It’s rare these days when I come across any app that makes me say, "Wow, now this is useful!" Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop is one of them.

When it comes to email, there are many who prefer the convenience of web-based mail but wish there was a local application that looked and acted like a mail client. Zimbra Desktop is it. This software absolutely nails it in terms of friendliness, ease-of-use, convenience and everything in between.

First of all, it’s multi-platform. Windows, Mac or Linux. Any truly good application these days supports all three, and this does.

Second, it has support for multiple types of email:

Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL Mail, two types of IMAP and POP.

It always pleases me when I see an offering by a major player like Yahoo! that is willing to support a competitor’s product like Hotmail or Gmail because it shows confidence in their own offering.

It should be noted however that only some Hotmail accounts are supported due to compatibility issues. Most will be, but if yours doesn’t connect, the software will explain why.

Third, look at this interface:

Slim, clean and super-easy. Look at the tabs on top. Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Documents and so on are all just a single click away. Folder support is easy too.

Oh, and speaking of which, did you ever want your Gmail account to have accessible "normal" folders like all other webmail does? It will when you use Zimbra. Simply add a folder via a connected Gmail account, and it will create nested folders that look and act just like normal ones – and yes they’re completely accessible via the regular Gmail interface as well.

Fourth, although this sounds a bit dopey I really dig it – a mail indicator icon in the taskbar in Windows when new mail arrives:

The yellow envelope is the new mail indicator. This seemingly insignificant feature is just so nice to have.

Fifth, yes it has multiple account support. In the screen shot above, look on the left sidebar. Your other accounts are listed at the bottom and can be accessed easily with a single click. If there is any new mail in accounts lists there, there is a small number in parentheses telling you how much new mail there is.

Sixth is the synchronization features. Using Yahoo Calendar and Contacts? It will sync seamlessly. Using Gmail’s version? It’ll sync that too.

It goes without saying that Yahoo! Mail users will appreciate Zimbra the most because it FINALLY brings a true native client to the desktop. This is Yahoo’s equivalent of Windows Live Mail and it does a fine job even though it’s beta software.

And yes, it’s beta. That means some things may go buggy from time to time. But in my use of it I’ve encountered no issues as of yet.

The way Zimbra works in Windows is by installing itself as a service. You will see a small red icon in your taskbar (when no new mail is present) like this:

This is not a bad thing whatsoever, because when the Zimbra client is minimized, it goes completely out of the way and shrinks to this little icon, which can be clicked to bring the client back up. In addition, it can be right-clicked to completely shut down the service.

Zimbra Desktop was definitely done right the first time. It is the only software I’ve seen that offers a true alternative to Windows Live Mail (especially if you don’t use Hotmail) and the feature set is just plain great.

Oh, one last note. This may be a frilly feature but still worth mentioning. It has 12 different themes you can use:

This is available via the Options tab.

Let’s say for example you want Zimbra to look like Gmail. You would choose "Zmail." This is what it looks like:

Looks pretty close to Gmail, doesn’t it?

Zimbra’s dev team really thought this product through.

As said at the top of this article, this is a product that accesses web-based mail but still retains the total look and feel of a local mail client – and has the very-super-awesome-cool sync features like Windows Live Mail does, so it isn’t an island unto itself whatsoever.

Two huge thumbs up for Zimbra Desktop. You’d be very hard pressed not to like this.

Knowing how to check the source, as in the raw "code," of an email is important because there will be times when you need to do it. Why? To check authenticity of an email. Spam and phishing emails are getting more tricky to identify all the time, and your best weapon against this is knowing how to check the source of an email.

Unfortunately it is the case where the process of getting the source of an email is distinctively different per provider or mail client, so here’s a quick cheat sheet on how to do it:

Hotmail

1. Right-click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Left-click View Message Source.

Example:

Important note: This can only be done when your emails are shown as a list. If you double-click to open an email whereas the message list is not seen, there isn’t a way to view the message source from there. You must right-click specifically on the email in list view (regardless of whether the reading pane is on or off.)

Yahoo! Mail

There are two ways in Y! Mail to view the source.

1. While in list view, right click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Left click View full headers. It will be last in the list.

Example:

or..

Whether reading a message or having it highlighted in list view, click the Actions button then Full Header.

Example:

Yahoo! Mail Classic

1. Open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for the tiny text on the extreme right that says Full Headers and click it.

Example:

Gmail

1. Open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Click the small down arrow on the right to drop down a menu.

3. Select Show original.

Example:

Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook Express 6

The super-annoying long way

(This is not the way you want to do it because it takes too many steps. See super-easy way below this.)

1. Right-click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Select Properties, like this:

3. From the window that opens up, select the Details tab, like this:

4. In that same window, click the Message Source button, like this:

The super-easy way

1. Highlight or open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Press CTRL+F3

The F3 method is a completely undocumented feature, both in OE 6 and WL Mail. But trust me, it’s there. Try it for yourself.

Mozilla Thunderbird

1. Highlight any email in the message list or open an email.

2. Click View then Message Source.

Example:

or..

1. Highlight any email in the message list or open an email.

2. Press CTRL+U

Incidentally, this is the exact same keystroke used to view web page HTML source in the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

What headers should you check in the source?

