Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows 98
In This Chapter
Over the past few years, we've seen many a pondering pundit rail against the perceived evils of technology. "People are going to spend all their time hunkered down in front of a computer screen and never talk to each other," they cry. Hah! These digital Chicken Littles should spend some time on the Internet, where everybody talks to everybody! And I don't mean just the naturally loquacious and garrulous, either. Even folks who are usually shy and reticent enjoy shipping out an email and contributing to a newsgroup discussion. That's not too surprising, considering that the Internet was designed with this kind of give-and-take in mind. And, bonus of bonuses, Windows 98 comes with some great new tools that make it even easier to communicate with your fellow Netizens (Net citizens). If you're looking to shoot the electronic breeze, this chapter shows you how to use Outlook Express for Internet email and newsgroups. I'll even show you how to use NetMeeting to place phone calls over the Internet's airwaves.
Windows 98's new Outlook Express program was built from the ground up to handle the rigors of Internet email. (It also does newsgroups, as you'll see a bit later.) Whether you're sending out an e-memo, dishing e-gossip with friends, or sending e-compliments to your favorite author (wink, wink), Outlook Express is up to the challenge.
Before the brass tacks come out, it's worth mentioning at this point that I'm assuming you've set up both your Internet connection and your email and newsgroup accounts. Also, you may want to check out my online email primer to learn more about this email thing before going any further: http://www.mcfedries.com/Ramblings/email-primer.html
Cross Reference
If you haven't set up these accounts, head back to Chapter 15, "How to Get Connected to the Internet," p. 163, to get the nitty-gritty details.
To get started with Outlook Express, you have no less than three choices:
When you first launch Outlook Express, you'll see the Browse for Folder dialog box shown here. This dialog box wants to know where you'd like your email messages stored. The default folder is fine, so click OK.
When you first start the program, Outlook Express wonders where you want to store your stuff.
For the last of the startup chores, Outlook Express displays the dialog box shown in the next figure to ask what Internet connection you want to dial. You have two choices:
If you want Outlook Express to use your selection automatically each time you start the program, activate the Set as the default startup connection check box. Click OK when you're finished.
Outlook Express also offers to establish a connection to your Internet service provider.
With all that hoo-ha out of the way, the Outlook Express window finally shows its face. The next figure points out some of the more important features of the window.
A few features of the Outlook Express landscape.
If you select the Inbox folder and if you had an email program installed on your machine when you installed Windows 98, Outlook Express will now offer to import the messages and address book from the old program (see the following figure). This is a good idea; if you decide to go ahead, you'll need to follow these steps:
2. Make sure that both the Messages and Address Book check boxes are activated.
3. Click Next.
4. If Outlook Express prompts you to choose a profile, click OK.
5. When Outlook Express asks you to select the folders to import, make sure that All folders is activated, and then click Finish.
Outlook Express may offer to import your old messages and address book.
When you start shipping email messages to the four corners of the Internet world, you'll probably find that you have a few recipients you contact frequently--perhaps your boss, a colleague or two, your wired friends, or just a pen pal you picked up along the way. Windows 98 has an address book that you can use to store addresses and retrieve them with just a couple of mouse clicks, instead of having to constantly type the addresses of these regulars.
To get to the Windows Address Book, use either of the following techniques:
Either way, the Address Book window shows up. Here are the steps to plow through to add a recipient:
2. In the Personal tab, use the First and Last text boxes to enter the person's name.
Use the Properties dialog box to fill in the details for your recipient.
4. Outlook Express enables you to send messages that contain fancy fonts and other formatting. If you know this person's email software doesn't display the fancy stuff, activate the Send E-Mail using plain text only check box.
5. If you want to use the Windows Address Book as an all-purpose contact database, feel free to fill in the data in the Home, Business, and Other tabs.
6. Click OK. The new contact is added to the list.
Extroverts in the crowd may enjoy sending out their missives not just to one person, but to several. You'll see a bit later that it's easy to specify multiple email addresses when you're sending a message. If you have a group of recipients that you use consistently, however, it's easier to define these recipients as a group in the Windows Address Book. Then you can specify just the group name when you send a message, and Outlook Express will be happy to make sure that every member of the group gets a copy. Here's how to forge a new group in the Windows Address Book:
2. In the Properties dialog box that appears, use the Group Name text box to enter a catchy name for the group.
3. To add new members to the group, you have two choices:
Sorting the Contacts
By default, the Windows Address Book sorts the contacts by first name. You may prefer something more sensible, such as sorting the contacts by last name. To change the sort order, select View | Sort By and then choose the order you want from the submenu that appears.
When you feel the urge to get something off your chest, or if you just feel like foisting your unmatched prose on certain lucky members of the Internet community, here are the steps to follow to compose a new message:
Use the New Message window to compose your email message.
4. To send a blind courtesy copy to a different recipient, use the Bcc box. (Blind courtesy copy means that the other people who receive this message won't see the addresses listed on the Bcc line.)
