Options:
• Select Tools → Options from the menu and click the E-mail Options button.
To Change Advanced E-mail Options:
• Select Tools → Options from the menu, click the E-mail Options button, and click the
Advanced E-mail Options button.
To Change E-mail Delivery Options:
• Select Tools → Options from the menu and click the Mail Setup tab.
To Change E-mail Formatting Options:
• Select Tools → Options from the menu and click the Mail Format tab.
5
5..
Click theMail Setup tab
.The Mail Setup tab appears, as shown in Figure 8-23. Here, you can specify when Outlook sends and receives messages. If you use a modem to connect to the Internet, you will also find the Dial-up section here useful. Let’s keep moving.
6
6..
Click theMail Format tab
.The Mail Format tab is the last stop on our e-mail options tour. The Mail Format tab lets you modify the look of your messages. For example, you can specify the message format (HTML, plain text, etc.) font used, and create or modify your signatures.
7
7..
Close the Options dialog box.Table 8-7: Places to Go to Change Outlook’s E-mail Options
Location Description
E-mail Options Dialog Box Settings to specify how Outlook handles messages, such as if outgoing messages are saved in the Sent folder, and if Outlook automatically saves unfinished messages as drafts. You can also specify the format for replies and forwards here.
To Get There: Select Tools → Options from the menu and click the E-mail Options button on the Preferences tab.
Advanced E-mail Options
Dialog Box More advanced message handling options, such as where Outlook saves unfinished messages and the default importance and sensitivity of new messages.
To Get There: Select Tools → Options from the menu. Click the E-mail Options button on the Preferences tab and the Advanced Options button.
Mail Setup Tab Settings to specify when Outlook sends and receives messages and dial-up settings if you need to connect to the Internet to use Outlook.
To Get There: Select Tools → Options from the menu and click the Mail Setup tab.
Mail Format Tab Settings to change the appearance of your messages, such as the message format (HTML, plain text, etc.), font used, and signature used.
To Get There: Select Tools → Options from the menu and click the Mail Format tab.
Lesson 8-14: Changing Outlook’s Security Settings
Figure 8-25
The Security tab of the Options dialog box.
Figure 8-26
The Automatic Picture Download Settings dialog box.
Figure 8-27
By default, Outlook no longer downloads and displays external content, such as images.
Figure 8-28
The same message with external content displayed.
The Internet has become a dangerous place. Each time you connect to the Internet, you run the risk, however slight, of allowing malicious users to steal sensitive information from your computer. The computer industry has responded to these growing threats, and hundreds of security products—firewalls, SPAM-blockers, and anti-virus software—are available to keep your computer and privacy secure from outside threats.
After being embarrassed by several high-profile viruses that specifically targeted Outlook, Microsoft has greatly increased Outlook’s security settings. There are many very different types of security threats on the Internet, so Microsoft Outlook 2003 has many different security features, as listed in Table 8-8: Common Threats to your Inbox.
There are two important—and controversial—security features in Outlook that you should be aware of, as they will probably affect your e-mail messages at one point or another:
•
Attachment Blocking:
Outlook blocks access to several different types of attachments. All executable files (.exe, .com, and .bat) are blocked and so are files that contain macros or scripts, such as Microsoft Access database files. You can still send these kinds of files as attachments with a little work: either rename the file extension (I.E. rename program.exe to program.ex) or zip the file(s) you want to attach. This setting can only be changed by rooting around in the Windows registry. This is something that’s best left to a network administrator.Figure 8-25
Figure 8-26
Chapter Eight: Advanced E-mail Features
167
The University of Salford
Quick Reference To Do Allow/Disallow HTML Pictures in E-mail:
1. Select Tools→ Options from the menu and click the Security tab.
2. Click the Change Automatic
Download Settings button.
3. Make any desired changes and
click OK, OK. •
External File and Picture Blocking:
HTML-based e-mail messages often contain links to externalpictures that are downloaded from the Internet (e-mail newsletters especially contain lots of pictures). Technically speaking, the sender of these messages can tell when you’ve opened the e-mail message, since they can see if and when you’ve downloaded the images in their message. This may not seem like much of a security concern, but it lets Spammers know if you’ve opened their junk e-mail messages. If a Spammer sees that they have found a legitimate e- mail account, they may send you more SPAM, or worse, sell your e-mail address to other Spammers. While this feature does help protect your privacy, it can also be annoying - especially if you receive and depend on a lot of HTML-based e-mails. It’s easy to disable this feature, however. We’ll see how in this lesson.
Here’s how to view and change Outlook’s security settings…
1
1..
SelectTools
→Options
from the menu and click theSecurity tab
.The Security tab of the Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 8-25. There are a lot of security settings listed here. Most of them are best left alone, unless you understand them. You can, however, change whether or not Outlook downloads external pictures in HTML messages. Here’s how…
2
2..
Click theChange Automatic Download Settings button
.The Change Automatic Picture Download Settings dialog box appears. Here’s where you can specify whether or not you want Outlook to download and display pictures in HTML-based e-mail messages.
3
3..
Make any desired changes and clickOK
,OK
. Table 8-8: Common Threats to your InboxThreat Description
Attachment
viruses Attachment viruses are still the most common types of viruses. As its name implies, an attachment virus is attached to an e-mail message, which the sender tries to get the recipient to open. The Melissa virus was a highly publicized attachment virus that sent itself to all of the names in a victim’s address book. Many of these recipients opened these e-mail attachments because they knew the sender.
Script-based
viruses Script-based viruses exploit security flaws in Microsoft Outlook and Windows that allow malicious code to be embedded in a message and automatically executed when the message is opened.
Web bugs A Web bug is a link to external graphics in an HTML e-mail message. Web bugs allow the message sender to see when a user has opened a message. Spammers love to add Web bugs to their e-mail messages to find out which e-mail accounts are legitimate and active.
SPAM More of an annoyance than a threat, SPAM is electronic, unsolicited e-mail. Spam wastes bandwidth, storage space, and most of all, your time!
Chapter Eight Review