Okay, so you know how to view the source of an email, but what do you look for?

The easiest thing to check is the Received: header. This will tell you up front where the email came from originally. The part that’s most important is the very end of the line where the dot-com/net/org is.

Example:

This email came from google.com (it was a Gmail address,) so I know this email is safe. What’s before the google.com doesn’t matter much as it’s the tail that counts. Spam and phishing attempts will attempt to fool you into thinking the mail was delivered from a trusted domain by inserting said domain in the middle. For example, a spam/phish would show as google.com.some.bad.site.ru or something similar. The google.com is in there, but not at the tail. That’s bad and it’s a spam/phish attempt.

Keep an eye on the tail side of a Received: header and you’ll easily be able to identify true trusted domains from spam and phishing attempts.

Hotmail allows for a full seamless backup by means of the Windows Live Mail client using the DeltaSync protocol. Gmail allows for a full backup by means of freely available IMAP access.

Y! Mail doesn’t have either of those options.

A full backup includes not only your inbox, but also the "Sent" folder and any other folders you have. Even if you have a Yahoo! Mail Plus account, the only thing you can ever download is the inbox and nothing else.

With that said, this is how to perform a full Yahoo! Mail backup. The process of how it’s done is long and tedious, but if you care about your mail at all, this is better than nothing.

To note: These instructions are the same whether you’re using Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 7.

1. Download and install FreePOPs

(Yahoo! Mail Plus users can skip this step because you’ve already most likely set up your POP access and use it regularly.)

Quick question answered: Why not YPOPs? Because it times out too much on attempt to connect. It works, but not nearly as well as FreePOPs does.

FreePOPs is easy enough to set up. Download the program, then install it and run it. You’ll see a small green icon indicating it’s running in the taskbar next to the clock.

After that, run the FreePOPs Updater…

…and let it update whatever it needs to. This will include a small Y! Mail update that’s necessary to have.

Remember that FreePOPs must be running in order for the next steps to work. If you see that little green icon in the taskbar, it’s running.

2. Configure a mail client to download your Y! Mail

For this example I’ll be using the Windows Live Mail client.

Below: Click "Add e-mail account" from the left.

Below: Enter your Yahoo! Mail address, Yahoo! Mail password, and your name. Then check "Manually configure server settings for e-mail account."

Below: Set your incoming mail server as POP3. Set the incoming server as localhost (FreePOPs is acting as the localhost.) Set the incoming server port to 2000 (FreePOPs requires this.) Set the authentication method to be clear text. Set the login ID as your full Yahoo! Mail address.

Where people get most confused is with the outgoing server. This is the mail server used to send mail and not receive. FreePOPs has no ability to send mail; it can only receive. Therefore to send mail, should you wish to do so from the mail client, you need to use your ISP’s outgoing mail server. This information will be listed at your ISP’s web site. As for whether it not it requires authentication in order to use, that’s dependent on how the ISP has it configured for access. Some require it while others do not. If it does require a separate username/password to use the outgoing mail server, you would want to check "My outgoing server requires authentication" seen below.

Below: When finished, Windows Live Mail will immediately start downloading mail.

WL Mail is configured by default for new POP accounts to purposely leave copies of the mail on the server. This is good, because it will not remove mail out of the Yahoo! Mail system.

Once all the mail from the inbox is downloaded, proceed to the next step.

3. Backing up the mail out of the other folders in your Yahoo! Mail account

This is the "fun" (as in annoying and tedious) part.

On the local client side, we first create a folder to temporary hold the contents of the inbox.

Right-click the header text, usually titled "Yahoo (YOUR-YAHOO-ID)" and choose to create a new folder, like this:

Title the folder "inbox backup." After that, click the Inbox and highlight all mail by pressing CTRL+A, then drag to the "inbox backup" folder you just created.

It will look something like this when completed:

Go to Yahoo! Mail and do the exact same thing. Create a folder called "inbox backup," then highlight everything in the inbox and drag it there. It will look something like this when completed:

Now that we’ve backed up the inbox on both local and web, we can backup another Y! Mail folder.

For this example, we’ll backup the "Sent" folder.

In Yahoo! Mail, click the "Sent" folder, highlight all mail in there, then drag it to the Yahoo! Mail inbox, like this:

Perform a Send/Receive locally with your mail client to get this mail. It will go to the local inbox and look like this when completed:

Highlight all these mails and drag them to the "Sent Items" folder locally. At this point, now they’re backed up and in their proper location.

Go to your "inbox backup" folder locally, and drag those mails back to the inbox.

Now is the time when you perform your official backup. Use a utility like KLS Mail Backup to back up all the mail in the client before continuing.

In Yahoo! Mail, drag the "Sent" mail you dragged to the inbox back to the "Sent" folder, then drag the "inbox backup" mail back to the inbox.

Perform these steps for each folder you want to backup in Yahoo! Mail.

Quick questions answered

Why do I have to backup the local mail before I move anything back to the inbox in Yahoo! Mail?

If you don’t you’ll get duplicate emails, and that’s annoying to deal with. This is why you backup your local copy before moving anything back to the inbox on the Yahoo! Mail side.

