The Inbox Assistant lets Outlook Express automatically filter mail. For example, you can delete all messages from a certain recipient before they ever reach your Inbox. Or you can use the Inbox Assistant to keep extra large messages on the server until you're ready to download them. 

 Another handy use for the Inbox Assistant: If you always move messages from a certain recipient to a certain folder--for example, Mail from your sister goes to a folder called "Sis"--ask the Inbox Assistant to move the messages for you. 

1. Choose Tools + Inbox Assistant.
2. From the Inbox Assistant menu, click the Add button.
3. In the Properties dialog box, define the messages you want to move to a particular folder. For example, in the From text box, type the name of a frequent sender.
4. Select the Move To check box.
5. Click the Folder button, select the destination folder, and click OK.
6. Click OK twice to close the Properties dialog box and the Inbox Assistant. 

Now, any time messages meeting the criteria you specified arrive on your system, the Assistant sends them directly to the selected folder. No more middleman! 

Having more than one e-mail account is pretty common these days. True, more e-mail accounts may mean a little more work. But you can do some pretty cool stuff with Outlook Express once you're juggling those multiple accounts around in your Inbox. For example, you can use your fantabulous Inbox Assistant to filter your incoming messages by account. One benefit of doing so is being able to set up separate autoreply messages when you go on vacation. In such a situation, you may want to set up one reply for incoming business messages and another reply for incoming personal messages. 

To create an autoreply message, follow these steps: 

1. Click the Start button and choose Programs + Accessories + Notepad.
2. Type your message, being sure to put the word "Subject:" on the first line along with the title, followed by a blank line, followed by whatever message text you want. For example: 

Subject: I'm Away From The Office 

Sorry I missed your message. If you need to get in touch with someone, please e-mail my associate Little Guy (Little Guy@small.com) or wait until the 23rd, when I'll be back. 

3. Choose File + Save as
4. Click the "Save In" drop-down menu and choose Desktop. (Strictly speaking, you don't HAVE to save the message file to your desktop as I did in this example. It's just convenient. You can keep the file in whatever folder you want.)
5. Double-click the File Name field and type whatever you want to call the reply message; just be sure that it ends with the extension .eml (for example, Business reply.eml).
6. Click Save.
7. Choose File + Exit to close out Notepad. 

To create more than one autoreply message at a time--for example, to create a personal reply as well as a business reply--simply choose File + New after you save your first message (Step 6) and then repeat Steps 2 through 6.

Say you and your golf pals have a match schedule set up, and want an easy way to send it out. If any of them send an e-mail request with the words "Golf Schedule" in the subject line, Inbox Assistant can automatically send out a text file that contains the schedule. Here's how to set it up: 

1. Click Tools + Inbox Assistant
2. Click Add.
3. In the section that reads When a message arrives with the following criteria, type "Golf Schedule" or whatever text you'd like, into the Subject: field.
4. In the section that reads Perform the following action, place a check mark in the box next to Reply With:.
5. Click Browse, and navigate to the e-mail, text, or html file you need (in this case, the one containing the game schedule).
6. Click OK twice. 

Now whoever needs the schedule can get it by e-mailing you a request.

Address Book.

Do you find it a little strange that your Address Book entries are listed in alphabetical order by first name--Anne Reed, Blake Wilson, Casey Jones, and so on? You may prefer to alphabetize addresses by last name. 

To change the sort order of your Address Book: 

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + B to open your Address Book.
2. Choose View + Sort By + Last Name

Have you ever needed the phone number of one of your Outlook Express contacts when your computer was off? When that happens, wouldn't you like to have a good old-fashioned, printed list of these numbers? Here's how to make a hard copy: 

1. Click the Address Book button (or press Ctrl + Shift + B).
2. Choose File + Print.
3. Under Print range, select All.
4. Under Print Style, select Phone List.
5. Click OK. 

The result is an alphabetized list of all your contacts, complete with home and business numbers (including faxes, pagers, and cellular numbers). You'll never have to wait for that system to boot again--at least not for a phone number!

Here is how to export your Outlook Express Address Book to a *.csv file so that you have it on hand in the event of a disaster:
 Choose File + Export + Address Book, 
Select Text File (Comma Separated Values),
Click Export, type the destination path (or click Browse, and so on), 
Click Next, select the fields to export, and click Finish.

 Assuming you placed this file (Exported address Book) on a floppy disk, here's how to restore it to Outlook Express: 

1. Open Outlook Express and choose File + Import + Address Book. The Address Book Import Tool launches.
2. Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) and then click Import. The CSV Import menu launches.
3. Click Browse, navigate your way to the *.csv file (such as your floppy drive), select the file, and click Open.
4. Click Next.
5. The CSV Import menu tells you to "Map the fields you wish to import." You probably won't need to change these settings, so click Finish.
6. Click OK when you see the message "Address book import has completed successfully."
7. Click Close to dismiss the Address Book Import Tool. 

