Replying to Mail

On the main toolbar of Outlook Express you will find the icons for Reply, Reply All and Forward. These refer to the selected message of the open folder. If there are no messages in the folder the icons will be de-activated.

Clicking on reply opens the "send message" window and puts the address of the person who sent the message in the "to" line, the subject is copied and the the message is copied into the send window. Note that the original message (which you are replying to) is designated with a vertical line or in some situations a > at the beginning of the line.

You can type your reply at the begining of the message or anywhere else, and you can edit any or all of the message you were replying to. Once you have completed your reply you can click the Send or use the File menu to "Send Later". If you are not connected to the Internet when you click Send the program will initiate connection to your ISP.

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Reply All and Forward perform very similar functions. Reply All means that the message to sent to all the recipients the original sender sent the message to (except you). Forward results in the message being sent on to a new address which you choose. Note that you can edit the original message. This should be done if the message is long and contains much that the recipient is not interested in. Good Internet etiquette results in as short messages as possible. Note also that if you receive a message which has been forwarded or may be the result of a reply, you cannot safely assume that the original message hasn't been altered.

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