Using Gmail & AIM Mail with Outlook Express
Using MSWord for an Address Book

I've been asked by some Outlook Express users how to access their email when they are out of their local area or using someone else's computer. Well, all ISPs allow subscribers to access mail via their home page. Cox users, for instance, can go to www.cox.com, click on Webmail, and follow the log-in prompts.

However, I find it easier to use Gmail or AIM Mail and have all messages copied to my Outlook Express account. These options are under Settings within Gmail and AIM.

Web-based services, such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and Juno are designed to let subscribers sign in from any computer with an Internet connection. I like Gmail and AIM because they let me store my user name and password permanently so I never have to type them in. (Of course this is not recommended for anyone whose computer can be easily accessed by others.)

Gmail and AIM also have excellent spam filters which put junk mail into a special folder for easy reviewing and deleting. You can choose to have these filters delete suspected spam the moment it arrives, but this means legitimate messages may occasionally be misread as junk and deleted without your knowledge. Conversely, occasional spam messages are missed and end up in you Inbox. This is because no spam filter is perfect, and the sheer magnitude of spam makes one marvel at the fact that it can be filtered at all.

Newsletters are often flagged as spam because of the numerous email addresses in their BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) fields. Subscribers can protect newsletters from being flagged by putting the their return addresses (such as ours: ComputerTutorTeam@gmail.com) into their email program's Address Book.

Regarding newsletters, I recommend not using an email client's Address Book for your distribution lists. Instead, having recipients' email addresses in a word processing document or in a spreadsheet means they won't have to be painstakingly copied to a different Address Book format in case you change email programs.

I use MSWord, from where I simply copy and paste the addresses into a newsletter's BCC field.

I stack the email addresses vertically in the MSWord document by pressing ENTER after each entry. I then alphabetize them by going to Table>Sort. To arrange them lineally for a BCC field I use Ctrl+H to display a Find & Replace dialog box. I then type ^p (Shift+6 followed by a lower case p) into the Find field, followed by typing a comma into the With field. Finally, I click Replace All to switch the addresses from a vertical to a horizontal list. Now they can be easily copied and pasted into an outgoing newsletter's BCC field.

When I want to return the addresses to a stacked order within MSWord I simply reverse the Ctrl+H "Find & Replace" options.

Some folks like to put images directly into their emails rather than sending them as attachments. AIM makes this easy by letting one click Insert Pictures, navigating to the target graphic, and double-clicking it. Previously-used images can be even more easily inserted by dragging them from "My Shoebox" into the message's body. Finally, clicking the upper-left corner of an image will display options for its size, alignment, and having text wrap around it.