Get more from email
The latest Windows Live software and services make email more powerful than ever – and they’re packed with features to make your life easier.
1 GET YOUR EMAIL ORGANISED
Instead of keeping everything you receive piled up in your inbox, why not sort it all into folders? Folders help clear the clutter and make it easier to find important things in the future. So, for example, we have separate folders for work stuff, for travel bookings, for online shopping and so on. In Windows Live Hotmail it’s easy to create new folders – just click on Manage Folders ➜ New. If you’re using Windows Live Mail on your desktop, then just click on Folders ➜ New Folder.
2 USE MANY ADDRESSES
You can reduce the amount of unwanted email you receive by having more than one address. For example, you might have one email you give to friends and one for online shops. It’s easy to get another address – you could sign up for a new Hotmail address at http://hotmail.com. Once you’ve done that, Windows Live Mail and Hotmail can manage multiple accounts simultaneously. In the former, click on Accounts ➜ New Account; in Hotmail, click on the Add an e-mail account link at the left of the screen.
You can reduce the amount of unwanted email you receive by having more than one address. For example, you might have one email you give to friends and one for online shops. It’s easy to get another address – you could sign up for a new Hotmail address at http://hotmail.com. Once you’ve done that, Windows Live Mail and Hotmail can manage multiple accounts simultaneously. In the former, click on Accounts ➜ New Account; in Hotmail, click on the Add an e-mail account link at the left of the screen.
3 LET YOUR PC SORT IT
Wouldn’t it be brilliant if incoming emails were automatically colour-coded for easy identification, or if they filed themselves in the appropriate folders? Just like its big brother Microsoft Office Outlook, Windows Live Mail can make that happen. If you click on Folders ➜ Message Rules you can create your own criteria, such as “if a message comes from this address, put it in that folder” or “if a message has been marked as priority, make it appear in bright red letters”.
4 PUT A STOP TO SPAM
Windows Live Mail and Hotmail both do their best to stop junk email reaching you, and the recent Hotmail update delivers even stronger protection. You can beef up the settings in Windows Live Mail, too; in the Home toolbar, click on the Junk drop-down and choose Safety Options. Here you can make the junk filters stronger, create lists of safe senders and even block messages written in languages you don’t speak.
5 GET MAIL ON YOUR MOBILE
You can access your Windows Live and Hotmail accounts from any internet-enabled mobile phone. Windows Live Mobile has been specifically designed for small phone screens, and you’ll find details of how to get it at www.windowslive.co.uk/mobile.aspx. If you have a smartphone, you can use your phone’s built-in email software instead – search http://windowslivehelp.com for ‘hotmail’ and your phone type to get step-by-step instructions.
6 SHARE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
The latest beta of Windows Live Mail has a superb feature: Photo E-mail. Just click on the button, choose the pictures you want to share and the software uploads them to Windows Live SkyDrive, creates a beautiful album and puts thumbnail images in your email. It’s a great way to share with people who might not appreciate giant emails containing multi-megabyte images. The new Hotmail gets the same feature and goes even further, with integrated Office Web Apps for online document sharing.
7 SEE THINGS YOUR WAY
Windows Live Mail is easy to customise. Click on View to change how the Message List works, move or hide the Reading Pane and Calendar Pane or replace folder names with icons to give you more space. You can also use Quick Views to see specific kinds of messages, such as all unread emails from your contacts. Both Hotmail and Windows Live Mail have a new, optional Conversation view that sorts messages into, you’ve guessed it, conversations.
8 NEVER MISS A THING
Windows Live Mail can remind you of key appointments and tasks; simply create a new calendar in Accounts ➜ New Account ➜ Calendar then click on the Calendar icon in the bottom-left. To add an event just double-click on the appropriate time, and you can ask the program to remind you minutes, hours or even days in advance. You can easily turn emails into to-do tasks, too. Simply select a message and click Add to Calendarin the Home ribbon.
9 READ THE NEWS
Windows Live Mail can access RSS feeds, which enable you to see updates from your favourite sites without leaving your email program. Feeds you’ve added in Internet Explorer appear automatically in Windows Live Mail and vice versa, and you can browse them just like you’d browse your emails. To add a new one, click on the orange Feed icon and enter the address; alternatively visit the site in Internet Explorer, click on the Feedbutton and choose the Subscribe to this Feed option.
10 SCAMS
Windows Live Mail and Hotmail scan incoming emails, compare them against known fraudsters and warn you of anything suspicious. Live Mail can automatically move these into Junk E-mail if you wish (Home ➜ Junk ➜ Safety Options ➜ Phishing). Nobody’s perfect, though, and the odd message still gets through. You can’t be too suspicious – it’s safe to assume that official-looking emails from banks, the taxman or the Spanish Lottery are fake.
Windows Live Mail and Hotmail scan incoming emails, compare them against known fraudsters and warn you of anything suspicious. Live Mail can automatically move these into Junk E-mail if you wish (Home ➜ Junk ➜ Safety Options ➜ Phishing). Nobody’s perfect, though, and the odd message still gets through. You can’t be too suspicious – it’s safe to assume that official-looking emails from banks, the taxman or the Spanish Lottery are fake.
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