| In order to run Outlook Express, it first needs to be configured.
This simply means telling it your name, your email account, and where it's
all stored (after all, it has to know where and what to look for when it's
getting your mail). There are two ways to do this. The first is the
internet connection wizard. The second is manual configuration. The first time you use
Outlook Express, you should see the
internet connection wizard (it looks like this).
This window will appear if you have some other e-mail
software installed. Unless otherwise inclined, you should create a new
Internet mail account. If you don't see this window, then skip directly to the
manual configuration instructions. Otherwise,
follow the wizard instructions below
The first time you use Outlook Express, the
internet connection wizard should start. This
is simply a guide to supplying the information Outlook
Express needs to be able to
send and receive your e-mail correctly. Don't worry if you type something in
incorrectly, you can always go back and change it. From the
first screen (shown above),
click Next.
On the next screen choose "Create a new Internet
mail account" and then click Next.
The next screen will ask you for your name. Enter your first and last
name however you want it to appear on your outgoing messages.
The next screen asks for your email address (so that others know
where to send e-mail for you). This is almost always in the form of
firstname.lastname@trincoll.edu (or firstname.lastname@mail.trincoll.edu -
it doesn't matter). Thus Jack Kerouac's e-mail address would be Jack.Kerouac@trincoll.edu.
The next screen prompts for the E-mail Server Names. The
Incoming mail server is the computer your mail is stored at when it arrives. The
name for the server is
imap.trincoll.edu.
The outgoing mail server is the
computer that sends your mail out into the world (also known as the SMTP
server). This line should read
asmtp.trincoll.edu. Also, make sure that the incoming mail server type
is set to IMAP.
This screen asks for your Internet Mail Logon
(or username).
The login name is in the following format: "cmpcntr\username\firstname.lastname". You have been provided
with username when you first got your e-mail account
activated. It is usually the first letter of your firstname,
followed by up to seven letters of your last name. (e.g. Jack Kerouac
becomes jkerouac, so he has to enter "cmpcntr\jkerouac\jack.kerouac", but Allen Ginsberg becomes aginsber
and he has to enter "cmpcntr\aginsber\allen.ginsberg"). It is important that
all usernames and passwords are supplied in lower case. The mail system
is case sensitive. Epound is not the same as epound. Some people
will also have numbers attached at the end of their usernames (to
distinguish all the jsmiths for example). Also remember to type
the domain name CMPCNTR\ before your username
and \firstname.lastname after it.
Click the finish button.
Click finish, and the following window should appear.
To send mail, we have to authenticate ourselves on the outgoing mail server.
Highlight your account and click properties.
Click the Servers tab.
Check the "My server requires authentication" box.
Click the Settings Box. Choose the box that says "log on using" and
put just your username in the account name box. You can enter your
password here now or put it in every time you send mail.
Press OK, and then click on the "advanced" tab of the
properties window. In the outgoing mail server, type in port 587.
Finally, press OK.
Finally, in order to delete your messages properly, we
must make one more setting. Choose Tools...Options and see this window:
Then click on the maintenance tab, and see this one.
Be sure to check the box next to "Purge deleted messages when leaving IMAP
folders.
Now you're really done.
If you didn't see the new account wizard, or you need to change some
settings you've already supplied, then you can use the manual configuration
option in the configuration dialog box. Here's how to do that.
-
The configuration dialog box is found under the Tools
menu. Then select the item called Accounts.
You should see the following screen.
-
Click on the Mail tab to the right of
the All tab.
3. From this screen, click on
the Add button on the top right. A drop down menu should appear.
From this menu, select the mail option. This should lead you to the
"Your Name" screen of the Internet Connection Wizard which you can get to
from here: wizard instructions
. Follow the instructions from there until you are done configuring
your Outlook Express. And that's it! You're done. Easy, eh? You can, if you wish, continue to
refine some of your Outlook Express settings using the further
configuration instructions below, but you don't have to.
Outlook Express is now
ready to run.
Further configuration options are available using the configuration
dialog box, found under the Tools menu by selecting the item called
Options. There are a number of options that can be changed.
-
From the general tab, you can change
settings such that Outlook Express goes directly to the Inbox at startup,
starts up AIM, etc. You can also change the length of time in which
Outlook Express checks for new messages.
-
Another tab of importance is the
Maintenance tab. From here, you can set Outlook Express to delete
items from the Deleted Items folder when you exit the program. You
can also set Outlook Express to not compact messages in your inbox.
-
Next, select the Security tab.
Here you can specify Outlook Express to not open files that may
potentially be a virus, and you can restrict internet access when opening
attachments.
- The other tabs allow you to customize Outlook
Express to your liking by activating or deactivating available features.
Clicking OK will save your settings.
For more information on Outlook Express
preferences, press the F1 key for help.
When Outlook Express launches, a prompt for an e-mail password appears. Once it is
entered, Outlook Express will begin to check for new mail. If new mail exists, a
dialog box indicating that new mail has arrived will be displayed.
Click on the Inbox icon in the folders pane. Each message in the
Inbox is listed in summary
format. A message summary is divided into fields containing the address of
the sender, the subject of the message and the
date the message was sent.
A Message may be opened up and read by double clicking on its
corresponding message summary in the Inbox. Incoming messages are
stored in the Inbox indefinitely, until they are deleted. A message can
be deleted by highlighting the message summary and then pressing the
Delete key.
To create a new mail message, click on the
Create Mail button at the top left or select
New Message from the Message menu. At this point, a new message window will appear, with
the cursor (now in the form of a blinking insertion point) situated at the
start of the "To:" field. The cursor can be traversed through these fields
by using the "Tab" key or by moving the cursor into a particular field and
clicking the mouse button. Write the address of the recipient in the "To:"
field. The email address of any student, staff, or faculty member at Trinity
is of the form "firstname.lastname@mail.trincoll.edu". In addition to the
"To:" field, the new message window also contains a "From:" field which has
been automatically been filled in with the return address. The subject line
should be filled out as a courtesy, a short line explaining what the message
is about should be typed here.
The other fields are optional and do not need to be filled. The "Cc:" and
"Bcc:" fields will send copies of the letter to other people. Addresses
listed in the "Bcc:" field will not show up to the other recipient while the
"Cc:" field will. Once the header is complete, type the message to be sent in
the large box below the header. When the message is ready to be sent, click
the Send button located at the upper left-hand corner of the window.
Select Reply under the Message menu to reply to a message.
A new message window will open with the "To:" and "From:" header already
filled. Selecting Reply to all under the Message
menu will send a reply to every address listed in the "To:" and "Cc:" field.
It is possible to send a formatted document or binary file such as a
program to someone through e-mail. To attach a file to an e-mail message
select File Attachment... from the
Insert menu. A dialog box will prompt you
for the name of the file you wish to attach. Navigate to the file's
location, select a file and click Ok. The name of the attached file should
appear in the "Attachments:" field in the header. The file will be turned
into a textual representation of the original file.
To create a new mailbox, an alternative place to store received mail, go
to the File menu and select
the Folder option.
At this
point a window will appear.
Type the name of the new folder to store your mail
and click
OK. The folder will give you the ability to
further organize your mail in a more intricate hierarchy. Once
the folder
has been created, transfer old messages into it. To do this, highlight the
mail to be moved, and go to the Edit menu bar. Select
the desired folder from the menu. The mail will be automatically transferred from one
folder to another.
For more
information:
You can contact the Help
Desk by visiting the desk on B level of the LITC or calling x2100
(faculty and staff) or x2007 (students). You may also visit the official
Outlook Express site.
Return to Help Guides Index
Last Modified:
10/01/2007 |
