About reading messages

Printing a message

Saving a message

Showing or hiding Internet headers in a message

About reading messages in other languages

About deleting messages from the server

Open a message

In the Message list, double-click the message you want to open.

Receiving messages from a POP account

Receiving messages from an IMAP or Hotmail account

Preview a message

In the Message list, click the message you want to preview.
If the Preview pane is hidden, click Preview Pane on the View menu.

Opening a message

Print a message

In the Message list, click the message you want to print or open the message.
Click Print.
Select the printing options you want, and then click Print.


	To quickly print a message without selecting printing options, click Print One Copy on the File menu.

	To specify the font you want to use when printing plain text messages, click Preferences on the Edit menu. On the General tab, under Fonts, click the font and the size you want on the Printer (plain text messages) pop-up menus.

Format a message with Auto Text Cleanup

Saving a message

Save a message

In the Message list, click the message you want to save or open the message.
On the File menu, click Save As.
Specify a name and location for the file.
On the Format pop-up menu, do one of the following:
- To save the message as a text file, click SimpleText text document.
- To save the message as an e-mail message, click Outlook Express E-mail message.

You can apply Auto Text Cleanup tools only to plain text messages.

Open the message you want to format.
Click Edit.
To format only part of the message, select the text you want to format.
On the Edit menu, point to Auto Text Cleanup, and then do one or more of the following:
- To change curly quotation marks to straight ones, click Straighten Quotation Marks.
- To remove hard carriage returns, click Rewrap Paragraphs.
- To add the ">" character to quoted text, click Increase Quoting.
- To remove the ">" character from quoted text, click Remove Quoting.
- To change the text to all capital letters, click To UPPER CASE.
- To change the text to all lowercase letters, click To lower case.


	If you are previewing a message in the Preview pane, you can also remove hard carriage returns by clicking Rewrap Paragraphs .

Change the size of text in an incoming message

About reading messages in other languages

Change the size of text in an incoming message

Open the message that contains the text you want to change.
On the Edit menu, click Decrease Font Size or Increase Font Size.


	To make text larger in an open message or in the Preview pane, click Increase Display Size .

Formatting messages with Auto Text Cleanup

Show or hide Internet headers in a message

Open the message in which you want to show or hide Internet headers.
On the View menu, click Internet Headers.


	To show or hide Internet headers in all of your messages, click Preferences on the Edit menu. On the Display tab, select or clear the Show Internet headers check box.

Edit an incoming message

If you edit an HTML message, Outlook Express removes all of the formatting in the message.

Open the message you want to edit.
Click Edit.


	You can only edit the subject and the message text of an incoming message.

Changing the size of text in an incoming message

About customizing messages

Search for text in a message

Open the message you want to search.
On the Edit menu, click Find.
In the Find box, type the word or phrase you want to find.
Select any other options you want.
Click Find.


	To search again for the same text, press +G. You can also select text in the message, and then press +H to search for that text.

Searching folders for message text

Delete a message from your computer

In the Message list, click the message you want to delete.
Click Delete.
Microsoft Outlook Express moves the message to the Deleted Items folder.


	If you decide that you want to keep the message, drag the message from the Deleted Items folder to the folder you want.

Emptying the Deleted Items folder

Deleting an IMAP or Hotmail message

Deleting a POP message from the server

Empty the Deleted Items folder

Do one of the following:
- Hold down CONTROL, click the Deleted Items folder, and then click Empty Deleted Items on the contextual menu.
- On the Tools menu, point to Run Schedule, and then click Empty Deleted Items Folder.


	You can create a schedule that automatically empties the Deleted Items folder at a time you specify; for example, when the deleted messages reach a certain age or each time you quit Microsoft Outlook Express.

Deleting an IMAP or Hotmail message

About deleting messages from the server

Because many Internet service providers (ISPs) have size restrictions on mailboxes, you should be sure to delete unneeded messages from the server, so that you do not exceed your allotted mailbox size. In Microsoft Outlook Express, how you choose to delete messages from the server depends on the type of mail account you have.

POP By default, POP messages are stored on your computer, so you do not need to delete them from the server. However, if you configured your POP account to leave messages on the server, you must delete messages from both your computer and the server. In Outlook Express, you can delete POP messages from the server manually. Or, to ensure that you regularly delete messages from the server, you can automatically delete messages from the server when they reach a certain age or when you delete them from your computer.
IMAP IMAP messages are stored on the server, rather than your computer, so you only need to delete IMAP messages from the server. In Outlook Express, you can delete IMAP messages from the server manually or or have them deleted automatically, such as each time you quit Outlook Express.
Hotmail Like IMAP messages, Hotmail messages are stored on the server, rather than your computer, so you only need to delete messages from the server. When you delete a Hotmail message in Outlook Express, it moves to the Hotmail Deleted Items folder and remains there until it is automatically deleted from the Hotmail server.

Deleting a POP message from the server

Deleting an IMAP or Hotmail message

Deleting POP messages from the server automatically

Deleting IMAP messages from the server automatically

Setting up a POP account to leave messages on the server

Delete a POP message from the server

This procedure only applies to POP accounts that are configured to leave messages on the server.

In the Message list, click or next to the message you want to delete, and then click Delete Message from Server at Next Connection on the pop-up menu.


	If you have not deleted the message from your computer, a copy of the message remains in your Inbox or in another local folder after you delete it from the server. To delete the message from a local folder, open the local folder, and then drag the message from the Message list to the Deleted Items folder.

Deleting POP messages from the server automatically

About leaving POP messages on the server

Emptying the Deleted Items folder

Delete an IMAP or Hotmail message

In the Message list, click the message you want to delete.
Click Delete.
To delete an IMAP message from the server, click Purge Deleted Items on the Edit menu.


	When you delete a Hotmail message, it moves to the Hotmail Deleted Items folder and remains there until it is automatically deleted from the Hotmail server.

Deleting IMAP messages from the server automatically

Delete POP messages from the server automatically

This procedure only applies to POP accounts that are configured to leave messages on the server.

On the Tools menu, click Accounts.
Click the Mail tab, click the account, and then click Edit.
Click the Options tab.
Under Server options, do one or both of the following:
- To automatically delete messages when they reach a certain age, select the Delete messages from the server after __ days check box, and then type the number of days.
- To automatically delete messages from the server after you delete them from your computer, select the Delete messages from the server after they are deleted from this computer check box.

About leaving POP messages on the server