Thanks Jeff

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Dear Jeff,

When you access the same email address from two different computers, you must make some changes to some of the settings so that each person will get a copy of all the email messages.

If you don’t make those changes, then each computer will check for messages, download the messages, then remove them from the server. This means that when you wife checks for messages, Outlook downloads them to her computer, then removes them from your ISP’s server.

Then when you go to check for messages, the earlier ones that you wife got are no longer there for you to get. You will only get messages that have arrived since she checked her mail, and your program will then remove them from the server. I’m guessing your wife gets more of the messages than you do because she checks her email more often than you.

In order to fix this problem, you both need to make sure your email programs are set to leave the messages on the server for a few days.

In Outlook, your wife can follow these directions:

1. Open Outlook.
2. Click on “File” and “Account Settings”.
3. Click on your email address, then click on “Change”.
4. Click on the “More Settings” button, then click on the “Advanced” tab.
5. Click to place a check mare in front of “Leave a copy of messages on server”.

6. Click “OK” to close the window and save your changes.

In Windows Live Mail, follow these directions:

1. Open Windows Live Mail.
2. Right Click on the heading for your e-mail address in the left column.
3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.
4. Click on the “Advanced” tab of the properties window.
5. Click to place a check mark in front of “Leave a copy of messages on server”.
6. Click “OK” to close the window and save your changes.

Elizabeth

Thanks Valerie

Dear Valerie,

This is an excellent question.

I love being able to have signatures that automatically added to my outgoing messages.

In fact, at one time, I used Outlook’s signature files for about 20 messages that I commonly sent out to people.

Here is how to set up an outgoing signature in Outlook 2010

1. Open Outlook 2010

2. Click on the “File” tab in the ribbon, then click on, “Options”

3. In the Options dialog box, click on the “Mail” tab.

4. On the Mail page, the 3rd section down says, “Create or modify signatures for messages. Click the “Signatures” button in that section.

5. A “Signatures and Stationary” dialog box will open. Click the “New” button in this dialog box.

6. In the small dialog box that appears, type a name for your signature, and click “OK”.

7. In the lower box, type your name and contact information.

8. In the upper-right corner of the dialog box, select your email account if you have more than one.

9. Next to “New Message” make sure your signature name is displayed.

10. If you want all your replies and forwards to include your signature file, select your signature for that as well.

11. Now, click the “OK” button to save all your changes and close the dialog box.

Elizabeth

Thanks, John

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Dear John,

This setting is a little bit harder to find than most, but here it is:

1. Open Outlook and click on “Tools” and then “Options” in the menu bar.
2. In the Options dialog box, click on the “Other” tab at the top.
3. In the General section of the dialog box, click on the “Advanced Options” button.
4. In the Advanced Options dialog box, the first item says, “Startup in this folder:”.
5. Click the dropdown list and select “Inbox”.
6. Click the “OK” button in the Advanced Options dialog box.
7. Click the “OK” button in the Options dialog box.

Now, when you open Outlook, it will go to your inbox.

For those of you using Outlook 2007:

1. Open Outlook and click on “Tools” and then “Options” in the menu bar.
2. In the Options dialog box, click on the “Other” tab at the top.
3. In the General section of the dialog box, click on the “Advanced Options” button.
4. In the Advanced Options dialog box, the first item says, “Startup in this folder:”.
5. Click the “Browse” button and select “Inbox”, then click the “OK” button.
6. Click the “OK” button in the Advanced Options dialog box.
7. Click the “OK” button in the Options dialog box.

–
Elizabeth

Thanks very much! Ben

Dear Ben,

When you are viewing emails in Outlook or just about any email program, you can sort the messages in a variety of ways.

All you have to do is click on the column heading that you want to sort your messages by.

For example, if you want to sort your messages by sender, just click on the word “From” at the top of the column. This will put your messages in alphabetical order (A to Z) by sender. If you want to reverse the order they are sorted, just click on “From” again and they will be sorted in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A)

The same thing goes for the Received column. If you want to sort your messages according to the date received, click on the word “Received” at the top of the column. If you want to reverse the order your messages are sorted, just click “Received” again.

Elizabeth

Thanks very much, Elizabeth

Dear Elizabeth,

In outlook 2003, you can change the name as follows:

1. Click on “Tools” and then “E-mail Accounts…”

2. In the “E-mail Accounts” window, click in front of “View or change existing e-mail accounts” and then click the button at the bottom that says “Next”.

3. If you have more than one e-mail address, you will see a list of them. If you only have one, it will be the only one in the window. Click on the account you want to change, then click on the button on the right that says “Change…”

4. In the next screen, you will see a section that says “Your Name:” You should see your maiden name typed there, just change it to your new married name.

5. Click the “Next” button and then the “Finish” button to save your changes.

If you are using Outlook 2007:

1. Click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then click “Account Settings…”
2. Click on the “E-mail” tab, then click once on your email account in the list.
3. Click on the “Change” button just above the list.
4. In the “Change E-mail account” dialog box, make any changes to your name that you want, then click the “Next” button at the bottom of the window.
5. Click the “Finish” and then “Close” buttons to finish the process.

If you are using Outlook Express, you will need to change it this way:

1. Click on “Tools” and then “Accounts” and click on the “Mail” tab.

2. Click on your e-mail account in the list, then click on the “Properties” button on the right.

3. The properties window for your account will open. Under “User Information” you can change your name in the “Name:” field.

