Sending and Receiving E-mail in Outlook Express.Figure 2-12 shows a general overview of Outlook Express. Note the functions and areas highlighted. In this figure the preview screen, which shows part of the text of the selected E-mail is turned off. In some of the figures, for privacy reasons, I have erased information such as E-mail addresses. To send E-mail, you need to know the recipients E-mail address. This is usually stored in an address book. Outlook Express contains its own address book (sometimes referred to as a contact list). It may be accessed in several ways. If you simply click on the Address Book icon at the top of the screen, you will bring it up as shown in Figure 2-13. While in the address book, look in the File menu and you will also see a Create Group command. Using this you can create an E-mail group. It could be of club, your family or any group you can dream up. If you click on the Create a New Group, you will be asked to give the group a name. Then click on the Select Members button and another screen will appear. In it you can select the people you want to put in the group. As you select each person, click on the Select button to add the name. When you have added the names, click on the OK button and it will bring you back to the Create Group screen. Click OK on this screen and you have created a Group. Now that you have an address book of E-mail contacts, you are ready to send an E-mail. Click on the Create Mail icon (see Figure 2-12) You should include a Subject in your E-mail. Some E-mail systems will reject the message if the subject line is left bank. SPAM filters often delete messages that have blank Subject lines. You can type your message in the area where the "Figure 2-14" is. You can also add automatic signatures to your E-mails. In the auto signature you can include salutations, phone numbers, or any text message you want. It will automatically be added to your E-mail. When you are finished, click the send button. If you are not connected to the Web you will be asked if you want to connect and send the mail now. The choice of when to send the E-mail is up to you. One of the best things to receive in an E-mail is a photo. To send a photo using Outlook Express, you use the Attach button. When you click the Attach button, you will get a file browser window (Figure 2-17). In Figure 2-16 the Priority button is shown. If you click on this button you will get a number of options. If the E-mail is very important, you can set the Priority to High. When the recipient receives it there will be a large red exclamation mark next to it to alert him to read it first.
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You can then click on the New icon to add a new contact. You can also access this through the File menu. You can also enter home and business addresses, phone number, notes, etc. in the address book.
Note to send an E-mail there must be at least one address in the To box. 
At the top of the screen is a blank field where you can type in part of the name you want to find and the address area will scroll to that area. When you find the name you want, highlight it and click the To button. This will address the E-mail. However, you may want to send the E-mail to many people and at the same time but not reveal the various E-mail addresses to other recipients. To do this, send the E-mail to yourself and put all of the recipients in the BCC box. BCC is Blind Carbon Copy - yes still the same as in the days of typewriters. The person receiving the E-mail will only be able to see your E-mail address. This is a valuable feature in Outlook Express. Most other mail programs have similar features to protect privacy.
Using this window, find the photo you want to attach to your E-mail. Click the Attach button. There can be a problem if you try to send a photo that is a large file. If the file is too large, your ISP may reject the E-mail. If the ISP allows you to send it and you are on dial up connection, it will take a long time to send. A good size to E-mail is less than 150 KB. To see the file size, select the View Menu and from the menu select Details. You will then see a view like Figure 2-17. To see how to reduce the file size, see the section on handling digital pictures.