Will the timestamps be kept on each mail downloaded?

Yes.

Why do I have to keep moving around mail to the Y! inbox just to download it via POP?

Because Yahoo! allows mail to be downloaded via POP from the inbox only.

Can I move mail from local to Yahoo! Mail?

No. You can only get mail from Yahoo! to local and not the other way around. That’s the way POP works. The only way to get mail from local to a Yahoo! Mail account is to forward it. Yes, this sucks, but that’s the only way.

If I send a mail via the client, will this sync to my Yahoo! Mail "Sent" folder?

No. If you want that ability you’ll have to use YPOPs, linked above. It has the ability to copy sent mail to your Y! Mail’s "Sent" folder on each send. However I don’t recommend the use of that due to the fact it times out so much. This can prove to be very frustrating in short order.

If I create folders in the client, will they sync with Yahoo! Mail?

No.

Being that FreePOPs supports a ton of different mail besides Yahoo! Mail, could I use it to back up a different account, such as mail.com mail, aim.com mail and so on?

Absolutely. Using the methods above you could backup mail the exact same way with any one or more of these providers.

For those that use an @aol.com email address, you might have noticed an email that appeared to be spam, but it wasn’t. It came from the sender "FooterSettlement" with subject line "OFFICIAL NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPSED SETTLEMENT", and looked like this:

This is not spam. In short, what it means is that you now have the ability to opt out of footer advertisements in the emails you send. All you have to do it login to your AOL Mail first, then go to the web address http://footer.aol.com and simply uncheck the box, like this:

..then click the Save button.

From that point, no footer ads will be sent in the mail you send from your AOL email account.

It’s about time.

If you use AIM for instant messaging, any AIM account has the ability to send email. Your email address would be your-AIM-screen-name@aim.com. This has the same ability to opt out of footer ads just like @aol.com addresses do. To access and start using mail for an AIM account, the address to go to is http://webmail.aol.com. Login using your AIM credentials.

Are footer ads in outgoing emails good revenue generators anymore?

No. In order for free email providers to keep existing users and moreover attract new ones, the content of the communication sent to and from people must be absolutely ad-free. The biggest reason for this is SMS (Short Message Service) compatibility. Many of us use our email to send in the form of a short text message to cell phones. An email system that forces footer ads on all outgoing mail literally prevents you from sending any SMS at all, due to the fact you trip the 180-character-or-less limit every time you attempt to send a message.

Yahoo! Mail hasn’t had any footer ads on outgoing mail for some time and Gmail never has. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail does but only if you use the free web-based version. However I’m certain Hotmail will eventually drop the footer ads as well; it’s only a matter of time.

Any free email provider today that uses footer ads on outgoing messages is, pun intended, shooting themselves in the foot. Ad-supported free email should show ads in the web interface only and nowhere in the body of any message. This allows the user to send mail to anybody on any device, including mobile devices, without restriction.

At present, the most SMS-friendly free email providers are Google, Yahoo! and now AOL. Hotmail isn’t SMS-friendly only for the reason their free web-based version forces footer ads on outgoing messages. You can get around this by using the Windows Live Mail email client (mail sent from the client does not include footer ads at all) or by having a Hotmail Plus account, but it would be nice if Microsoft followed the lead of Yahoo! and AOL and dropped the footer crapola altogether.

The time for footer ads in email is over. The companies who choose to remain with it will have their users abandon the service in favor of footer-free email.

If you use a Windows Live email address, that being any address that ends in @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com, you can access the account right now in the Windows Live Mail client.

The immediate advantages of using WL Mail:

• No ads anywhere in the client
• No ads sent on outgoing mail
• Allows for local caching of mail for faster access and being able to read your mail offline
• Easier to attach files
• Faster than using the web interface

There are more but those are the biggies.

The way a Hotmail account is configured in WL Mail by default is to download a copy of every mail in your account (and no that does not mean once downloaded it deletes from the web version.) This unfortunately includes the Junk and Deleted folders, so every time your perform a mail check, anything in those folders is downloaded as well.

You can easily configure Hotmail to download only the headers by simply right-clicking on the folder and choosing the appropriate option.

It’s as simple as this:

Pictured above is done by doing the following:

1. Right-click the Junk e-mail folder.
2. Hover over Synchronization settings.
3. Click Headers only.

What this will do is download just the header and not the actual message. You will see the subject line but the mail will not be downloaded unless you actually open it.

I suggest doing this for both the Junk and the Deleted Items folder, because when you delete something you obviously don’t want it locally cached. Don’t worry, your deleted mail will still be there on a server level for 30 days unless you specifically choose to empty the Deleted Items folder.

Any folder in your Windows Live mail account can be set to Headers Only. This may prove to be an advantage for those that have bandwidth caps imposed by their ISP, or a slow internet connection. Headers are nothing but very small files and download almost instantly.

The WL mail client has no ads anywhere in it. Using it in combination with the headers only option makes it one of the speediest mail systems you can use.

Quick questions answered

Does the Windows Live Mail client use IMAP for Windows Live accounts?

