Q:
What kind of attachments can contain viruses?
A:
Basically, anything that is executable (able to run). You’re generally safe with picture files, text files, and the like. However, it still pays to scan first.
Here is a (very) short list of the most common to watch out for:
exe
zip
scr
vbs
bat
com
pif
asp
doc
xls
Q:
I’m going on vacation and I don’t want to have a ton of e-mail piled up when I get back. What can I do?
A:
My advice is to let it pile up. If it’s too much, just use your delete key when you get back from vacation. Besides, if you see something good, you’ll be glad you didn’t miss it.
Your other options are to contact… Continue reading
Q:
I keep getting e-mail from people with advertisements for porn sites. How can I get off these lists?
A:
Well, it’s tough. There’s not really a good answer to that one. I don’t think anyone has a sure fire way to keep them from sending that junk to you once they get your address; however, there are some things you can do to minimize it.
1. Never… Continue reading
Q:
What are e-mail “headers?”
A:
E-mail headers tell your e-mail client about the message you’re receiving. It includes information like who sent the e-mail, the subject of the e-mail, the return path (to whom a Reply message will be sent), IP addresses, priority, type of message (HTML or text), and lots more.
Most e-mail programs don’t show you the “real” header in an effort to keep your… Continue reading
Q:
Sometime, when I get an e-mail or visit a web page, the font is way too small. How do I enlarge it?
A:
To increase or decrease your font size in either Internet Explorer or Outlook Express, just hit the View menu, Text Size. The procedure is usually similar for other e-mail clients and web browsers.
As they say there’s more than one way… Continue reading
Q:
Is there a way to empty my deleted e-mails from the Deleted Items bin all at once or do I have to do it just one at a time?
A:
Sounds like you’re using Outlook or Outlook Express. If that’s the case, just right-click the Deleted Items bin, Empty Deleted Items Folder . That’ll do it. Most e-mail clients work in a very similar… Continue reading
Q:
Is there a way to make AOL Instant Messages a bit more instantaneous?
A:
Sure is…
Simply hold down the Control button and hit Enter after you have finished typing and away your message goes.
When sending an e-mail, you can also use the same mouse-less feature. Ctrl+Enter will send your e-mail off to its eager recipient.
–Jody Crabtree in Wichita, Kansas, USA… Continue reading
Outlook Express Groups
Do you constantly send e-mails to the same bunch of people? Do you get tired of going through your address book and hunting and pecking for each address and adding them the send to box?
I don’t know about you but I find myself sending stuff to the same people every day. Instead of doing this every time, create a group in Outlook Express. Then, instead of… Continue reading
E-Mail Reminders
Ever get an e-mail that you didn’t have the time to answer right away?
Sure, everybody has and it usually stays in your inbox until you remember it or forget it. I usually forget it!
There is an easier way… Just highlight it in the address bar and drag it to your desktop where it will always be a visible reminder.
The icon will be in the… Continue reading
Do you ever get an e-mail forwarded to you which has all those annoying >> marks in front of each line? There’s an easy way to eliminate these marks when you copy the message to a word processor such as Microsoft’s WordPad. Continue reading
Q:
I got an e-mail today that is formatted funny… Instead of being in paragraph form, it’s one line of text that’s about 47.5 feet long. Once I scrolled to the end, I forgot what the beginning said.
Can I make it easier to read on my end?
A:
You bet! Simply hit the Reply button and the message will come up correctly formatted in a new… Continue reading
Outlook Deletes
Do you use Outlook or Outlook Express? If so, here’s a cool delete trick.
Next time you go to delete an item, hold down the Shift key. You can use either the keyboard combination of Shift + Delete or, for even more excitement, hold down Shift while you click the Delete button on the toolbar.
Either way, Outlook / Outlook Express will bypass your Deleted Items folder and… Continue reading
Email Read Receipts
Alright, your first question probably is “What is a read receipt anyway?” Well, you can request a read receipt when you send an e-mail. When the receiver of your e-mail opens it you will be sent a message telling you it has been read (at their option). This message is the read receipt.
Your next question might be “How do I send a read receipt?”
Outlook Express
Q:
Why don’t you run more tips for us Web-based email users (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.)?
