getting the most out of e-mail with outlook express
TRANSCRIPT
21 Oldaker St, Devonport
Tel. 6424 9413
A Taste of E-commerce
Getting the most out of e-mail
with Outlook Express
Presented by John Guenther
PREFACE.....................................................................................................................1
COURSE OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................2
MODULE 1 – SETTING UP OUTLOOK EXPRESS..............................................3
WHAT DOES OUTLOOK EXPRESS DO?..........................................................................4
A NOTE ABOUT OUTLOOK EXPRESS AT ONLINE ACCESS CENTRES .............................4
STARTING OUTLOOK EXPRESS ....................................................................................5
SETTING UP HOTMAIL TO BE USED IN OUTLOOK EXPRESS ..........................................6
EXERCISE 1 - USING OUTLOOK EXPRESS VIEWS.........................................................9
UNDERSTANDING FEATURES OF THE OUTLOOK EXPRESS WINDOW ...........................11
EXERCISE 2 - CHANGING HOW OUTLOOK EXPRESS BEHAVES ...................................14
FOR HOMEWORK – SETTING OPTIONS ........................................................................15
MODULE 2 – SENDING AND RECEIVING MESSAGES ..................................16
EXERCISE 3 - CREATE A NEW MESSAGE ....................................................................17
EXERCISE 4 - SENDING MESSAGES TO SEVERAL RECIPIENTS .....................................19
RECEIVING MESSAGES ...............................................................................................21
REPLYING TO MESSAGES ...........................................................................................21
REPLYING TO ALL .....................................................................................................22
FORWARDING MESSAGES ..........................................................................................23
EXERCISE 5 – PRACTICE REPLYING AND FORWARDING .............................................23
SENDING ATTACHMENTS ..........................................................................................24
VIEWING ATTACHMENTS...........................................................................................26
SAVING ATTACHMENT FILES .....................................................................................27
EXERCISE 6 – PRACTICE SENDING AND RECEIVING ATTACHMENTS...........................27
DELETING MESSAGES ................................................................................................28
MODULE 3 – ADVANCED FEATURES ...............................................................29
FOLDERS IN OUTLOOK EXPRESS ...............................................................................30
EXERCISE 7 – CREATE A FOLDER ..............................................................................30
EXERCISE 8 – MOVING MESSAGES INTO A FOLDER....................................................31
DELETING FOLDERS ..................................................................................................31
FLAGGING MESSAGES ...............................................................................................33
FINDING MESSAGES ...................................................................................................34
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Preface
Application and Version Differences
Because of version and preference differences, screen shots and descriptions may
differ slightly from what a trainee may experience in the training environment. Where
possible, the manual has been designed with the training environment in mind.
Cat Conatus Support
Cat Conatus offers free phone support for any material covered - and any other
questions you may have. Most times a quick phone call will solve the problem and
you’ll be on your way.
Contact John Guenther on
Mobile: 0412 125 661
Fax: 6425 4005
Office: 6425 9016
Email: [email protected]
If we can’t answer your problem right away, we’ll return your call within 24 hours.
About this Manual
This Manual has been developed for the sole purpose of Online Access Centre
courses. It may not be copied without express permission of the author / presenter.
Course Structure
This course contains examples and detailed instructions. A floppy disk is provided to
take practice exercises away for future reference.
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Course Objectives
This course is designed to get you up to speed with e-mail. While we will be using
Outlook Express, you can apply the principles and procedures you have learned to
almost any other e-mail program you may be using at home or at work.
During this course you will learn how to…
q arrange the Outlook Express workspace to suit yourself
q adjust and set personal information that displays when you send and receive
messages
q create, send and receive messages.
q use an address book with e-mail messages
q send, save and view an attached file
q set up folders and organise your messages
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Module 1 – Setting up Outlook Express
In this module you will learn
q about arranging the workspace in Outlook Express to suit you
q what the different parts of the workspace do
q how to make Outlook Express behave the way you want it to
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What does Outlook Express do?
This course assumes that you are using Outlook Express version 5. At the time of
writing, this is the most recent version of the program. If you have a previous version
of Outlook Express, you should upgrade to the latest version. You can download it
free as part of Internet Explorer, or you can pick it up from a PC magazine from your
supermarket or newsagent. If you don’t have Outlook Express at home or at work, it
shouldn’t be any bother, as most of the features used here are common to most other
e-mail programs.