No. Windows Live mail uses a proprietary protocol by Microsoft called DeltaSync. It allows for two-way synchronization of mail/contacts/calendar/notes, so it in fact does a whole lot more than just mail.

If I have a folder set to headers only and I delete a mail, does it get moved to the Deleted Items folder even though I don’t have to re-download it?

Yes. The way in which it works is that the WL Mail client has seamless synchronization with the web-based version. When you delete a mail and then click the Sync button (or just wait until the client performs another mail check), what you do on a local level will be reflected exactly in the web-based version, and can be loaded the same way on either platform. Even if you did not read the mail and deleted it, it will still be moved to the appropriate location.

Is there any way I can turn off the reading pane so I don’t automatically download an email when I click on it?

Yes, you can turn off the reading pane. First it should be noted that the reading pane is by design disabled whenever viewing the Junk e-mail folder. So even if you have it enabled and go inside the Junk e-mail folder, it will turn itself off when in there. However if you want it off all the time, press ALT+V to bring up the View menu, then click Layout.

You will see this:

Simply uncheck the box for Show the reading pane, then click Apply then OK.

Will adjusting synchronization settings for my Windows Live account affect any other Live or other POP/IMAP accounts I have in WL Mail?

No. Whatever you adjust for sync settings will only affect that specific account. It does not "carry over" to others.

Are headers re-downloaded every time I start the WL Mail client?

Yes. WL Mail ordinarily performs a mail check (what it called a "Sync") on startup unless you configured it otherwise. Being that headers are so small in size this will not be a cause for concern.

Will choosing headers only for specific folders affect the way I search mail in WL Mail?

Yes. Any search performed in a folder you have set to headers only will only search to/from addresses and subject line, but not the body of the message since it isn’t downloaded locally at that point. To perform full searches that include the body of the message, you will have to have full synchronization or use the web-based version.

If I currently have a folder set to full synchronization and switch to headers only, are the local copies removed for the mail in that folder?

No. If you want to configure a Live account with headers only for everything, remove the account from WL Mail and re-add it. On first check of mail, stop the process (click "Sync" twice to see the window and hit the stop button), set all folders to headers only, then perform another sync.

Got another question about Live mail and the WL Mail client? Leave a comment and ask.

In Windows Live Mail (as in the e-mail client and not the web site) the default method for an e-mail signature is nothing but plain text, like this:

You can however create advanced e-mail signatures using the freely available Nvu web page editor.

Here’s how it’s done.

1. Download and install Nvu. It’s free.

2. Copy any images you plan to use to the folder My Stationary.

My Stationary is a folder you already have on your computer, located under My Documents. This was created when you installed WL Mail originally. Any images to be used in a signature must reside in this folder, else it will not work.

For the example below I’m going to use a small image of myself:

The above is a 48×48 pixel image. You should keep whatever image you use small so you don’t annoy the people you send mail to. If you’re asking the question, "How big is too big?", try not to use anything over a 100×100 image.

If you have an image you’d like to use but it’s too big, you can resize it quickly using Pixlr editor. This is a free in-browser editor (no need to install anything). Load that site, open the image you want to edit, click Image then Image Size from the black bar at the very top and resize to 80×80 or smaller, then save as PNG or JPEG.

When your images are ready, copy any you intend to use to the My Stationary folder.

4. Launch Nvu and save a blank signature first.

When you first launch Nvu you will be given a blank web page to edit, much like editing a new document a word processor. The first thing we’ll do is save this file. This is necessary to do first so that images can be added in more easily.

Click the Save button. You will be prompted to title the page. Call it signature, like this:

Click OK.

You will be be prompted to save the file somewhere. Navigate to the My Stationary folder and save your file as signature, like this:

The file will be auto-saved with the .html file extension.

5. Edit and save your signature.

First we’ll add in the image. Click the Image button at the top of Nvu. A new window will open.

Click the Choose File button.

Example:

You will be automatically placed into the My Stationary folder to find the image you want. If not, navigate to My Documents then My Stationary. Find the title of the image you want to add, then double-click to open it. 

After that, tick the option for Don’t use alternate text (if you don’t, Nvu will force you to use alternate text for images, which is not necessary).

You should have something like this:

Click OK.

Your image will be inserted into the page.

After that, type in some text you want in your signature.

For any text you want linked to another web site, highlight the text and click the Link button at the top of Nvu.

Here’s an example of what you could have:

The last thing we’ll do is change the font.

Press CTRL+A to highlight everything in the page.

Click the drop-down menu that states Variable With or Mixed and pick Helvetica, Arial like this:

It is strongly suggested that you only use Helvetica/Arial, Times or Courier as everybody has these fonts installed on their computers. If you choose a font that is non-standard, chances are high that it will show up as nothing but Times New Roman (or other standard serif font) on the recipient’s computer.

Lastly, adjust the font size by using the font increase/decrease size buttons:

Remember that you can highlight and select different text just as you would in a word processor program, adjusting some to be one size and other text a different size.

Here’s an example of what you could have:

When we’re all finished, simply click Save and close Nvu.

6. Enable the signature in Windows Live Mail.

In WL Mail, press ALT+M to bring up the menu, then click Options:

For the new window that appears, click the Signatures tab, then tick the option File at bottom, like this:

Click the Browse button to the right of File.

