Outlook.com: Starting with Email

Microsoft’s mail service was originally called Hotmail. The company bought it from its founders in 1997 for $400 million. It’s been from Microsoft ever since. This included email addresses that ended in @hotmail.com and @hotmail.nl. Later, @live.nl and @live.com were added. Microsoft still provides those e-mail addresses, but they have all focused on @outlook.com. That is the latest email address and email environment. Users of Hotmail.com and Live.com have all been transferred to the new mail environment.

To use the mail service and all other online services from Microsoft, you need a Microsoft account. This consists of an email address (such as from Hotmail, Live or Outlook.com) and a password. If you don’t already have a Microsoft account, read the article ‘Create a Microsoft account’.

• To sign in to Outlook.com, on the web, go to www.outlook.com
• Click on To register.
• In the ‘Email address, phone number or Skype name’ field, enter your email address.
• click on Next one.
• Enter your password in the ‘Password’ field.
• If you want to stay logged in automatically, put a check in front of Stay logged in.
• click on To register.

The first time you sign in, you may see information about new Outlook.com features. You can click away that window at the bottom right via the button Continue to Inbox.

After you have logged in, you will see an overview of your mail folders and inbox. You are now in your mailbox. From here you can view and manage your emails. On the left, you’ll see a menu that includes favorite and default folders, such as Junk E-mail, Drafts, and Deleted Items.

Above the overview of the mails in the Inbox you will find ‘Priority’ and ‘Other’. Click on such a tab to read the associated emails. The emails that Outlook thinks are most important to you are in the “Priority” tab. The remaining messages are on ‘Other’, think of advertising. Don’t want to use these tabs? Then turn it off. You will then have one inbox again.

• Click the gear icon.
• click on All Outlook Settingsto display.
• Click on E-mail > Layout.
• Under ‘Focused Inbox’, click Don’t sort my messages.
• Click at the bottom Save.
• Click on the cross to close the settings window.

In the left row behind Inbox is a number. This is the number of new emails you have received. Click Inbox to read your received emails. In the middle section are the emails. The message line contains the sender, subject, and date the email was sent. Click on the line with this information to open the email.

• You can also reply to or forward e-mails you receive. Would you like to return an email to the sender? First click on the message you want to reply to to see its content.
• Click on the ‘Reply’ icon . You can now type your message.
• Then click Send to send the message. If you want to delete the message, click on remove > OK. You can also temporarily save an email as a Draft. Drafts are emails that you have started, but have not yet been sent. For example, if you have to go away for a while while typing an email, you can save it as a draft. You do this by clicking the three dots icon at the bottom of the email and then on Save concept.
• If the sender has sent the e-mail to more than one person, you can also reply to the e-mail to all concerned. To do this, click on the ‘Reply All’ icon next to the sender . When you choose this option, all people who received the first email will receive a response to this email.
• You can also forward a received email to someone else. To do this, click on the ‘Forward’ icon . Now you still have to type the e-mail address of the desired recipient in the ‘To’ field. Then you can type your message and click Send click.

• To send an e-mail yourself, click on the button at the top left New message.
• A window opens. Here you can write an email.
• After the word ‘To’, type the desired email address.
• click on add subject to type a subject.
• Then click in the large white area. Type your message.
• Click at the top or bottom Send.
  

• You can also send an attachment with your e-mail, for example a text document or a photo. Sending an e-mail with an attachment is the same as in step 5. However, you must perform the following additional actions before clicking Send clicks.
• At the top, next to ‘Send’, click attach.
• click on Search this computer or Search cloud locations.
• A new window opens. Here you find the file you want to send as an attachment.
• Click on the file and then on To open or Next one.
• You can optionally choose whether to attach the file as a OneDrive file or as a copy. Click on your choice.
• The attachment is now added to your email.

To delete e-mails, you must first go back to the Inbox (or another folder that contains an e-mail that you want to delete).

• Move the mouse over the relevant email.
• Click the box at the beginning of the email’s message line. You have now selected the email. Several options suddenly appear on the blue bar at the top.
• Click at the top remove.
• The email will now end up in the ‘Deleted Items’ folder. You can also empty this folder. Click on the map Deleted items. Click at the top Delete everything > Delete everything.

Are you done emailing? Then log out. Click on the initials of your name or photo at the top right and then on Sign out . This is not strictly necessary on your own computer, if you are the only user or someone else (your husband/wife) is allowed to see and read the mails. You must log out on public computers or in other people’s homes. This prevents other people from reading and using your mail account.