About folders

Folders play a big role in helping you organize your mail messages. Microsoft Outlook Express automatically creates the following folders in which to store your messages: Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and Drafts. You can also create other folders and subfolders and file your messages in them. Folders that you create yourself have next to them. Other types of folders can have different symbols, such as the Inbox folder and the Deleted Items folder , but they are still folders.

How you manage your folders depends partly on what type of mail account you have.

POP accounts These accounts copy or move your messages to local folders on your computer. Messages you have received appear in the Inbox. You can then read or delete messages, and move or copy them to and from other folders.
IMAP and Hotmail accounts These accounts store your messages on the mail server, and you can open them from any computer connected to the server. Messages you have received appear in an Inbox folder located on the server. This Inbox is not the same as the Inbox folder created by Outlook Express for POP accounts. Your IMAP or Hotmail Inbox folder is located below the IMAP or Hotmail account name in the Folder list.

No matter what type of mail account you have, your folders appear in the Folder list in the Outlook Express window. You can click any folder or subfolder to display its contents in the right pane. You can also double-click a folder to display its contents in a separate window.

Showing or hiding the Folder list

Creating a folder

Moving or copying a message to a folder

Renaming a folder

Deleting a folder

About subscriptions to IMAP folders

About accounts

Show or hide the Folder list

On the View menu, click Folder List.

Create a folder

Point to New, hold down the mouse button, and then click Folder in the pop-up menu.
Type a name for the new folder, and then press RETURN.


	To create a server folder for an IMAP or Hotmail account, click the account in the Folder list before you create the folder.

Showing or hiding the Folder list

Creating a subfolder

Moving a folder to another folder

Moving or copying a message to a folder

Create a subfolder

Click the folder you want to add a subfolder to.
Point to New, hold down the mouse button, and then click Subfolder on the pop-up menu.
Type a name for the new subfolder, and then press RETURN.


	If you have a Hotmail account, you cannot create a subfolder.

Showing or hiding the Folder list

Creating a folder

Moving a folder to another folder

Moving or copying a message to a folder

Move or copy a message to a folder

In the Message list, do one of the following:
- To move a message, drag the message to a folder.
- To copy a message, hold down OPTION, and then drag the message to a folder.


	You cannot move a message between a local folder and a server folder; the message is always copied to the folder instead of moved. After you copy a message to a new location, you can delete it from the original location.
	You can also move a message when it is open. In the message window, click . On the pop-up menu, click the folder you want to move the message to, or click Move to folder to choose or create a folder that is not on the pop-up menu.

About folders

Showing or hiding the Folder list

Moving a folder to another folder

Move a folder to another folder

Drag the folder to another folder.
The folder you dragged becomes a subfolder.


	If you have a Hotmail account, you can not move a folder to another folder.
	You cannot move a server folder to a local folder, or a local folder to a server folder.
	If a folder contains subfolders, click the triangle to the left of the folder to show or hide its contents.

About folders

Creating a folder

Moving or copying a message to a folder

Rename a folder

Click the folder you want to rename.
Click the folder again, type a new name, and then press RETURN.


	You cannot rename the following folders: Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Deleted Items.

About folders

Showing or hiding the Folder list

Moving a folder to another folder

Delete a folder

Click the folder you want to delete, and then click Delete.


	You cannot delete the following folders: Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Deleted Items.
	When you delete a local folder, both the folder and its contents move to the Deleted Items folder.

About folders

Showing or hiding the Folder list

About mail accounts

About subscriptions to IMAP folders

If you have an IMAP account, your messages are stored in folders on the IMAP server. Each IMAP folder has a subscription status: subscribed or unsubscribed. When you subscribe to an IMAP folder, the folder appears in the Folder list. You can also apply rules and create schedules for subscribed folders.

When you no longer want to see an IMAP folder in the Folder list, you can unsubscribe from it.


	You cannot unsubscribe from your IMAP Inbox.

About folders

Subscribing to an IMAP folder

Unsubscribing from an IMAP folder

About mail accounts

Subscribe to an IMAP folder

In the Folder list, click the IMAP account.
In the right pane, click the folder you want to subscribe to, and then click Subscribe.

About folders

About subscriptions to IMAP folders

Unsubscribing from an IMAP folder

About mail accounts

Unsubscribe from an IMAP folder

In the Folder list, click the IMAP account.
In the right pane, click the folder you want to unsubscribe from, and then click Unsubscribe.


	If you unsubscribe from a folder that contains subscribed subfolders, the main folder continues to appear in the Folder list until you unsubscribe from all the subfolders it contains.

About folders

About subscriptions to IMAP folders

About mail accounts

Choose or create a folder

In the Choose Folder dialog box, do one of the following:
- To choose an existing folder, click the folder you want.
- To create a new folder, click New, type the name of the folder, and then click Create.
Click Choose.