5. Use the Subject box to enter a short-but-meaningful description of your message.
6. In the large blank box at the bottom of the window, enter the text of your message. If the recipient can see formatting such as fonts and colors, feel free to use the Formatting toolbar to gussy up your message.
7. When your message is ready to send, you have two ways to proceed:
If you aren't already connected to your service provider, Outlook Express makes the connection for you and then sends the messages.
Good email conversations are always two-way streets, and you'll also have messages coming your way. These messages are stored on your service provider's mail server until such time as you go and get them. To do so, follow these steps:
2. Either select the Tools | Send and Receive command, or click the Send and Receive toolbar button. Outlook Express then asks whether you want to go online to get the messages.
3. Click Yes. Outlook Express makes the connection and then convinces the mail server to pass along your waiting messages.
4. Disconnect from the Internet.
The new messages that Outlook Express grabs are stored in the program's Inbox folder. They're displayed in a list that shows the name of the person or company that sent each message, the Subject line of each message, and the date and time you received each message.
To read a message, you have a couple of options:
The next figure shows the window that appears. After you've read the message, you can either close the window or use the following techniques to check out your other messages:
When you open a message, it appears in a window like this one.
After you've read your messages, there's a whole lot of things you can do with them:
Usenet is an Internet service that, in essence, is a collection of topics available for discussion. These discussion groups--or newsgroups, as they're called--are open to all and sundry, and they won't cost you a dime (aside from the usual connection charges, of course).
Will you find anything interesting in these discussion groups? Well, let's put it this way: With literally thousands of groups to choose from, if you can't find anything that strikes your fancy, you'd better check your pulse.
Assuming that you've set up your news account for your service provider's news server (as explained in the last chapter), follow these steps to get started:
You'll see this dialog box the first time you access your news account.
3. If you aren't online already, Outlook Express asks whether you want to go online now. Click Yes. Outlook Express then connects to the news server and begins downloading the newsgroup names. Note that this may take quite some time if you have a slow connection.
When the newsgroups are loaded, you'll see the Newsgroups dialog box shown in the next figure. (In subsequent news sessions, you can get to this dialog box either by selecting the Tools | Newsgroups command, or by clicking the Newsgroups toolbar button.)
Use this dialog box to subscribe to the newsgroups that look interesting.
Here's how to view or subscribe to a newsgroup:
2. When you've found the newsgroup you want, you may prefer just to check out the newsgroup to see whether you like it. To do so, highlight the newsgroup name and click Go to. Note that when you click this button, Outlook Express closes the dialog box.
3. If, instead, you want to subscribe to the newsgroup, highlight the newsgroup name and click Subscribe. (Subscribing means that Outlook Express adds the newsgroup to your news account so that later on you can view the newsgroup from the Folders list.)
4. To continue subscribing, repeat step 3 as often as you like.
5. To see a list of the subscribed newsgroups, click the Subscribed tab.
6. When you're finished, click OK to return to Outlook Express.
What's with Those Weird Newsgroup Names?
Usenet divides its newsgroups into several classifications, or hierarchies. There are seven so-called mainstream hierarchies:
comp Computer hardware and software misc Miscellaneous stuff that doesn't really fit anywhere else news Usenet-related topics rec Entertainment, hobbies, sports, and more sci Science and technology soc Sex, culture, religion, and politics talk Debates about controversial political and cultural topics There's also a huge alt (alternative) hierarchy that covers just about anything that either doesn't belong in a mainstream hierarchy, or is too whacked out to be included with the mainstream stuff.
Newsgroup names have three parts: the hierarchy to which they belong, followed by a dot, followed by the newsgroup's topic. For example, check out the following name:
Here, the hierarchy is rec (recreation), and the topic is juggling. (To be hip, you'd pronounce this name as reck dot juggling.) For more info on Usenet, please see the following page on my Web site:
http://www.mcfedries.com/Ramblings/usenet-primer.html
Here are the steps to march through to get the current messages in a newsgroup:
2. Select the Tools | Download this Newsgroup command. Outlook Express displays the Download Newsgroup dialog box, shown next.
Outlook Express wants to know how much it should download.
4. As usual, if you aren't online already, Outlook Express asks whether you want to go online now. Click Yes. Outlook Express then connects to the news server and begins downloading the newsgroup message headers.
5. When you have all the headers, you need to mark the interesting ones for downloading. To do this, highlight each message you want and then select Tools | Mark for Retrieval | Mark Message.
6. To download the marked messages, select the Tools | Download this Newsgroup command to display the Download Newsgroup dialog box again.
7. Activate the Get marked messages check box and click OK.
8. Click Yes if Outlook Express asks whether you want to go online.
Getting Connected
If you get sick to death of Outlook Express always asking whether you want to "go online," there's a way to avoid these incessant prompts. Just select File | Connect or click the Connect button in the toolbar. Outlook Express, relentless beast that it is, will get one last shot in and ask whether you want to go online. Grrr. Click Yes.