GET TO THE SOURCE 

Messages in Rich Text format are in the same code as web pages: HTML or Hypertext Markup Language. In Outlook Express 5 you can even use HTML features that aren't listed in Outlook Express's menus or buttons. Here's how: 

1. In the message editing window, choose View + Source Edit.
2. Click on the Source tab at the bottom of the message.
3. Enter any HTML codes you like right on the message editing display. 

SHORT AND SWEET 

 Want to see a neat trick? With Outlook Express open, press the F5 key on your keyboard. The result is exactly the same as you would get if you clicked the Send and Receive button. 

( If you don't want to reach up that high on your keyboard, Ctrl + M does exactly the same thing.)

GRAND OPENINGS 

The Outlook Express preview pane is great. Click any message, and that message appears on-screen, below or beside your message list. But what happens if you want to view multiple messages at one time? Instead of double-clicking each message, try this shortcut: 

1. Hold down Ctrl as you click each item you want to open.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Open. 

Bada-boom, bada-bing--each item opens in its own window

 TWO-BY-TWO 

If  you've opted to use Outlook Express's Preview pane--choose View + Layout, select Use Preview Pane, and click OK--the preview appears, by default, in the lower half of your OE window. However, if you prefer a typical Windows-Explorer-type view, you can view your message list and Preview pane side-by-side. 

1. Choose View + Layout.
2. Under Preview Pane, select Beside Messages.
3. Click OK. 

 You can switch from a side-by-side layout to a horizontal layout by selecting Below Messages in Step 2. 

Folder  Names 

Change your mind about the name of one of your custom folders? Don't worry--the name isn't written in stone. 

1. In the Folder bar or Outlook bar, right-click the folder you want to rename.
2. Select Rename (or Properties--either way). The folder's current name appears highlighted in the resulting dialog box.
3. Type the name you want.
4. Click OK. 

Unfortunately, you can't rename the default folders, such as Inbox, Sent Items, and so on. 

 Folder Size

Need to send an e-mail about the family reunion to your whole family in one shot but don't want to search through your Address Book name by name? No problem. You can track the names down in a snap by using the Find button in your Address Book. 

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + B to bring up your Address Book.
2. Click the Find button (or press Ctrl + F) to bring up the Find People dialog box.
3. Click Clear All.
4. Click in the Other text field and type the info that your contacts share (if you had designated all your relatives as Family in the Other field, for example, you'd type in "family").
5. Click Find All.
6. Press Shift + End to select the entire list of contacts that pops up.
7. Right-click anywhere on the highlighted list and choose Send Mail.
8. Fill in the message and click Send as you normally would.
9. Press the Esc key to exit Find People.
10. Press the Esc key to exit the Address Book.

What if you want to send messages through one e-mail address but have replies sent to another e-mail account, perhaps your personal account? Simply specify a different Reply To address in your e-mail: 

1. Choose Tools + Accounts.
2. On the Mail tab, select your mail server.
3. Click Properties.
4. On the General tab,in the reply to box, type in the e-mail address you want the replies sent to.
5. Click Apply; then click OK. 

 From now on, any time someone replies to your e-mail, the reply goes to this address

To forward a bunch of e-mail messages to one person, you don't need to send all the messages individually. For example, suppose that your sister has relieved you of your duty as family reunion coordinator . You can forward those saved e-mails from far-flung family members to your sister in one fell swoop, provided that all the messages are in the same folder. 

To forward multiple messages at one time: 

1. Switch to the folder that contains the e-mails you want to forward.
2. Hold down Ctrl and select the messages by clicking them.
3. Click the Forward button. A New Message window appears with the messages attached (you can see them across the bottom of the window).
4. Just address the message, compose your own note, and send it off.

 Want to be sure that people who send you plain text messages get plain text messages back or that people who send you HTML messages get HTML messages from you? Fortunately, you don't have to adjust your reply's message format by hand each and every time. Outlook Express sets the format for you, based on the message to which you're replying. Here's how to use this nifty feature: 

1. Choose Tools + Options.
2. Click the Send tab.
3. Select the option Reply to Messages in the Format in Which They Were Sent.
4. Click OK 

From now on, even if your default message format is HTML (as determined on the Send tab of the dialog box that appears when you choose Tools + Options), when you reply to a plain text message, Outlook Express creates a message in that same, simple format. If your mail sending format is set to Plain Text, replying to an HTML message automatically sets up an HTML response.

