K
Kolin Tregaskes
Hello,
I've been trying out Outlook Express, Hotmail, MSN 8 and Outlook XP and just
wanted to share some thoughts and queries (in no particular order, sorry)...
I wanted to move up to Outlook XP as I want a calendar/reminder service. So
I've imported all my POP3 and HTTP e-mail accounts, address book and
messages over to Outlook from Outlook Express. I was hoping to use OE just
for newsgroups. I have used Outlook at work for years and really wanted to
combine everything into one piece of software, but I'm finding it's not
going to be that easy.
Outlook seems to be able to cope with POP3 without much fuss, but its
support for HTTP accounts (e.g. Hotmail and MSN) is awful. The default
settings are terrible, you have to set it up yourself if you want the
folders and messages to be downloaded upon sending/receiving. Even then it
doesn't seem to work too well. Whenever I select to view a message that is
not downloaded it takes several seconds more than Outlook Express does.
Why?? Even opening up the mailbox for any Hotmail and MSN takes a while. I
have set up several MSN/Hotmail accounts in Outlook and it seems to take
ages to load initially - I don't get this problem with Outlook Express
(perhaps that's why they call it Outlook EXPRESS). -(
One little thing I don't like with Outlook is when it's checking for mail.
If it has a problem with connecting to an HTTP server it pops up with a
dialog box and you have to select OK to try again, with Outlook Express,
this is stealth and just errors on you in the Send/Receive window (if you
have it open anyway), I prefer the latter. It's also very annoying when
this dialog box appears and you have to tick the save password box every
time. Why doesn't this save?
Is there no way of setting up rules within either Outlook or Outlook Express
that checks what is delivered into a HTTP Inbox and runs the rules I've
created? It's so annoying that I have to manually move all the messages
from my Hotmail/MSN Inbox into the OE/Outlook Inbox then run the rules
manually. I have set up a few custom filters on the Hotmail site for my
main MSN address but is there no option to import the rules from OE/Outlook?
The only problem I foresee with this is that the folders the rules might be
pointing to in OE have not been created in the web-based Inbox. Also,
doesn't Outlook have the option to import rules from OE?
I can only add 36 custom filters. Now I'm worried that as I have turned on
junk mail filter there will be limits on mailing lists, block list and safe
list?? Why can't I have more than 36 filters?
I like that I can use Word for creating messages as the spell-check within
the message is great. Having the calendar and options to set reminders is
great and just what I need, but is there no way I can either set something
up within Outlook Express or download an add-on for OE?
Doesn't either of these programs include some sort of spam filtering? The
filtering on the Hotmail web site is terrible. I've set it up to Enhanced
as it would take me ages to enter the list of people I get e-mails from into
the Safe list. So I can't set spam filtering to Exclusive. But the
Enhanced toggle still lets junk mail through. It also puts my mailing list
mail into the Junk Mail folder - I have to tell Hotmail that it's not junk
mail every time. Isn't there any software that I can use that would help
with junk mail filtering? I thought Hotmail was using Brightmail to get rid
of junk mail? I have Norton Internet Security installed and ZoneAlarm, but
all they do with put "Spam Alert" in the subject of suspected spam mail and
then I find that some of the message with Spam Alert are not spam. One
thing I have noticed is that I get an e-mail from someone I have not had an
e-mail from before, when they send another e-mail the second message is then
put into the Bulk Mail folder, though the first one comes through fine.
It's a shame that it's costs so much for only 10Mb of e-mail space. I hope
in the future that you will be able to have much bigger mailboxes for a
similar price. If I could keep my mail online it would save so much mucking
about. But I probably get well over 10Mb of e-mail per week. It would be
nice to be able to create folders within folders on the Hotmail web site.
At the moment this doesn't seem possible. :-(
Hotmail address book needs to support larger amounts of addresses. I've
tried to import my address book into the web-based address book and it only
takes in a portion of the addresses. The Personal Address is awful at
importing as well. I have folders within my OE address book, e.g. "Friends"
and "Family", but it does not import these, only the addresses that appear
in the root of the address book. Is there no other way for this to work?
Can you not set up a folder within Personal Address book or Outlook's
Contacts?
I have tried using MSN 8. This seems better at importing the address book,
but it creates a load of repeats and it doesn't import the addressee's name
very well. MSN 8 would be good to use as it incorporates lots of things
into one piece of software. But it seems to slow my machine down for no
reason and I really want a UK version and still waiting for these after well
over a month. A small thing I've noticed with having MSN 8 installed is
that it gives you access to MSN Calendar (among other things), which is very
useful and you can sync it with anything set up in Outlook, but not in
Outlook Express.
Lastly, is there a way of forwarding mail from a Hotmail or MSN account
straight to a POP3 account? This would fix many of the problems mentioned
above, but I can't find an option within the Hotmail web site. I also can't
get the POP3 retrieve system to work within Hotmail. I have set up 3 POP3
accounts on the Hotmail site and I wanted them then to be retrieved
automatically when I checked my mail within Outlook Express (there is a
logic to my madness here), but I have to go onto the Hotmail web and click
on the POP RETRIEVE button to collect the POP3 messages. :-(
I have seen a little bit about Outlook 2003. It does look good. I have not
seen whether it will be faster than the XP version though. For the moment I
am having to stick with Outlook Express and use MSN Calendar for reminders.
Though I am going to have to change if I believe what I read the other day -
that Microsoft will not be updating Outlook Express any more. Or will OE be
updated in new versions of Windows?