If you are using Windows Mail:

1. Open Windows Mail, Click on “Tools” and then “Accounts” in the menu bar.

2. Click once on your email account, then click on the “Properties” button on the right.

3. In the email account properties window, make sure you have the “General” tab selected, and find the “Name” section.

4. Type your new name in the “Name” section.

5. Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the dialog box to save your changes and close the window.

Elizabeth

Marianne

Dear Marianne,

There are several ways to save e-mails from Outlook to a flash drive. The method you want to use will depend on when and where you want to be able to read the messages in the future.

If you are saving the messages for later use on the same computer, or another computer that also has Outlook installed, you can simply drag the messages from the Outlook window, to the flash drive.

1. Open Outlook and arrange the window so it does not fill the whole screen.
2. Open the flash drive so that you can see part of that window as well.
3. Drag the e-mail from the Outlook window to the flash drive window.

Since this method is a little hard to explain without illustrations, I have recorded a video that you can watch here:

If you are saving messages that you want to be able to read on any computer even if it is not running Outlook, you will need to save the email as a text file. Here is how to do that:

1. Open Outlook and click once on the email that you want to save.
2. Click on “File” in the menu bar, then click on “Save As …”.
3. A Save As dialog box will open. Click the “Browse Folders” button in the bottom left corner to display different locations on your computer.
4. Scroll down on the left side of the window until you see your flash drive listed under “Computer” and click on the flash drive.
5. In the “Save As Type” drop down box, click on either “Text Only” or “HTML”.
6. Click on the “Save” button

Elizabeth

I have Outlook 2003 loaded on and updated two separate computers. On one email flows in and out perfectly. On the other email comes in fine but I get can’t connect to outgoing server when trying to send mail. I have done side by side comparisons of all the email account parameters and they are exact. What could be keeping the emails from getting out.

Thanks, Jim

Dear Jim,

I have looked at the settings of many email programs that could not either send or receive messages. Here are the most common things that I have found.

1. Something is not typed correctly. It could be as simple as a comma being where a period should be. Sometimes it is even hard to see. Try re-typing all your settings and see if that will fix the problem.

2. Does your outgoing mail server require authentication? Make sure that all check boxes are the same in addition to your mail server settings.

3. Sometimes the file is just corrupt. I have found that deleting the mail account and creating a new one from scratch will often fix the problem when nothing else seems to work.

4. Is the security software on your system blocking the program? To see if this is the problem, disable your security software (probably the firewall is the problem) and see if you are able to send mail while it is turned off.

Most of the time, these steps will fix your problem. I hope it fixes yours.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Cheryl

Dear Cheryl,

It is possible to access the same email account from more than one computer. The trick is that you need to set up both computers to leave the mail on the server long enough for each computer to be able to access the email.

If that sounds like technical computer talk, let me do a little explaining.

If I am going to send an email message to you, when I click “Send” my message leaves my computer, and goes through a computer at my ISP (Internet Service Provider). My ISP has a program on their computer called an Outgoing Mail Server. This program sends the message to a program on a computer at your ISP called the Incoming Mail Server.

The incoming mail server at your ISP puts my message in a folder on the computer, this folder is often referred to as your mailbox. When you turn your computer on, and check your email, your computer copies the message from the “mailbox” folder and then deletes the messages from the mailbox, leaving an empty mailbox folder on the ISPs computer.

The fact that the folder is emptied when you check your mail is the reason why you get emails on one computer, but not the other.

You can, however change a couple of settings in Outlook Express that will leave your messages in the mailbox for a specified amount of time. This will allow you to collect your messages from both computers.

1. Open Outlook Express and click on “Tools” in the menu bar, then click on “Accounts…”

2. In the account window, click on the “Mail” tab, click on your mail account, then click on the “Properties” button to the right of the account.

3. In the mail properties window, click on the “Advanced” tab all the way on the right.

4. On the advanced page, look at the “Delivery” section at the bottom. Click to put a check mark in front of “Leave a copy of messages on Server”.

5. Next put a check mark in front of “Remove from server after ____ days” and change the number of days to 2. If you wish, you can also put a check mark in front of “Remove from server when deleted from deleted items”.

6. Click “OK” to save your changes, and then repeat these steps on the other computer.

Elizabeth

Cathy

Dear Cathy,

I also Use Outlook 2007 and I have over 500 entries in my address book (I really need to clean it out)

You must be using category view to look at your contacts. If you change it to “Outlook Data Files” you will be able to see all your contacts at once.

In Outlook, click on “View” in the menu bar.

Point to “Current View” to display the sub-menu.

Click on “Outlook Data Files” to display all your contacts.

You can always change it back to, “By Category” whenever you want.

Elizabeth

Thank you for all of your information. It sure does help, Audrey

Dear Audrey,

All you need to do is change the account settings in Outlook.

Here is how to do that.

1. Open Outlook 2007.
2. In the Menu Bar, click on “Tools” and then click on “Account Settings”.
3. In the Account Settings dialog box, make sure the “E-mail” tab is selected, click on the account name, and then click “Change”.
4. In the E-mail settings dialog box that opens, change any information that you need to change such as “Your Name:” and “E-mail Address:”
5. Click the “Next” button and then click the “Finish” button.

If you are using Outlook 2003 (Part of Office XP) you will need these directions.

1. Open Outlook 2003.
2. In the Menu Bar, click on “Tools” and then click on “E-mail Accounts…”
3. Click to select “View or change existing e-mail accounts” and then click on the “Next” button.
4. Click on your email account, and then click on the “Change…” button on the right.
5. In the E-mail Accounts dialog box, change any information that you need to change such as “Your Name:” or “E-mail Address”.
6. Click on the “Next” button and then on the “Finish” button.

Elizabeth