A note about Outlook Express at Online Access Centres
The TCO do not allow us to set up an individual POP31 account for each machine at
an Online Access Centre. However, what we can do is set up Outlook Express to read
hotmail accounts, so that it behaves pretty much as it does on your own PC with your
own personal or work account.
The accounts that have been set up with hotmail are [email protected]
where X is a number from 1 to 10. Your instructor will advise of the password if need
be.
1 POP stands for Post Office Protocol, the standard usually used by most e-mail programs. For more
information go to www.whatis.com
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Starting Outlook Express
Find the Outlook Express icon on the programs menu:
Once you have clicked on it, the proram starts and the program is represented in the
taskbar with an Outlook Express icon.
Once open, the Outlook Express program may display as follows.
We’ll learn about the different parts of the window shortly.
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Setting up Hotmail to be used in Outlook Express
If you would like to set up an existing Hotmail account to use with Outlook Express,
it’s pretty straightforward. Click on Tools | Accounts from the menu bar:
From the Internet Accounts dialog box, click the ‘Mail’ tab, press the Add button, and
click on Mail.
In the next dialog box type the name you want other people to see when they get
messages from you.
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Click the button. If you have an existing account, you can type the e-mail
address in the box. For a new account with Hotmail, click on the button below.
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You don’t have to do anything with the next dialog box if it is a Hotmail account. Just
click the button. In the next dialog, you can put in your password.
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The last step requires you to click the button, which then takes you back
to the Internet Accounts dialog box. You can choose the button.
A dialog box asks if you want to download folders… choose Yes.
If you did not put your password in earlier on, you will be asked for it now.
Your ‘Inbox’will probably look something like the following, with indicators in
brackets showing how many new messages you have.
The folders showing on the left side of the screen, should be exacly the same as those
you currently have set up in Hotmail.
Note that it doesn’t look like a usual Hotmail account. The big advantage of using
Outlook Express with Hotmail is that you can store as much on your hard drive as you
like, and you can prepare and read messages while off-line.
Exercise 1 - Using Outlook Express views
You can customise Outlook Express to suit how you would like it to appear. Let’s
give it a go.
Choose View | Layout from the menu bar.
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From the Window Layout Properties dialog box, check or uncheck boxes so that it
shows as follows:
After you click OK, you might notice a few changes to the Outlook program window.
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Understanding features of the Outlook Express window
Lets take a quick look at a few parts of the Outlook Express window.
Folders
Folders are essentially storage areas for messages. The above diagram shows how
they are used. You can add your own folders to help organise your messages. For
example in the illustration above, folders named archives (for old messages) and
church (for messages related to church activities) have been added. We’ll have a look
at how to add folders a bit later.
Click on each folder and note that it becomes highlighted (as with Inbox above) and
then look on the right hand side of the screen to see the list of messages change.
Message list
The message list area shows the subject, sender, date and some other relevant
information.
Try clicking on any of the column headings and note that the messages will re-sort
into the order of that heading. This can be really helpful when you are looking for a
message in a long list.
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To open one of the messages, try double-clicking on any of the messages that appear
in your message list.
Note the different symbols used for opened and unopened messages shown above.
Unopened messages appear in bold text in the list.
Preview pane
The preview pane shows the first part of a message so that you don’t have to open it
in order to discover what it is about. Again, this is a handy tool for quickly getting to
messages you are looking for.
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Contacts
The Contacts pane shows a list of people in your address book. Note that if you
already have a Hotmail account then this list is not what you see on Hotmail. Contacts
are stored on your PC and you add them locally. They are usually stored in a
Windows Address Book2.
To use a contact for a new message simply double-click on the contact. If you try this,
you will see the person’s name appear in the ‘To’ box of the New Message window.
We’ll have a look at how to set up addresses a bit later.
Tool bar
The toolbar provides a quick and convenient way to access most of the commands
you are likely to need when handling e-mail. We will use most of these buttons in the
next module.
Menu bar
The menu bar gives you access to all the commands available in Outlook Express,
including many you will never use! Click on any menu item to see the available
commands.
