Before you try emailing for the first
time,
make sure you have followed the instructions given here in the right hand
column under the heading IMPORTANT SECURITY.
Dealing with spam:
Click
Here
to see how to deal with spam.
To reveal the source of a suspicious email
without opening it.
Right
click the email, then click
Properties,
then click the
Details
tab. Look at the item after the word
From.
A phishing email will not be from the organisation pretending to be
the sender. For instance if the email appeared to sent by the Inland Revenue
(which never sends emails), looking at the properties you might see that
after the
From
word is an email address which has no connection with the Inland Revenue.
Kill off chain emails containing hoax virus warnings.
These are sent by well meaning acquaintances.
Break the chain, r
efuse to worry your friends.
Make sure you know
how to recognise and deal with a hoax warning; click
Here
for information.
To set up (configure)
your email account click
Here
.
To create and send an email:
On the
Desktop
(i.e., the screen you see when the computer has finished starting-up),
double click the Email (Outlook Express) icon which is the
envelope with a stamp on it. When the email program appears click the
left-most button on the tool bar, i.e. the button labelled
Create New Mail. A new window appears. In the first
field
(the word
field
means a rectangular box you can type into) type the email address of the
person you are emailing, for instance,
f.bloggs@isp.com.
OR:
Create New Mail:
If the person is in your address book, click the tiny open book with the
word
To:
next to it (shown ringed below).
The address book will open, click the name of the intended recipient. Then
click the
To:
button on the right. The recipient's address will be popped into the field
on the right Then click the
OK
button. (the mistake most beginners make here is to forget to click either
the
To:
button or the
OK
button.
OR:
If the
Contacts
pane is visible on the left of your layout then just
double
click the intended recipient in the
Contacts
pane.
When you use the address book
, the full email address usually does not appear in the email address field,
e.g. if you select Fred Bloggs in your address book, then the name Fred
Bloggs may appear in the first field of the email window instead of Fred's
full email address:- Don’t worry, this is normal, the computer knows where
to send it.
Click inside the
Subject
field to place the cursor in it. Now type a brief heading for the email in
the field labelled
Subject
. For example, if you are emailing a group of friends about your new email
address, type
My new email address
in the
Subject
field.
Then click anywhere in the lower window pane to put your cursor in it,
then type your message. When you are satisfied with your email click the
left top button of the
New Mail
window which is labelled
Send
The email will be spell checked. When the spell check is complete, a
small panel will appear, click the
OK
button. The email will be passed to the
Outbox
ready for despatching at any time in the future.
To send or receive emails
, click the
Send/Recv
button. If you are on dial-up, the dial-up dialogue box will appear. It is
already filled in so do not enter anything unless you forgot to tell Outlook
Express to remember your password. In which case you will need to enter your
password. Your password will appear as a row of asterisks (usually 16) so
that no one can guess what you typed.
Then click the
Connect
button and wait.
If you are on dial-up, the modem
will eventually start squawking. If you are on broadband you won't hear any
squawking. After a small delay, your email will be sent. Then any incoming
mail will arrive in your
In box
.
To read any emails
that have arrived. New email titles will be shown in the window in
bold
type. Double click on the one you want to read, its content will appear in
another window.. After five seconds the bold type will change to ordinary
type indicating that the email has been read.
To Print.
If you want to print out that email, click (the button with the little
printer on it. The email will be printed.
To Delete an email
, click its title (in the upper panel) and tap the delete key once. The
email will be sent to the
Deleted items
folder. If you want to permanently delete an email hold down the
Shift
key while you tap the
Delete
key.
To exit Outlook Express
, just click the cross at the very top right of the window.
To reply to an email:
Just click the email then click the
Reply
button on the Toolbar. Then enter a Subject and write your message.
To Forward a copy of a received email:
Click the email then click the
Forward
button on the Toolbar.
To add a new email address
to your address book. Open Outlook Express (i.e. double click its icon on
the desk top). Click the button labelled
Addresses.
The address book window will appear.
Click the
New
button. Click
New contact.
A panel will appear; fill in the
First
name,
Last
name and the
email address
for the new contact. Don’t bother with the other tabs.
Click
OK
Repeat this for all your friends and contacts.
Close down the
New Address
window and the
Address book
window by clicking the
OK
buttons.
Send emails to the Outbox:
Outlook Express may send emails immediately when you click the
Send/Recv
button. If you prefer to store emails in your
Outbox
and send them a later, change the setting as follows:-
In
Outlook Express
, click
Tools--> Options
and click the
Send
tab, remove the tick from the box labelled
Send Messages immediately
by clicking the box. Click
Apply
and
OK
.
