Once your news accounts are setup in Outlook Express, you can quickly review or modify subscription, synchronization or account property information of existing newsgroups by right clicking on the newsgroup name (in the "Folders" left pane of the main screen) and selecting the appropriate action.
To mark all messages in the selected newsgroup as read, including messages not yet downloaded, select Catch Up. This is handy when you return from vacation and don't want to download all previously unread messages, but want to start reading current messages.
To mark an individual message as read or unread, right-click on the message (or click the Edit menu) and select Mark as Read or Mark as Unread. This is useful to keep a message in bold that you may want to return to even after reading it.
To prevent messages from automatically being marked as read after they are open for a certain length of time, click Options on the Tools menu, select the Read tab, and clear the "Mark message read after displaying for x second(s)" check box.
Review and change file sizes by selecting Properties - Local File tab. On the Local File screen select the:
Note that it is a good maintenance practice to periodically Compact files in active newsgroups. Also, if messages seem to be missing from a newsgroup you can use Reset as described above and then Synchronize the account to reload the news messages.
You can choose how messages are displayed. (Note that the view you choose will stay in effect until you change it - it does not automatically return to a default view.) On the View menu, point to Current View, and then click one of the following options:
Show All Messages. This view shows all the messages in one of your folders — new and old, read and unread.
Hide Read Messages. This view hides all the messages you've read, leaving only the messages you have not read. These messages still remain (but hidden) on you computer until their expiration.
Show Downloaded Messages. This view displays the messages that were most recently downloaded from the server.
Show Replies to my Messages. This view displays only messages that are replies to a message you posted on a newsgroup.
Hide Read or Ignored Messages. This view hides messages that you have read or that you have applied the Ignore Conversation command to. (A conversation is an original message and all its posted replies.)
Define Views. Select Customize Current View or Define Views > New to create the exact conditions for messages you want either to show or hide. If you create a view that causes messages to unexpectedly disappear, change the Show/Hide settings for the view.
You can set your computer options in Outlook Express to delete messages that have been downloaded to your PC after any time period you specify. To check or revise this setting in Outlook Express, select Tools > Options > Maintenance tab. Under "Cleaning Up Messages" check "Delete news messages {enter#} days after being downloaded." Also under this Maintenance tab you can set Outlook Express to automatically "Compact messages when there is XX percent wasted space."
To immediately delete all messages in a newsgroup: click on the Clean Up Now button on Tools > Options > Maintenance tab > click on the Browse button > select the specific newsgroup > either (a) click the Remove Messages button to delete message bodies only (leaving the subject "headers") or (b) click the Delete button to delete both headers and messages. This permanently removes news messages from your computer. Remember to save any messages you want to keep by copying them to another folder in Outlook Express before deleting the newsgroup messages.
Typically, you should set View > Current View > Hide Read Messages to hide messages after they have been read rather than try to delete messages individually. However, you can selectively delete individual message(s) in a newsgroup as follows:
Select the appropriate newsgroup folder
Go to Edit > Find > Message
Enter information to locate the specific message (such as its Subject) > click "Find Now" button
Right-click on the message at the bottom of the Find Message screen
Select Move to Folder > Deleted Items.
Information in the "From" field displayed in a message you post to a newsgroup and the e-mail address used for Replies to your messages are stored on your computer. Therefore, if your office affiliation or e-mail address change, this will not be reflected in your newsgroup postings until you make the appropriate change on your computer. The Board office cannot make this change for you.
To change your newsgroup user information, highlight the main newsgroup heading (news.ctimls.com for most users) > go to File > Properties > Under the General tab enter the correct information in the User section (such as Name and E-mail address). The Organization and Reply address fields are optional, as is the box to "include this account when checking for new messages." If you prefer, you also can change the folder name from "news.ctimls.com" to something else in the "News Account" field at the top (under the General tab). Click the OK button to exit and save changes.
Detailed instructions and alternative procedures for using and maintaining newsgroup accounts can be accessed by selecting Help on the Outlook Express menu bar.
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