Thanks for all your help, Cecile

Dear Cecile,

There are a couple of ways to select all in Windows 7, more specifically in Windows Live Mail.

The first method is to use your keyboard to select the messages. Just open your email program, click to select one message, and then on your keyboard, use the keyboard combination, Ctrl + A to select all.

Note: To use the Ctrl + A keyboard combination, hold down the Ctrl key (located on the bottom row of your keyboard) and tap the letter A, then release the Ctrl key.

Once all the messages have been selected, you can delete them in the regular way.

You have already mentioned that you hold down the Ctrl key and click on each message to select the ones you want to delete, so I don’t need to cover that method.

Another way to quickly select multiple messages is to click on the first message to select it, then hold down the shift key on your keyboard and press the down arrow to quickly select additional messages.

I hope this helps you quickly delete all those emails!

Elizabeth

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John

Dear John,

I’m actually surprised that you are having a problem with junk messages in Gmail.

I have found that Gmail has the best junk filters of any program that I have tried.

I decided to go looking through my Gmail settings to see if there was some way you might have turned off the junk mail filtering, and found one place that might have that effect on your mail.

In your Gmail window, click on The small gear symbol located in the upper-right corner of the window, and click on “Settings” in the drop down list.

Once you are looking at the settings window, click on the blue word, “Inbox” in the list across the top.

In the section that says, “Filtered mail”, make sure “Don’t override filters” is selected. If not, click the small circle to select it, and click the “Save Changes” button below.

I hope this helps, Elizabeth

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Thanks …. Patti

Dear Patti,

When you are using an email program like Windows Live Mail, that program has its own Recycle/Trash folder. When you delete an email message, it goes into that trash email folder.

When you empty that trash folder in your email program, the messages don’t go into your recycle bin, instead, they are marked as deleted in your email program.

In many email programs, the messages are still on your computer until you compact the folders. I am not sure if this is the case with Windows Live Mail since it stores messages differently than other programs, but I can show you how to be sure they are really gone.

1. Open Windows Live Mail, and click on the left tab.

2. Point to “Options” in the drop down menu, then click on “Mail” in the sub-menu.

3. In the “Options” window, click on the “Advanced” tab.

4. Click on the “Maintenance…” button.

5. Make sure there is a check mark in front of “Compact the database on shutdown every… runs”. If there is no check mark there, click in the box to check it off.

6. If the number in that section is larger than you want (mine was set to 100) change it to a smaller number. I changed mine to 10.

7. Click “Close” and then “OK” to save your changes and close the dialog boxes.

8. Now, Windows Live Mail will automatically compact the folders every 10th time I run and then close the program.

Elizabeth

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What can I do to stop this…. Help Robert

Dear Robert,

You did not email yourself, in fact those emails didn’t even come from your computer, or your email account.

Somehow, spammers got ahold of your email address and they are using it as their return address when they send out their junk messages.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to stop them. Eventually, they will stop using your email address and move on to use someone else’s.

The only real way to stop the problem (on your end only) would be to change your email address.

Hope this helps, Elizabeth

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Thanks, John

Dear John,

If all your email messages are in the same folder, it is easy to delete them all at once.

Just click on one message to highlight it, then on your keyboard, hold down the Ctrl Key while you tap the letter “A”. Release both keys and all your messages will be selected.

(Ctrl + A is the shortcut for highlight all)

Once all your messages are selected, you can delete them all at once by clicking the delete button, or tap the “Del” key on your keyboard.

Elizabeth

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I have a question concerning contacts in gmail.

Where do I go to find my contacts?

How come some of my contacts are in my there 3or 4 times?

Where do I go to delete them?

I hope this makes sense so you can understand it.

Thank you so much. I enjoy your emails so keep them coming, I have learned a lot from you.

ty so much, sincerely, Carol

Dear Carol,

It used to be that your contacts were listed in the left-hand column of your Gmail window. Actually, they are still there, but you now need to know where to click in order to find them.

If you look near the top of your Gmail window, you will see the word, Google in large letters. Just beneath that, you will see the word, Gmail with a small arrow right after it.

Click on the arrow

Click on that small arrow, and you will see a drop-down list with three items on it. The middle item is contacts, go ahead and click on “Contacts”.

Click on "Contacts"

Now, your main email window has changed to a contacts window. You should see a list of all your contacts.

Since you have duplicate contacts, there is a tool to help you. Near the top of the window there is a button that says, “More”.

Click on the “More” button, and you will find a list of useful tools. Click on “Find and merge duplicates…” to have Gmail find all duplicate contacts for you.

Click "Find & Merge duplicates"

A list will be displayed where you can view each set of duplicates, and decide if you want to merge them into one contact or not.

Keep the contacts that you want to merge checked, then click the “Merge” button at the bottom to merge them.

It is easy to merge your Gmail Contacts!

Your contacts are probably listed several times because they have sent you email from different email addresses over time, and Gmail saved each of them.

If you want to delete a contact, click the box in front of the name of the contact you want to delete, then click the “More” button at the top and select “Delete contact”.

Elizabeth

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Per

Dear Per,

I can explain why this happens, and I can even tell you how to stop your emails from being automatically deleted.

