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------------------------------------------------------------ README for Microsoft Internet Mail and News Beta 2 May l996 ------------------------------------------------------------
(c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1996
This document provides complementary or late-breaking information tosupplement the documentation.
------------------------HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT------------------------
To view Mnreadme.txt on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window.
To print Mnreadme.txt, open it in Notepad or another word processor, then use the Print command on the File menu.
CONTENTS========
WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE
MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL
MICROSOFT INTERNET NEWS
KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
TROUBLESHOOTING
TIPS AND TRICKS Minimizing Connection Time in News Customizing Internet Mail and News Other Tips
SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL AND NEWS
WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE==========================
- An address book for keeping track of people you frequently send mail to.
- Improved performance for News over a dialup line. You now have the option to leave preview pane on, but download only the body of the message on demand. Also, news headers and messages are cached, so only the new message headers are downloaded each time you access a newsgroup.
- Additional header information is available for messages in newsgroups.
- You can now print messages.
- Your signature is displayed in the message window and can automatically be added to messages that you forward or reply to.
- Mail folders can now be compacted to reclaim disk space.
- The Newsgroup subscription dialog box has changed. You can also resize it.
- Download status indicators provide better feedback when you are updating groups or downloading messages.
- You can now define the line length at which you want text to wrap.
- Internet Mail supports multiple character sets.
- An NT 4.0 version is now available. System requirements: NT version 4.0 build 1314.
- You can remove the icons from the desktop.
- You can cancel posted news messages.
- Internet News marks cross-posted messages as read in all newsgroups.
- You can choose which drive and directory to install Internet Mail and News on.
- Numerous bug fixes have been included. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback!
MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL=======================
Internet Mail is a new e-mail program designed specifically for the Internet. At this time, you cannot use Microsoft Internet Mail to access your e-mail account with any of the following services: MS Mail, cc:Mail, The Microsoft Network (MSN), CompuServe, America OnLine (AOL), and Microsoft Exchange Server. If you don't know whether your system uses these services, contact your administrator or your Internet service provider and ask if they support SMTP/POP mail clients.
MICROSOFT INTERNET NEWS=======================
Microsoft Internet News enables you to read bulletin board discussion groups, such as the Usenet, using NNTP-based news servers.
You need to contact your Internet service provider for the name ofthe news server that you should use.
This product can also be used for support on a variety of Microsoft products via msnews.microsoft.com.
KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE============================
For the latest information about known issues, see our Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/feedback/imnissue.htm.
Note: Some of the features that are not yet implemented already have menu commands. These commands are greyed out and are not available in the current release of Internet Mail and News.
- The current release of Outlook Express does not work properly with Geocities mail accounts. This will be fixed for the next release.
- The Find Messages function is not yet implemented; however, you can search for text within the body of a specific message.
- Distribution lists in the address book are not implemented in this release.
- Font changes in a message will not be retained when you send the message.
- There is currently no view that shows all subscribed newsgroups and the number of unread messages.
- You cannot rename folders yet. However, you can work around this by creating a new folder, moving the messages into it, and then deleting the original folder.
- International character sets are available only for German and French.
- You cannot print a message that you are composing.
- When you cancel downloading a message in Internet Mail, it will not stop until after the current message has been downloaded.
- By default, dictionaries other than US English are not automatically used by the spelling checker.
- Full offline support is not currently available.
- For this release, you cannot import or export address books or messages.
- In order to send e-mail to someone who is not in your address book, you must enter a recognizable Internet e-mail address (that is, user@server).
- The address book recognizes a name only if the full name matches. If you type only the first name, it is not recognized.
- To use the Reply To Author and Forward functions from Internet News, you must make sure that Internet Mail is set as the default mail application. To change this setting, click the Mail menu, click Options, and then click the Send tab. Then click Set As Default.
- The name you enter on the Server tab in the Options dialog box in Mail might not actually be the name that gets sent. Your mail server might change this information.
- After you install Internet Mail and News on Windows NT 4.0, Setup requires you to restart your computer before you can run Internet Mail and News.
TROUBLESHOOTING===============
- If you run into a problem, try the troubleshooters in online Help. To start the troubleshooters, carry out the following steps:
1. In Internet Mail or News, click the Help menu. 2. Look up "Troubleshooting" in the Help Index. - Check your connection to your Internet service provider.
- If you're having trouble connecting with your modem, see the Modem Troubleshooter in Windows Help. To start the troubleshooter, carry out the following steps:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Help. 2. In Help Contents, double-click Troubleshooting. 3. Click "If you're having trouble using your modem."
- If you think your modem is fine but you are having trouble getting Microsoft Internet Mail and News to connect to your service provider, try the Dial-Up Networking Troubleshooter. To start the troubleshooter, carry out the following steps:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Help. 2. In Help Contents, double-click Troubleshooting. 3. Click "If you're having trouble using Dial-Up Networking."
- If you can run Microsoft Internet Mail and News but you cannot connect to your news server or POP3/SMTP server(s), check your settings for these servers. To do this, carry out the following steps in either program:
1. Click the Mail or News menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the Server tab, and then check the settings against those provided by your service provider. 3. If everything looks fine, contact your service provider to verify that you have the correct settings and that their servers are working properly.
- If you are unable to send or receive mail, check the following:
- The TCP/IP protocol is installed on your computer. - All cables are properly connected to your computer, modem, or LAN. - You have a PPP or SLIP account with your Internet Provider. - Your Internet Provider or LAN server supports POP3 and SMTP. - Your modem communication parameters (baud rate and type of protocol) are set correctly.