From the Open window that appears, change Text Files to HTML Files, like this:

Navigate to your My Stationary folder and select signature (this is the file you just saved a few moments ago).

At this point you will see the file path next to File, similar to this (the path will be different on XP computers because My Documents is in a different location):

Make sure Add signatures to all outgoing messages is checked:

Click Apply then OK.

7. Compose a new e-mail to yourself to test it out.

If all goes well…

Success! Your new advanced signature works!

Questions answered

My signature doesn’t look the same as it did in Nvu. Did I do something wrong?

No. You’re probably viewing and/or composing mails in plain text only.

In Options/Read, uncheck Read all messages in plain text, like this:

In Options/Send, the Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent checkbox must be unchecked, the Mail Sending Format must ticked as HTML, like this:

How do I re-edit my signature?

Launch Nvu and open the signature file from the My Stationary folder. Make any edits you wish, then save. It will instantaneously take effect in WL Mail on any future mails you send out.

Are the images I use in my signature attached as inline?

YES. They are attached to your e-mail and sent inline without any need to host them externally on other web sites like ImageShack or PhotoBucket. Your signature will never "break" because it will be not be dependent on any external image hosting whatsoever.

Can I use colors when editing my signature?

YES. You can highlight any text and make it any color you want.

Can I use advanced features when editing my signature such as tables, horizontal rules, paragraph alignment and so on?

YES. You can use all those things.

What can’t I do with my signature?

You can’t do anything that involves scripting of any kind. For example, if you entered in some JavaScript, that absolutely would not work. Everything in your signature file must be static in nature (which it is by default).

Why must the signature file itself and images I use be in My Stationary and not in a more convenient spot?

WL Mail has a feature called Stationary. It is something not too many people use simply because the stationary choices are terrible, and the way to create them is even more terrible (File / Save as Stationary doesn’t work, and the Stationary Wizard via the Options/Compose tab/Create New button isn’t too much better).

The signature file itself must reside in My Stationary for any signature images to work. For example, the image I used was menga48.jpg. When in the My Stationary folder, the HTML markup written by Nvu has src="menga48.jpg" in the <img> tag for the file path. If it were in any other directory, Nvu as well as any other editor would write something like src="file:///some-local-location/menga48.jpg", and that simply will not work.

Images for signature use almost must reside in My Stationary for file path reasons as well. When you have both the signature HTML file and the images in My Stationary, everything works.

Can I "export" my signature?

YES. Copy the signature.html file and whatever images you use to a USB stick, go to any other computer with Windows Live Mail installed on it, copy the files to the My Stationary directory on that computer, then follow steps 6 and 7 above.

What e-mail account types will this work on?

The signature will work regardless of account type, be it POP, IMAP or HTTP (Hotmail).

Is it absolutely required that I use Nvu?

No. Dreamweaver will work as will coding your HTML file "by hand" even with something as simple as Notepad. The editor is not necessary. I only mention it because it’s easier for most people to work with.

Can I use my word processor to export an HTML for use as a signature?

I highly recommend against doing that because word processors export HTML files with lots of useless junk code – so much so it may crash WL Mail on attempt to use it as a signature.

I use Outlook Express 6 and not Windows Live Mail. Will these instructions work if I’m using that software?

Yes, but the stationary folder on most XP computers is this:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

You will have to substitute My Stationary for the this folder if you want to do this in OE6 using the above instructions.

Also remember that signatures are not shared. If you use a signature in OE6, it will not import over to WL Mail so you will have to manually copy the files from the OE6 Stationary folder to the WL Mail one.

Note: This is for Windows 7 users only.

In Windows XP and Vista, when you use the Windows Live Mail client, you can right-click the icon at the bottom so that it only appears as such when the app is minimized:

When using the Windows Live Messenger, by default it will also have a small icon:

However the problem is that these Windows Live applications do not do this by default in Windows 7. Instead they show as large icons to the left.

The way to get them to minimize to small taskbar icons is to set the compatibility mode to Windows Vista for each. This is easy, and once done they will act as they did in XP/Vista concerning how they look in the taskbar.

See video below for details.

Windows Live Mail is a great email client, no question. But one very longstanding complaint is the way it renders fonts. Whereas in other mail clients it’s stupidly easy to make mails look a specific way for text, in Windows Live Mail (and the previous Outlook Express) it is, put politely, a challenge.

This tutorial is how to get the fonts to look monospaced (i.e. Courier New) everywhere for email content. And I’ll also instruct how to switch back and forth between monospaced and rich-styled HTML format.

Windows Live Mail by default hides the menu bar. To show it, just press ALT. If you want it to stay there permanently, press ALT+M (to bring up menu options), then M again. To hide it, repeat process.

Click Tools then Options, then the Read tab. You see this:

Check the box for Read all messages in plain text. Then click the Fonts button.

You see this:

Set the proportional font and fixed-width font to Courier New. Then set the font size to Smaller. Then click OK.

Click the Send tab. You see this:

Check the box for Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent. You do this so when anybody sends you an email with photos in it and you want to include those photos in the reply, there’s no special steps needed.

