Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Sending Email

When you finally arrive at the main Outlook Express screen, you’ve got mail; the Inbox contains a message for you. The message is a welcome from Microsoft, but it wasn’t actually transmitted over the Internet; it’s a starter message just to tease you. Fortunately, all your future mail will come via the Internet.

In order to receive and send new mail, you must use the Send & Receive command. You can trigger it in any of several ways:

• Click the Send/Recv button on the toolbar. (It’s identified in Figure 12-1, which depicts Outlook Express after you’ve been living in it for a while.)

• Choose Tools→Send and Receive→Send and Receive All.

• Press Ctrl+M.

POWER USERS’ CLINICThe Mighty Morphing Interface

You don’t have to be content with the factory-installed design of the Outlook Express screen; you can control which panes are visible, how big they are, and which columns show up in list views.

To change the size of a pane, drag its border to make it larger or smaller, as shown here. You can also hide or show the toolbar, folder list, or preview pane using the View→Layout command. For example, to hide the toolbar, choose View→ Layout; turn off Toolbar; and click OK.

The View→Layout command also lets you control where the preview pane appears: under the message list, as usual, or to its right—a great arrangement if you have a very wide screen.

Outlook Express lets you decide what columns are displayed in the list pane; for example, if you don’t particularly care about seeing the Flag column ...