Outlook Express - Email for home usage.

Email usage at home has become a major reason people have acquired a computer.  Understanding the usage of this product is the concern of this page.

Email is electronic mail, it contains the same needs as normal mail.

These make up the major components of the normal letter.  This  Email program uses the same analogy to create the message.  Emails, like letters can be complex or simplistic, plain or dressy, here we will only be discussing the basic functions of the product.

Ok, when you organize your Internet connection through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) you are given access to an email account.  This account forms the basis of your email address.

For instance if you are a Telstra Big Pond client, you would have an email address such as jbogs@bigpond.com.au. This would be your address when receiving and sending emails.

Unlike a physical mail, which is delivered to your address where you live, an email address uses the ISP as the location of your residence.

So you being 'J Blogs', have the ISP of Big Pond, which is a company (com) situated in Australia (au).  As you can see the email address contains valuable information about company (ISP) and location or origin of the email.

Enough of the theory.  To access Outlook Express, select from programs on the start menu, then select the program.  Also there is an icon on the task bar which is a short cut to Outlook Express.

Click on either method and a screen similar to the one displayed below, will open.  The slight difference in appearance will depend on the version of Outlook Express installed on your computer. This varies with the operating system and if an updated version has been installed.

Ok, as you can see in the image on the right there are three distinct windows that need explanation.

Firstly, the standard menu bar is present, at the top of the Outlook Express screen, then the icon bar.

This area controls the program.  The items listed are:

'New Mail' - create a new message to send.

'Send/Receive' - if you are already online it sends any email stored in your 'Outbox', and receives any email.

If you are not online when you select this option, the dial up window pops up and prompts you to connect.

'Addresses" - this is a short cut to your address book.  NOTE, this address book is used as a common access for all of windows programs.

'Find' - assists you to find a message within Outlook Express, or an address in your Address Book.

Next, on the left the folders window contains a list of folders that hold your messages, we will deal with these shortly.  Below that is the 'Contacts' window, which displays email address contained in your address book.

Lastly, the window on the right, displays the contents of the selected folder.

Ok, click on 'Local Folders' and the window will display similar to the one below.

This shows a brief list of the number of messages stored in each folder.

When an email message is received it is placed in the 'inbox' and is normally marked as 'Unread'.  

This allows you to distinguish from previously received messages.

When an Email message is sent, a copy is stored in the 'Sent Items' folder.  The last folder to mention is the 'Deleted Items', this contains all deleted messages, that you have marked for deletion from any folder.

To create a new message, click on 'New Mail', and a  window will pop up similar to the image on the left.

You will notice the menu items have changed to suit the needs of compiling a new message.

Below the menu area,  there are three address lines.

'To:' - this is the main address of the email recipient.

'Cc:' - this is a carbon copy, or alternate address to send with the original message.

'Subject:' - a title or description of the message contents.

Below the address area is the formatting menu, then the message area.

Ok, type in the email address in the 'To' area, include a description in the 'Subject' line then, tab down to the message area and type your message.

When you are satisfied with the message, click on 'Send' on the menu bar and the message will be sent if you are online, or will be stored in the 'Outbox' to be sent when you go online.

If you have used hotmail previously, this process is similar to using the hotmail program.

Unlike hotmail, you can create your messages (offline) before you go online.  This is suggested as it can reduce your Internet costs.

Attachments:

The next major item is attachments.  This is when you want to include a picture, file or music with your email.

When you need to include an attachment, click on 'Attach' from the menu bar and a window will open, defaulting to 'My Documents' allowing you to choose the file to you want.

Simply select the item, or change to the folder where the item is stored, the click on 'Attach' and the item will be linked to the email.

The image on the right displays the result of the attachment task.

In the address area there has been included a line labeled 'Attach:', with the file name previously selected.

Included in the description of the attached file is the size of the item.

This is very important, as some ISP's have limitations on email sizes that can be sent or received.

If you need to send a message larger than normal (greater than 2Mb) contact your ISP for support on sending the message.

It is also advisable to have the recipient check if they can receive an email greater than 2Mb.

The reason we don't use Outlook Express at TOPAP for general use is that individual peoples emails and profiles would have to remain on TOPAP's computers which would leave all emails readable by anyone who logged onto the computers.

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