2 Windows Address Books can be used by several applications. They are normally used for storing
information about e-mail addresses.
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Exercise 2 - Changing how Outlook Express behaves
There are several ways you can change how Outlook Express behaves to suit you. For
example, you might want the name that appears in messages from you to change.
Try this:
Right-click the Hotmail symbol and choose ‘Properties’.
Make changes to the Mail Account description, the Name, Organisation and reply
address as appropriate.
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For homework – setting options
Another way options for Outlook Express can be changed, is through the Options
dialog box. Click Tools | Options to display the dialog box:
While we don’t have time now to explore these options, it could be worth your while
to explore these later in your own time.
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Module 2 – Sending and receiving messages
In this module you will learn how to
q compose and send a new message
q add people to your address book
q view new messages
q reply to and forward messages
q delete unwanted messages
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Exercise 3 - Create a new message
Let’s create a new message to the person on your left.
First, click on the button in the tool bar. This brings up the new message
window.
The parts of the window annotated above are what we will use.
We’ll add the address from the address book by clicking on the address book button
next to “To:” as circled above.
This brings up the Address Book. If the person you want to send a message to doesn’t
appear, you can add a new contact by clicking the button.
Tip: Don’t forget that you can double-click a contact in the
main Outlook Express window to send a new message to
that person.
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In the New Contact window, you just need to add a first name, last name and type in
the email address. Lastly, click the button and click OK.
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The new contact appears in your Address Book.
To add the person to the new message, click on their name and click the
button and press the .
Now enter the subject “First Message” in the subject box.
In the message area, type in a very brief message and sign it off with your name.
Finally, click the button.
The message will go briefly into you Outbox before ending up in your
Sent items folder.
Check to make sure this has happened.
Exercise 4 - Sending messages to several recipients
You can send a message to several people at once.
In the ‘Select Recipients’ box, select the names you want to send the message to and
add them to the To, Cc or Bcc boxes.
Try clicking several names by holding the key down whilst clicking each
name. When you are done, all the names will appear highlighted as shown below.
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Once highlighted, just click the To, Cc or Bcc buttons in the middle of the window.
What’s the difference between To, Cc and Bcc?
refers to the person(s) you are addressing a message to.
refers to ‘carbon copy’ – the person(s) you wish to copy the message to.
refers to ‘blind carbon copy’ – people in this box are invisible to other
recipients.
Try sending another new message to several people in your address book (other
people in the group). You might also want to see what happens when you choose the
‘To:’, ‘Cc’ or ‘Bcc’ buttons.
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Receiving messages
When you receive a new message, it comes into your Inbox and is indicated in bold in
the message list. The number of new messages in your Inbox is shown with a number
in brackets.
Double-click on a message in the message list, and it appears in a window on its own.
Replying to messages
Once you have a message, replying is even simpler than creating a new one from
scratch.
Click on the button in the toolbar.
Notice that in the message window, many of the details have been filled in for you.
The sender’s address goes automatically into the ‘To:’ box. ‘Re’ and their subject
goes into the Subject box, and a copy of the original message is shown at the bottom
of the message area. Note that the cursor blinks ready to type at the top of the message
area.
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When you are ready to send your reply, click the button, and provided you
are online, the message will be sent immediately and will show up in the ‘Sent’
folder, along with other sent items.
Replying to all
When you receive a message sent to several people, you can send a message back to
all the original recipients by clicking the button. In other respects ‘replying to
all’ works the same as replying to a single person.
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Forwarding messages
When you have a message you wish to pass on to someone else, you ‘forward’ the
message. What this means is that the whole message, together with any attachments
(we’ll get to them soon) is sent to one or more recipients.
Using an opened message, click the button. (Note: you can also click on a
message in the message list).
Note here, that the ‘To’ box is empty – you have to decide who to send it to, and in
the subject box, we see ‘Fw:’. The original message appears in the window below.
Exercise 5 – Practice replying and forwarding
Using some of the messages in your inbox, which you would now have from Exercise
4. One of those messages was sent to multiple recipients – use this one to ‘reply to
all’.
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Sending Attachments
An attachment is another name for a file that goes with a message. It’s a bit like using
a paper clip to attach a document to a letter. The files you attach could be any type of
file – pictures, documents, spreadsheets, programs – or whatever.
