CHAPTER 19
E-mailing with Outlook
Compose and Send a Message
You can use Outlook to compose and send e-mail messages. When you compose a message in Outlook, you designate the e-mail address of the message recipient (or recipients) and type your message text. You also give the message a subject title to identify the content of the message for recipients.
You can compose a message offline, but you must be working online to send it. If you do not have time to finish composing your message during your current work session, you can save the message as a draft and come back later to finish it.
Compose and Send a Message
In the Navigation bar, click Mail (
) to display the Mail component.
Click Home.
Click New Email.
Outlook opens an untitled message window.
Type the recipient’s e-mail address.
If the e-mail address is already in your Address Book, you can click the To button and select the recipient’s name.
If you enter more than one e-mail address, you must separate each address with a semicolon (;) and a space.
Type a subject for the message.
Type the message text.
You can use the formatting buttons to change the appearance of your message text.
To set a priority level for the message, you can click More commands (
) and then click High Importance or Low Importance.
Note: By default, the message priority level is Normal.
Click Send.
Outlook places the message in your Outbox.
Note: You might need to press 
or click the Send/Receive tab and click Send All or Send/Receive All Folders to send the message.
Click the Sent Items folder.
The message you sent appears in the list; Outlook stores a copy of all messages you send in the Sent Items folder.
Send a File Attachment
You can send files stored on your computer to other e-mail recipients. For example, you might send an Excel worksheet or Word document to a work colleague or send a digital photo of your child’s birthday to a relative. Assuming that the recipient’s computer has the necessary software installed, that person can open and view the file on their own system.
Note that some e-mail systems are not set up to handle large file attachments (say, 10MB or more). If you are sending a large attachment, check with the recipient to see if their system can handle it.
Send a File Attachment
Create a new e-mail message as described in the previous section, “Compose and Send a Message.”
Click Message.
Click Attach File (
).
The Recent Items list appears, showing attachments you have sent recently.
Click the file you want to send.
If the file does not appear in the Recent Items list, click Browse This PC, navigate to the folder containing the file, and select it.
If you see a dialog box asking how you want to attach the file, click Attach as copy.
Outlook adds the file attachment to the message, displaying the filename and file size.
Click Send.
Outlook sends the e-mail message and attachment.
Read an Incoming Message
You can use Outlook’s Mail feature to retrieve new e-mail messages that others have sent you and view them on-screen. You can view a message in a separate message window or in the Reading pane, as described in this section. By default, the Reading pane appears beside the list of messages, but you can place it below the message list.
Note that you must be connected to the Internet to receive e-mail messages.
Read an Incoming Message
Click Mail ().
Click Send/Receive.
Click Send/Receive All Folders.
Outlook retrieves new e-mail messages.
If the Inbox is not selected, click the Inbox folder.
Messages appear in the Message list pane, with a preview.
Messages you have not opened display a vertical bar.
Click a message.
The contents of the message appear in the Reading pane.
Note: You can double-click a message to open it in a message window.
Messages containing attachments display a paper clip ().
Note: To open an attachment, open the message, click the attachment’s 
, and then click Open. Alternatively, click Save As to save the attachment. Never open a file unless you trust the sender.
Reply to or Forward a Message
You can reply to an e-mail message by sending a return message to the original sender. For example, if you receive an e-mail message containing a question, you can reply to that e-mail with your answer. When you reply to an e-mail, the original sender’s name is added to the To field in the message.
You can also forward the message to another recipient. For example, you might forward a message that you receive from one co-worker to another co-worker who will find its contents useful. Note that you must be connected to the Internet in order to send replies or forward e-mail messages.
Reply to or Forward a Message
Reply to a Message
Click Mail ().
In the Message list pane, click the message to which you want to reply.
In the Reading pane, click Reply (
) to reply to the original sender.
To reply to the sender as well as to everyone else who received the original message, you can click Reply All (
).
The original sender’s address appears in the To field.
You can click Pop Out to open your reply in its own message window.
Type your reply.
If you change your mind and do not want to reply to the message, you can click Discard.
Click Send.
Outlook places the e-mail message in the Outbox.
Outlook sends the message at its next automatically scheduled send/receive action; to send the message, click Send/Receive All Folders on the Send/Receive tab.
Forward a Message
Click Mail ().
In the Message list pane, click the message you want to forward.
In the Reading pane, click Forward (
).
