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README for Microsoft Outlook(TM) Express
July l997
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(c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1997
This document provides complementary or late-breaking information
to supplement the documentation.
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CONTENTS
==
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
TROUBLESHOOTING
TIPS AND TRICKS
SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
=============
Outlook Express Mail is an Internet standards based e-mail and news reader.
To read e-mail with Outlook Express, you must be using a mail system that uses SMTP and POP3 or IMAP protocols. At this time, you cannot use Microsoft Outlook Express to access your e-mail account with any of the following services: MS Mail, cc:Mail, The Microsoft Network (MSN), with the exception of the MSN "Metro" (MSN 2.5) beta release, CompuServe, America Online (AOL), or Microsoft Exchange Server prior to version 5. If you don't know whether your system uses these services, contact your administrator or your Internet service provider and ask if they support SMTP/POP3 or IMAP mail clients.
You can also use Microsoft Outlook Express News to read bulletin-board discussion groups, such as the Usenet, using NNTP-based news servers. Contact your Internet service provider or network administrator for the name of the news server that you should use. Outlook Express News can also be used to receive support for a variety of Microsoft products on the news server msnews.microsoft.com.
KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
================
- If you running Windows NT, you must have Service Pack 3 (SP3)
installed to send or read encrypted messages. SP3 is available for download for free from www.microsoft.com.
- When receiving a message using a GeoCities mail account, you might
be unable to view any of the original message, or you may see only the following information: Postage Paid by... [graphic].
- You will not be able to see embedded objects or images sent from
people using Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, or Windows Messaging. File attachments work fine, however.
- If you use HTML in your signature, and you send the message before
any included images have finished drawing, the text you add to the message may be lost.
- Some mail clients send Cyrillic messages with tags indicating that
they are in a western European character set. As a result, Outlook Express uses a western-European font to display the message, which then appears garbled. To work around this problem, click the View menu, click Language, and then choose a Russian character set, such as K0I8. The message should display properly using the Russian font.
- Inbox rules are not available for IMAP accounts.
- If you are using Outlook Express with a SUN Solstice, Netscape, or
Innosoft IMAP server, it may cause your server to stop responding. Please contact the 3rd party provider for an update to the IMAP server software to correct this problem.
- Outlook Express S/MIME does not verify the status of digital IDs
before sending encrypted or signed messages. This means that a digital ID that is revoked, expired, not trusted or that has an incorrect e-mail address will be used without providing any warning.
- To send signed messages and receive encrypted messages, you must
have a digital ID. Currently, the only way to get a digital ID for use with Outlook Express is to use Internet Explorer 4.0 and go to the Verisign Web site, http://digitalid.verisign.com.
- Sending and receiving signed or encrypted mail to many mail programs
that also support secure messaging (other than Outlook Express) does not work in this release. The interoperability issues have been identified and will be corrected in a future release.
- While sending and retrieving messages, closing Outlook Express and
restarting it will cause Outlook Express to crash.
- In Outlook Express News, if the option "Get 300 headers at a time" is
turned on, the following commands: Get New Headers, Get New Messages, Get All Messages, and Get Marked Messages will retrieve only 300 (or the number that you specify) headers at a time. To prevent this, you should turn off this option.
- To cancel a news message, you must be using the same message encoding
options as was used for the original message.
- If no folders are displayed for your IMAP server or if you want
to refresh the list of IMAP folders you need to download the folder list from the server. To do this, select the IMAP server. If you connect to the server by using a modem, click the Tools menu, and then select Offline > Dial. If you connect to the IMAP server by using a LAN, you can skip this step. After you have connected to the server, click the File menu, click Folders, and then click Refresh Folder List.
- If you need to change any of the following settings for your IMAP
account:
. IMAP server name or port number . Account type (POP3 or IMAP) . Any logon information
it is recommended that you delete the IMAP account and create a new
account with the updated settings.
- Outlook Express is designed to work only with IMAP4 compliant
servers. IMAP2bis servers are not supported in this release.
- If you rename a news server account name and then attempt to
perform some action on it, for example copying messages from the server, you may receive an error message. To work around this problem, close OE and restart after the renaming of a server.
- If encrypting a message when there is not a certificate for one of
the recipients, an error will display stating that there is not a certificate for that recipient as well as the sender.
- Certificates are now handled on a per account basis. You must
reselect which certificate to use for each account from the Accounts menu. Select the account you want to configure for security features and check the box to use a certificate when sending secure messages. You must also click the Certificate button to select which to use.
- If you used Internet News for reading newsgroups, any messages
in your "Posted Items" folder will be moved into the "Sent Items folder when you upgrade to Outlook Express.
- In the Address Book, the option "Send e-mail using plain text only"
on the Personal tab for contact properties is not implemented in this release.
TROUBLESHOOTING
===
- If you run into a problem, try the troubleshooter in online Help
or on the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/support/tshooters.htm. To start the online Help troubleshooters, carry out the following steps:
1. In Outlook Express, click the Help menu, and then click Help
Topics.
