WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Windows Live Mail brings a free, full-featured email program to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. It combines in one package the best that both Outlook Express and Windows Mail have to offer. Let s take a look at the different email programs offered by Microsoft: Outlook Express (Windows 98 through Windows XP) and Windows Mail (Windows Vista) are the free email programs that come included with Windows. Outlook (also known as "Office Outlook" or "Microsoft Office Outlook") is Microsoft's email application part of the Office productivity suite. The year that follows the program (Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007...) indicates the version. Windows Live Mail -formerly known as Windows Live Desktop Mail- is the free email program we will discuss. It is an update to the Windows Mail program. WINDOWS LIVE MAIL FEATURES Enhanced spam and security features Email features such as emoticons, stationary backgrounds, solid backgrounds Multiple email accounts in one location Ability to insert pictures directly into your email, add frames and captions Enhanced, easily used Contact Manager New Calendar feature Anti-phishing protection Read RSS feeds Direct access to Windows Live Messenger And many more features One thing I have found is that WLM has a really poor help system. I find it more useful just to search the internet for answers rather than rely on the built in help system. To download Windows Live Mail go to the following website: http://download.live.com/wlmail Click the Download button. A small installer program will be downloaded. Run the installer program. Windows Live Mail is part of the Windows Live Essentials collection of programs. You may select other components such as the Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, etc. to download at the same time as Windows Live Mail. Page 1
INTERFACE OVERVIEW Windows Live Mail has a somewhat similar look to Outlook Express. You can enable or disable the Menu Bar by using the Menus Button:. The left column displays the email accounts you have set up in WLM as well as quick launch buttons to access the calendar, contacts, RSS feeds and Newsgroup functions. When you are in your Inbox and not composing an email, you will need to press the Sync button to send and receive. Page 2
SETTING UP EMAIL ACCOUNTS IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Windows Live Mail supports a wide variety of email accounts including ones from Qwest, Charter, Clearwire, Gmail, RASCAL, Hotmail, etc. The first time you open Windows Live Mail after installation, the new email account setup wizard should open automatically. If it doesn t, click on the "Add an e-mail account" button in Windows Live Mail's left pane. Complete the information as required. Most ISPs offer help in setting up their email accounts in Windows Live Mail. Many times you will find the help on their website listed under Windows Mail. Just follow those suggestions as the information presented is the same for Windows Live Mail. Check with your ISP if needed. Here are some of the screens you ll need to complete. This is an example from a RASCAL email account: Setting Up Qwest Email Accounts Navigate to: http://www.qwest.com/internethelp/email/wm.html Once at this site select the link according to what your Qwest email address ends with. Page 3
Setting Up Charter Email Accounts Navigate to: http://www.charter.com/customers/support.aspx and select the Email link. Select the Windows Vista Mail Setup link and follow the directions. Setting Up Gmail in Windows Live Mail Before you can use Windows Live Mail and Gmail together, you need to enable the POP setting in Gmail itself. Go to your Gmail account on the internet, click the Settings link in Gmail, then the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Choose Enable POP, and click the Save Changes button: After completing the above steps go to this website for further information: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=86383 Page 4
SETTING UP EMAIL SIGNATURES IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Instead of typing your name and contact information every time you send an email, Live Mail can take care of it for you with automated email signatures. These instructions will show you how to create an email signature, make it your default signature, and associate signatures with specific email accounts. Adding an Email Signature in Windows Live Mail Adding an email signature in Windows Live Mail is done through the Options dialog. Click Tools, then Options. Windows Live Mail's Options dialog will open. Click the Signatures tab. This is where you will create, delete, and manage your email signatures. The Signatures tab is divided in three sections: the "Signature Settings" determines when to add a signature to your outgoing emails. The section labeled "Signatures" stores any signature you created, and lets you add, delete, or rename signatures. The last section, "Edit Signature" lets you customize the selected signature's settings. To add or create a new signature in Windows Live Mail, click the New button; this will automatically create a new, blank signature called "Signature # 1" - if this is your first signature, Windows Live Mail will make it the default signature. Create a Plain Text or HTML Signature Your cursor automatically blinks in the text field under Edit Signature, to let you type the signature text. This is the easiest signature to setup. Just type the text you would like to appear as signature, no formatting is available, only plain text, spaces and new lines. Page 5
