------------------------------------------------------------ README for Microsoft Internet Mail and Microsoft Internet News Beta 2 June 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 MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL MICROSOFT INTERNET NEWS KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE TROUBLSHOOTING TIPS AND TRICKS Minimizing Connection Time Customizing Internet Mail and News Other Tips SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL AND NEWS PRODUCT SUPPORT WITHIN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Microsoft AnswerPoint Information Services AnswerPoint Standard AnswerPoint Priority Text Telephone PRODUCT SUPPORT WORLDWIDE Microsoft TechNet, Technical Information Network WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE ========================== - An Address Book for keeping track of people that you frequently send mail to. - Improved performance for News over a dialup line. You now have the option to leave preview pane on, but download only the body of the message on demand. Also, news headers and messages are cached, so only the new message headers are downloaded each time you access a newsgroup. - Full headers are now displayed for News. - You can now print messages. - Your user-defined signature is displayed in the message window and can automatically be added to messages that you forward or reply to. - Mail folders are now compacted to reclaim space. - The Newsgroup subscription dialog box has changed. You can also resize it. - Download status indicators now keep you posted when you are updating groups or downloading messages. - You can now define the line length at which you want text to wrap. - Internet Mail supports multiple character sets. - An NT 4.0 version is now available. System requirements: NT version 4.0 build 1314. - You can remove the icons from the desktop. - You can cancel posted news messages. - You can also mark as read cross-posted articles in all newsgroups. - You can choose where to install message storage. - Numerous bug fixes have been included. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback! MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL ======================= You can use Microsoft Internet Mail to send and receive mail using SMTP and POP3 servers. MS Mail, cc:Mail, The Microsoft Network (MSN), CompuServe, America OnLine (AOL), and Microsoft Exchange Server do not provide SMTP and POP3 support at this time. If you are in doubt about whether your system provides these services, contact your administrator or your Internet service provider. MICROSOFT INTERNET NEWS ======================= Microsoft Internet News enables you to read bulletin board discussion groups, such as the Usenet, using NNTP-based news servers. This product can be used for support on a variety of Microsoft products via msnews.microsoft.com. KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE ============================ Note: Some of the features that are not yet implemented already have menu commands in the interface. These commands are unavailable. - Find messages. The Find function is not yet implemented; however, you can search for text within the body of a message. - Distribution lists in the address book are not implemented in this release. - Formatted text in messages. Fonts will not show up in sent messages. - There is currently no view that shows all groups and the number of unread messages. - Renaming folders. Although this feature is not yet available, you can work around this by creating a new folder, moving the messages into it, and then deleting the original folder. - 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. - You cannot currently limit the newsgroups cache to a certain size or a percentage of your hard disk. However, you can use the Purge Cached Messages command on the News menu to reduce the size of the cache for a newsgroup. - International character sets are available only for German and French. - Printing while composing a new note is not implemented. - You cannot cancel a download in progress. - By default, the spelling checker works only with U.S. dictionaries. For information about how to use other dictionaries, see the Web page. - Full offline support is not currently available. - For this release, you cannot import or export address books or messages. - You must enter a recognizable Internet e-mail address (that is, user@server) to send e-mail to someone who is not in your address book. - The address book recognizes a name only if the full name matches. If you type only the first name, it is not recognized. - The Reply To Author and Forward functions might have problems if Internet Mail is not set as the default mail application. TROUBLESHOOTING =============== - Check your connection to your Internet service provider. - If you're having trouble connecting with your modem, see the Modem Troubleshooter in Windows Help. To start the troubleshooter, carry out the following steps: 1. Click the Start button, and then click Help. 2. In Help Contents, double-click Troubleshooting. 3. Click "If you're having trouble using your modem." - If you think your modem is fine but you are having trouble getting Microsoft Internet Mail and Internet News to connect to your service provider, try the Dial-Up Networking Troubleshooter. To start the troubleshooter, carry out the following steps: 1. Click the Start button, and then click Help. 2. In Help Contents, double-click Troubleshooting. 3. Click "If you're having trouble using Dial-Up Networking." - If you can run Microsoft Internet Mail and Internet News but you cannot connect to your news server or POP3/SMTP server(s), check your settings for these servers. To do this, carry out the following steps in either program: 1. Click the Mail or News menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the Server tab, and then check the settings against those provided by your service provider. 3. If everything looks fine, contact your service provider to verify that you have the correct settings and that their servers are working properly. - 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. - Your Internet provider or LAN server supports PPP, SMTP, or POP3. - Your modem communication parameters (baud rate and type of protocol) are set correctly. - For this release, you must either (1) establish the connection to your Internet provider manually before attempting to send or receive mail, or (2) use AutoDial (double-click the Internet icon in Control Panel). NOTE: AutoDial is available only if you have already installed Internet Explorer or Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. - If you use AutoDial to establish your network connection and you either cancel the connection or the connection fails, you need to either (1) manually establish your Internet connection, or (2) restart your computer. - Microsoft Internet Mail and Internet News ships with a new version of Comctl32.dll, which can be found in your Windows directory. There are no known compatibility problems with this .dll; however, if you discover a problem, you can go back to your original Windows 95 version by carrying out the following steps: 1. Download Comctl32.dll from the following location: ftp://transfer.microsoft.com/msbeta/mailnews and save it on your hard disk. 2. Uninstall Internet Mail and Internet News by double-clicking the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel. 3. Shut down your computer and restart it in MS-DOS mode. 4. Change to your Windows\System directory. 5. Copy the Comctl32.dll file that you downloaded over the Comctl32.dll file that is in your Windows\System directory. - 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. - If you need to remove the cached news files, go to the News directory and delete all the *.nch files. To locate these files, carry out the following steps: 1. Click the Start button, and then point to Find. 2. Click Files Or Folders. 3. In the Name box, type *.nch, and then click Find Now. TIPS AND TRICKS =============== Minimizing Connection Time -------------------------- You can improve performance by turning off the preview pane. To do this, carry out the following steps: 1. On the News menu, click Options, and then click the Read tab. 2. Clear the following check box: Automatically Download Article Into The Preview Pane. Customizing Internet Mail and News ---------------------------------- - 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 the same way you move the Windows 95 taskbar. You can also turn the icon bar off, and turn the regular toolbar on. - Try resizing the preview pane or the message list by dragging the divider between the two preview pane and the message list. - You can change how the preview pane splits, or turn it off entirely. - 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. Other Tips ---------- - You can leave a copy of your messages on the server. - You can do multiple-word searches in Internet News, and you can also search descriptions. - To use the drop-down list to switch newsgroups, click the News menu, and then point to Go To Newsgroup. - You can specify the font to use for quoted reply text. - Try specifying that all threads should be expanded by default. To do this, click the Mail menu, and then click Options. On the Read tab, select the Auto Expand Topics check box. - You can have your signature added to all messages, including to messages that you reply to or forward. - To switch to your Inbox, you can press CTRL+I. - You can drag and drop column headings. 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, carry out the following procedure: 1. Click the Mail or 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. You do not need to enter an account name or password. This site is the best place to go if you are experiencing a problem, as the solution may 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/feedback/imail.htm (for Mail) - http://www.microsoft.com/ie/feedback/inews.htm (for News)