In this chapter:
Sending a message to someone you love (or hate)
Reading messages you get from others
Sorting (and organizing) the mail
Faxes and voice mail on my PC? How?
With Windows Messaging, the e-mail Inbox for Windows NT, you can keep in touch with friends and coworkers without ever having to lick a stamp...
Windows includes an all-in-one program to make sure you stay in touch with anyone in your company or the outside world--especially if they also use Windows. Windows Messaging lets you send and retrieve electronic mail, as well as keep track of names, addresses, and other important information for coworkers, business contacts, family, and friends.
You can say just about anything in e-mail, from a simple "Hello" to a long explanation of why fourth-quarter expenses went through the roof. (But before you send your first e-mail, look over the essentials of e-mail etiquette later in this chapter.) With the help of Windows Messaging, you can send and receive mail automatically, organize it into folders, and find a particular message weeks or even months after you received it.
If you understand how the postman gets mail and packages to your door, you've already mastered the basic concepts of electronic mail. You create messages, add attachments, fill out an envelope, and drop it in the Windows Messaging mailbox, where the Windows postal agent picks it up at the same time it drops off any mail that other people have sent to you. Best of all, you don't have to lick a single stamp!
Before you can use Windows Messaging, you have to set it up on your PC. If it isn't installed on your system, use the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel to add it to your system. (You'll probably need to ask for help from your system administrator, especially if you intend to connect to a Microsoft Mail post office or an Internet mail server.) Windows includes a wizard to help you set up Windows Messaging the first time.
If you want to change any of the Windows Messaging options, double-click the Mail icon in Control Panel to pop up the Settings dialog box for Windows Messaging. Click any item in the list and then click the Properties button. You'll see a dialog box like the one in Figure 21.1.
E-mail to anywhere: Use Microsoft Windows Messaging to send and receive electronic
mail--not just on a local network, but anywhere in the world.
Fig. 21.1
Double-click the Mail icon in Control Panel to pop up this configuration dialog box, then click Properties to see more details about each item. Confused by all these options? Ask your network administrator to make sure you're set up correctly.
Some of the options are self-explanatory, but most of them are technical and absolutely baffling. If you're not sure how to configure Windows Messaging, ask your network administrator for help. (If you're not on a network, most of the really difficult settings don't apply to you anyway.)
After Windows Messaging is successfully installed on your PC, just click the Inbox icon on your desktop or choose Windows Messaging from the Programs section of the Start menu. After the Windows Messaging window opens, you can do one of four things:
Plain English, please!An attachment is a file that rides along with an e-mail message, just as you sometimes receive a package with a letter taped to the outside. Almost all mail systems can exchange attachments with each other these days, thanks to the standardization of mailing methods. (You don't really need to know about all the standards, but in case someone asks you, Windows Messaging is "MIME-compatible." That's a standard.)
Attachments are tricky things--if the person on the other end of the mail connection is using a mail program other than Windows Messaging, there's no guarantee the standard attachment-handling formats will work properly. The package might get lost or damaged in transit. If you plan to exchange an important attachment with someone, your best bet is to first try a test with a small WordPad file, to make sure the two mail systems can handle the package properly.
When you address a letter to your next-door neighbor and drop it in your local mailbox, you can be reasonably sure that your local mail carrier will deliver it. After all, it's on his route. What if you send a postcard to Moscow? It'll get there, too, as long as the Postal Service and its counterparts in Russia have an agreement to exchange mail. But if you try to send a package to Mr. Floyd on the dark side of the Moon, it'll probably come back marked "Undeliverable."
E-mail works the same way. Windows Messaging has its own local delivery route, plus agreements with foreign e-mail systems to swap mail. Depending on how you and your network administrator have it set up, Windows Messaging lets you communicate with other Windows users on your company's network, or with anyone who has an e-mail account on the Internet.
For more information about the Internet, see Chapters 22 and 23.
To send an old-fashioned paper letter, you'll need a piece of paper, an envelope, an address book, and a stamp. To compose an e-mail message, you'll need the electronic equivalent of everything but the stamp. Fortunately, all of this is usually just a click or two away.
Here's how to get started:
Windows has included electronic-mail software for years. Windows for Workgroups offered Microsoft Mail, Windows 95 included the Microsoft Exchange Inbox, and Windows NT 4.0 has Windows Messaging. Microsoft has even developed a couple of e-mail programs that never made it into the same box as Windows.
Why does Microsoft sell all these e-mail programs? And more importantly, do you need to know the differences between them?
The answers are "Who knows?" and "Not really." If you insist, though, here's a quick summary:
Which e-mail program should you use? Your network administrator probably already
decided for you and everyone else in your company. If that decision was Windows Messaging
or Microsoft Exchange, pay close attention to this chapter.
Fig. 21.2
The electronic letter, complete with envelope.
Plain English, please!When you use Windows Messaging, you may occasionally see a reference to MAPI. The acronym, pronounced "mappy," stands for the Messaging Application Programming Interface, a common set of software widgets that let different e-mail programs communicate reliably with one another. Thanks to MAPI, you can use Windows Messaging to swap e-mail with a coworker who uses Lotus Development's cc:Mail or Notes, or Novell's GroupWise.
TIP: Every message needs at least one primary receiver, whose name goes in the To box. If you want someone to receive a copy of the message, put his or her name in the Cc box. Want to send a secret copy to someone? Use Bcc, for blind carbon copy. As you're composing a message, select Bcc Box from the View menu to add this capability.
Fig. 21.3
Your Address Book contains the details you need to send a message to anyone that Windows Messaging can reach.
