| Q. How do I set-up your own Outlook Express E-mail Account? A. Do you keep hearing about Outlook Express? Maybe some of your family and friends use it and you would like to get started using it for your e-mail too. But, you're just not sure how to go about setting it up? Well, this tip is for you then! This tip will teach you how to set up an e-mail account for Outlook Express 6.x. Outlook Express is automatically installed on your computer, so to start the process, click on the icon on your desktop, or wherever it's located. You can also get to it by clicking on Start, Programs and then find Outlook Express. Now, if you are opening OE for the first time, an Internet Connection Wizard will automatically pop up for you to follow. If you've accessed OE before, you may have to get to the wizard manually by choosing Tools, Accounts. A box titled Internet Accounts will come up on your screen. Now, you want to click on the Add button, choose Mail, click on Create a new Internet mail account and then Next. Enter the name you would like to appear on the account. Keep in mind that this will be the name that shows up on any e-mails you send to other users. Then, click Next. The next step is to enter your e-mail address and click Next again. For the next screen, you're going to choose to set your incoming mail server as a POP3. Choose that from the pull down menu and also type POP3 into the Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) server line. For the Outgoing mail (SMTP) server, you're going to have to get some information from your ISP. There is more about this down below. Now you're going to choose a username and password for yourself. Make sure you pick something that will be easy for you to remember, but also think about choosing a secure password. You can either choose for OE to remember your password or not. For security reasons, it may be wise to leave that box unchecked, but that is completely up to you. Once you have those entered, click Next. The next screen will say Congratulations, you have successfully entered all of the information required to set up your account. To save your settings, just click Finish. Once you click on Finish, another box will come up asking you if you'd like to download folders from the mail server you added, and since there is still some configuration left to do to your OE account, choose No. Now you're going to want to bring up the Internet Accounts screen again, which was the first step from up above. You may have to choose the Mail tab to see the account you created. Make sure your account name is highlighted and then click on Properties, which is located off to the right. Now choose the Advanced tab and check the second box that says "This server requires a secure connection (SSL)." Make sure you checkmark the one under Incoming Mail, not under Outgoing Mail. Now, OE will ask you if you'd like to refresh your folder list because it recognizes that you have made some changes. To continue, click on Yes and then you will be asked for the password you created for your e-mail account. Type in your password and click OK. If another box comes up telling you that the server you are connected to is using a security certificate that cannot be verified, just choose Yes and that will be taken care of. Now your new Outlook Express e-mail account is set up and it is ready for you to use. You can set up your preferences under Tools, Options. You may want to go in there and check and uncheck some boxes so it will fit your e-mail likes and dislikes. Then you just click on Send/Receive to check your e-mail and start reading all of those jokes and stories that your family and friends send you. Keep in mind that if you use Web based e-mail, Outlook Express won't work with that.If you want to setup your own POP3 e-mail client, you're going to need some information from the provider of the e-mail address. Most users get their POP3 e-mail account from their ISP, who should have all the necessary information you need to properly configure your Outlook Express account. Here�s some of the information you�re going to need from your ISP: 1) The POP3 server, which will usually be something as simple as mail.mailserver.com. 2) With POP3 mail accounts, you also need the SMTP server address, which is usually very similar to, if not the exact same, as the POP3 server. For example, mail.mailserver.com. Just another reminder: You are going to need to contact your ISP for necessary information that you will need to complete the setup of your POP3 e-mail account. You can probably find this information at your ISP�s Web site or by calling their tech support. |