Type the recipient’s e-mail address in the To field.
You can click Pop Out to open your message in its own window.
Perform steps 4 and 5 in the previous subsection, “Reply to a Message.”
Add a Sender to Your Outlook Contacts
Suppose you receive an e-mail message from someone with whom you expect to correspond regularly, but you do not have a record for that individual in Outlook contacts. You can easily add the contact information of the sender of any message you receive to your Outlook contacts, directly from the message. If you want to send a new message to that person later, you can click the To button in the Message window and choose their name from the Select Names: Contacts dialog box.
Add a Sender to Your Outlook Contacts
Click Mail ().
In the Message list pane, click the message from the sender you want to add as a contact.
In the Reading pane, right-click the sender’s name.
Click Add to Outlook Contacts.
A window opens with the sender’s e-mail address already filled in.
Type a name for the contact.
Fill in the rest of the contact’s information, as needed.
Click Save & Close.
Outlook saves the contact information.
Delete a Message
As you receive e-mail messages, you can eliminate clutter and keep things manageable if you delete messages you no longer need from your Inbox and other Outlook folders.
Note that when you delete a message from your Inbox or any other Outlook folder, Outlook does not remove it from your system. Rather, it moves it to the Deleted Items folder. To permanently remove deleted messages from your system, thereby maximizing your computer’s storage capacity, you should empty the Deleted Items folder regularly.
Delete a Message
Click Mail ().
In the Message list pane, click the message you want to delete.
Move the mouse (
) over the message you clicked in step 2.
The Delete icon (
) appears.
Click the Delete icon () in the Message list pane.
Alternatively, click Delete on the Home tab or press 
.
Outlook deletes the message from the Inbox and the Message list pane and adds it to the Deleted Items folder.
You can click the Deleted Items folder to view the message that you deleted.
To empty the Deleted Items folder, right-click it and click Empty Folder.
Screen Junk E-Mail
Junk e-mail, also called spam, is overly abundant on the Internet and often finds its way into your Inbox. You can safeguard against wasting time viewing unsolicited messages by setting up Outlook’s Junk Email feature. This feature enables you to make sure that Outlook bypasses e-mail from specific web domains and instead deposits those messages into the Outlook Junk Email folder.
Note that Outlook might erroneously place e-mail that is not spam in the Junk Email folder. For this reason, you should periodically scan the contents of this folder to ensure that it does not contain any legitimate messages you want to read.
Screen Junk E-Mail
View Junk E-Mail Options
Click Mail ().
Click Home.
Click More ().
Click Junk.
Click Junk E-mail Options.
The Junk Email Options dialog box appears.
You can use the various tabs to view and change junk e-mail settings, blocked domains, and safe senders.
You can click one of these options to control the level of junk e-mail filtering that Outlook applies.
Click OK.
Designate a Message as Junk
Click Mail ().
Right-click the message in the Message list pane.
Click Junk.
Click Block Sender.
A dialog box appears.
Click OK.
Outlook adds the sender’s e-mail address to the list of filtered addresses and moves the message to the Junk Email folder.
Note: To see the list of filtered addresses, follow steps 1 to 5 in the “View Junk E-Mail Options” subsection, and then click the Blocked Senders tab.
Create a Message Rule
You can use rules to determine what Outlook does when you receive a message that meets a specific set of conditions. For example, you might create a rule that ensures that any message from a certain sender is placed directly into a folder of your choosing as soon as Outlook downloads the message. Alternatively, you might set up Outlook to play a certain sound when you receive a message that meets the criteria you set.
You can set rules that are quite simple, as outlined in this section, or rules that are very complex — involving various criteria, exceptions to the rule, and so on.
Create a Message Rule
Click Mail ().
Click the message on which you want to base a rule.
Click Home.
Click More ().
Click Rules.
Click Create Rule.
The Create Rule dialog box appears.
Select the conditions that you want to apply (
changes to 
).
Specify the actions to take when the conditions are met. In this example, select Move the item to folder ( changes to ).
The Rules and Alerts dialog box appears.
Click the folder where you want Outlook to move the messages.
You can click New to create a folder.
Click OK.
Click OK.
Outlook prompts you to run the rule now.
Select the check box ( changes to ).
Click OK.
Outlook runs the rule; in this example, Outlook moves any existing messages to the folder you specified.
The next time you receive a message matching the criteria you set, Outlook runs the rule.