When you check your email using the RoadRunner web interface (using Internet Explorer or any other web browser) you are working directly with the messages. They are only deleted if you actually delete them.

On the other hand, when you access your email using Outlook Express (or any other POP email program) the program copies the messages from the server to your computer, and then removes them from the server.

Fortunately, you can change a setting in Outlook Express so that it will leave the messages on the server. Here is how:

1. Open Outlook Express.
2. In the menu bar, click on “Tools” then “Accounts” in the sub menu.
3. In the dialog box that opens, click on the “Mail” tab.
4. Click on your account once to select it, then click on the “Properties” button.
5. Click on the “Advanced” tab, then click to put a check mark in front of “Leave a copy of Messages on Server”.

This should leave your inbox messages on the Roadrunner interface until you delete them from there.

Elizabeth

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Thank you for any help, Liz

Dear Liz,

You won’t be able to move Outlook Express onto your new Vista computer because Vista and Windows 7 no longer support it. Instead, you will need to import your Outlook Express messages into Windows Mail, which has replaced OE.

You will need some sort of device to transport your files from the old computer to the new desktop. Either an external hard drive that has a USB connection, or a USB data stick are the best tools to use.

1. First, you need to find the location of your old email files. To do this, open Outlook Express, click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then click Options.

2. In the Options window, click on the Maintenance tab, then click on the button that says “Store Folder”.

3. A small window will open, containing the location of your e-mail files. Highlight the folder location, and then press CTRL+C to copy the location.

4. Click Cancel, and then click Cancel again to close the dialog box. Close Outlook Express.

5. Now, you want to open the folder that contains your mail files. An easy way to do this is to click Start, and then click Run.

6. In the Run window, click in the box that says “Open” and press CTRL+V to paste in the location, and then click OK. The window containing your files will now open.

7. To make it easier to copy, I like to click on the “Up” button. Now you can see the Outlook Express folder.

8. Click on “Start” then “My Computer” and double click on your USB backup device to open it.

9. Arrange the two windows on your desktop so that you can see the contents of each of them.

10. Drag the Outlook Express folder to your backup device.

Now you have your Outlook Express email files on the backup device, and you are ready to import them into Windows Mail. Here are the directions.

1. Insert your USB drive in the new computer.

2. Open the drive by clicking on “Start” then on “Computer”, and double click on the drive.

3. Use your mouse to drag the Outlook Express folder to your desktop, and close the computer window.

4. Open Windows Mail. Click on “File” in the menu bar (if the menu bar is not visible, tap to Alt key) point to “Import” and click on “Messages…”.

5. Click to select the format you want to import from (in this case Outlook Express) and click “Next”.

6. Click the “Browse” button and scroll down to find your folder. Click on it, and click “OK”.

7. Click “Next” to import your messages.

Elizabeth

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Bev

Dear Bev,

I see from your email address that you are using Gmail. That is probably part of the problem, but in order to figure it out, I guess it is time to install Firefox 11 on my computer.

The first thing I noticed is that the menu bar starts out hidden. Fortunately, all I had to do is tap the “Alt” key on my keyboard to display the menu bar.

Once I could see the menu bar, I was able to click on “File” and then “Send Link”.

Because I had been using Google Chrome as my default browser, a new email automatically opened up in Chrome with the link in the body of the message.

I looked around in Firefox, and made the following change, which then resulted in it working correctly:

1. Tap the “Alt” key on your keyboard to display the menu bar.
2. Click on “Tools” and then “Options” in the menu bar.
3. Click on the “Applications” button at the top of the Options dialog box.
4. Find “mailto” in the list on the left, and select “Use Gmail” in the drop down list on the right.
5. Click “OK” to close the dialog box and save your changes.

Now, when I click on “File” and “Send Link”, a new email message opens up in Gmail and a link to the website I was on is in the body of the message.

Hopefully, this will work for you as well.

Elizabeth

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Thanks, Gail 

Dear Gail,

What you want to do is use the “Blind Carbon Copy” or BCC feature in your email program. This will allow you to send your email message to several recipients at once, but each recipient will see only his or her email address.

You didn’t mention what email program you are using, so I will give you some examples using the programs that I have set up. If you are using a different program, it should be similar to one of these.

In Gmail:

1. Click on the “Compose” button to start a new email message.
2. Click “Add Bcc” just under the To: line.
3. Enter your email addresses in the new, “BCC” line instead of the “To” line.

In Outlook 2010:

1. Open a new email window.
2. In the new email window, click on the “Options” tab.
3. In the “Show Fields” section, click on “Bcc”.
4. Now, fill in your recipients email addresses in the “Bcc” line.
(you only have to do steps 2 and 3 the first time)

In Windows Live Mail:

1.Open a new email message.
2. Click on the “To” button.
3. In the dialog box that opens, enter your recipients in the “Bcc” line.
4. Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the dialog box to go back to your email message.

In Eudora,

1. Click the “New Message” button to start a new email message.
2. Click on the “To:” button to display the drop down list.
3. Click on “Bcc” to select it.
4. Repeat for each line you enter a recipient in.

Now, when you send your email message, each person will only see whatever address you put in the To: field (If any) plus their email address, in the message they receive.

Elizabeth

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