can recognize. Occasionally, you can get a long message containing a lot of text that looks like gibberish—a file attachment that Internet Mail failed to recognize as such. Your best bet is to request the sender to resend the file using the MIME protocol. You might also be able to decode the attached file by copying the encoded text from the mail message and transferring it into a separate utility for decoding.
How you gain access to a file attachment varies slightly depending on how you view the message. If you view a message containing a file attachment in the preview pane, an attachment icon (a paper clip) appears in the header area of the preview pane as
in Figure 11.17. Click on the attachment icon to display a menu listing the attached files. Selecting a filename from the menu will cause Internet Mail to attempt to open the attached file.
Figure 11.17. The paper clip icon indicates the presence of an attached file.
Note
Future versions of Internet Mail might inherit a virus warning from Internet News. When you attempt to open an attached file, a dialog box might appear warning of the danger of viruses in downloaded files. If so, you must click OK to confirm the action before Internet Mail will open the file.
Internet Mail takes care of decoding the attached file and then passes it to Windows 95 to be opened with the appropriate program or viewer based on the file's extension. For example, Windows will use Excel to open a spreadsheet file with an .XLS
extension—provided, of course, that you have Excel or an Excel viewer installed on your system.
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You can suppress the display of the virus warning by checking the Don't Ask About This File Type option. Thereafter, Internet Mail will skip the warning and open the attached file immediately when you open other attached files with the same extension.
If you open a message containing an attached file and view the message in its own message window, there will be no paper clip icon in the header area to indicate the attached file. Instead, the attachments will each appear as a large icon in a separate
pane at the bottom of the message window, just as they do in outgoing messages. To open an attached file, just double-click on its icon. Internet Mail will display the virus warning (unless you chose to suppress it) and then open the file.
Caution
Unlike Internet News and some other programs, Internet Mail cannot automatically reassemble a file attachment that has been broken up and sent as multiple separate messages.
In some cases, you might prefer to save an attached file on your hard drive instead of opening the file immediately from within Internet Mail. That option is available when you open a message containing an attached file in its own window but not when
you view the message in the preview pane. To save an attached file, first open the message containing the file attachment you want to save (double-click on the message in the message list). Next, select the file by clicking on the file's icon in the
attachment pane of the message window. To save the selected file on your hard disk, choose Save Attachments from the message window's File menu or right-click on the file icon in the message window's attachments pane and choose Save As from the pop-up
menu. This will open the standard Save As dialog box, where you can specify the filename and folder where you want to save the file. When you click on the Save button, the file will be saved.
Despite its basic simplicity, Internet Mail offers the user several opportunities to customize the program. You can fine tune the behavior of some options and rearrange the panes and toolbars of the Internet Mail window.
If you have the Office 95 spell checker installed, Internet Mail can use it to check the spelling of your outgoing e-mail messages. You can exercise some control over the process by adjusting settings on the Spelling tab of the Options dialog box.
(Choose Options from the Mail menu to open the dialog box and then click on the Spelling tab to display the options shown in Figure 11.18.)
Figure 11.18. You can use this set of options to fine tune the spell checker.
Using these options, you can determine whether or not the spell checker will always display suggested replacements for misspelled words and whether Internet Mail will run the spell checker automatically before sending an outgoing message. (Even if you
disable the Always Check Spelling Before Sending option, you can manually start a spelling check by choosing Check Spelling from the Mail menu.) You also have the option of instructing the spell checker to ignore words in uppercase, words containing
numbers, and the original (quoted) text in replies and forwarded messages. After adjusting the settings to suit your needs, click OK to close the Options dialog box.
Normally, you will use the e-mail server that you defined during Internet Mail installation for all your e-mail message handling. However, if you change e-mail accounts or need to access a different account (perhaps you have separate accounts for
business and personal correspondence), you can change the settings that Internet Mail uses to locate and connect to your e-mail server.
To change your e-mail account settings, open the Options dialog box by choosing Options from the Mail menu. Click on the Server tab to display the settings shown in Figure 11.19. You can change the settings as needed for your new (or alternate) e-mail
account. Enter your Name, Organization (this one is optional), and E-mail address. You'll also need to supply the correct information in the boxes for Outgoing Mail (SMTP), Incoming Mail (POP3), POP3 Account, and Password. (Check with your system
administrator if you're not sure of the correct information to enter in any of these boxes.) After you supply the information, click on the OK button to close the Options dialog box. The next time you instruct Internet Mail to check your mail, it will use
these settings to connect to the server and e-mail account you specified.
Figure 10.19. You must make sure these settings are correct in order to access your e-mail account.
Internet Mail lets you rearrange and resize many of the elements of its main window. You can rearrange the message and preview panes in various configurations, and you can choose to display toolbars for quick, one-click access to commands or hide them
to make more room for viewing messages. Here's a summary of the options for customizing the Internet Mail window:
Note
This last item might not be included in the final release of this software. You might have to right-click on the icon bar then point to Align and choose Top or Left.
