The Address Book.
The Address book is a store of the names and e-mail addresses and other details on all the people with whom you maintain correspondence.
When you first install Outlook Express it is a good idea to select the option to add to the address book all people to whom you reply. That is, all the people who send e-mails to you and to whom you reply. After a while, you may wish to de-select this option and only add items to your address book when you wish.
In the Message window, right click on the From: identity to open a popup menu. You can then click on properties, or Add to Address Book. If you add, the program will open an information panel, to which you can add more details if you wish, by clicking on the various tabs.
You can add a new entry into the address book. From the Main window or the Message window, click on the Address button, and when the panel is presented, click on "New" "Contact".You can then enter the details.
Address Groups.
An Address Group enables you to send an e-mail to a group of people, for example, all the members of your club committee. Create a new address group by clicking in the Address book on New > Group. You give the address group a name, and then select members to be in the group.
Be sure to exit by pressing OK, not by using the X button.
When you enter the name of an address group into one of the recipient panels and click on "Send", Outlook Express will expand the entry to include each member of the group separately. Your ISP has no knowledge of the group, only the individuals.
Distribution Groups, or List Servers.
If you join a list server or distribution group, you will send an e-mail only to the list. The server (not your own ISP) will then send a copy of the message to everyone on the list.
If you receive a message from a list server group and wish to reply, just click on "Reply" - not "Reply All". This will set up a reply addressed to the list server, ready for your words of wisdom to be conveyed back to the server for distribution to all the other members.
If you want to join a group, try http://groups.yahoo.com/ They have a very big range of groups on nearly every subject imaginable.
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© James Nelson, 2001.