Stay on line after Sending/receiving
. Your Outlook Express (email) program may be set so that it disconnects
automatically when emails have finished being sent and received. You may
prefer to stay on line after sending and receiving. This is how you set it:-
In
Outlook Express
, click
Tools-->Options
and click the
Connection
tab, remove the tick from the box labelled
Hang up after sending and receiving
by clicking the box.
Click
Apply
and
OK
.
Add new contacts to the Address book:
To open the Address Book, click the
Addresses
button on the tool bar, then to add a new contact click the
New
button, click
New Contact
, enter the 1st name, last name and email address. Click any of the tabs
to enter further details such as home address, phone number, birthday,
children's names, etc. Click the
Add
button to complete the entry. To add detail to an existing contact, open
the Address book, double click on the name of the person, then add the
extra information.
To print a list of names and email addresses
from the your O.E (Outlook Express) address book. To do this you must have
a spreadsheet program on your computer. Click the
Address Book
icon on the Toolbar, then click
File
. Click the item
Text File (Comma Separated Values)
then click the
Export
button, give the file a name and save it in say My Documents. Click
Next
and in the next panel un-tick all the boxes except
Name
and
Email Address
. Click the
Finish
button. Choose
Files of type
Text files (*.prn; *.txt: *.csv) to open the new file with your spreadsheet
program and print out the names and email addresses.
Print a list of contact details:
(only worth doing if you have entered lots of detail for each contact).
Click the Addresses button, click Print and then select All, select Memo,
then click Print. To print a selection of contacts, do not click
All
, but in the Address list, whilst holding down the Ctrl key, click each of
the contacts you wish to print. Click
Print
but this time click
Selection
, and
Memo
, then click
Print
.
Send a voice message
when you email birthday or similar greetings to someone. Click
Here
to find out how.
To backup and/or transfer emails and email addresses
click
Here
.
IMPORTANT SECURITY:
Remove the preview pane:
This is necessary because just resting the cursor on a dodgy email can open
it and release a virus or reveal unpleasant spam. To avoid this danger, in
Outlook Express
, click
View
then
Layout
. Click the box labelled
Show preview pane
to
remove
the tick. All the other boxes should be ticked
except
the ones labelled
Outlook Bar
and
Views Bar
.
Click
OK
. While you are in that dialog box,
Note:
Click the
Apply
button after each change.
You will now have to double click
an email to open it. You can safely single-click spam in order to delete it
without opening it or seeing its content.
To fix the folder pane
in Outlook Express: You should now have a vertical pane on the left-hand
side which lists your email folders. You will find it very useful to have
this pane made permanently visible as follows:- The vertical pane on the
left has boxes such as
Inbox
,
Deleted items
box, and
Sent Items
box.
At the top right of that pane, click the little 'push pin' and your pane
will be pinned permanently to the Outlook Express screen giving you much
more control over the organisation of your emails. You can alter the width
of this pane at any time by dragging its edge right or left. Now you can
make use of this new pane as follows:-
(2) To store emails tidily
create folders for them. First ensure that your current folders are always
in view. In Outlook Express click
View-->Layout
. Ensure that only the following boxes are ticked:
Contacts, Folder Bar, Folder List, Status Bar, Toolbar
. If you see a push-pin at the top of the folder list, click it to make the
list stay put. Say you wish to store in an easily accessible folder the
emails concerning your holidays.
Right
click the
Inbox
folder, left click
New Folder
. In the pop-up box type a name for the new folder, in this example you
would name it
Holiday
. Repeat this procedure to create other useful folders.
To file your emails in a folder
, place the cursor on an the email, hold down the left mouse button, then
drag and drop the email on to the appropriate folder. To see what is inside
a folder, just click it.
Emails in wrong date order:
Open Outlook Express. Click the Received title once (or more times if
necessary).
To open an attachment,
double click it.
To send an attachment,
Write your email but don't click the
Send
button yet. Now click the
Attach
button and navigate to the folder holding the file you wish to attach.
Click the file you wish to send and click
Attach
. The file will appear in the attachment field of the New Message window.
Click
Send
.
Altering Emails:
So you sent an email to your Outbox and you forgot to mention that extra bit
of news. To alter the email, click on the Outbox and double click the title
of the email you wish to alter. Now you can alter it. Then click the Send
button to return it to the Outbox ready to be sent.
Had second thoughts
about that email which you sent to the
Outbox?
Click on your Outbox, select the email and remove it with the
Delete key.