The modus operandi of most newsgroups is that someone sends an original message to the group, someone else responds to that message, a few other folks respond to the response, and so on. These related messages constitute a thread.
When you get the messages for a newsgroup, you'll see that Outlook Express has organized them by thread. You can tell that a thread has multiple messages by looking for a plus sign (+) beside a message. Highlight that message, press the plus sign key on your numeric keypad, and Outlook Express will display all the other thread messages.
When it's time to dazzle the other newsgroup participants with your brilliant prose, you need to send a message to the newsgroup. (This is called posting to the group.) There are various ways to go about this:
Email is a great way to keep in touch without having to bother with a phone call. What happens, however, if you really need to have a true conversation with someone, but that person is too far away to meet face-to-face? Well, there's always your old and sadly neglected friend the telephone, of course. But what if I told you that it's possible to use your Internet connection to "call" someone and have a real live voice-to-voice powwow? It's true: You can turn the Internet into a giant phone booth that enables you to chat amiably with someone across town, across the country, or even across the ocean. And get this: No long-distance charges apply! The "cost" of the call is just your Internet connection time.
But you've gotta have some kind of high-falutin' equipment installed, right? Nope. All you (and the person you're calling) need is the following:
The rest of this chapter shows you how it's done.
Assuming that your Internet connection is up and running, let's stroll through the steps necessary to configure NetMeeting:
2. The first wizard dialog box just gives you an overview of NetMeeting's capabilities; click Next to proceed.
3. The next dialog box asks whether you want to log on to a "directory server." This server is like a giant white pages that lists all the people you can call who also have NetMeeting running. If this sounds like fun (remember that the server will show your name, as well), leave the Log on to a directory server when NetMeeting starts check box activated, and click Next.
4. Now the wizard asks for a few particulars that help identify you in the NetMeeting world. Enter your First name, your Last name, and your E-mail address, and then click Next.
5. The wizard will next ask how you want to categorize the data you just entered: For personal use, For business use, or For adults-only use. Make the appropriate choice and click Next.
6. In the next dialog box, select the speed of your Internet connection and click Next.
7. NetMeeting now launches the Audio Tuning Wizard, which will check your sound card to see whether it supports two-way sound transmission and to set the appropriate audio levels. Click Next.
8. Now you'll see the dialog box shown in the next figure. Make sure that you have your sound card microphone plugged in and at the ready. Then click Start Recording and speak into the microphone, using your normal voice. (The wizard suggests that you read the couple of paragraphs under the Start Recording button, but you can make up any old gibberish.)
Click Start Recording and then speak into the microphone, using your normal voice.
After the Wizard has completed its labors (and each subsequent time you select Start | Programs | Microsoft NetMeeting), the Microsoft NetMeeting window, shown in the next figure, appears. (Note that you'll only see the long list of NetMeeting users if you elected to log on to the directory at startup. If you didn't, you can log on now at any time by selecting the Call | Log On to ils.microsoft.com command.)
The NetMeeting window with an active conference.
Without further ado, let's get right to a NetMeeting phone call:
2. Select the Call | New Call command, or click the Call button in the NetMeeting toolbar. You'll see the New Call dialog box, shown here.
Use this dialog box to tell NetMeeting who you're gonna call.
5. After NetMeeting finds the user and places the call, the other person hears a ring and sees a dialog box similar to the one shown in the next figure. The remote user clicks Accept to "answer" the call, or clicks Ignore to reject the call. (NetMeeting rejects an incoming call automatically if it isn't answered after five rings.)
This dialog box appears when there is an incoming NetMeeting call.
When it's time to end a NetMeeting call, either select Call | Hang Up or click the Hang Up button in the toolbar.
If you call certain people frequently, you can use NetMeeting's SpeedDial feature to connect to these users with only a couple of mouse clicks or keystrokes.
To create a SpeedDial entry, follow these steps:
2. Select the SpeedDial | Add SpeedDial command to display the Add SpeedDial dialog box.
3. Use the Address text box to enter the address of the person. (If you highlighted a connected user in advance, the address will be filled in for you.)
4. Make sure that the Call using list says Automatic.
5. Click OK.
After you've added someone to the SpeedDial, you can call that person by pulling down the SpeedDial menu and selecting her name from the list that appears at the bottom of the menu.
Hanging Out a "Do Not Disturb" Sign
If you have NetMeeting running but you don't want to accept new calls for a while, you can hang out an electronic "Do Not Disturb" sign by activating the Call | Do Not Disturb command, and then clicking OK in the dialog box that appears.
Internet phone calls are a lot of fun, but NetMeeting is no mere one-trick pony. After you've established a connection, there are all kinds of things you can do to take advantage of it. Here's a quick summary:
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