TIP: You don't have to enter the full name of a recipient, as long as there's an entry in your Address Book. Just enter some or all of the name, and Windows Messaging will search for the nearest matching name. For example, if there's only one Bill in your Address Book--the entry for Bill Gates--you can type Bill in the address field and Windows Messaging will automatically fill in the rest of the name when you press the Send button. If there's more than one Bill, Windows Messaging will show you a list of possible addressees and let you pick the right one.
CAUTION: Be careful when sending files to other people who aren't using Windows Messaging. You have no guarantee that the program they use to receive mail will correctly receive the attachment you send. Try a test run before you send a crucial file.
It's hard to be humorous in e-mail. Subtle humor is the worst of all. When you're face-to-face, you signal a joke with a smile and a wink. So how do you pass the same message along in an e-mail message?
I sometimes add <g> (for "grin") after a remark that might leave the reader wondering what I meant. You can do the same. But if you want to really be creative, try using an emoticon--a clever word that packs emotion and icon into the same space. The most common of all is the smiley, a little grinning face turned on its side to suggest that that last remark was not meant to be taken seriously.
There are literally thousands of smileys. Here's a sampling of some of the more useful ones. (If you can't figure them out, try turning your head 90 degrees to the left...)
:-) or :) Plain ol' smiley. "Just kidding."
;-) Winky smiley. Used for slightly more sarcastic remarks. "Just kidding. Really!"
:-( Frowning smiley. "I didn't like that last remark." Also used to express unhappiness.
>:-> Devilish smiley. For really caustic comments.
:*) Drunk smiley.
:-{) Smiley with moustache.
{:-) Wearing bad toupee.
:'-( Crying.
:-@ Screaming
O :-) Angel smiley (see the halo?)
:-D Laughing (at you!)
:-/ Skeptical smiley
:-o Uh-oh!
X-( Dead smiley
--<--{(@ Long-stemmed rose (for when you're feeling romantic)
Once you've used e-mail for a while, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. You'll get rid of those stupid pink "While You Were Out" message slips. When you come back from lunch, you'll find easy-to-read electronic messages instead of indecipherable scribblings on yellow sticky notes all over your computer screen. Maybe you'll even use e-mail to send love letters to your sweetheart or instant expressions of outrage to your Congressman.
After awhile, you may think the e in e-mail stands for easy, and there's the problem. E-mail is so effortless that it's easy to send the wrong kind of message, and once you've hit the Send button, there's no way to bring it back.
Want to avoid the most common e-mail boo-boos? Memorize these helpful tips:
Good question. The answer depends on several factors.
If you're sending and receiving mail through an Internet connection, you can address mail to any online service using the standard Internet addressing scheme: [email protected].etc. For instance, the developer on this book was [email protected]--e-mail her and tell her what you thought of the book! Addresses at online services look like this:
[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].
If you're on a local area network, your e-mail administrator may have set up mail "gateways" to connect to various services, such as CompuServe. Ask about this--there may be a special way that messages need to be addressed.
TIP: What's the best way to find someone's e-mail address? If they're not on your network, call them on the phone and ask! Seriously. There's no comprehensive Yellow Pages or Directory Assistance for e-mail. Not yet.
Sooner or later (usually sooner), your Windows Messaging mailbox will start overflowing with messages, and you'll have trouble keeping up with your mail. The solution? Create a filing system, and move related messages into folders so you can find them easily later.
To read a message, just double-click it.
To reply to a message, click the Reply to Sender button. To reply to everyone on the list for the original message, use the Reply to All button.
To delete a message, click the Delete button. Windows Messaging doesn't actually delete the message; it just moves it to the Deleted Items folder, where you'll need to delete it again to really get rid of it.
To store a message in a folder, drag the message from the right-hand pane and drop it on a folder icon in the Folders list on the left side of the Windows Messaging window.
Q&A: I don't see the Folders list. Is Windows Messaging broken?
No, it's just not set up to show that view when you click on the Inbox icon on the desktop. To reveal the Folders list, click the Show/Hide Folder List button on the Windows Messaging toolbar.
CAUTION: If you use Windows Messaging for your regular e-mail, you'll quickly fill it with irreplaceable messages. Don't run the risk of losing them forever! Keep backup copies of your mail file. Use the Find, Files or Folders option to search for files called *.PST, then copy the results to a safe place.
When you first use Windows Messaging, it has only four folders. Here's what they're used for:
The Inbox is the place where incoming mail is delivered.
When you send a message, it goes into the Outbox until Windows Messaging is ready to deliver it. (It'll deliver the message the next time you connect to the network or service that's supposed to carry it. When's that? It depends on how you've got Windows Messaging configured.) Windows Messaging must be running to send or receive messages.
Sent Items keeps a copy of each message that you send. You can tell Windows Messaging not to save these messages by choosing Tools, Options and checking the appropriate box.
Deleted Items is the Windows Messaging equivalent of the Recycle Bin. Messages you delete go here. When you select a message in this folder and delete it, Windows Messaging gets rid of it permanently. If you're pressed for space on your hard disk, it's a good idea to get in the habit of deleting unimportant messages as soon as you've read them.
Microsoft calls Windows Messaging a "universal inbox," because theoretically you can fill your inbox with e-mail, documents, even faxes and voice-mail messages. You'll need special software to handle these other types of messages, though, and that software isn't included with Windows NT.
When you set up Windows Messaging to handle faxes, Windows turns your fax modem into the full-fledged equivalent of a fax machine. You can receive any fax, anytime, from anyone, anywhere. You can send faxes, too--if you can print a document, you can fax it. Check Microsoft's site on the World Wide Web (www.microsoft.com) to download the fax software when it's available.
With the right modem and still more software, you can even store voice-mail messages in your Windows Messaging Inbox. Of course, to pull off this trick you'll need a modem that includes voice-mail features, along with the software to control it. Creative Labs makes a product called Phone Blaster that does both of these things.
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