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Compose and Send E-Mail Messages Using Outlook Express

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SUMMARY

With Outlook Express you can send your e-mail messages as soon as you write them, or you can compose a draft and return to it later to finish and send. And file size is just about the only limit on what you can enclose in a message—documents, pictures, even music and videos.

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MORE INFORMATION

E-mail addresses must be letter-perfect in order for your mail to reach the intended destination, and Outlook Express is rich with options for addressing messages accurately. You type a few letters of the person's name in the To or CC (for carbon copy) lines, and then Outlook Express automatically supplies the full address from your address book.

Click the Create Mail button.
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Create Mail button
In the To box, type the first few letters of your recipient's name as shown below. When Outlook Express proposes the name you want, press the Enter key.

If the name isn't in your address book, type the complete e-mail address. Capitalization doesn't matter, and there should be no spaces in the address.
Repeat step 2 for each person you want to send the message to, separating names with a comma or semi-colon.
To send copies of your e-mail, follow steps 2 and 3 above in the CC box as shown below for each person who will get a copy.
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Type a brief subject for your message as shown below. Outlook Express will remind you if you forget this.
Click in the message area, and type your message as shown below.
Click Send as shown below.

If Outlook Express asks for confirmation of any name, click the correct name in the Check Names box, and click OK.

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Email message subject, body and Send button

E-mail message subject and body, and Send button

Protect the privacy of your recipients' e-mail addresses. The polite way to send e-mail to a large group of people—a change of e-mail address, a joke, and so on—is to put the recipients' names in the BCC (blind carbon copy) line. Names and e-mail addresses in the BCC line are invisible to everyone who receives your message; when a recipient opens the message, only the sender's name appears (in the To line). If the BCC line isn't visible, on the View menu, click All Headers. Then follow the instructions in step 2 above to add names to the BCC line.

Write an E-Mail Message, Send It Later

You can compose e-mail while your computer is disconnected from the Internet. Follow the steps in the Write an E-Mail Message, Send It Now section above.

When you click Send, Outlook Express lets you know that it's storing your message in the Outbox—it's in the Folder list—and then sends it automatically when you go online.

Save your e-mail. Outlook Express also automatically saves messages as you write them, so if your computer shuts down unexpectedly, your messages will be waiting for you in the Drafts folder. But for extra safety, it's not a bad idea—particularly for an important message—to save your e-mail message as you write. To do this, click Save, on the File menu.

Send an E-Mail Message in a Hurry

If Outlook Express doesn't send your e-mail messages as fast as you'd like, you can take matters into your own hands to speed them on their way.

Click the Send/Recv button.

Outlook Express immediately sends all messages in the Outbox (and retrieves any messages from the Internet service provider).

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Send/Receive button on the Outlook Express toolbar

Send/Recv button on Outlook Express toolbar

Attach a File to an E-Mail Message

It's easy to attach files to e-mail—a picture of the new baby, the paper you're coauthoring, your tax file for the accountant, or a favorite song. It's rather like paper-clipping something to a letter.

In your message, click the Attach button.
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Attach button on e-mail toolbar
Browse until you find the file you want to attach as shown below.
Click the file, and then click Attach as shown below.

If you want to enclose more than one file, repeat steps 1 through 3.

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Attachment box

Finish the message if you haven't already, and click he Send button.
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Attach field showing attached document
The attachments show up (!) here in the message.

File size matters. Check the size of files before you send them. If they're a megabyte or larger, think about asking the recipient if they can, or want to, receive the file. Or, consider compressing large files before you send them. Some Office programs include compression features; alternatively, use a third-party program to compress the file.

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