If you want a more sophisticated email signature, you can import an "HTML" file. This format can include formatting information to add colors, bold, italic, or even images to your signature. To do so, just select "File" instead of "Text" under Edit Signature, and pick an HTML file that contains your rich format signature. Once you are done, make sure to give your email signature a meaningful name: click the Rename button, type a signature name and hit Enter. That's it! You now have a fully functional email signature in Windows Live Mail. Delete an Email Signature in Windows Live Mail To permanently delete an email signature from Windows Live Mail, select the signature, and click the Remove button. If any email account was using this signature, it will revert to using your default signature instead. Customizing Your Email Signature Now you ll learn how to associate signatures with email accounts, automatically insert a signature in some or all outgoing emails, and how to manually insert a signature from the new email window. Reopen the Options window. Click the Signatures tab. Windows Live Mail will not automatically add any signature to outgoing emails; check the "Add signatures to all outgoing messages" checkbox and an email signature will always be included. Notice that the second option is now clickable. By default, "Don't add signatures to Replies and Forwards" is turned on. This means that your email signature will only be added to new email messages you compose. Page 6
Set Your Default Email Signature Setting your default email signature in Windows Live Mail takes two clicks. From the Signatures tab of the Options dialog, click on the signature you want as default, and click the "Set as Default" button. If the button is disabled (grayed out), it means either that you have only one email signature (in which case it is automatically the default signature), or that the email signature you selected is already the default signature. Assign an Email Signature to an Email Account Windows Live Mail lets you associate email signatures with particular email accounts. To do so, first select the email signature you want to assign, and click the Advanced button in the Edit Signature section. The Advanced Signature Settings dialog will open, and list all email accounts you have set up. Select the checkbox corresponding to the email accounts you want to tie with the selected email signature and click OK. You're done! (Don't forget to click OK to close Windows Live Mail's Options dialog to confirm your changes.) Manually Inserting a Signature in a New Email Regardless of your email signature settings, Windows Live Mail always leaves you the option to manually insert any email signature when you compose a new email, reply or forward. To manually insert a signature, click the Show Menu button, and choose Insert signature. If the "Insert signature" menu item is disabled (grayed out), you either have not already setup an email signature, or your cursor is in the To, Cc, Bcc, or Subject field. You need to have your cursor (insertion point) inside the body of the email to be able to insert a signature. As soon as you have setup multiple email signatures in Windows Live Mail, the Insert signature menu item expands into a submenu revealing all available signatures. Pick the one you want, and it will be added in your email. Page 7
REGULAR EMAILS IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Be sure you are in the Mail portion of WLM. Press the New button. You are ready to start your new email. You can add photos to the body of the email at any time by pressing the Add Photos button. Please be aware that any photos you add in this manner will not be compressed. Follow the directions in the section entitled Photo Emails in Windows Live Mail for details on adding photos that will be compressed. Right now, let s just focus on an email without photos. After pressing the New button you ll be at the New Message window. Many of the options will be familiar to you from using Outlook Express. Just type your message in the body of the email and take advantage of emoticons, stationary backgrounds, text formatting, attach files, etc. Emoticons are easy to add. Just click on the Emoticon icon and select the one you would like to use. Page 8
The Stationery icon allows you to place a stationery background on your email. Remember, you can have either a stationery background or a solid color background, but not both. If you would like more stationery go to: http://www.thundercloud.net/ If you use Windows Vista or Windows 7 put the downloaded stationery in the Documents\My Stationery folder. If you use Windows XP put the downloaded stationery in the My Documents\My Stationery folder. The text formatting tool bar allows you to change font style, text color, etc. You can use the Highlight tool, similar to a yellow marker, to mark special portions of your email. You can also easily add links to websites you would like your reader to go to. During class you will have the opportunity to try out all the different options available here. Finally, if you would like to add an uncompressed photo to the body of your text click on the Add photos icon, browse to you picture folder and select the pictures you would like to add. Again, remember that these photo(s) will not be compressed very much and therefore will take longer to send to your friends. Once you ve completed your email, press the Send button. Page 9
