Windows WordPad is a simple word processor that enables you to create more complex documents by changing fonts, adding bullets, adding color, adding pictures, and aligning text. All of this formatting is saved with your document using RTF format (RTF is short for Rich Text Format), so no matter who opens it, it will appear as if you created it.

Windows Notepad is a simple text editor that enables you to create and edit text documents. Because many configuration files are written in as text files, Notepad becomes a commonly used application for desktop support technicians.

E-mail, short for electronic mail, is a fast and convenient way to communicate with others by transmitting and sending text messages with file attachments (documents, pictures, sound, and movies) over a network, including the Internet. You can send a single message to groups of people and forward messages that you receive to other people. Because e-mail messages are created and sent electronically, they can be easily stored and retrieved. Organizations that are fully computerized and have many users make extensive use of e-mail because it is fast, flexible, and reliable.

To use e-mail, you need the following:

Windows Mail is an e-mail and newsgroup client software package that replaced Outlook Express, which came with Windows XP. It enables you to exchange email with others, and it enables you to organize, manage, and protect your e-mail.

Configuring Windows Mail

To configure the settings for Windows Mail, open the Tools menu and select Options. An Options dialog box displays with multiple tabs, as shown in Figure 11.1. The options include the following:

• General settings for configuring newsgroup behavior, send and receive timings and behavior, and default messaging programs

• Read settings for configuring how messages appear, how newsgroups messages are downloaded, and how fonts are used in Windows Mail

• Receipts settings for configuring how read receipts behave

• Send settings for configuring the format to send e-mail and news messages, and general settings for actions to take when mail is sent

• Compose settings for configuring fonts and stationery used in e-mail and news messages, and settings for using business cards

• Signatures settings for configuring a personalized signature to add to your outgoing e-mail

• Spelling settings for configuring your spelling checker preferences

• Security settings for configuring secure e-mail by using certificates, for using virus protection for your e-mail, and whether to allow image downloads

• Connection settings for configuring how the connection to the mail server behaves

• Advanced settings for configuring maintenance and troubleshooting

Figure 11.1. Windows Mail options.

Calendar programs enable a user to organize appointments, set reminders, organize tasks, and share calendars with other users. Windows Calendar enables you to manage your schedule, let others view your schedule, and subscribe to web-based calendars.

Windows Calendar provides an individual calendar for each user account on a computer so that each user can maintain a private schedule (see Figure 11.2). You can also have one user have multiple calendars so that he can keep personal events separate from work-related events, or you can have multiple work-related calendars if you are involved with multiple projects.

Figure 11.2. Windows Calendar.

To view several calendars together, you can create a calendar group, which then enables you to view the appointments in each calendar individually, or together. Although you cannot add new appointments directly to a calendar group, you can edit existing appointments. Appointments from each calendar display in a different color, making it easy to tell which schedule each item belongs to.

To create a calendar, follow these steps:

You can view your calendar by day, work week, week, or month. Just click the View menu, and then click the view you want. A check mark displays next to the view you select.

To create an appointment, follow these steps:

To edit an appointment, double-click the appointment, and then type over the existing text with your changes. Finally, you can have Windows Calendar use e-mail to send and receive appointments and invitations to friends and family members.

To help manage your time, you can create tasks. To create a task, follow these steps:

To search for appointments or tasks based on letters, words, or other text, in the Search box, type letters or words from the appointment you want to find. The results display as you type. The more you type, the more precise the results.

You can print your calendar by day, work week, week, or month. To print the calendar, click Print on the toolbar. Under Print Style, click one of the following: Day, Work Week, Week, or Month, and then click OK.

Many organizations publish their calendars on the Internet. If these calendars are published using the iCalendar format (ICS), you can subscribe to these calendars by clicking subscribe on the toolbar and then following the instructions.

You can publish your own calendar on the Internet through a web host so that others can see and share it. If you want, you can publish your personal schedule with password protection, which means you can choose who can access and view it:

Because Windows Calendar is compatible with the iCalendar format, you can import and export calendar information to and from other applications and websites.

The Windows Fax and Scan program enables users to use a scanner to scan a document or picture into the system. Then, the same users can use e-mail to send the document to other users or a fax modem or fax server to fax the document or picture to another fax machine. It can also be configured to receive faxes from other fax machines.

Before you can send or receive faxes, you must configure a fax account. A fax account contains all the settings necessary for you to use a specified analog modem or fax server. You can create fax accounts for both an analog modem and a fax server on the same computer. You can configure a fax account to use either an internal or an external modem. To create a fax account, run the Fax Setup Wizard by selecting Fax Accounts under the Tools menu.

To scan a document, follow these steps:

If you need to crop (cut the outside part of image that you do not desire to keep) an image before scanning it, click Preview in the New Scan dialog box, and then, in the preview area, drag the handles of the cropping tool to resize the image.

If a page that you’re scanning contains more than one picture, you can save each picture as a separate file by selecting the Preview or Scan Images as Separate Files check box. You can automatically forward scanned documents to an e-mail address or a network folder. To choose a forwarding option, click Tools, and then click Scan Routing.

