Hi Cathie,
It's a lot easier to read newsgroups via a newsreader than a browser. And
since you can use Entourage as a newsreader, why don't you try it? (The
digest you mention doesn't come from a newsgroup, by the way, it's from a
mailing list which is something else: You have to go to the newsgroup in
order to see what's been posted; with mailing lists, the posts come in to
you like regular email).
J.E. and some others don't find Entourage's newsgroup reading functions
sophisticated enough, but then they're avid newsgroup readers and like to be
able to manipulate the information in arcane ways (I'm going to get blasted
in a minute
. But I find Entourage perfectly acceptable for newsreading
and I save Google for searching newsgroup archives.
You can access all the Microsoft newsgroups via the Microsoft News Server.
Other newsgroups can usually be accessed via your ISP's news server (and I
would imagine that Compuserve must offer one).
You should by default have the Microsoft News Server icon already at or near
the bottom of your folder list in Entourage. Click on it and you'll be
asked if you want to download the newsgroups. Say yes. A long list of
newsgroup names will appear in your Preview Pane. In the upper right corner
of the window, there's a Quick Search box which says "Display newsgroups
containing". Type in "mac.office" (or just "mac" if you want to see all of
them) and you'll see the five newsgroups pertaining to MacOffice.
Select the Word newsgroup (and any others that interest you) and click on
Subscribe. The newsgroup name will now be in bold and it will also have
appeared below the Microsoft News Server icon in the folder list. When you
want to read that newsgroup, just click on it and it will open and download
headers. (You can set the number of headers downloaded in Tools> Accounts>
News> {that account}> Options.) Click on any header that you want and the
message will be displayed. It's just like reading email and you don't have
to use Internet Explorer (or any other browser).
You'll find a lot more about using Entourage as your newsreader (and other
info about Entourage) here
<
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html#newsgroups> and at the Entourage URL
in my signature. Try it. You'll like it
. If you have any questions
about this, either come back here for now or go to the
microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage newsgroup.
As to your questions about Google, yes I'm sure you'll have to set up a new
account using the bogus email address and no Google won't care. Half the
people posting on newsgroups via Google are using munged addresses.
Hope this helps.
--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP
Mac Word FAQ: <
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