PHOTO EMAILS IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Sending Compressed Pictures in Windows Live Mail 1. Make sure WLM is your default email program. a. Open WLM b. Tool/Options c. Make Default d. Apply then OK 2. Use Windows Explorer to browse to the location that contains the pictures you would like to email. 3. Select the pictures you would like to include. a. To select pictures that are listed next to each other Highlight the first picture in the list, then hold down the shift key while using your mouse to select the last picture in the list. Everything in between will be highlighted. b. To select pictures that are not listed next to each other - Highlight the first picture, then hold down the Ctrl key while using your mouse to select any other pictures in the list. 4. Right click on ANY of the selected pictures and place mouse pointer on Send To. Then, select Mail Recipient. 5. The Send Pictures via E-Mail dialogue box appears. Select Make all my pictures smaller, and then click OK. 6. VERY IMPORTANT!! WLM opens, pictures are transferred and the following dialogue box appears: Select Yes only. Don t put a check in the box!! Page 10
After you press Yes your pictures will appear in WLM, in the body of the email, not as attachments. If you would rather send your pictures as attachments, press No. The pictures have been reduced in size for easy emailing. You can easily check the size of your email by looking in the upper right corner: Picture Formatting Features in Windows Live Mail If you selected Yes then you are ready to do some formatting of your pictures. Select the PHOTOS button to view frames for your pictures. Highlight a picture, then select which frame you would like to appear. You can change the color of a frame, auto correct the color of the photo, rotate it and change it to black and white with the click of the mouse. Select the LAYOUT button to arrange your photos on the page. From small to large thumbnails, with or without captions, it s your choice! And, choosing a large format does not change the size of your email. Select the FORMAT button to access emoticons, stationary backgrounds, text formatting, spell check, etc. There are many formatting tools here. Any time you see this icon click on it for more options. Once complete, press the Send button. Page 11
ADD AND MANAGE CONTACTS IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Add an email Address as contact in Windows Live Mail The easiest way to create a new contact in Windows Live Mail is to use an email you received from the person you want to add as contact. Locate the email from this person, right-click on it, and choose "Add sender to contacts". The Add a Contact window will open and automatically have the sender's email address. Windows Live Mail does not require you to fill all information about a contact before you add it to your contacts list. Simply click the Add to contacts button. If you do want to spend time entering more information, notice the sections on the left: Quick add (selected), Contact, Personal, Work, IM, Notes, and IDs. You can fill out as much information as you like for your new contact. Create a New Contact Directly in the Contacts Folder Windows Live Mail uses its own address book, called "Windows Live Contacts". This is where all the contacts in Windows Live Mail are stored. To launch Windows Live Contacts, click the Contacts folder. From the Windows Live Contacts window, click the New button. This will open the Add a Contact window, the same we saw earlier. Page 12
Fill out at least one field or as many as you want. When you are done, click Add to Contacts. The new contact will now be available in your address book, and will "auto-complete" when you start typing the first few letters of a recipient email address. Let Live Mail Automatically Add Email Recipients as Contacts By default, Windows Live Mail will add as a contact the email address of someone you have replied to at least three times. This is an option, and can be turned off. To allow or prevent Windows Live Mail from automatically creating contacts from email correspondents, click Tools and then Options. This will open Windows Live Mail's Options dialog. Select the Send tab. The third option under Sending is labeled "Automatically put people I reply to in my address book after the third reply". Allow or prevent as you desire. Create a New Contact Category (Group) in Windows Live Mail If you find yourself regularly emailing the same groups of people, contact categories will make it easier to send an email to a group of contacts by selecting a contact category as recipient. Instead of typing the email addresses of all the recipients, you only need to type the first few letters of the contact category and select it as recipient. Select the Contacts folder. Click the Create a new category button visible at the bottom of the left pane. This will open the Create a new category dialog box. Enter a category name: Type the name of your new category. Be sure to pick a memorable and descriptive category name. Select contacts you want to add to the category: Pick each contact that should be part of this email category; if you picked a contact by mistake, simply uncheck its name to remove it. Once you have entered a category name and selected the members, click the Save button. Windows Live Mail will now have access to the category that has been added to your address book. To edit a category (to rename it or add/remove members) simply double-click on the category name in Windows Live Contacts. Page 13