- For this release, you must either (1) establish the connection to your Internet provider manually before attempting to send or receive mail, or (2) use Autodial (double-click the Internet icon in Control Panel).
Note that Autodial automatically establishes your connection when you start Microsoft Internet Mail and News. However, it does not automatically terminate the connection when you exit Internet Mail and News. To terminate the connection, right-click the modem icon on your taskbar, and then click Disconnect.
- If you use Autodial to establish your network connection and you either cancel the connection or the connection fails, you need to either (1) manually establish your Internet connection, or (2) restart your computer.
- Microsoft Internet Mail and News ships with a new version of Comctl32.dll, which can be found in your Windows directory. There are no known compatibility problems with this .dll; however, if you discover a problem, you can go back to your original Windows 95 version by carrying out the following steps. Note that if you do this, Microsoft Internet Mail and News will no longer work. 1. Download Comctl32.dll from the following location: ftp://transfer.microsoft.com/msbeta/mailnews and save it on your hard disk. 2. Uninstall Internet Mail and News by double-clicking the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel. 3. Shut down your computer and restart it in MS-DOS mode. 4. Change to your Windows\System directory. 5. Copy the Comctl32.dll file that you downloaded over the Comctl32.dll file that is in your Windows\System directory.
- Make sure that you use an account name and password for a news server only if it requires them. If you use an account name and password and they are not required, you will not be able to connect to the news server.
- If you need to remove the cached news files, go to the News directory and delete all the *.nch files. To locate these files, carry out the following steps:
1. Click the Start button, and then point to Find. 2. Click Files Or Folders. 3. In the Name box, type *.nch, and then click Find Now.
- To access the Microsoft peer product support newsgroups, carry out the following steps:
1. Click the News menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the Server tab, and then click Add. 3. Type msnews.microsoft.com as the name of the server.
If that name isn't found by your Internet Service Provider, you can enter 131.107.3.27 instead.
You do not need to enter an account name or password.
- If your mail server times out while you are sending mail, you might get an error message indicating that a recipient is unknown. If this happens, you should increase the timeout for your server. To do this, carry out the following steps:
1. Click the Mail menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the Server tab, and then click Advanced Settings. 3. Drag the slider to increase the timeout for your server.
- You cannot currently limit the newsgroups cache to a certain size or a percentage of your hard disk. However, you can use the Purge Cached Messages command on the News menu to reduce the size of the cache for a newsgroup.
TIPS AND TRICKS===============
Minimizing Connection Time in News----------------------------------- You can improve performance in Internet News over a modem by turning off the preview pane. Or, if you prefer to leave the preview pane on, you can prevent messages from automatically being downloaded into the preview pane when you click them. To do this, carry out the following steps:
1. On the News menu, click Options, and then click the Read tab. 2. Clear the following check box: Automatically Download Articles Into The Preview Pane.
This doesn't turn off the preview pane, but it will improve performance. You can still download to the preview pane by pressing the SPACEBAR after selecting a message from the list.
Customizing Internet Mail and News----------------------------------- You can change the sound that notifies you that you have received new mail. To do this, open Control Panel, and then double-click the Sounds icon.
- You can move the icon bar by clicking it and then dragging it. You can also turn the icon bar off by making sure that Icon Bar on the View menu is not checked, or turn the regular toolbar on by making sure that Toolbar on the View menu is checked.
- You can resize the preview pane or the message list by dragging the divider between the preview pane and the message list.
- You can change how the preview pane splits, or turn it off entirely by changing the options under Preview Pane on the View menu.
- You can specify that you want to see only unread News messages. To do this, click the View menu, and then click Unread Messages Only.
Other Tips----------- In Internet Mail, you can leave a copy of your messages on the server. To set this option, click the Mail menu, and then click Options. Click the Server tab, and then click Advanced Settings.
- In Internet News, you can search for newsgroups that contain several keywords by entering them into the search field separated by a space. You can also search newsgroup descriptions.
- To switch to a different subscribed newsgroup quickly, click the name of the current newsgroup. A drop-down list of all of your subscribed newsgroups appears. Then select a newsgroup from the list.
- You can expand all the threads in a newsgroup by default. To do this, click the News menu, and then click Options. On the Read tab, select the Auto Expand Topics check box.
- You can have your signature added to all messages, including those that you reply to or forward. To do this, click the Mail menu, and then click Options. On the Signature tab, select the following check box: Add Signature To The End Of All Outgoing Messages.
- To switch to your Inbox, you can press CTRL+I.
- To reorder columns, you can drag and drop column headings.
- To save an attachment with a message from the preview pane, click the paper clip icon, and then hold down the CTRL key while you click the file you want to save. The Save As dialog box appears.
- You can view all the headers for a news message. To do this, double-click the message to open it in a separate window, click the View menu, and then click Full Headers.
SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL AND NEWS============================================
Because this is a beta release, no formal product support is available from Microsoft at this time. However, two new newsgroups are dedicated to the discussion of Microsoft Internet Mail and News and provide a great deal of informal support:
- news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internet.mail- news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internet.news
To read them, carry out the following procedure:
1. Click the News menu, and then click Options.2. Click the Server tab, and then click Add.3. Type msnews.microsoft.com as the name of the server.
You do not need to enter an account name or password. This site is the best place to go if you are experiencing a problem, as the solution may already be posted by someone else who experienced the same problem.
You can also submit bugs at the following sites:
- http://www.microsoft.com/ie/feedback/imail.htm (for Mail)- http://www.microsoft.com/ie/feedback/inews.htm (for News)
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