Another change you can make is to add or delete columns in the message list. For example, you might find it helpful to display a column in the message list showing the size of each message. To edit the message list columns, choose Columns from the View
menu. This will open the Columns dialog box, as shown in Figure 11.20. After the dialog box is open, you can select an item from the Available Columns list and click on the Add button to add that column to the items in the Displayed Columns list (and thus
to the message list). Conversely, you can select an item in the Displayed Columns list and click on the Remove button to hide that column. You can even change the order of the displayed columns by selecting an item in the Displayed Columns list and
clicking on the Move Up or Move Down buttons to adjust the sequence. When the Displayed Columns list shows the columns you want to see in the message list, click on the OK button to close the dialog box and make the changes.
Figure 11.20. Change the number and order of the columns in the message list with the options in this dialog box.
Among its other customizing options, Internet Mail gives you the ability to choose the fonts it will use to display messages in message windows and the preview pane. To customize the font settings, choose Options from the Mail menu to open the Options
dialog box, then click on the Fonts tab to display the options shown in Figure 11.21. To begin, click on the Change button. This opens a Font dialog box such as the one in Figure 11.23. Select the font, style, size, color, and effect you want to use, and
then click OK. After making your font changes, click OK to close the Options dialog box. Internet Mail will use your new font choices the next time you view or create a message.
Figure 11.21. You can change the font Internet Mail uses to display text.
Figure 11.22. Select a font and other text attributes in this dialog box.
Rearranging the Internet Mail window and changing fonts are good ways to customize Internet Mail for your tastes, but the effect is largely cosmetic. Some of Internet Mail's other customizing options have a more practical effect: altering the way
Internet Mail handles e-mail messages.
Normally, Internet Mail stores newly created messages in the Outbox folder temporarily. It doesn't send them to the e-mail server for delivery until the next time you check your mail. If you don't check your mail frequently, your outgoing message could
sit a while before being sent to the recipient. As an alternative, you can configure Internet Mail to send all your outgoing messages to the server immediately. (This option works best if you have a full-time Internet connection rather than dial-up
Internet access.)
To activate the option, open the Options dialog box by choosing Options from the Mail menu. On the Send tab in the Mail sending settings section, click the Send Messages Immediately option, making sure the check box is checked (see Figure 11.23). Click
OK to close the Options dialog box. While this option is active, Internet Mail will send your message immediately when you choose Send Message from the File menu after creating a message.
Internet Mail lets you define a signature (a standard block of closing text) to be added to your outgoing messages. You can add the signature to individual messages as you create them or configure Internet Mail to add the signature automatically to all
outgoing messages.
To define a signature and set the signature options, start by opening the Options dialog box (choose Options from the Mail menu) and click on the Signature tab. (See Figure 11.24.) You have two options for defining a signature for Internet Mail to use.
First, you can click on the Text option and type the signature text into the adjacent box as you want it to appear on your outgoing messages. Your other signature definition option is to select the File option and supply the filename of a text file
containing the signature text you want to use. (You can create the signature file in Notepad or any text editor.)
Figure 11.24. Use these settings to define a signature and how it should be applied to your messages.
After you've defined the signature text, you have two options for applying it to outgoing messages. If you choose the Add Signature To The End Of All Outgoing Messages, Internet Mail will add the signature to all outgoing messages automatically. If you
check the Don't Add Signature To Replies And Forwards option, Internet Mail will leave the signature off those messages, even though the other option is checked. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.
If you want the option of adding a signature to a message when you create it, but don't want to add the signature to all outgoing messages, define the signature and leave both options for applying the signature unchecked. The signature will be
available
and you can add it to the bottom of a message by choosing Signature from the Insert menu when you create an outgoing message.
Internet Mail normally saves copies of all outgoing messages in the Sent Items folder. However, you can turn this feature off if you don't want to automatically create copies of your outgoing messages. Choose Options from the Mail menu and click on the
Send tab when the Options dialog box appears. To deactivate the option, clear the Save Copy Of Sent Messages In The Sent Items Folder check box and then click on the OK button.
When you create a message, you type the text and let Internet Mail wrap it to fit within the window where you are working. You add returns only at the end of paragraphs, not the end of each line—just like a word processor. However, some (most)
e-mail programs can't wrap long lines of text properly. To display correctly, your messages need to go out with carriage returns at the end of each line or text and the lines should be no more than 70 to 80 characters maximum.
Internet Mail handles this detail for you. The program will break your paragraphs into lines of the correct length and add a carriage return to the end of each line. You can adjust how long each line will be by choosing Options from the Mail menu and
clicking on the Send tab of the Options dialog box. Then, click on the Settings button for Plain Text in the Mail sending format section. In the Plain Text Settings dialog box (see Figure 11.25), make sure the Automatically Wrap Test At X Characters
option
is checked and adjust the character setting to an appropriate maximum character count for each line. Click on the OK button to close the Settings dialog box and again to close the Options dialog box.
Figure 11.25. You can configure Internet Mail to break long lines of text in outgoing messages.
Internet Mail is a work in progress. As it exists, it provides a good set of basic features for handling your e-mail messages. However, there are several other features, not yet incorporated into the product, that could add power, convenience, and
utility to the program. You can expect to see new features added to Internet Mail as the Microsoft developers get time to do so. (In fact, it's quite possible that several new features have been added to Internet Mail by the time you read this.)
The following list presents some of the features that have been discussed by beta testers in the Internet Mail newsgroup and seem likely to be considered for future enhancements:
This chapter has covered the basic features and operation of Internet Mail. The next chapter explores some alternatives for handling Internet e-mail.
