E-Mail Help -- Outlook Express

This page contains a brief tutorial for Outlook Express that is well suited for beginners.  To learn how to get your e-mail going, look over the following steps and don't be afraid to experiment--you can't blow anything up :-)

When you first start Outlook Express (by double-clicking on it's icon, or by choosing "mail" from the Internet Explorer), you should see this screen:

For our purposes here, I have included only one piece of mail in the Outlook Express inbox called "Test Mail."  The following screen will help you locate the important aspects of this message and the rest of the Outlook Express start screen.

When you start Outlook Express, you should be in your "Inbox."  That's the folder down below which is pointed out by the red arrow.   Go ahead and take a look.  This is probably the most important folder in Outlook Express, so remember where to find it.  Ok, now that you know where it is, let's try changing folders.  Just click your mouse once on any of the other folders in the list (e.g., Outbox, Sent Items, etc.) and you will be able to see the contents of that folder.  If you have just started Outlook Express for the first time, however, most of the folders will be empty.  So don't be concerned, it's normal for there to be a lot of empty white spaces when you first start.

Now, let's switch back to your Inbox by clicking on it once.  There should be at least one "Welcome" message (and possibly more) when you start, so you should see something in the window to the immediate right of the Inbox.  In the screen below, you will see a single message from "Postmaster Account" where you will most likely see your welcome message.  This section is indicated by the green arrow, and this is where you will see the "From" and "Subject" fields for all incoming mail (i.e., mail in your inbox).   From this window, you can tell who sent you mail and what that mail is about.   As you can tell below, the one piece of mail that I have is from "Postmaster Account" and it concerns "Test Mail."  Seeing "Postmaster Account" in the "From" field might seem a bit strange to you right now, but that's only because I sent that piece of mail to myself for the purposes of this demonstration (I'm a very lonely postmaster).  When you receive mail from someone, it will normally take the form of "someone@some_internet_service_provider.net."   For example, my work e-mail address here at GWE is techsupport@gwe.net, and if I sent you a piece of e-mail, you would see my address in the "From" field of Outlook Express where you see "Postmaster Account" right now.

So, now you know how to locate your Inbox, find your mail, identify the sender and the subject -- but how do I actually read the message, you ask?  Well, look no further than the scraggly blue arrow down below.  It points out the actual text of the message contained in the mail from "Postmaster Account."   This is where you'll find all of those jokes, stories, recipes, and whatnot that all your relatives and friends will be e-mailing you once they discover that you're online . . .

. . . which brings us to the delete key.  You might want to take stock of where it is right now--it'll make you feel like you're in control, take it from me.  You can find the delete key in the picture immediately below.  Whenever you get tired of looking at those same old e-mail messages time after time after . . . well, just highlite the message you can't stand anymore by clicking on it once (do this in the window with the green arrow up above) and then click on the delete key.   Presto!  No more annoying message.

Before we move on, it might be useful for you to know a little something about "scrollbars."  Scrollbars are the thin, rectangular boxes that you see circled in red down below.  They are useful when there is more information on a screen than can be shown in one window.  For example, you'll notice that the window showing the "From" and "Subject" fields below has a scrollbar on it.   If you were to move this scrollbar to the right, you would discover that there is more to see of this particular window (although most of it is just more empty white space, so don't feel that you're missing out).  You can move scrollbars in one of three ways: 1) clicking on the left and right arrow buttons to either side of the scrollbar will move the window left or right by a small amount for each click.  2) clicking on the empty space to the left or right of a scrollbar (in the picture below, the empty space is to the right of the scrollbar) will move the window one full page in the chosen direction.   3) clicking your left mouse button on the scrollbar itself and then dragging the bar to the left or right will move the window in the chosen direction according to how far you drag the scrollbar (you may have to experiment with this to get the hang of it).

Now, after all this talk of how to check your e-mail, I'll bet you're wondering how to send some of it.  To get started, you'll need to find the "Compose Message" button at the top of your screen (it's circled in red below).

After clicking on the "Compose Message" button, you'll see a screen like the one below, which I've filled out with some explanatory text.  You'll want to fill in the fields with your own personal information, however.  The "To" field is where you type in the e-mail address of your recipient (for example, my e-mail address here at work is techsupport@gwe.net).  Some examples of valid e-mail addresses are: jsmith@gwe.net, gunther@aol.com, and mr_squiggles@nowhere.org.   You'll notice that all of these addresses take the same form: a personal identifier (e.g., jsmith), the "at" sign (@), and the domain name (e.g., gwe.net).   Any e-mail addresses you use should also take this general form.

The "Cc" and "Bcc" fields stand for "carbon copy" and "blind carbon copy" respectively.  Under normal circumstances, you won't need to use these fields, so for now let's leave them blank.  In the "Subject" field, you may type in whatever you want (you can even leave it blank), but most people type in a few words about what the e-mail message concerns.

When you're finished with the preliminaries, it's time to type the actual text of your message.  Click your mouse once in the large, open white space underneath the "Subject" field.  You can now type whatever you'd like in this space, and this is what your recipient will read when they receive your mail.  Take a look at the screen below to see how an e-mail message is put together, and then we can send it off on it's merry way down the electronic super-highway.

When you're ready to send your message, the "Send" button is the place to go (it's circled in red below).  Just click on it once, and your message is on it's way.   But unlike regular mail (or "snail-mail" as it's sometimes called), e-mail takes only a few seconds to get to it's final destination.  And the best part is: it's FREE! (excepting, of course, the fees you pay to be online).  The "Compose Message" window will dissappear after you click on "Send," returning you to the main Outlook Express screen.

There's one more thing to consider before we're finished, and that's "attachments."  Sometimes you'll want to send something along with your e-mail that just wouldn't be appropriate in the e-mail message itself.  Examples are plentiful.  Maybe you want to send a picture that you've recently found on the Internet along with your e-mail.  Maybe you want to send a large Microsoft Word document, or an Excel spreadsheet, or anything else that just wouldn't work with regular e-mail.  What do you do in a case like this?  You send the additional information as an attachment, that's what you do.  The attachment button is circled in red in the picture below, and this is what you click on when you're ready to choose the additional information you want to send.  After clicking on the attachment button, you will be prompted to choose a file or files to include with your e-mail.  As stated earlier, the files you choose can be almost anything--word processor documents, spreadsheets, pictures, etc.  After you have chosen the file or files to include, just click on the "Send" button like normal to shoot your e-mail, complete with attachments, into the electronic nether-world.

One final lesson before we're done.  Outlook Express automatically checks your e-mail everytime you log on, but if you should want to check your e-mail again while you're online, you have but to click on the "Send and Receive" button (circled in red below).  This will prompt Outlook Express to check your electronic mailbox again for any additional messages that may have been received since the last time it checked.

Well, that's it.  We're all done here.  There's lots more to learn, but hopefully most of that will come naturally as you explore the capabilities of e-mail and Outlook Express.  If you have any questions or comments, you can e-mail them to either techsupport@gwe.net or postmaster@gwe.net.

You're still reading, aren't you?  Well, off with you!!!  Go e-mail somebody or something!!!  Geez :-)

p.s. If you're new to the Internet in general, and not just new to e-mail, you might want to check out a descriptive list of some of the terms you may encounter when surfing the 'net.  Click here to check it out.