To send a fax using your computer, you can use Windows Fax and Scan or other programs that you run on Windows. Before you try sending a fax, however, make sure that your computer is connected to a fax modem or fax server, and then follow these steps:

To fax directly from an application without going through the Windows Fax and Scan tool, open the File menu, select Print, and select Fax as the printer.

To send a fax to more than one recipient, in the To box, type the fax numbers, separated by semicolons. You can also select recipients from your Windows Contacts folder by clicking To, and then, in the list of contacts, double-clicking each contact. Make sure that you’ve saved your recipients’ fax numbers in the contact information.

A cover page, which usually contains who the fax is being sent to and from including fax numbers, is used to help prevent people other than your intended recipients from seeing the contents of the fax, especially if the fax contains personal or confidential information. Therefore, it is recommended that the first page of each fax should be the cover page.

When working within Fax view, you can easily attach a file or insert text and pictures from other faxes by using the toolbar. When you attach a file, the file will be converted into a TIF image so that it can be received by any fax device. You can also drag the file from the desktop or any folder to the new Fax windows.

To ensure that a fax has been sent, you can configure the Windows Fax and Scan to send you a receipt. To enable receipts, navigate to the Receipts tab of Fax Options on a Windows Vista computer. Then, choose the E-mail To option and specify the user’s e-mail address.

Received faxes are automatically stored in your Windows Fax and Scan Inbox. To save a copy to your Documents folder or any other folder, right-click the fax and click Save As, browse to the location, and save the fax.

To e-mail a scanned document or picture, follow these steps:

You can also route all scans to an e-mail address by opening the Tools menu and selecting the Scan Routing option.

To receive faxes automatically, follow these steps:

If you choose to receive faxes automatically, the modem will answer all incoming phone calls. To answer calls using your phone, you need to answer before the modem answers them.

To manually receive a fax, follow these steps:

To automatically save a copy of each fax that you receive, follow these steps:

To preview a fax, click the fax; it will display in the Preview pane below the list of faxes in your Inbox. To open a fax, double-click the fax in your list of faxes.

Windows Meeting Space, which is a replacement for NetMeeting, enables you to share documents, programs, or your entire desktop with other people (see Figure 11.3). One of the advantages of using Windows Meeting Space is that it uses peer-to-peer technology that automatically sets up an ad hoc network if it can’t find an existing network. So, you can use it in a conference room, a favorite hotspot, or a place where no network exists. You can join a meeting that someone else sets up, or you can start a new meeting and invite other people to join it.

Figure 11.3. Windows Meeting Space.

After you have a method for users to connect to your computer, to start a new meeting, follow these steps:

When you start Windows Meeting Space for the first time on a computer, you are prompted to turn on some services and sign in to People Near Me. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, enter the password or provide confirmation.

People Near Me identifies people using computers near you so that you can use Windows Meeting Space and other programs. When you sign in to People Near Me and then use a collaborative program such as Windows Meeting Space, a list of available people appears. Display names, computers names, and IP addresses are visible to everyone signed in to People Near Me.

You can configure People Near Me to accept invitations from anyone, no one, or trusted contacts only. A trusted contact is someone who supplies a digital certificate that you trust. The invitation can be dismissed, declined, or viewed and accepted.

There are three ways to invite people in a meeting. Either way, you first click the Invite People button. You then do one of the following:

You can join a meeting by double-clicking the invitation file that you receive from someone in the meeting. You can also join a meeting by following these steps:

If you have trouble connecting to a meeting, confirm the meeting password. You also need to make sure that the person who is offering the meeting has the correct firewall ports open.

After people have joined the meeting, you can share documents and programs. You can also add handouts, which will be copied to the participants’ computers as they join the meeting.

The Windows Sidebar is a pane that keeps your gadgets organized and always available. Gadgets are easy-to-use mini programs (tools) that give you information at a glance for frequently performed tasks such as checking the weather, checking the time (via a digital clock), and checking email (without opening other programs).

To remove the Sidebar from the desktop, right-click the Sidebar and select Close. To reopen the Sidebar, right-click the Sidebar icon in the notification area and select Open. To close the Sidebar program, right-click the Sidebar, and select Close. Then, right-click the Sidebar icon in the notification area and select Exit. To start the Sidebar, select All Programs, Accessories, and then click Windows Sidebar.

You can keep Sidebar and any detached gadgets that are on your desktop on top of your open windows. If open windows are maximized, they will automatically lock against Sidebar. To make the Sidebar always be on top, follow these steps:

To place a gadget on the desktop, follow these steps:

You can add any installed gadget to the Sidebar. If you want, you can add multiple instances of a gadget. For example, if you are keeping track of time in two time zones, you can add two instances of the Clock and set each accordingly.

You can find additional gadgets from the following website:

http://gallery.microsoft.com/vista/sidebar.aspx

To configure a gadget, you can do the following:

Tulloch, Mitch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, Ralph Ramos, and the Windows Vista Team, Windows Vista Resource Kit (Pro. Resource Kit) (Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 2007).

Stanek, William R., Introducing Microsoft Windows Vista (Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 2006).