If your recipient can accept HTML mail, you can use special formatting options to separate important points in your message. Here's how to organize items into a numbered or bulleted list: 

1. Click the Compose Message icon on the toolbar. (If you don't see a toolbar of options just below the Subject line, choose Format + Rich Text [HTML] to make the toolbar appear.)
2. Type the body of your message, including your list.
3. Select the items you want to transform to a numbered or bulleted list.
4. Click the Formatting Numbers button or the Formatting Bullets button. ( To undo the change, click the same button again or click the Undo button at the top of the New Message window.)
5. Click the Send button. 

Alternatively (or additionally), you can click the Increase Indentation button to set the selected text off from the rest of your message

Want to send someone the latest photo of your little one? Instead of sending the picture as an attachment--in which case, the person has to open the photo separately--insert the photo directly into the message. (First make sure that your recipient can receive HTML messages.) 

To include a photo directly into a mail message: 

1. Click the New Message icon on the toolbar. Be sure Format/Rich Text(HTML) is selected
2. Type the body of your message.
3. Place the cursor wherever you want to insert the picture.
4. Click the Insert Picture button on the toolbar (it looks like a postcard with mountains on it).
5. Click the Browse button and navigate your way to the picture you want to use.
6. Select the picture and then click Open.
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Send button. 

There's your picture, exactly as the recipient will see it when he or she opens the message

Composing a message? Here is  how to add a separator (a dividing line) to a message: 

1. Click the New Message icon on the toolbar.
Be sure Format/Rich Text(HTML) is selected
2. Type the text of your message.
3. Place the cursor where you want the separator to appear and then click the Insert Horizontal Line button (it has--of all things--a horizontal line on it).
4. Click the Send button. 

You'll never go back to rows of asterisks again! 

To use a different font, font size, or font color for your text: 

1. Click the New Message icon on the toolbar. Be sure Format/Rich Text [HTML] is selected. 
2. Select a font and font size from the Font and Font Size drop-down lists. ( If you're not sure which buttons these are, hold your mouse pointer over each button to see its name.)
3. Click the Font Color button and select the color you want.
4. Type your message.
5. Click the Send button to fire your message off.

Attachments

Say you want to hold on to a message but don't want the attached file hogging up space in your Inbox. Seems like you should just be able to delete the attachment, right? Wrong--sort of. Although there's no conventional way to delete an attached file, you can forward the message (and only the message) back to yourself. 

1. Open the message.
2. Click Forward.
3. Address the message to yourself.
4. Right-click the attachment and select Remove.
5. Click Send. 

There you go! You should now have a new message, no attachment. 

What do you do with the attachments somebody sends you? Well, if you want to keep an attachment, you first have to save it to your own hard drive. You can do this in several ways. Here's the first: 

1. Open the message.
2. Right-click the attachment and select Save.
3. Specify where on your hard drive you want to save the file.
4. Click OK. 

It's all yours now. ( You probably also noticed that right-clicking gives you several other options, like Open, Print, and Quick View. You could have selected any of these commands, too.)

 
Or You can also use this method to save an attachment.

1.Go to the File Menu
2.Select Save Attachment
3.Hightlight the attachment you want to save.
4.Browse to the location you want to save it to.
5.Click Save.

 JUMP! 

If you double-click a message to view it in a separate window (as opposed to the preview pane), pressing the down-arrow icon on the toolbar displays the next message from your Inbox in the open window. Want to jump directly to the next UNREAD message, without having to wade through items you've already read? Press Ctrl + U on your keyboard. 

WE GO TOGETHER  

Do you tend to write back and forth a gazillion times when having a conversation with someone via e-mail? To save space in your message list (both in your Inbox and Sent Items folder), ask Outlook Express to display messages with the same subject together. 

1. Choose View + Sort By.
2. Select Group Messages by Subject. 

Now, all related messages appear as a single line item with a plus sign next to it. Click the plus sign to view the messages in the thread; click the minus sign to collapse them again. 

 When you receive a response to an existing message thread, the original message appears highlighted in your Inbox. To read the new message, click the plus sign to expand the messages and then select the last message in the thread.

 WHOLE TITLE BAR? 

Do you frequently double-click messages to view them in separate windows? For the most possible viewing space, try this trick:
 Double-click the message's title bar. 
When you do, the message window expands to fill the whole screen. 
When you're done reading, double-click the bar again; the window shrinks down to its original size. This little trick is a lot easier than fiddling with those tiny minimize and maximize buttons.

Columns

Want to view the size of all messages in your Inbox (or Sent Items) folder, right in the message list? Add the Size column to that view, if it isn't there already. This option comes in handy if you frequently send or receive a lot of attachments. 

1. Switch to the folder to which you'd like to add a Size column.
2. Choose View + Columns to open the Columns dialog box.
3. Under Available columns, select Size and click Add.
4. Use the Move Up or Move Down button to position the column in relation to others.
5. Click OK.