Answers to Common Stationery Questions

The aim here is to answer many of the commonly asked Outlook Express and stationery questions. Here they are, very short and to the point.




Mostly for Newbies

  The word script is perhaps the most abused term in the stationery newsgroup. Generally we refer to the entire post as a script. This is actually incorrect. The real "script" part is what you find between the <SCRIPT>....</SCRIPT> tags when you do a CTRL-F2. The rest is HTML or Style Sheets. To keep with tradition, this website uses the term "script" to refer to the whole post.

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  Several settings changes must be completed before you can preview stationery, save stationery images and sounds and such. The Setting up Outlook Express for Stationery Creation and Saving will show you how.

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  Simply, there are two ways. Start Outlook Express, then:

1. Click on MESSAGE|NEW MESSAGE USING|SELECT STATIONERY. Then browse for your stationery file. Click on the file, then OK.

2. Click on the down arrow next to the NEW POST or CREATE MAIL button, then click on SELECT STATIONERY. Browse for your stationery file. Click on the file, then OK.

Your stationery is now in the compose window. Make whatever text changes you want, then click the SEND button.

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  While your stationery is in the compose window, click on FORMAT|BACKGROUND|SOUND, then browse for your sound file. Click on the file, then OK. You can also select whether to play the sound continuously or a pre-determined number of times. For adding sound in a script see Using <BGSOUND>, on the Tips page.

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  The WET is the Weekend Theme. Every Thursday a new newsgroup host posts a theme, sometimes with images, to be used for stationery creation by the group over the weekend. The idea is to use your talents to create something unusual which follows the theme.

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  You've undoubtedly seen the empty red-X image holder when surfing the web. It means the image was not found or was unavailable. For a post or e-mail, the image did not "embed", as we say. If you get the dreaded red-X on one of your posts, be sure the image (or sound or other object) embedded correctly. Generally this problem is caused by an improper file path or file name. See the tip, Specifying the Full File Path on the Tips page.

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  Each of us likes to organize in different ways. There is no right or wrong way, but there are ways which will make your life easier. Here is the method I use.

To start, create a new folder on your hard drive and call it "Stationery". Within that folder, create sub folders for each script that you acquire. Within these sub folders place the script and image or images required for the script. Sound files are somewhat different. Use your own judgement on where to save them. I save all my sound files in one folder separate from my script folders.

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  First make sure you are online, then simply click on this link:

microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress.stationery

That's all there is to it. The link will remain in your Outlook Express folders display from now on. Return to the newsgroup the next time by clicking on it there.

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Determining IE and OE Versions

  You can find out in two ways:

1. Start Outlook Express and click on HELP|ABOUT MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS. The version will be somewhere near the upper center of the window. An example would be: 6.00.2600.0000. Look for a number similar to this.

2. Go to the OE Sent folder and look for an old e-mail or post you sent. Click on it, then press CTRL-F3. Maximize the window. Look for a line near the top that reads similar to this: X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000. Your version will be there.

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  After you have clicked on the user's post in question, press CTRL-F3. Maximize the window. Look for a line near the top that reads similar to this: X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000. Their version will be there.

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  You can find out in two ways:

1. Start Internet Explorer and click on HELP|ABOUT INTERNET EXPLORER. The version will be somewhere near the upper center of the window. An example would be: 6.00.2600.0000. Look for a number similar to this.

2. Go to your SYSTEM or SYSTEM32 folder under the WINDOWS folder and find the MSHTML.DLL file. Right-click and choose PROPERTIES|VERSION. Your version will be there.

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  After you have clicked on the user's post in question, press CTRL-F2. Look for a line near the top that reads similar to this: <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0000" name=GENERATOR>. Their version will be there if the post is in Rich Text(HTML) format. Plain text formatted posts will not show this.

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Saving Stationery, Scripts & Attachments

  SAVE AS STATIONERY will only save the most basic stationery, not the complicated stationery and scripts found on the newsgroup. See the tip, Saving Stationery for Reuse the Easy Way.

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  Once you have made the recommended Outlook Express options settings (it's on the Tips page too), simply click on the post in question, then click the FORWARD button. The forward window (it's actually the compose window) will appear. Click on FILE|SAVE ATTACHMENTS to save all or specific embedded files. If you have a Windows Explorer window visible, you can drag and drop individual files to another folder. You can also drag and drop them to the desktop too.

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  Windows Media Player 7 removed the SAVE button from the toolbar, so cannot save sound files. If saving from an e-mail or post, use either solution shown in the answer just above. If saving from a web page, right click on the sound's link and choose SAVE TARGET AS from the context menu. Windows Media Player 8 has corrected this oversight.

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  Hopefully, the script presenter will have attached it so that you can conveniently save it. If not, first click on the post, then press CTRL-F2. The script will be loaded into the Windows Notepad text editor. In Notepad, click on FILE|SAVE AS to save it to your hard drive after you have named it. You will need to name it with an .HTM file extension in order to reuse it. The saved script will need to be "stripped" of extraneous code. A comprehensive tip showing you how to strip scripts appears on the Tips page, How to Strip Scripts for Reuse.

