Using Outlook for POP Email Accounts

Composing A New Message

To compose a new message in Outlook 97, go to the FILE menu and select the option NEW MAIL MESSAGE.

Next, enter the recipient's email address inside the To: box. If the recipient is located in your address book all you need to do is type their name, such as Jim, and underline the full name as it appears in the address book. However, if the email address is found, Outlook will put a red-dash under the name as you typed it, and not send the message. Once you have completed your message, click the "send" button located in the toolbar.

This is a screen example of a new, empty composition box. You can type the recipients e-mail address in the To: or Cc: boxes, a subject line and your message. Click the "Send" button when complete and ready to send the message.

Create a Message Template

Do you send the same message on a regular basis, or do you repeatedly send mail that's structured a certain way? For example, perhaps you send a weekly status report that's always addressed to your manager, displays "Status Report" on the Subject line, and lists the same activities each week: read e-mail, attend meetings, conduct research. If so, you know how annoying and time consuming it is to retype this information each time. In Microsoft Outlook, you can avoid this by creating a New Message form that has the information built in.

1. Create a new e-mail message.
2. Add the recipient, subject, and message content that you use each time you send this type of message.
3. Exclude information that will vary each time.
4. On the Tools menu, point to Forms, and then click Publish Form As.
5. In the Look in list, click Personal Forms Library.
6. In the Display name box, type the name you want to appear in the list of forms.
7. In the Form name box, type a name for the form if you want it to be different from the display name.
8. Click Publish.

The next time you need to send this type of message, open it from the Personal Forms Library: on the File menu, point to New, and then click Choose Form. (Click Personal Forms Library in the Look in list, if necessary.) Send the form as is or add new information. (Outlook won't add the new information to the form template stored in the Personal Forms Library unless you republish the form.)

To add fields to your New Message form, you need to customize the form in the Outlook Forms design environment. For more information, see the Advanced Customization book in the Outlook Help table of contents. Note Instead of publishing the form to your Personal Forms Library, you can save it as a template (.oft) file. However, a form saved this way takes longer to open, and it won't be available if you open your mailbox from another computer.

Create a message

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Mail Message.
2. Enter recipient names in the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes.
3. To select recipient names from a list, click the To, Cc, or Bcc button.
4. In the Subject box, type the subject of the message.
5. In the text box, type the message.
6. Click Send

Save an unfinished message

1. Click the message.
2. On the File menu, click Save.

Notes
Unfinished messages are saved in the Drafts folder and are not sent. By default, unsent messages you are working on are saved every three minutes. To turn on or off automatic saving of unfinished messages, click the Tools menu, click Options, click Preferences, click E-Mail Options, and then select or clear the Automatically save unsent messages check box.

You can change how often an unfinished message is automatically saved. You can also change the folder where the messages are saved, and other options. On the Tools menu, click Options, click Preferences, click E-Mail Options, click Advanced E-Mail Options, and then under Save messages, select the options you want.

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