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Outlook Express

Mission Accomplished


Ubuntu Desktop As I wrote about on Friday, this was a busy work weekend for me. I think three of the computers I worked on offer an interesting comparison in operating systems.

One laptop was a brand new HP with 2 GB of RAM and Windows Vista, but the owner wanted me to install Windows XP and take off Windows Vista. He uses it primarily for traveling and downloading his digital photos while traveling and just didn’t like the lack of speed with Vista. The install of Windows XP went smoothly, but finding some of the XP drivers for it took quite a bit of looking around. All is running well now, and the with 2GB of RAM and a dual-core processor, the little laptop is very fast. Bootup time is under 70 seconds.

The next laptop was another Vista machine with 1 GB of RAM that a client bought for her mom who is a first time computer user and is 83 years old I believe. She will take the laptop with her to Connecticut next week. I took off all the pre-installed junk and installed AVG anti-virus and configured a Gmail account to work with Windows Mail (Vista’s version of Outlook Express). Because her mom has some sight problems, I bumped up the text size and DPI setting to make it easier to work with for her. Also, I disabled all of Vista’s fancy eye candy and effects. Despite all these tweaks, the computer still

The mysterious expanding Outlook Express book!

I received an email this week from someone who had a mysterious address book problem.

Their Outlook Express address book had tons of email address for people they didn’t know. Pretty scary. If you are an Outlook Express user, you may want to take a look at your own address book, it is likely happening to you too.

There are two possible explanations for this.

1. Address book Gnomes. These weird little bearded men with pointy hats creep into your home late at night and add strangers to your address book using magical powers.

2. You have the “Automatically put people I replay to in my Address Book” box checked in Outlook Express.

What’s nice is that the solution for either problem is fairly simple.

Set a startup password for Microsoft Outlook

Outlook PasswordSome computer users who work in an office or on a PC with other roomates or kids would like to password protect their email, calendar, contacts, etc in Microsoft Outlook. Until today, I didn’t know how to do that. As you know, when I learn something new, I pass it on to you. Remember, this tip is for OUTLOOK users NOT Outlook Express users:

  1. Start Microsoft Outlook
  2. RIGHT Click the Outlook Today icon on the left or the "Personal Folders" icon
  3. Click Properties
  4. Click the Advanced button
  5. Click the "Change Password" button
  6. Leave the "Old Password" box blank since you never had one
  7. Type the password you want to use in the "New Password" box
  8. Type the password again in the "Verify Password" box
  9. DO NOT check the "Save this password…" option
  10. Click OK on all three open screens

The next time you open Outlook, you will be prompted for the password you just set thus protecting access to your Outlook data.

Woo Hoo…new feature in Microsoft Office 2007 – French Spell Checker!

I ran into a strange problem today with a client using Windows XP and Outlook Express. They had to install a new copy of Office 2007 because they lost their certificate of authenticity for their old copy (don't lose those folks). Subsequently, their spell checker in Outlook Express now only uses the French dictionary. Thanks Microsoft!! Once again, fabulous upgrade to the "new" Office 2007.

After some investigation it turns out that the only viable option for Windows XP users using Outlook Express and Office 2007 is to download a free spell checker for Outlook Express. We have been recommending this one for years . Click here to download and install the spell checker and your Outlook Express spell checking errors will be history…unless you are French.

Is this a test?

Today I had an appointment that spanned almost every area of what I do on a daily basis. The appointment lasted roughly three hours.

In that time I…

Helped setup a new iMac. She is making the switch from Windows and wanted some of the features that she was used to in her PC. I set her computer to ask for her password whenever it was turned on or came out of sleep mode so her kids couldn't get online without her permission. I also setup a gmail account and a POP3 email program that worked like Outlook Express.

  • Consulted her on ways of getting better range from her wireless network.
  • Tuned up her kids' computer and removed lots of

A Faster computer does not equal faster Internet

Just as Rick mentioned that people often expect the computer to run faster once they have faster Internet, the opposite is also expected.

Often people on dial-up or slower DSL ask me once they have a new computer whether their email will go faster or their websites will load quickly. Typically the difference between a new computer and a Windows 98 machine with sufficient RAM will be barely noticeable.

It may take longer for programs like Outlook Express or Internet Explorer longer to start up on an older machine, once the program has loaded the actual reaction time for the Internet is pretty much unchanged.

Sorting the Mail – Video Tip

Sort MailWouldn't it be nice if you could sort your email by the date it was received or by the name of the sender?

If you use Microsoft Outlook Express (or Outlook), Mozilla Thurnderbird, or most other email systems), you can quickly sort all of your mail. AOL finally added this feature for its members just last year. As an added bonus, this tip will work with any computer or operating system.

 

To sort the mail:

  1. Click ONE time on the desired heading of your email list. For example, to sort your messages chronologically, click once on the date heading to sort from oldest to newest.
  2. Click again to sort from newest to oldest.
  3. To sort your mail by the sender, simply click on the "From" heading at the top of the email list.
  4. To sort by the subject of the email, click one time on the "Subject" heading at the top of the email list.
  5. As in Step 1, if you click a second time on a column heading, the sort direction will reverse.
  6. You can even click on the "paper clip " at the top of the email list to quickly find messages that have attachments.

That's it! Simple, clean and useful…give it a try!! Watch the video below to see this tip in action.

Dial-up users: Are you tired of waiting for email with large attachments?

I have been utilizing this tip much more lately as dial-up users get pummeled with email containing pictures that haven't been resized and an endless parade of forward spam with large attachments from friends and family with high speed connections. For every one megabyte of space an attachment contains, it takes 5-8 minutes for a dial-up user to download it. Many joke emails, slide shows or movies being passed around today can be 5mb or larger…tying up the dial-up users phone line for an hour or more!  If you don't want to tell the offending parties to take you off their list, you can do one or both of the following procedures to gain some control over you email again.

Email Preview Button in Outlook Express – Video Tip

This tip evaded me for many years, but now you can benefit from its use. The tip works in any versions of Windows including Windows Vista's Windows Mail.

When asked how to delete a message without opening it in Microsoft Outlook Express, I traditionally answered by directing the computer user to the View menu (See Tip #156). This works, but if you want to turn the Preview back on you have to go through the same number of steps.

Why would you want to delete emails without opening them? A couple of reasons include not wanting to open an email that advertises how to enlarge certain private parts or see an ad of Jolene's sorority web site and you may not want to open a potentially dangerous email that might have a virus.

How to send an email attachment

We have a few program specific tips on our website about how to send email attachments. Each step is broken down step-by-step.

 I am writing this more as a general guide for emailing attachments. I have seen a few mistakes lately that have caused problems for first-time attachment senders. Here are a few tips to help you avoid problems.

1. If you are emailing photos and you use Outlook, Outlook Express or gmail, download and install Picasa – selecting, resizing and sending photos is a one step process.

2. Don't ever scan a document as "text" when scanning. Sometimes this will open the scanner software's OCR feature which converts it to a text document rather than an image. This sounds good, but it will cost you a lot more time and it probably will just frustrate you.