How to configure Outlook express

Reading E-mail and News with Outlook Express
13 January 1999
Copyright 1999, Academic Computing and Instructional Technology Services
training@cc.utexas.edu
The University of Texas at Austin
Outlook Express is the Internet mail and news client that comes with Microsoft Internet
Explorer. Do not confuse Outlook Express with Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Outlook supports
Microsoft Exchange mail and scheduling; Outlook Express does not. The main Outlook Express
screen appears below.
Configuring Outlook Express
The first time you start Outlook Express it prompts you to locate the folder to store your mail and
news information. Select the desired folder (the default folder in Windows 98 is
Windows\Microsoft\Outlook Express).
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You must also configure Outlook Express with information about your e-mail account. To do
this:
1. Choose Tools then select Accounts.
2. Click Add and select Mail to add a new mail configuration.
3. Follow the steps of the Internet Connection Wizard. When asked for your POP and
SMTP servers, type the portion of your e-mail address after the @ sign. For example, if
your e-mail address is pcarter@mail.utexas.edu, then your POP server is mail.utexas.edu,
your SMTP server is mail.utexas.edu, and your POP user name is pcarter. When
prompted for how you will establish an Internet connection, choose I will establish my
Internet connection manually.
After you configure Outlook Express you are ready to send and read Internet e-mail.
Sending and Reading Mail
To send a message in Outlook Express, click the Compose button on the toolbar, or choose
Compose and New Message. In the New Message window (shown below), type the recipient’s
e-mail address and the subject in the indicated fields. Enter the text of your message in the
bottom portion of the window. Click the Send button when you are ready to send the message.
It’s that simple.
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To check your messages choose Send and Receive. Outlook Express prompts you for your
mail password and downloads your messages.
The Outlook Express mail window is divided into three window panes. The left pane displays
the different mailboxes, or if reading news, the newsgroups. The top right pane displays the
message headers in the selected folder. The contents of the selected message appear in the
bottom pane. The figure below shows the Outlook Express interface.
Reading E-mail and News with Outlook Express 4
Managing E-mail
As you receive more messages, you will want to manage your e-mail more efficiently.
Deleting Messages
To delete a message, select the message in the top window pane and click the Delete button.
Outlook Express transfers the message to the Deleted Items folder. To retrieve a message from
Deleted Items, select the message in that folder and choose Edit, Move To and select the folder
to move it to.
You can also right-click on messages in the top pane to display a list of commands like Print,
Delete, Move To, and others.
Replying to and Forwarding Messages
To reply to a message, select the message in the top pane and click the Reply to Author button
on the toolbar. The Reply to All button sends your reply to everyone who received the original
message. Use this feature only if you want everyone to see your response. Outlook Express also
has a Forward button on the toolbar to forward a message to another e-mail address.
Sorting and Finding Messages
When you have hundreds of messages in your Inbox, it’s not always easy to locate the message
you want. Outlook Express has Sort and Find features to help.
To sort message headers in the top pane, click the heading of the column you want to sort. For
example, to sort the message headers by date click the Received heading. Click the heading
again to reverse the sort order.
If sorting doesn’t help, you can search for text in a message. Choose Edit and Find Message to
start a search.
Folders
Use folders to help organize the messages you receive. For example, you can transfer all
correspondence with your parents into a folder called Personal.
1. To create a new folder, choose File and New Folder.
2. Type a name for the folder in the dialog box and click OK. The folder should then
appear in the list of folders on the left side of the window.
3. To move a message to another folder, select the message and choose Edit and Move to
Folder or Copy to Folder if you want to copy the message to another folder.
Attaching Files
To attach a file to a message choose Insert and File Attachment, then select the file you want to
attach. Outlook Express attaches the document to the message. If you receive a message with an
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attachment, an icon appears at the bottom of the file. Double-click the attachment icon to view
the attachment.
Sometimes attachments created with different programs and different mail systems are not easy
to read. If you have difficulty reading an attachment, send a message to the sender and request
the attachment in a specific format. A good format for word processing files is HTML or RTF.
Address Book
Outlook Express has an Address Book to store people’s names, phone numbers, and e-mail
addresses. Click the Address Book button on the toolbar to display Outlook Express’ Address
Book.
To add an address to the Address Book, click New Contact and then enter the individual’s
information in the contact dialog box shown below. Most of the fields in the dialog box are selfexplanatory.
To choose an address from your Address Book when composing a message, either type the
nickname for the address or click the icon next to the To: field and choose the address from a
list.
Mail Filters
Outlook Express has a feature called the Inbox Assistant that can filter mail messages that you
receive. For example, you might want to transfer all messages from your professor to a folder
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called Classes or automatically delete messages that have the phrase “get rich quick” anywhere
in the message.
1. To create a mail filter choose Tools and then select Inbox Assistant.
2. Click the Add button to create a new filter.
3. In the Properties dialog box type the criteria for the message you want to filter and select
the action you want to perform for each message that meets the criteria. For example, the
filter illustrated below moves all messages from the address myparents@aol.com to the
folder called personal.
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Reading USENET News
USENET News is a collection of electronic discussion groups available on the Internet and other
networks. People from many locations, using different types of computer systems, can read and
post messages or articles on a variety of topics. These messages are organized by topics into
newsgroups. There are groups that discuss computers, research, politics, popular culture, and
almost any topic imaginable (and a lot of topics that you would never imagine). A few of the
popular newsgroup hierarchies appear below.
Hierarchy Meaning
alt Alternative: Discussions of many varied and unusual topics
comp Computers: Discussion about computers, including hardware,
software, etc.
utexas Newsgroups dedicated to topics about the University of Texas
news Discussions related to the use of USENET news
rec Recreation: Discussion of recreational activities, such as art,
music, hobbies, etc.
sci Groups discussing scientific and research-related topics
austin Newsgroups dedicated to topics about Austin
Newsgroups reside on machines known as servers, which are linked to other servers throughout
the world. Newsgroups provide wonderful opportunities to read postings from people all over
the world, but remember that items you post will be read world-wide as well.
Configuring Outlook Express for News
To configure Outlook Express to read USENET news:
1. Choose Tools and then select Accounts.
2. Click Add and select News to configure the news server.
3. Follow the steps of the Internet Connection Wizard. When prompted for the name of the
news server type newshost.cc.utexas.edu. Access to this news server is restricted to
computers in the utexas.edu domain. Because this server does not currently require
people to log in, it is not necessary to click that particular check box.
Reading News
Reading news in Outlook Express is similar to reading e-mail messages.
1. In the main Outlook Express screen, click Read News.
2. Outlook Express contacts the News server and downloads a list of new newsgroups.
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3. In the Newsgroups dialog box shown below, select the groups you want to subscribe to
and click Subscribe. You can read groups that you do not subscribe to, but subscribing
to a group makes it easier. Outlook Express creates icons for each subscribed group.
Subscribe to the newsgroups you read most frequently.
4. When you have finished subscribing to groups, click OK.
5. In Outlook’s left window pane, double-click the name of the news server to display the
list of subscribed groups.
6. At this point newsgroups appear in the left window pane, the article headers of the
selected newsgroup appear in the top right pane and the text of the selected article
appears in the bottom right pane. The Sort and Find features described earlier work
similarly with newsgroups. For example, if you want to search the articles in a
newsgroup for particular text, choose Edit and Find Text.
Posting Messages
Posting new messages or follow-up messages is similar to electronic mail. To post a new
message to a newsgroup, select the newsgroup in the left window pane and click Compose
Message. To respond to an existing article, select the article and click Respond to Author or
Respond to Group.