------------------------------------------------------------ README for Microsoft Internet Mail and News Beta 3 July l996 ------------------------------------------------------------ (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1996 This document provides complementary or late-breaking information to supplement the documentation. ------------------------ HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT ------------------------ To view Mailnews.txt on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window. To print Mailnews.txt, open it in Notepad or another word processor, then use the Print command on the File menu. CONTENTS ======== WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE General Internet Mail Internet News MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL MICROSOFT INTERNET NEWS KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS AND TRICKS SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL AND NEWS WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE ========================== General ------- - You now have the ability to create and view basic HTML messages, including formatting such as different fonts, colors, sizes, bullets, and justification. - You can send text in plain format or as HTML rich text. - URLs are now automatically detected and highlighted. - You can customize and resize the toolbar. - Internet Mail and News now provides multiple language support. - The Address Book includes distribution lists and robust sorting options. - You can now import an Address Book from Exchange. - You can now import messages from and export messages to Exchange. Internet Mail ------------- - You can specify that you want to empty the Deleted Items folder when you exit the program. - Internet Mail now provides basic Find functionality. Internet News ------------- - You can batch download new messages from a newsgroup to make offline newsreading quicker and easier. - Outbox and Posted Items folders have been added. - Connection management, per server, for dialing up to your Internet service provider, is now available. - You can now disconnect after dialing. - You can specify a default newsgroup to start in. - When you reply to newsgroups, you can automatically copy the author. - A copy of each article you post is saved in the Posted Items folder. - A Saved Items folder is available for keeping copies of interesting news messages. - Internet News now provides better feedback and improved performance. - Local (cache) file management has been improved. There are new automatic compact and purge features. MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL ======================= Internet Mail is a new e-mail program designed specifically for the Internet. At this time, you cannot use Microsoft Internet Mail to access your e-mail account with any of the following services: MS Mail, cc:Mail, The Microsoft Network (MSN), CompuServe, America OnLine (AOL), and Microsoft Exchange Server. If you don't know whether your system uses these services, contact your administrator or your Internet service provider and ask if they support SMTP/POP3 mail clients. MICROSOFT INTERNET NEWS ======================= Microsoft Internet News enables you to read bulletin-board discussion groups, such as the Usenet, using NNTP-based news servers. Contact your Internet service provider for the name of the news server that you should use. This product can also be used for support on a variety of Microsoft products via msnews.microsoft.com. KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE ============================ For the latest information about known issues, see our Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/imn/imnissue.htm. - In order to send e-mail to someone who is not in your Address Book, you must enter a recognizable Internet e-mail address (that is, user@server). - The Address Book recognizes a name only if the full name matches. If you type only the first name, Address Book displays a dialog box with a best guess. - The name you enter on the Server tab in the Options dialog box in Mail might not actually be the name that gets sent. Your mail server might change this information. - If you quit Internet Mail and News while there are still unposted items in your Outbox, no warning message is displayed. Also, when you start the program, it does not check the Outbox for unposted messages. - If you select a thread and then choose Expand from the View menu, only the first level of the thread is expanded. To expand the whole thread, click the News menu, and then click Options. Click the Read tab, and then select the Auto Expand Conversation Threads check box. TROUBLESHOOTING =============== - If you run into a problem, try the troubleshooters in online Help. To start the troubleshooters, carry out the following steps: 1. In Internet Mail or News, click the Help menu. 2. Look up "Troubleshooting" in the Help Index. - Check your connection to your Internet service provider. - If you are unable to send or receive mail, check the following: - The TCP/IP protocol is installed on your computer. - All cables are properly connected to your computer, modem, or LAN. - You have a PPP or SLIP account with your Internet Provider. - Your Internet Provider or LAN server supports POP3 and SMTP. - Your modem communication parameters (baud rate and type of protocol) are set correctly. - Make sure that you use an account name and password for a news server only if it requires them. If you use an account name and password and they are not required, you will not be able to connect to the news server. - To access the Microsoft peer product support newsgroups, carry out the following steps: 1. Click the News menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the Server tab, and then click Add. 3. Type msnews.microsoft.com as the name of the server. If that name isn't found by your Internet Service Provider, you can enter 131.107.3.27 instead. You do not need to enter an account name or password. - If your mail server times out while you are sending mail, you might get an error message indicating that a recipient is unknown. If this happens, you should increase the timeout for your server. To do this, carry out the following steps: 1. Click the Mail menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the Server tab, and then click Advanced Settings. 3. Drag the slider to increase the timeout for your server. TIPS AND TRICKS =============== - You can change the sound that notifies you that you have received new mail. To do this, open Control Panel, and then double-click the Sounds icon. - You can move the icon bar by right-clicking it and then clicking Left or Top. You can turn on the icon bar or regular toolbar by clicking the View menu, and then clicking Icon Bar or Toolbar. To customize the icon bar, right-click it, and then click Customize Toolbar. - You can resize the preview pane or the message list by dragging the divider between the preview pane and the message list. - You can change how the preview pane splits, or turn it off entirely by changing the options under Preview Pane on the View menu. - You can specify that you want to see only unread News messages. To do this, click the View menu, and then click Unread Messages Only. - You can set articles to automatically download to the preview pane by clicking the News menu, clicking options, and then selecting the appropriate check box. - To view the e-mail address of someone who has sent you a message, double-click the message to open it, then double-click the author's name in the From field. You can also add this person to your Address Book by right-clicking the name, and then clicking Add To Address Book. - To view responses to a particular message in a newsgroup, click the plus sign (+) next to the message. The responses appear below it. - You can use HTML formatting to send messages only to recipients who have e-mail software that can display HTML. Otherwise, send messages as plain text, which is the default. - In Internet Mail, you can leave a copy of your messages on the server. To set this option, click the Mail menu, and then click Options. Click the Server tab, and then click Advanced Settings. - In Internet News, you can search for newsgroups that contain several keywords. To do this, click the News menu, and then click Newgroups. In the Search box, enter the keywords separated by a space. You can also search newsgroup descriptions. If you cannot see the descriptions, click the News menu, click Options, and then click the Server tab. Click a news server, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and then select the Use Newsgroup Descriptions check box. - You can have your signature added to all messages, including those that you reply to or forward. To do this, click the Mail menu, and then click Options. On the Signature tab, select the following check box: Add Signature To The End Of All Outgoing Messages. - To switch to your Inbox, you can press CTRL+I. - To reorder columns, you can drag and drop column headings. - To save an attachment with a message from the preview pane, click the paper clip icon, and then hold down the CTRL key while you click the file you want to save. The Save As dialog box appears. - You can view all the headers for a news message. To do this, double-click the message to open it in a separate window, click the View menu, and then click Full Headers. SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL AND NEWS ============================================ Because this is a beta release, no formal product support is available from Microsoft at this time. However, two new newsgroups are dedicated to the discussion of Microsoft Internet Mail and News and provide a great deal of informal support: - news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internet.mail - news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internet.news To read them, follow the procedure in the Troubleshooting section above. This site is the best place to go if you are experiencing a problem, as the solution might already be posted by someone else who experienced the same problem. You can also submit bugs at the following sites: - http://www.microsoft.com/ie/support/imail.htm (for Mail) - http://www.microsoft.com/ie/support/inews.htm (for News)