Next to Mail Sending Format, tick the option for Plain text.

Click the Compose tab. You see this:

Set the Compose Font for both mail and news to 10 pt. Courier New.

Click OK.

When viewing a mail, such as the PCMech Newsletter, it will look like this:

If you want to view this in the original HTML version, there are two ways:

1. Click View, then Message in HTML.
2. Press ALT+SHIFT+H

Then it looks like this:

You can switch back to plain text by closing and opening the email again.

Lastly, on replies if the message is in HTML, the compose window will load everything, including all images, custom fonts and so on. If you want to switch to a plain text reply in the compose window, click Format then Plain text, otherwise leave as is.

Why use the plain text only option?

It decreases the risk of having malicious code executed in your emails. Granted, WL Mail is very good at suspecting phishing attempts and does not allow images from unknown senders, but choosing the option to read in plain text only adds an extra layer of security.

Why change all the font settings like this?

Configuring WL Mail in this fashion gives all your emails a uniform look that’s easier on the eyes. The default way it’s configured makes some mails have huge text while others do not, with little consistency from mail to mail.

Don’t like monospaced? Use any font and size options you want.

For those with not-so perfect vision, using the above methods with a different font (such as Trebuchet MS) with a larger size (such as ‘Larger’ combined with Trebuchet MS 14pt) will make all your emails much easier to read and reply to.

The junk I’m referring to in this article is physical junk, as in the stuff that lands in your postal mailbox and the telemarketing calls you receive.

1. Make your phone number unlisted.

Easy solution but certainly not instant gratification. It may take as long as a year before the calls slow down. Telemarketing companies obviously have copies of the phone book, and if your number is public, you will get called. You have to wait until the new books are published where your number will not be listed any longer.

Some people put a little too much faith in the National Do Not Call Registry. This will not stop telemarketing calls 100%. The only way to stop the calls entirely is if the telemarketers don’t know your number, period.

2. Switch your "registered" phone to a throw-away cell phone.

This does not mean to cancel your primary number. Rather it refers to using an additional line for everything you’re enrolled with.

Buy a Tracfone or like pre-paid cell phone for $10, and renew once every 90 days with a $19.99 card. This translates to a little over $7 a month.

Call every single financial institution (banks, credit cards, etc.) you are enrolled with (or login to the respective web site) and switch your registered number to the throw-away phone.

Keep the phone active, but just turn it off and put it in a drawer. Only use it when you need to call to check on balances so the automated system recognizes the number.

"But how will I be notified if they can’t call me?"

The vast majority of financial institutions always use postal mail first. The only time they call is for suspected fraud or to remind you you’re late with a payment.

DiscoverCard, for example, does put a huge effort into fraud prevention and will call customers directly when any suspected fraudulent activity has taken place.

The way around this is to simply call the throw-away phone once daily to check for voice mails and return calls when necessary. Remember that you can call the cell from your primary number to check voice mails so you don’t waste any pre-paid minutes.

Alternative to buying a pre-paid phone: Skype. Their rates are quite good, and a one-year SkypeIn number (which is a real phone number) is $60 yearly, translating to around $5 a month. And the voicemail is accessible directly thru your computer.

Is it worth $5 to $7 a month to stop the phone ringing from telemarketers?

I think you know the answer to that one.

3. Call every single financial institution you’re enrolled with and opt-out of all promotional offers.

Part of the reason you get junk postal mail is because on sign-up to any financial institution, you asked for it. It is literally in the fine print of the agreement.

The process to opt-out is simple. Call up every financial institution you are enrolled with, get a rep on the phone and specifically say the following:

"I would like to opt out of all promotional offers, both for phone and postal mail."

You have to specifically state the "both for phone and postal mail" part, else it won’t happen.

After that the rep will tell you that your account has been changed so that you do not receive any promotional offers.

Secondly, ask this question:

"Is my information shared with any other companies besides yours?"

The answer will usually be something to the effect of, "We do share our customer information with other reputable companies."

If this is the answer you get, reply with:

"I do not wish to have any of my information shared with other companies."

Ordinarily the rep will comply and make the appropriate changes to your account.

Third, request:

"Will I receive confirmation notice in the mail that I have been opted out of all promotional offers?"

You ask this to specifically make sure the rep actually modifies your account appropriately. The rep will of course say yes, your account will be changed as you requested, and you’ll get the confirmation in the mail.

In about two weeks the junk mail will decrease significantly, depending on how many financial institutions you’re enrolled with.

4. Check for other opt-out options online for whom you’re enrolled with.

Strangely, some companies have opt-out options that are only available via phone, and others available solely on the internet.

Some make sense that they would be internet-only, such as email notifications. But you may find others that you otherwise wouldn’t know about unless you look.

5. Grow a backbone and learn to say no.

This is the best piece of advice I could ever give. P.T. Barnum is the one who said that there’s a sucker born every minute.

If you learn to say no, and stick to it, you’ll never have to use the excuse of, "I accepted the offer just to get the @#!&$@# rep off the phone" ever again.

For those of you out there who choose to use a traditional email client with IMAP to connect to Gmail (of which there are many of you), you may have noticed that checking your Gmail can at times be a bit on the slow side. A reason for this may be because you’re subscribed to all IMAP folders in "full download" mode.