Kol
I've been trying out Outlook Express, Hotmail, MSN 8 and Outlook XP and just
wanted to share some thoughts and queries (in no particular order, sorry)...
I wanted to move up to Outlook XP as I want a calendar/reminder service. So
I've imported all my POP3 and HTTP e-mail accounts, address book and
messages over to Outlook from Outlook Express. I was hoping to use OE just
for newsgroups. I have used Outlook at work for years and really wanted to
combine everything into one piece of software, but I'm finding it's not
going to be that easy.
Outlook seems to be able to cope with POP3 without much fuss, but its
support for HTTP accounts (e.g. Hotmail and MSN) is awful. The default
settings are terrible, you have to set it up yourself if you want the
folders and messages to be downloaded upon sending/receiving. Even then it
doesn't seem to work too well. Whenever I select to view a message that is
not downloaded it takes several seconds more than Outlook Express does.
Why?? Even opening up the mailbox for any Hotmail and MSN takes a while. I
have set up several MSN/Hotmail accounts in Outlook and it seems to take
ages to load initially - I don't get this problem with Outlook Express
(perhaps that's why they call it Outlook EXPRESS). -(
One little thing I don't like with Outlook is when it's checking for mail.
If it has a problem with connecting to an HTTP server it pops up with a
dialog box and you have to select OK to try again, with Outlook Express,
this is stealth and just errors on you in the Send/Receive window (if you
have it open anyway), I prefer the latter. It's also very annoying when
this dialog box appears and you have to tick the save password box every
time. Why doesn't this save?
Is there no way of setting up rules within either Outlook or Outlook Express
that checks what is delivered into a HTTP Inbox and runs the rules I've
created? It's so annoying that I have to manually move all the messages
from my Hotmail/MSN Inbox into the OE/Outlook Inbox then run the rules
manually. I have set up a few custom filters on the Hotmail site for my
main MSN address but is there no option to import the rules from OE/Outlook?
The only problem I foresee with this is that the folders the rules might be
pointing to in OE have not been created in the web-based Inbox. Also,
doesn't Outlook have the option to import rules from OE?
I can only add 36 custom filters. Now I'm worried that as I have turned on
junk mail filter there will be limits on mailing lists, block list and safe
list?? Why can't I have more than 36 filters?
I like that I can use Word for creating messages as the spell-check within
the message is great. Having the calendar and options to set reminders is
great and just what I need, but is there no way I can either set something
up within Outlook Express or download an add-on for OE?
Doesn't either of these programs include some sort of spam filtering? The
filtering on the Hotmail web site is terrible. I've set it up to Enhanced
as it would take me ages to enter the list of people I get e-mails from into
the Safe list. So I can't set spam filtering to Exclusive. But the
Enhanced toggle still lets junk mail through. It also puts my mailing list
mail into the Junk Mail folder - I have to tell Hotmail that it's not junk
mail every time. Isn't there any software that I can use that would help
with junk mail filtering? I thought Hotmail was using Brightmail to get rid
of junk mail? I have Norton Internet Security installed and ZoneAlarm, but
all they do with put "Spam Alert" in the subject of suspected spam mail and
then I find that some of the message with Spam Alert are not spam. One
thing I have noticed is that I get an e-mail from someone I have not had an
e-mail from before, when they send another e-mail the second message is then
put into the Bulk Mail folder, though the first one comes through fine.
It's a shame that it's costs so much for only 10Mb of e-mail space. I hope
in the future that you will be able to have much bigger mailboxes for a
similar price. If I could keep my mail online it would save so much mucking
about. But I probably get well over 10Mb of e-mail per week. It would be
nice to be able to create folders within folders on the Hotmail web site.
At the moment this doesn't seem possible. :-(
Hotmail address book needs to support larger amounts of addresses. I've
tried to import my address book into the web-based address book and it only
takes in a portion of the addresses. The Personal Address is awful at
importing as well. I have folders within my OE address book, e.g. "Friends"
and "Family", but it does not import these, only the addresses that appear
in the root of the address book. Is there no other way for this to work?
Can you not set up a folder within Personal Address book or Outlook's
Contacts?
I have tried using MSN 8. This seems better at importing the address book,
but it creates a load of repeats and it doesn't import the addressee's name
very well. MSN 8 would be good to use as it incorporates lots of things
into one piece of software. But it seems to slow my machine down for no
reason and I really want a UK version and still waiting for these after well
over a month. A small thing I've noticed with having MSN 8 installed is
that it gives you access to MSN Calendar (among other things), which is very
useful and you can sync it with anything set up in Outlook, but not in
Outlook Express.
Lastly, is there a way of forwarding mail from a Hotmail or MSN account
straight to a POP3 account? This would fix many of the problems mentioned
above, but I can't find an option within the Hotmail web site. I also can't
get the POP3 retrieve system to work within Hotmail. I have set up 3 POP3
accounts on the Hotmail site and I wanted them then to be retrieved
automatically when I checked my mail within Outlook Express (there is a
logic to my madness here), but I have to go onto the Hotmail web and click
on the POP RETRIEVE button to collect the POP3 messages. :-(
I have seen a little bit about Outlook 2003. It does look good. I have not
seen whether it will be faster than the XP version though. For the moment I
am having to stick with Outlook Express and use MSN Calendar for reminders.
Though I am going to have to change if I believe what I read the other day -
that Microsoft will not be updating Outlook Express any more. Or will OE be
updated in new versions of Windows?
Kol