A:
It seems that for every web-based email service there are different features and procedures. This makes it very difficult to write “universal” tips. Since Outlook Express is what we use around here, we are able to offer tips based on what we know. We try to include Netscape Mail when possible.… Continue reading
Saving Embedding Music from Email
Yesterday you learned how to embed music files into email (BTW: I forgot to mention that it was an Outlook Express only tip. I could not find a way to do it in Netscape Mail or with web-based email). What if you want to save music embedded in an email you receive? Here’s what you do…
Open Outlook Express and highlight the message with the… Continue reading
Embedding Music into Email
Did you ever open an email and it started playing music? Want to know how it’s done? Here it is in 9 easy steps…
NOTE: This will only work using Outlook Express . We received Gigabytes of email from annoyed readers of our daily newsletter because we failed to mention this when we ran the tip.
It is best to type your message, or insert graphics… Continue reading
Spruce Up Your Email (Netscape Mail)
Yesterday Tom showed you how to add graphics, colors, cool fonts, and other formatting to Outlook Express email. Today I will show you how to do it if you are using Netscape.
To get started, just click on “Compose Message” then click inside the text box.
Setting Up Your Page
The first step is really easy: from the “format” menu, select “Page colors and… Continue reading
Q:
Help! I use Outlook Express and there are times I have stuff sitting in my outbox that I decide to add to or modify. However, the other day I did this and accidentally hit the Delete button. So, I went into my Deleted Items folder and tried dragging the message back to the Outbox. It didn’t work and I had to re-do the whole message. I know it’s… Continue reading
Q:
When I click on links in my email (Outlook Express), I can’t get Internet Explorer to open the page. The links are underlined and blue, so why won’t they work?
A:
If you click a link and it either doesn’t come up, or you get an empty browser window with no connection, there are two common possibilities.
If you have a pop-up stopper, this can interfere with… Continue reading
Q:
I have been getting your newsletter in my email for a while now. I found some great software and I have really learned alot. But I stopped getting the newsletter and wondered why?
A:
As the anti-spam frenzy heightens, this complaint becomes more common. Sure we want less spam, but at what cost? Legitimate email that you want to read is not getting to you, vanishing into… Continue reading
Q:
Are there any good spam filters out there?
A:
If you search our software store, you will notice that we do not sell any spam filters. Is this because we want your inbox to be flooded with porn and scams? Is it just an oversight on our behalf?
Well, no. I’m sure I’ll be bombarded with recommendations from y’all, but so far the anti-spam tools available are… Continue reading
Q:
What is spam ?
A:
Most people are familiar with the canned luncheon meat product called SPAM . It became associated with the act of sending unsolicited commercial email (UCE), “spamming”, or in reference to the UCE itself, “spam”. Internet legend says that this association was inspired by the Monty Python skit in which SPAM was part of every menu item at a restaurant—similarly… Continue reading
Creating an Outlook Express Whitelist
Some of you only use your email to keep in touch with friends and family. If you don’t want to get email from anyone except those in your address book, you can create a “whitelist” that only allows the people on the list to get email to you. We talked about “whitelisting” last Thursday and I didn’t think there was a way to do it… Continue reading
Q:
I am finally going to cancel AOL but I have some very valuable emails in my filing cabinet on AOL. Is there a way to save them?
A:
Finally, an AOL tip! Ironically though, it is a reply to someone escaping from AOL island.
One way to save those precious emails would be to go through each email and forward the ones you want to keep over… Continue reading
E-mail forwarding
Are you one of the many people who forward our Computer Tips newsletter to friends and family? Do you receive email from a particular sender at work that you always forward to your personal account? If you are an Outlook/Outlook Express user you can have this done automatically! Here’s how:
Go to Tools / Message Rules then Mail . Choose New .
Select “Where the From line contains… Continue reading
Add an Online Picture to an Email
Have you ever come across a cool graphic at a website and wanted to include it in an email? One way is to save the graphic to your hard drive and send as an attachment or insert it into the body of an HTML email (as demonstrated above). But that takes up space on your hard drive or in the email. So, is… Continue reading
Have you ever been surfing the web and had a sudden urge to send an e-mail to someone? Maybe you just stumbled upon a really cool page or some awesome information that you just gotta share.
Whatever the reason, wouldn’t it be cool if you could compose an e-mail without launching Outlook Express, fiddling around in the address book, then finally starting the message?
Well, where there’s a geek, there’s… Continue reading