Emailing a Category Group in Windows Live Mail The next time you want to send an email to the contact category ("distribution list") you have created, simply start typing the first few letters of the category name in To:. Windows Live Mail will help you by guessing the email recipient you want ("auto-completion"). After selecting the contact category you want to email, it will appear in bold, with a plus sign. Clicking the plus sign will expand the contact category into a listing of its members email addresses. You can then remove email recipients. This does not remove the email addresses from your contact category. It only removes them as recipient of the email you are composing. Page 14
IMPORTING CONTACTS INTO WINDOWS LIVE MAIL If you are switching from Outlook Express, for example, you will be able to import all your contacts, rather than having to create your contacts all over again. Windows Live Mail lets you import contacts in several formats: Windows Address Book file (WAB), virtual business card (VCF file, or vcard), Microsoft Office Outlook address book, and CSV files (comma-separated values). You import contacts in Windows Live Mail by going through the Contacts folder. To launch Windows Live Contacts, click the Contacts folder. Chose a Contact Import Format Once inside Windows Live Contacts, click the File button, and click Import. A submenu will expand listing all the formats in which Windows Live Mail can import contacts. The format you choose will depend on the file or email program whose contacts you would like to import: most email clients can export their contacts as CSV files; so, in doubt, this is a good export format to choose. Importing contacts from Microsoft Outlook or the current Windows user's address book into Windows Live Mail is an automated process: click one of these two choices, and Windows Live Mail takes care of the rest, only notifying you in case of problem or successful import: Page 15
Importing File Formats: CSV and Contact Mapping If you are trying to import contacts from a file (WAB, VCF, or CSV), you will just need to pick the file for Windows Live Mail; in the case of CSV files, you will need to make sure that the contacts' "mapping" corresponds (it should by default). You can change the mapping, if needed, manually, to make sure each contact information column corresponds to the expected data: After the import process has completed, look at Windows Live Contacts. You should see all contacts from your other email program, or contact file, now listed. Windows Live Mail will now have access to all these contacts when you send emails, create contact categories, etc. BACKUP YOUR CONTACTS IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL You should regularly backup your contacts so that you can easily restore them in case of a serious computer crash or hard drive failure. If you have backed up your emails and contacts, it will be easy to restore them by importing them back into Windows Live Mail. Backing Up or Restoring Your Contacts in Windows Live Mail Windows Live Mail does not come with a built-in backup tool; but, you can export your contacts and import contacts into Windows Live Mail. 1. Open your Contacts folder. 2. Select File, Export, Comma Separated Values: 3. Browse to the location you wish to export your contacts to and name the file. 4. Click Next. 5. Add any additional fields you would like to export. 6. Click Finish. Page 16
SET WINDOWS LIVE MAIL AS YOUR DEFAULT EMAIL CLIENT Instead of going through the multi-step process of setting the default email program through Windows Control Panel, you can do it directly from Windows Live Mail's Options dialog. Click Tools, then Options. Select the General tab. The bottom section is labeled "Default Messaging Program": If Windows Live Mail is not currently the default email program on Windows, the text next to the first button will read "This application is NOT the default Mail handler". Click the Make Default button, and it will be disabled (grayed out). The text has now changed to "This application is the default Mail handler". To complete the process you must either click the Ok or Apply button to confirm the change in configuration. Page 17
SECURITY/SAFETY OPTIONS IN WINDOWS LIVE MAIL Use Windows Live Mail to help maximize privacy, safety, and security across your e-mail accounts. Spam filters scan for junk e-mail, red and yellow warning bars tell you when a message seems to be suspicious. Windows Live Mail has an automated junk email filter. It scans each incoming email message and automatically moves it to the junk folder (provided by default) if it identifies it as spam or a phishing attack. This filter is not perfect, but you can fine tune the various options so that it works well for you. To open the options window, go to "Tools" and select "Safety Options". You'll find six tabs on this window - Options, Safe Senders, Blocked Senders, International, Phishing and Security. Go through tab and modify the settings as you like. Then click on the "Apply" button followed by the "OK" button. SAMPLE SETINGS: OPTIONS: Page 18
SAFE SENDERS: Safe senders added my right clicking on email message in inbox, select Junk Mail, Select Add Sender to Safe Sender List. BLOCKED SENDERS: Blocked senders are added by right clicking on an email message in the inbox, select Junk Mail, select Add Sender to Blocked Senders List. Page 19
INTERNATIONAL: Blocked Top-Level Domain List Click on Blocked top-level Domain List, select the countries/regions you wish to block. PHISHING: Page 20
SECURITY: Page 21