2. Double-click the "Troubleshooting" topic on the Contents tab.
- Check your connection to your Internet service provider.
- If you are unable to send or receive mail, check the following:
- The TCP/IP protocol is installed on your computer. - All cables are properly connected to your computer, modem, or LAN. - You have a PPP or SLIP account with your Internet service provider. - Your Internet service provider or LAN server supports POP3 or IMAP and SMTP. - Your modem communication parameters (baud rate and type of protocol) are set correctly.
- Make sure that you use an account name and password for a news
server only if it requires them. If you use an account name and password and they are not required, you will not be able to connect to the news server.
- To access the Microsoft peer product support newsgroups, carry out
the following steps:
1. Click the Tools menu, and then click Accounts.
2. Click Add, and then click News on the drop-down menu.
3. Follow the directions on your screen.
4. When you are prompted for a server name, type
msnews.microsoft.com
If that name isn't found by your Internet service provider, you
can type 131.107.3.27 instead.
You do not need to log on to this news server.
TIPS AND TRICKS
===
- You can change the sound that notifies you that you have received
new mail. To do this, double-click the Sounds icon in Control Panel, and select New Mail Notification from the events list.
- Use the Check Names command, available on the Tools menu or on
the New Message toolbar, to look up a person's e-mail address when sending mail. The name will be underlined when the associated address is found.
- You can move the toolbar to a different edge of your screen by
right-clicking it and then choosing Left, Right, Bottom, or Top from the Align menu.
- To send a mail message in Plain Text only (no HTML formatting),
click the Format menu, and then click on Plain Text. To make Plain Text the default setting for new messages, replies, and forwarded messages, click the Tools menu, click Options, click the Send tab, and then select Plain Text under Mail sending format. (News messages are sent in Plain Text by default, but similarly, this setting can be changed under News sending format.)
- To customize the toolbar, right-click it, and use the menu commands
to perform the desired actions.
- You can resize the preview pane or the message list by dragging the
divider between the preview pane and the message list.
- You can change how the preview pane splits, or turn it off entirely,
by clicking the View menu, clicking Preview Pane, and changing the options in the dialog box.
- You can specify that you want to see only unread news messages. To
do this, click a newsgroup, click the View menu, click Current View, and then click Unread Messages.
- You can set messages to automatically download to the preview pane
by clicking the Tools menu, clicking Options, clicking the Read tab, then selecting the Automatically Show Messages in the Preview Pane check box.
- To view the e-mail address of someone who has sent you a message,
double-click the message to open it, then double-click the author's name in the From field. You can also add this person to your Address Book by right-clicking the name, and then clicking Add To Address Book.
- To view responses to a particular message in a newsgroup, click the
plus sign (+) next to the message. The responses appear indented below it.
- In mail, you can leave a copy of your messages on the server. To set
this option, click the Tools menu, and then click Accounts. Select the mail account you want to modify, and then click Properties. Click the Advanced tab, and then select the Leave A Copy Of Messages On Server check box.
- You can search for newsgroups that contain specific words in their
names. To do this:
1. Click the Tools menu, and then click Newsgroups. 2. In the Search box, enter the words separated by a space.
You can also search newsgroup descriptions. If you cannot see the descriptions, click the Tools menu, and then click Accounts. Select the news account you want to modify, click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab. Next, select the Use Newsgroup Descriptions check box. Click the Tools menu, and then click Newsgroups. In the Newsgroups window, click "Reset List."
- You can have your signature added to all messages, including those
that you reply to or forward. To do this, click the Tools menu, and then click Stationery. On the Mail or News tab, select the following check box: Add Signature To The End Of All Outgoing messages.
- It is possible to use HTML files as signatures as well as plain
text files.
- If you are using Web view and single-click mode in Windows
Explorer, this will also activate it in Outlook Express. Single-clicking works only when the preview pane is turned off.
- To reorder columns, you can drag and drop column headings. Columns
can be resized by dragging the right edge of the column header.
- You can view all the headers for a news message. To do this,
double-click the message to open it in a separate window, click the View menu, and then click Full Headers.
- If you are running Outlook Express on Windows NT and you need to add
support for a different language, double-click the Keyboard icon in Control Panel, and then click Add. Follow the instructions on your screen. This installs the appropriate NLS (National Language Support) files. You do not have to use the associated keyboard layout.
SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
=========================
For the latest information about Outlook Express as well as a list of Frequently Asked Questions, see our Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/collab/imn. You may find that your questions can be answered here.
A newsgroup is dedicated to the discussion of Microsoft Outlook Express and provides peer support:
- news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.inetexplorer.ie4.OutlookExpress
To read it, follow the procedure outlined in the Troubleshooting section above.
This site is the best place to go if you are experiencing a problem, as someone else who experienced the same problem might already have posted the solution.
