Windows XP Power Hound

Chapter 8. Email

If you're like most people, you live and die by email, the greatest time-saver and time-waster known to humankind. It helps you stay in touch with friends and family around the globe—and it helps spammers stay in touch with you, whether you like it or not.

Chances are, you use one of two email programs from Microsoft: Outlook or Outlook Express. While they share a number of similar features, including their name, they're actually quite different pieces of software. Outlook Express comes with Windows XP; Outlook, the more powerful and complicated of the two programs, comes with Microsoft Office (or you can buy Outlook on its own). This chapter explains dozens of ways to add power to both of these juicy programs; it also gives tips on other email software such as Eudora.

Note

As you make your way through these hints, remember that what you see on your computer may differ somewhat from what you read here. Microsoft is notorious for changing Outlook every time it releases a new version, so your menus and features may vary a bit from what you see in this book. Outlook 2003 is a prime example, as it's dramatically different in some ways than previous versions, most notably in the way that it handles spam (Section 8.3.2.2).

Sending and Receiving Email

Email is super easy to use, but there are actually a bunch of cool tricks to it you may not know about. This section tells you how to send a message more quickly, how to create your own personalized mail schedules, how to clean ...