If you unsubscribe from specific folders and/or set them to download headers only, this makes checking mail and overall use of the system much speedier.

For this article I’ll show you how to do this with the Windows Live Mail client. Remember, this app is not just for Hotmail. It can easily do POP and IMAP as well.

The default view in Windows Live Mail is that the menu bar is hidden. Show it by clicking the icon to the far right next to the blue help icon and select Show Menu Bar, like this:

When you do this you will see File, Edit, View, Go, Tools, Actions and Help appear at the top of the mail client.

Select your Gmail email account on the left (clicking Inbox is fine). You should see a button labeled IMAP Folders, like this:

If you do not see this button, make sure your Gmail account is selected.

If it is and you still don’t see it, click View then Customize Toolbar.

Looks like this:

Make sure IMAP Folders is listed under Current buttons as shown above. If not, select it from the left and place it on the right.

When done, click the IMAP Folders button. This will show your currently subscribed list.

Looks like this:

I suggest double-clicking the Starred folder so you can unsubscribe from it. There’s no reason to have it there when using an email client (unless you specifically want it there). On double-click the folder next to the word will disappear, meaning it is unsubscribed. If you want to subscribe again, double click again. Click OK when finished.

Setting a folder to download headers only or not download at all

With IMAP there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to fully download spam, so that’s the example I’ll use here.

Right-click the Spam folder, select Synchronization settings and choose Don’t synchronize or Headers only, like this:

All spams that on mail check from now on will now download just the header and not the body of the message. This will significantly speed up overall use just from doing this alone.

Bear in mind this can be done with any IMAP folder – even the inbox.

In addition, if you encounter Gmail IMAP server timeouts even if only a semi-regular basis, setting folders for headers-only should cure that ill in short order.

With many online retailers (like NewEgg, Dell, Dotster, etc.) there is an option at checkout to enter in a coupon code to take some money off the final purchase price, be it a straight value (ex: $25) or a percentage (ex: 15% off).

If you do a search for coupon codes, unfortunately you are usually shoved towards affiliate links. This can get frustrating quickly because all you want is the code. You don’t want to play the click-here/click-there game. “Just gimme the code” is all you’re thinking.

There are two places where it’s relatively easy to find this stuff.

The first place, believe it or not, is the old school snail mail way.

Dell for example does send out coupon codes you can use for online purchases later. The best ones are in print. It’s basically the only reason you would ever want their promotional material in your mailbox (as in your real postal box, not your email inbox).

Is it worth it to deal with Dell’s promotional flyers to get a deal? Yes. There are periodic specials that can literally take off as much as $400 off a PC or laptop purchase, and that’s no chump change. It can turn a $2000 computer purchase price into $1600 easily. And bear in mind that’s an instant discount and not a rebate. That’s a big deal.

The second place is online. Personally I have found the best place to grab codes is at xpBargains. It covers just about every major online retailer you can think of. Yes, there are those stupid affiliate links – BUT – there are also many instances where you’re given the code(s) you’re looking for that you can enter in at checkout time.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Codes for many different items are listed  in plain sight, states what they do and (important) when they will expire. That page I just linked is really long but really worth a look if you’re a bargain hunter.

Where do you go for coupon codes?

Do you use coupon codes at all? If so, where do you find them? Did they work for you? Let us know.

Modern day home computing is not as it once was. Not-so long ago it used to be that in order to bring the most potential out of your computer box you had to use proprietary software.

Any app that runs solely on a specific operating system is proprietary. And yes there’s still lots of this stuff out there.

For the past few years I have been slowly transitioning the stuff I do on the web to being as cloud-based as possible. You’ve heard the term "cloud computing" so much that it probably makes you sick to hear it at this point – but you have to do it if you expect to make smooth transitions in the future from computer to computer.

If you don’t start transitioning now it will be very painful and stressful to get it done later.

A plain English description

"OS-less" means to be able to do what you do on a computer without the need for any specific operating system.

Using myself as an example, here’s a few things I do:

For my photos I made the decision to push those all to Flickr. It’s web-based. I can access it on any computer using any OS.

For my e-mail I decided to switch over to Hotmail (or to be more specific, Windows Live Admin Center). Previous to that I used self-hosted IMAP and before that plain ol’ POP. I can get to my mail from anywhere on any computer using any OS in any web browser – and it’s all there. It’s backed up and readily accessible.

For important documents that I need to hang on to (and even the not-so important ones), I push those over to Google Docs. This acts as my backup that is just as accessible as my mail is. Once again it’s accessible on any computer/OS.

Are you still in the stone age?

If you’re still using apps that are OS-proprietary and local to your computer only, you run the risk of losing all the data you have without warning. Let’s say for the moment you’re really good at backing things up routinely. What if your hard drive fails and the backup doesn’t work? What then? You basically curse and swear, then realize you lost it all and start from zero.

Nobody wants that to happen.

And what happens when you buy a new computer? Do you really want to go thru the process of reinstalling all your apps all over again, configuring them and wasting hours of time when all you want to do is just get going?

Of course you don’t.