Normally you will know what and where your file is. In the exercise that follows, we
will send a picture from the A: drive as an attachment. The process is the same for any
type of file.
Start a new message as usual, filling in the usual fields. Prepare a message for the
person on your right.
Then click the paper clip in the tool bar (shown above). You will then be prompted to
look for the file. There is a selection of photos on your floppy disk.
Click the ‘Look in’ box and choose the 3 ½ Floppy A drive.
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Double-click any of the files listed.
The name of the file will then appear in the ‘Attach’ box.
Send the message when you are done.
Tip: remember that large files will take a long time to
download. Keep the file size under 1MB if possible.
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Viewing attachments
When you receive a message that has an attachment, it will appear in your message
list with a paper clip symbol next to it.
If you double-click one of these messages you will see the list of attachments in the
message window.
To open the file, simply double-click on the file. This activates the program
associated with the file and brings it up in a separate window.
Warning: viruses often come as attachments. Be sure to use
up to date anti-virus software to check any suspicious
files.
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Saving attachment files
Once you have an attachment in your email, you will probably want to work with it
and store it with related documents.
If you use the Preview window, clicking on the paper clip gives you an option to save
attachments.
If you click ‘Save Attachments…’ you will be prompted to save the file(s) to a
particular location. You can do this by clicking on the Browse button.
Exercise 6 – Practice sending and receiving attachments
Create a new message to the person on your right, attaching a file from the floppy
disk provided. Then follow the steps above to view the attachment and save it onto
your floppy disk.
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Deleting messages
The time will come when you will want to delete unwanted messages – because either
your inbox is getting cluttered with junk mail or you need to recover space on your
hard disk.
It’s easy.
First, select a message from your message list.
Then press the Delete button (circled above).
This sends the message to the ‘deleted items’ folder – which works very much like the
Recycle Bin on your desktop.
To empty your deleted items folder, simply right-click on it and choose ‘Empty
deleted items folder’.
Try deleting some messages from you Inbox and then empty the deleted items folder.
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Module 3 – Advanced features
In this module you will learn:
q how to organise messages into folders
q how to flag messages for follow-up
q how to find messages based on content
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Folders in Outlook Express
Folders are a very convenient way of organising your email messages. Once you have
a few hundred messages, it would be very easy to lose or misplace them. By creating
folders with appropriate labels, this problem can be overcome.
In the following exercises, we’ll learn how to create folders and move messages into
folders.
Exercise 7 – Create a folder
In this exercise, we’ll create a new folder in our Hotmail account. Note that with a
hotmail account you can only create stand-alone folders. You can’t create folders
within folders.
Right-click on the Hotmail symbol and choose ‘New Folder…’ from the list.
Type a folder name in the space provided and click OK.
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The new folder now appears on the list of folders under Hotmail.
Tip: if you are using ‘local folders’ its better to store folders
inside the ‘Inbox’.
Exercise 8 – Moving messages into a folder
We’ll take one of the messages and drag it into our newly created ‘personal’ folder.
Click on any of the messages in your Inbox and drag it down to the personal folder as
shown below.
Let the mouse go when the pointer and folder look like this:
Then double-click the personal folder to see what is inside it.
Deleting folders
Try this for the personal folder you just created.
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Deleting folders is as simple as right-clicking the folder and choosing ‘delete’ from
the menu:
You are given a warning before finishing the action.
Say ‘Yes’ to the option box.
The folder disappears.
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Flagging Messages
When you get several messages in quick succession, it can be useful to flag some for
future reference so that you don’t forget to take action on them.
Select the message you want to flag from the message list (or open the message) and
choose Message | Flag Message.
[If you are prompted to turn on a column, click the ‘Yes’ button.]
Note the little red flag that appears in the list:
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Finding messages
Even with folders to organise messages there will be times when you lose (or
misplace) something. That’s where the Find utility comes in handy.
Click the button. You will be prompted to fill in one or more fields of the
Find box.
Try using the message field to look for words that you have used in your messages.
After you click the ‘Find Now’ button, the results are displayed in a list:
From this list, it should be easy enough to identify and open the message you are
looking for.