Monday, August 21, 2000		Learning Computers

Look out for mail through Outlook Express

Browsers and e-mail clients make the wonderful web work. A majority of people uses the Net to send and receive e-mails. In the last few years, e-mails have replace snail mails and are becoming a popular means of effective and instant communication. However, a majority of persons still suffer from computer phobia. Except for a few initial settings, which involve the setting up e-mail accounts, sending and receiving e-mail is simple. Outlook Express is one of the most popular and widely used e-mail clients for sending and receiving e-mails and comes free with the Internet Explorer.

If you are an absolute beginner, you can follow this procedure to configure your e-mail using Outlook Express: On opening the Outlook Express for the first time, you are automatically prompted to create a new account. If you prefer to configure your POP3 account, then you would be asked to enter your display name (the name that would be displayed as an identity). When you click Next, you would be asked to enter your log in name. Enter your first part of the POP3 e-mail address, i.e. without @yourserviceprovider.com. here. Then enter your POP3 (incoming mail server) address and SMTP (outgoing mail server) address. The e-mail service provider gives these. Enter your password now and the account is configured. This is the basic form of configuring the Outlook Express. There are, however, many more advanced features of this software, which makes receiving and sending e-mail a wonderful experience.

If you are using Outlook Express in its basic form and want to add more value to it: It is worth mentioning here that Outlook Express is a power-packed e-mail client and has a lot to offer. It’s common to have more than one e-mail account besides having at least one popular webmail, apart from the regular POP3 e-mail accounts.

If the POP3 account is with Glide or VSNL, then in 90 per cent of the cases, e-mail account with popular webmails, like Yahoo or Hotmail.

In such a case, do not waste time to visit sites for checking e-mail. Instead, configure all POP 3 e-mails and your Hotmail and Yahoo accounts as well in Outlook Express. The procedure for doing this is simple.

To do this, add more Identities to your Outlook Express and configure them as separate accounts. For example, if you have created one main account using the procedure mentioned above, then you can add more accounts in the similar way.

To add more accounts, open Outlook Express, and click Identities (on the right-hand top corner in message window). This will open a drop-down window, showing options like Add New Identity. Click this option. Enter the user name in the appropriate box. Once you click Next, the next window "Internet Connection Wizard" will prompt to create a new account or import other existing e-mail clients, like Eudora. Choose to create a new account here. On clicking Next, you will be taken to the next window and will be asked to add name. Enter name, as it will appear as the sender. Click Next to enter you existing e-mail address. Enter the POP3 e-mail address here. Note that the second option present in this window is related to the signing up of a new Hotmail account that would be taken up later.

Now on entering e-mail address and clicking Next, another window will open, which will ask for POP3 and SMTP address. The e-mail service provider and ISPs provide these. After entering these, click Next, enter the user name, password and click Next. This will finish the set up of another email in the same Outlook Express. You can add as many POP3 e-mail accounts as you want.

Yahoo e-mail account can also be configured in the Outlook Express: This may sound surprising, but it is easily possible. The procedure for configuring a Yahoo e-mail account in Outlook Express is the same except that when prompted to enter e-mail, enter the Yahoo e-mail address and use POP3 server as, pop.mail.yahoo.com. SMTP server can be used as smtp.mail.yahoo.com. The rest of the procedure is similar.

Hotmail account can also be configured in Outlook Express. In this case, if a new Hotmail account is needed, then choose Sign up for it. It is simple to create a new Hotmail account, as step-by-step instructions are available.

If Hotmail account already exists and you wish to configure the same in Outlook Express, then the procedure is a little different. First open the Outlook Express. Then click on Tools menu to open a drop-down menu on the screen. Select and click on Accounts. This will open the Internet accounts window. Now click on the Mail tab. Add button and choose mail. Enter the display name and click Next in the next window.

In the next window, select option: "I already have an e-mail address that I would like to use and use your existing Hotmail address here." On clicking Next, information in the next window will be filled automatically in coming mail server as HTTP and HTTP mail service provider as Hotmail. Click next and enter username and password. On clicking next, finish configuring the existing Hotmail account in Outlook Express.

If your are an expert in Outlook Express, there are certain features, which would help you in making the most of this wonderful software: If one sends and receive e-mail extensively, then this software is ideal. Use it to categorise mails (personal or official) and transfer them to separate folders. Frequently asked questions can be answered by using this software.

Several other such features are available in Outlook Express. With minor settings, even complex e-mailing can get interesting. Specify criteria to filter personal or official e-mails.

To set up a procedure, click Tools menu, then click on message rules and click mail. This will open the window New Mail Rule. This window is primarily divided into three parts: The first window (condition for the rule window) specifies the condition for filtering. The second window (below the first window) configures action for the rules mentioned above. And the third window deals with the description. To filter information set the appropriate rule and schedule an appropriate action corresponding to that, which may include, Forwarding the message, Replying, Moving to specific folder, Deleting the message, and Flagging.

Configuring and using e-mails is easy, and can be made simpler by Outlook Express.

— Roli