Is it possible to go completely OS-less?

Not at present. However you can move over a significant chunk of what you do to cloud territory now. The more you move out there, the better.

Get your docs, photos and e-mail out in the cloud

No matter how much of an old fuddy-duddy you are (as in the type who positively refuses to try anything different), bear in mind the transition is stupidly easy to do for docs, photos and mail.

Docs

Google Docs is still your best bet. Get an account and upload them. Don’t worry, they’re all private uploads unless you specifically enable a share-out option (which is off by default).

Photos

If you use Flickr, get Windows Live Photo Gallery (Windows), Flickr Desktop Organizer (Linux) or Flickr Uploadr (Windows, Mac). Get a Flickr account and start uploading.

If you use Picasa, the Picasa client is well known to be super-awesome and super-easy to use. Works in Windows, Mac or Linux. Uploads stuff easily. It’s a no-brainer.

E-Mail

This is the one people fear the most – especially those who use POP and are under the impression it would be absolutely impossible to move hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of mails to another account.

Your two best bets are Gmail and Hotmail – and yes you can move all your mail over to either.

The short version of how to do it:

All modern e-mail clients support multiple e-mail accounts.

With Gmail, you can set up the new account alongside the old POP account in Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail or any number of other clients that support IMAP.

With Hotmail, you use the Windows Live Mail client. It will easily import all your old mail from Outlook or Outlook Express. Then you set up your Hotmail account alongside your POP account.

No matter which method you choose, once you have the multiple accounts set up you just drag and drop the mail from the old to the new. All the timestamps are saved and nothing is lost. Everything is moved over including the sent mail, attachments and so on. Furthermore the mail is instantly accessible on the web as well as in the client at that point via hotmail.com or gmail.com depending on which you chose.

Once done you no longer have to rely on your computer to send, retrieve and store your mail. All of it is in the cloud, backed up and accessible at any time. You can also still use the mail client if you feel like it. You can get to your mail either way when you push it to the cloud.

The long version of how to do it:

I go into grotesque detail on how to do this and it would take way too long to explain here – so watch for another article on it soon!

I am telling you now – start transitioning to the cloud

Said honestly, don’t put this off. You’ve got your docs, you’ve got your mail and if you take photos, those are most likely local to your computer box as well. Push this stuff out to the cloud (that being the internet).

You can continue (obviously) to perform local backups, but when (not if) the time comes that you get a new computer, the painful process of moving everything over will be so much less painful when you realize you can just open up a browser and get to everything – instantly.

Yes it’s true that there will be things you simply can’t push to the cloud (yet), but for the stuff you can get out there – do it.

Do it if for no other reason to have a secondary or tertiary free backup. The price is nice and all it costs is a small amount of your time.

This series is dedicated to specific e-mail providers on the internet. In this installment, the service provider concentrated on will be Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail is one of the oldest free e-mail providers on the internet. It was originally launched on October 8 1997, and to date has one of the largest userbases in the world.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

This series is dedicated to specific e-mail providers on the internet. In this installment, the service provider concentrated on will be Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail is one of the oldest free e-mail providers on the internet. It was originally launched on October 8 1997, and to date has one of the largest userbases in the world.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this article. Gold/Silver Membership required.

Usually I’m not akin to using beta software but Microsoft has a whole bunch of "Live" branded stuff at ideas.live.com so I figured I’d check it out.

I first tested some of the software on my laptop which happens to be a 1.5GHz Celeron M with 1GB of RAM. Way too slow; I had to revert back to the current-gen Live products because the slowness was agonizing.

On my big box (1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM) the Live beta software runs a whole lot better, and in fact I’m using Windows Live Writer beta to publish this article.

Here’s my quickie reviews of Writer, Mail and Messenger beta.

Before I get into the reviews, I noticed something during the install.

Microsoft, there is NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. None. Shame, shame.

Anyway..

Windows Live Writer Beta

Verdict: Good.

This is better than the current version. No question. The image editing capability that’s in the Technical Preview version (such as "Crop", "Tilt" and so on) is in this. Very cool.

In addition the interface is a whole lot cleaner.

Windows Live Mail Beta

Verdict: Bad.

Those nice little icons at the top indicating what did what are completely gone. It’s nothing but "text buttons" now. Looks like Netscape 1.0. BAD. Usability goes down a huge notch just from that alone.

Switching back to "Default color" does not work.

The calendar is nice and all that, but the software gets "confused" when you try to switch back and forth between mail and the calendar.

Buggy. Not good.

Windows Live Messenger

Verdict: Good.

Notable improvements can be seen immediately. The new mail indicator is much more visible (very nice), the "What’s New" at the bottom allows you to scroll thru your Contacts updates (very cool), the overall look is far cleaner and doesn’t look "toy" like as the current version does.

This is probably the best product of all the betas. If you use Windows Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger), yes you will like this. A lot.

Will I continue to use these?

Not in the beta versions, no. I will wait until the full versions are released.

To note: When you uninstall the betas, it does not revert back to the previous versions of the software. You have to go back to get.live.com and re-download them.

And no, your mail will not disappear. When you reinstall the previous version of mail, your mail store will still be there (mine was).