Folding Tables

Outlook 2010 can manage all your electronic mail accounts. This supplies you a single interface to control all your messages. It takes two things to make this happen. The first is knowing how to configure Outlook for Gmail or whichever email systems you are using. Unfortunately, I don’t have adequate space here to address how that works. The link at the conclusion of this piece will get you to a site that does contain all the information on setting up a Microsoft Outlook 2010 Mail linkage.

The second piece is knowing how to manage the assorted email services as soon as you get them set up. This post covers those basics.

When you Receive Messages

You can receive e-mail from various different kinds of email services. Outlook 2010 automatically checks every email account for you, based on the settings in your Send/Receive groups. Messages end up in assorted locations based on the kind of email protocol they use. Typically, messages from Gmail and Hotmail accounts will end up in their own mail folders, while messages from other account types (Yahoo Mail, for example) get placed in the Inbox.

So how do you know which messages belong with which accounts? The messages that get placed in their own set of folders are easy. For other types of accounts, if you can’t tell just by looking, the To: field of the message provides the answer. The email address the sender addressed it to appears on that line.

When You Send Messages

When sending e-mail, you control which account Outlook 2010 employs. Outlook always has a default account for sending messages, but you can direct Outlook to use a different account by following these steps:

• When you’re replying to a message you received, Outlook replies using the account the message was sent to. But you can always tell Outlook to send the reply using a different account.
• When you create a new message, Outlook uses the default account unless you tell it different.
• When you forward a message, Outlook handles it the same way as a reply.

So how exactly do you tell Outlook 2010 to use a different account? You do it when you are working in the message window. Look for the “From” button next to the “Send” button (this only appears if you have more than one email account set up). Click “From” to see a list of the accounts you can use.

Set the Default Email Account

If you want to change Outlook’s default account, here’s what you have to do:

1. In the Ribbon, click the “File” tab.

2. In the menu that appears, click “Info” to display the “Account Information” screen.

3. Click the “Account Settings” button and select “Account Settings…” in the menu that appears. This opens the Account Settings dialog box to the E-mail tabbed page.

4. In the box that lists your accounts, select the default account you want.

5. If the account isn’t already the default account, the Set as Default option (look above the box containing the email accounts) should now be clickable. Click “Set as Default” to change the default account.

6. Click “Close” to return to the Outlook window.

You now possess the basic information you need to work with multiple accounts. All you need is high-quality instructions for connecting each of your eamil accounts to Outlook 2010. You’ll find them at: Outlook Mail