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  In OE, click on the post and press CTRL-F3. Maximize the window. What you are seeing is the header information, the script, and the Base-64 encoding for the post just as it looked when it was received by Outlook Express or as it was encoded to be sent. You will use this information to strip received scripts. Don't worry, it's not as cryptic as it looks.

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Getting Out of Trouble

  Make sure you have clicked on the next post, then simply minimize Outlook Express by clicking on the Minimize [—] button at the top right. Once minimized, click on the OE button on the taskbar to restore OE. This will usually work. If this doesn't free OE to advance to the next post, check out the Add the Preview Button to your Outlook Express Toolbar tip on the Tips page. Using the Preview button will free virtually any locked post.

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  As you fill your Inbox and other OE folders, they can become unwieldy and cause OE to slow to a crawl. First, keep them in check by moving unneeded e-mails and saved posts to separate folders on your hard drive. Use the drag and drop function to do this. Open up Outlook Express in one window and Windows Explorer in another. Right-click and drag the unneeded messages to a save folder outside of OE, then choose the COPY option (you can't really MOVE them, they will still remain in OE). Then delete the messages from OE. After clearing out your OE folders, click on FILE|FOLDER|COMPACT ALL to compress the folders. You should notice an immediate speed boost.

Another and more important reason for OE slowness are Temporary Internet File cache folders which are bloated. Be sure to keep your TIF cache clean and tidy. To do this, start Internet Explorer then click on TOOLS|INTERNET OPTIONS. Now click on DELETE FILES, then be sure to check DELETE ALL OFFLINE CONTENT before pressing OK. Deleting offline content deletes OE cache.

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Everyday Need to Know

  We should all strive to lower the size of our posts to about 100-120k, or less. Most posts use JPEG images. These can be compressed with any image editor or with many image previewer programs like IRFAN or XnView. Both programs are freeware. The links to them are on the Links page. Sound files (WAV) can also be compressed. Use Sound Recorder and the MPEG-Layer 3 codec available on the Extra Downloads page.

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  A comprehensive tip showing you how to check post size appears on the Tips page, Checking Post Size Before Sending.

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  In the Outlook Express compose window you will notice three tabs at the bottom. You must be in FORMAT|RICH TEXT (HTML) mode (on the menu bar), and have VIEW|SOURCE EDIT checked in order to see them. The tabs are labeled EDIT, SOURCE, and PREVIEW. As you compose your post, click on the PREVIEW tab to preview. Return to the edit mode by clicking on the EDIT tab. You must be in EDIT mode in order to send the post.

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  Clicking on the SOURCE tab allows you to view the post's script, as it were. If you become proficient at scripting, you can even make changes to the script here.

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  The Full File Path and its use are explained on the Tips page in the tip named, Specifying the Full File Path.

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For the More Advanced

  The .EML file extension signifies an e-mail file. The .NWS extension signifies a newsgroup post file. If you save an e-mail using the FILE|SAVE AS option it saves as an .EML file. A post saves as a .NWS file. Either can be renamed as the other and they will still work, as they are essentially identical.

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  The .MHT file extension identifies a Microsoft HTML Outlook Express document. It is basically an e-mail or post look-alike in Base-64 code created by Internet Explorer. Although not strictly a web page, it is viewable directly by Internet Explorer as are .EML and .NWS files.

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  Click on REPLY TO GROUP to bring up the compose window. Insure FORMAT (on the toolbar) is set to RICH TEXT(HTML). Click on the SOURCE tab at the bottom. With your mouse, select all the text (script) in the window and delete it by pressing the backspace or delete key. Find the stationery file containing the script you wish to use, open it into a text editor, select it, and copy it to the Windows clipboard. Return to the source window and paste the stationery script into it. You can now preview it, then send the reply.

Note: All files which are part of the stationery (image and sound and otherwise) must be specified using the full file path method in order for this technique to work.

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  It is possible, but they won't be able to view the stationery in the traditional way (in their web-based e-mail program). Create your stationery as usual. View the stationery using Internet Explorer. In IE, click on FILE|SAVE AS, and save your creation to your hard drive using the .MHT file extension. You can now attach this saved file to a regular plain text Outlook Express message. The recipient will be able to save the stationery attachment and view it with their Internet Explorer browser. They need only to click on the file name after saving the attachment.

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  It sure is. See the tip, Message Grabber on the Tips page.

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  If you've recently upgraded your Internet Explorer to version 5.5 or 6, or upgraded to DirectX 8-8a and you are a Windows 95 or 98 user, this is probably the reason. Download and install the required MetaCreations DLL file found on the MetaCreations page.

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  Don't you hate it when the link in the post or e-mail has line-wrapped and is no longer usable? Although servers and routers can cause this too, you can minimize the problem by setting your maximum line length. Start OE and click on TOOLS|OPTIONS|SEND|PLAIN TEXT SETTINGS (both for Mail Sending Format and News Sending Format). Change the box "Automatically wrap text at..." to 132 characters, which is the maximum allowed.

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