The new OE5 stationery wizard

 

To start the wizard:

go to message
new message using...
select stationery

Now look for the words "create new" down under the window with the file names

Using the wizard:

First screen is an introduction, just hit "next"

Second screen:
this is where you will pick a background graphic and set a background color.
put a check mark in front of "picture" and then hit the browse button. When you have selected your picture you will return to this window.
Now be sure to click where it says "tile" and select "entire page" or "vertically" if you are using a full screen width graphic.

The default tile option is "do not tile", so failure to select something here will result in a single graphic being inserted in your stationery.

If you did not choose a graphic that stretched all the way across the screen, you need to choose whether you want it to tile horizontally or vertically and then put a check mark next to "color" and select from the drop down list.
(If you chose a full width graphic you may leave this unchecked.)

TIP
The option "default" means that the background color will be the same color as your windows. Choosing this will enable you to have ANY color background. However to alter this color involves a few extra steps that you will need to take BEFORE you start the wizard. If you would like to see how this is done, click here
Third screen:
This is where you choose a font: family, size and color.
And although both italic and bold are options here, not all fonts have an italic or bold.

Note
You can not just choose any font you want off of your computer even though all of them are listed here, and expect the person reading your message to see it in that font. In order to have them see it the same way you do - THEY must have the SAME font (with the same file name) installed on THEIR computer.
You are best off if you only choose fonts that other windows users will have. A list of these is available at Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm).
Fonts can be embedded, however it adds a LOT to your file size and involves special software and several steps. Directions are available at Eric Miller's site if you wish to learn how. Or check out the people responsible for font embedding: Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/default.htm)
Forth screen:
This is where you set the margins
set the top margin if you are using a top graphic
set the left margin if you are using a side graphic
TIP
Clicking the up arrow will increase the margin by 25 pixels for each click. You are not limited to increases of 25 pixels, however. If the next time you click it seems too much, just type in a number yourself. (example: if 100 was still over the top of my graphic, but 125 seemed too far away, I could just type in 112 or any other number until I got what I wanted)
Last screen:
You must now give your stationery a name so it can be saved in your default stationery folder.

clicking "finish" will send you back to the "select stationery" window with your new stationery file name already typed in. Just hit ok to use right away, or you could restart the wizard and make another at this point.

HINT
There really isn't any need to make a new file for each and every stationery you want. If you save this first one with the name of mystationery_left border, mystationery_top border, mystationery_all over tile, etc (or some such) you can turn it into a template for future use.

To do this, next time you want to make a stationery you can go to

message
new message using...
select stationery
click once on mystationery_whatever
click "edit"
This opens the HTML code of your message into notepad.
Click here for easy to follow step by step instructions on what to do next.
Why?
If you use explorer to open the folder /program files/common files/microsoft shared/stationery, you will see that the wizard not only saved your stationery you just made as an HTML file, but it copied your graphic from its original location to here. You will eat up disk space real fast if you are duplicating all of your graphics!

Also those with large stationery collections prefer to keep them in different folders (ie: one for flowers, one for cats, etc and some keep it sorted into folders by the creators name, varian, sig, etc). The wizard will not let you do that - it ALWAYS saves to the default stationery folder and always copies your graphic there too.

I hope this has helped.
Please email me and let me know what you think.

 

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