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| Q. How do I save my e-mail? A. Other types of methods for saving your e-mails are great for individual e-mails, but what if you need to re-format your hard drive, change computers or do a backup? Well, you can save the entire file using this method. Saving From Outlook Express: The biggest trick (problem) is figuring out where your particular e-mail program keeps all your messages. Outlook Express uses small databases to store your information. Once you figure out where those databases are, you can copy them, back them up or do whatever else to it that your little heart desires. If you are running a newer version of Outlook Express, it's fairly easy to figure out where your e-mail databases are. Just hit the Tools menu, Options. On the screen that pops up, click the Maintenance tab, then click the Store Folder button. Outlook Express will show you where it's keeping your e-mail databases. Note that you can also change this location should you want it to be easier to find. I keep mine in a folder named "outlook express" in the "My Documents" folder. That way, all I have to do it back up my "My Documents" folder and I automatically have my e-mail backed up. If you don't have that option, don't worry. Outlook Express usually keeps your e-mail database(s) in the following location: C:\Windows\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook Express If you have your computer set up for multiple users, your Outlook Express mail is probably in: C:\Windows\Application data\Identities\ID NUMBER\Microsoft\Outlook Express Note that the "ID NUMBER" folder above will probably be a folder that uses an alphanumeric code for its name. If for some reason you don't see the Outlook Express folder in the above location, right-click your Start button, select Find (or Search) and enter *.dbx in the Named field (make sure you select your C: drive from the "look in" drop down box). This will bring up these "dbx" files, which live in the folder you're looking for. Note that on some older versions of Outlook Express, these may have been "mbx" files, so if you can't find *.dbx files, try *.mbx . Once you've located these files, keep in mind that all of this information may not fit onto a floppy. You may need either a zip disk or a CD-R for storage. As for getting the e-mail restored, just copy and paste it back into whatever directory it's stored in on the new (or newly formatted) computer. If for some reason your information doesn't seem to transfer, despite being in the folder, delete your Local Folders folder (on the new machine / install) and restart Outlook Express. Saving From Outlook (Not Express): For Outlook, what you do is export to PST format. Click File, then click Import and Export and choose to Export to a File. On the next screen, choose Personal Folder File (.pst). You can save your entire Inbox, Drafts and Sent, but you have to individually select each. If your Inbox contains sub-folders, be sure to check the box that includes those (or you can archive each Inbox sub-folder separately). If you're setting up your e-mail on a new PC, it's very easy to just import the PST folders and open in Outlook. Web based e-mail is another matter though. The ability to save / backup varies from service to service, so check your help screens for something like "Export mail." |
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| Q. How do I not forward the whole thing? A. In Outlook Express and Netscape Mail, just click the Forward Button, highlight the unwanted portions of the email, then Delete. AOL automatically makes the original e-mail into an attachment when you choose Forward, but you can Highlight and Copy (Ctrl + C) the part of the e-mail you want, then Paste (Ctrl + V) it into a new message and send it to your friends without all those other addresses. With Yahoo Mail, in the box next to the Forward button, make sure you have "inline text" selected. That way, when you click Forward, you will have an editable copy of the message that you can highlight and Delete the unwanted addresses from. If you click Forward with MSN/Hotmail, you automatically get inline text with > in front of each line. Once again, just highlight and Delete the unwanted addresses before you send the message on it's merry way. Any other e-mail systems will use variations of the above. Oh, and if you get one of those "nesting doll" e-mails with one attachment inside another, inside another, just follow the above instructions when you get to the primary message.. |
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| Q. How to change some of your e-mail settings in Outlook Express? Maybe things just aren't going the way you want them to within your e-mail and you just need to do some things differently. A. Open up Outlook Express and go to Tools, Options. Once in there, click on the Maintenance tab. In this box, you can do a lot of cleaning up, so to speak, in your e-mail program. You can choose to have all of your e-mails deleted every time you exit out of OE, you can choose to purge some of them and there are also some options in there if you use a newsgroup. If you are part of a newsgroup, you can have OE delete all of the messages you have already read or you can choose when to have them deleted. Just use the number box to pick how many days you want to wait before the messages are completely cleared out. You can go as low as zero and as high as you so choose!A couple other things you can do for maintenance is clean up any downloaded messages that might be in your system. If you want to do that, click on the Clean Up Now button. You can also change the location of your store folder, which is where your messages are stored. If you want to change that, click on the Store Folder button. To make any changes, just use the checkboxes and check it if you want it or uncheck it if you don't. It's as simple as that! Now your e-mail will be all cleaned out! |