At least, that’s what I tell my girlfriend. E-mail messages, like computer geeks, get better with age. Wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve sent out a message and immediately wished I could take it back. If you haven’t changed the out-of-the-box settings, OE continues to check for mail every 30 minutes, whether you want to or not.īy default, Outlook Express is set up to send messages the moment you finish composing and click the Send button. Making OE Wait to Send and ReceiveĪs soon as Outlook Express starts, it looks for mail.
The next time you start Outlook Express, it doesn’t attempt to start Windows Messenger. Messenger calls it sign in, not log on, but what’s a foolish inconsistency among friends? If you agree, it’s easy to turn off:Ģ, Uncheck the Automatically Log On to Windows Messenger box. It’s also an incredibly stupid security exposure, hanging a “kick me” sign on your computer for no good reason at all. Many people feel that’s an intrusive, time-sapping side effect of starting Outlook Express.
If OE starts Messenger automatically, as soon as Messenger kicks in, everybody who has you on his or her Messenger Contacts list sees that you’ve signed in. Figure 28-4: Icons next to your Messenger contacts indicate whether they’re online or not.OE does that so it can show you the status of your Messenger contacts, as shown in Figure 28-4. In some cases, when you start Outlook Express, it automatically kicks in MSN or Windows Messenger (assuming Messenger wasn’t running already). Disabling Windows Messenger Automatic Sign-In Figure 28-3: OE with the options recommended in Table 28-1.Figure 28-1: Three bars you probably don’t need - the Views bar, Folders bar, and Outlook bar.Great if you use custom views, but most people don’t. Easy to change: Right-click and then click Customize.ĭrop-down list at the top (Show All Messages in Figure 28-1). One of the few things OE borrowed bar from Outlook, and not worth the space or distraction. Mindless glitter - see the bar at the far left of Figure 28-1. The easiest, fastest way to get around OE.
Takes up a lot of space (see Sent Items in Figure 28-1) and doesn’t do anything. This way, you can easily start a message by double-clicking a contact if you have more than a few dozen contacts, this option is probably best left unchecked. Table 28-1: Recommended Quick OE Desktop Settings Your changes take effect immediately (see Figure 28-3). Follow the suggestions in Table 28-1 to choose the visual elements that don’t slow you down. You see the Window Layout Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 28-2.Ģ. Follow these steps to make OE’s interface lean and (relatively) clean: Outlook Express, out of the box, does a pretty good job of hiding the more, uh, flamboyant optional parts of OE (see Figure 28-1). (Outlook’s also commonly installed on Big Corporate Networks - the kind that use Exchange Server and other worse-than-senseless things.)Įxcept for their names, Outlook and Outlook Express have almost nothing in common. Outlook, on the other hand, comes with Microsoft Office. If you have Windows XP, you have Outlook Express. Outlook Express is an e-mail program (in computer lingo an e-mail client) that comes with Windows XP. Basically, it includes all the timesaving tricks you really need to know that Microsoft and many other topics don’t tell you. This technique covers Outlook Express (OE for short). I want to make sure we’re all on the same page here. Overriding and fixing annoying Outlook Express features Setting up Outlook Express for multiple users (the right way)