CU Home A-Z Index | Help
Columbia University Information Technology
CUIT all of Columbia
Using Outlook Express for Windows: The Basics

Software > Email > Outlook Express > Using Outlook Express for Windows: The Basics

Contents

Sending a Message


In this section, you will learn how to send e-mail in Outlook Express by sending a message to yourself.
  1. Select New Message from the Message menu or click New Mail. A New Message window is displayed.
  2. Type your e-mail address in the To field since you will send this test message to yourself.
  3. Enter something in the Subject: field that will identify the topic of your message accurately and concisely. Test would be a good choice in this case.
  4. Type a message in the message composition area.
  5. Click Send.
  6. You will then be prompted for your password. Type your password in the text box labeled password and click OK.

Back to Top

Retrieving and Reading a Message


In this section, you will learn how to receive and open your e-mail messages. If you try to retrieve your new e-mail but receive a message that you have no new mail, just wait a few more minutes and attempt to retrieve your new e-mail again.
  1. Return to the Folders list.
  2. Click Inbox under the mail server imap.columbia.edu (or whatever name you gave your account in the Properties window). Outlook Express will retrieve your new mail and display the list of e-mail messages in your Inbox. (If you are already in the Inbox folder, click Send/Recv.) Each message is represented by a message header summary.
  3. Click the message header to read its contents in the message window.
Tips: You can open a message in a separate window by double-clicking the message header.

You must have an active network connection to view a message that is stored on the mail server. You do not need an active network connection to view any messages you stored in mail folders on your local hard drive.
Back to Top

Replying to a Message


Now you will reply to the test message you sent yourself.
  1. With your test message displayed, click either Reply or Reply All. Outlook Express opens a new message composition window. The sender's e-mail address and subject heading (in this case, your own e-mail address and Test) are included automatically in the reply e-mail.
  2. Type a response to your test message in the message composition area.
  3. Click Send.
Back to Top

Saving a Message to Your Local Hard Drive


In this section, you will move or copy your test message from your Inbox to a folder on your local hard drive.

How to Create a Local Folder

  1. From the File menu, select New and then click on Folder.




  2. In the Folder name: box, type a name for your Local Folder such as Saved Messages. Underneath, make sure to click on the words Local Folders. Then, click OK.

Saving Your Message to a Local Folder

  1. Select the message you want to move or copy.
    Tip: You can select multiple email messages by holding down the Control key and clicking on the emails you want to move or copy. You can also select all emails within a folder by pressing Control and A keys together.
  2. Select either Move to Folder or Copy to Folder from the Edit menu. The Move or Copy window is displayed.




  3. Select the mail folder to which you want to move or copy the test message. (The mail folder you created in the section How to Create a Local Folder (above) should be listed under Local Folders.)
  4. Click OK when you have selected a folder.
  5. Open the folder to verify that the message was moved or copied.

Move vs. Copy

Moving email messages to your local folders will remove them from the email server. This will help you in cleaning up your email account and facilitate your staying under the space quota. Keep in mind that messages that have been moved from the server to a local folder will only be accessible from the computer on which the local folder resides. Moving messages to your local folders can be an effective way to clean out your email account when you are unable to delete messages.

Copying email messages to your local folders will retain messages on the email server and thus, will have no effect on your disk space quota. Email that has been copied to your local folders will still be accessible from anywhere, since they will still be on the server. However, this is not an effective method in cleaning out your email account if you are experiencing disk quota issues.

Back to Top

Deleting a Message


Now you will learn how to delete messages that you no longer need. It is very important that you remember to do this, because if you allow your INBOX (or other mail folders stored on CUNIX, where IMAP stores them) to continue to grow, you will eventually exceed your space quota and will be unable to access your e-mail.
  1. Close any open message windows so that you can view the message list from your Inbox.
  2. Select the test message.
  3. Click Delete. A strikethrough line appears over the message header. This indicates that the message is marked for deletion but not yet deleted permanently.
  4. To delete the message from your Inbox permanently, select Purge Deleted Messages from the Edit menu. When you purge messages, you will not receive a prompt asking you to confirm your intention, so be careful! If you don't purge a deleted message manually, it will be purged automatically when you quit Outlook Express.
Tip: You can change your mind and Undelete a message BEFORE, but not after, you purge it. If you no longer want to mark a message for deletion, right-click on the message and select Undelete, or click on the message and select Undelete from the Edit menu.
Back to Top

Working with Attachments


Attachments are files that are sent along with e-mail messages. Before you send an attachment, you should find out if the recipient has a mail program that can accept attachments, and whether the recipient has software that can open the attachment you send.

Sending an Attachment

You can attach files from any New Message window.
  1. Select New and then Mail Message from the File menu, or click New Mail. A New Message window is displayed.
  2. Select File Attachment from the Insert menu or click Attach. The Insert Attachment window is displayed.
  3. Select the file you want to attach.
  4. Click Attach. The attachment's icon and filename name will appear in the Attach area (located at the bottom of the message header).
  5. Type any desired text in the message composition area then click Send.

Opening an Attachment

Outlook Express gives you the option of opening the attachment either in its native application (e.g., MS Word) or saving the attachment to your local hard drive.
  1. Double-click the message whose attachment you want to open.
  2. Double-click the attachment's icon.

Saving an Attachment

If you want to save an attachment your local hard drive:
  1. Double-click the message whose attachment you want to save.
  2. Right-click the attachment's icon and select Save As. The Save Attachment As window is displayed.
  3. Select the file type, enter a filename, and select the directory in which you want to save the file.
  4. Click Save.
Tip: If you receive messages with large attachments, you can avoid filling up your email space by moving them to your local hard drive.
Back to Top

For Further Information


Select Outlook Express Help from the Help menu.

Back to Top
About Columbia askcuit.columbia.edu