The Outlook Express (OE) Address book is a very useful database
. It can hold detailed information concerning your contacts. The information
can be viewed in any order e.g., in date order or in alphabetic order, by
first names or by last names.
Listing your emails in date order:
Let Outlook Express list your emails in the most useful way i.e. with the
latest emails at the top. Click the folder you wish to organise (such as
Inbox
) then click the following items in turn
View, Sort, Received
,
Descending
. You should do this for each folder. To change these back again, click
Received
as many times as it takes to return to your usual format. This can also be
done by simply clicking the titles above the emails.
To group together all the emails from one person
(alphabetically), click the heading labelled
From
. All the names will be listed alphabetically. To change back so that emails
are sorted by received date, click the
Received
heading.
Vanished Email?
So you just typed an email and it suddenly vanished, or it popped into the
Drafts folder. This is common on a laptop because you can accidentally brush
against that irritating touch pad. If the email vanished completely, you
will find it minimised on the task bar at the bottom of the screen; just
click it. If it is in the Drafts folder, click the Drafts folder and then
open the email. Click Send and it will go into the Outbox.
The Drafts folder
in Outlook Express. If you have partly completed writing an email and wish
to finish it off later you can save it in the Drafts folder. Hold down the
Ctrl key and tap the S key then let go of both keys. A note will pop up
saying 'The message has been saved in your Drafts folder'.
To retrieve the email from the Drafts folder
you must click the Drafts folder then double click the saved email. Continue
to work on the email, then if you want to save it in the Drafts folder
again, use
Ctrl
and
S
.
When you have finished the email and you wish to send it, click the
Drafts folder
then double click the email, then click
Send
. The email will be spell checked and then it will be popped into the
Outbox
in the usual way. To send the email, click the
Send/Recv
button on the tool bar.
To write an email in stages
, alternative methods exist. You could write the whole email in stages in
your word processor, then send the completed document as an attachment. Or
copy and paste the completed document into the message window in Outlook
Express.
Why add your own email address to the address book?
Because then you can easily test your email program and its connection as
follows:
Send yourself an email,
the email will be sent to your ISP. Then 20 to 30 seconds later, click the
Send/Recv
button again to receive and read the email. If you are on broadband you may
not have to wait 20-30 seconds, it could arrive instantly.
Webmail such as Hotmail or Gmail
(which is accessed only via the internet) is useful for people who travel a
lot with their laptops. It comes in handy if your computer crashes because
you can go on line at your library or at on a friend's computer and access
your emails. However, webmail is complicated to use and has many
limitations, it is not designed for normal home use. With webmail, the
emails and address book are stored at the ISP's headquarters. If the ISP
goes down or is subject to a 'denial of service attack', your emails and
address books will be lost for ever. This happened to Homechoice customers
recently causing much distress. With Outlook Express, the emails and address
book are safely stored on your computer.
Outlook Express
has many more useful features than webmail. Also, you do not have to
connect to the internet to compose an email or to reply to an email. When
you have written the email you just click Send/Receive to go on line and
the email will be sent. Users of the proper email also have access to
webmail, so they get the best of both worlds.
Informing people about your new email address:
Send a round-robin email to tell all the contacts in your address book
about your new email address. First add your own email address into the
Address Book, then delete any redundant addresses in the Address Book
(click them and press the Delete key). Click
Create New Mail
, then click the tiny book with the word
To
next to it. In the list of addresses click
your own
address and click the right hand
To
button to pop your own address into the first window. Then click the first
address in the list, hold down the
Shift
key and tap the down arrow key to select about 10 contacts. Now
click the button labelled
Bcc
(Blind copy). All the selected recipients will pour into the
Bcc
window. Click
OK
. The
Bcc
addresses will not be visible to recipients and so you will not be
broadcasting everyone’s email address. Type the
Subject
(My new email address will do) then type the email message in the usual
way. Select the message and hold down
Ctrl
then tap the
C
key. That will copy the message into memory so that you can paste it into
each of the subsequent emails. Click
Send
to place the email in your
Outbox
. Repeat this procedure with the next 10 addresses and then the next 10
and so on until all the people in the address book have been covered. If
you have 100 addresses and you selected 10 at a time you will now have 10
emails waiting in your Outbox. Go on line and click Send and Receive to
send the emails.
You will receive 10 emails addressed to yourself confirming that they were
all sent.
Why 10 at a time?
Well, if you choose more than ten, your ISP may regard your email as spam
and it could be rejected.
Undelivered emails:
Sometimes you will receive an email saying that an email could not be
delivered. That means that a person in your address book has changed his or
her email address and not informed you.
