Conference chefs::ms-exchange

954.0. "General topic for Outlook client questions" by SMURF::PBECK (Paul Beck) Fri Mar 21 1997 17:11

    Is there a better venue for asking general Outlook mail client
    questions (not directly relating to Exchange)? This conference and
    IBMPC-95 come to mind, with this one far more mail-centric.
    
    Assuming this is as good a place as any:
    
    I've tried using the Outlook mail client as a possible replacement
    for Eudora Pro (connecting to a POP3 server), and it's got a few
    features that I much prefer to Eudora (e.g. Eudora uses an MDI
    windowing interface -- yecch, ptui), but it's got some fatal flaws
    that I haven't managed to find workarounds to. Any suggestions would
    be welcomed:
    
    +  Outbound text (monotype font) is wrapped at column 72. I can't
       find any way to reconfigure this or turn it off. If you forward
       a message that's got text out to column 80, it won't touch it,
       but just add one line of explanation at the top and it rewraps
       (i.e. corrupts the format of) the entire document. This is an
       absolute non-starter. Including the forwarded text as an
       attachment is not a viable option, since not all recipients can
       handle attachments.
    
    +  Eudora can set up a default Internet domain: if I send mail to
       'pbeck' it'll default to [email protected] (for example). The only
       approach I can find with Outlook is to set up a contact entry for
       each local user, or type the whole domain, or type [SMTP:pbeck]
       which is almost as bad. Better approach available? (The contact 
       approach is tolerable since each entry only needs to be done
       one time, but it's still a nuisance.) The goal is to specify 
       that SMTP is the default, and the To: string should be passed
       unsullied to the Internet mail server.

    Microsoft's Internet Mail Enhancement Patch for Outlook 97 (currently
    in Beta 3) will fix the wrapping problem. You can download it from
    http://www.microsoft.com/officefreestuff/outlook/
    or view the README file on it at
    http://www.microsoft.com/outlook/documents/imepread.htm
    
    I don't know of any way to specify SMTP: as the default mail protocol.
    You'd think with all the Exchange Client and Outlook 97 enhancements
    people have come up with that that would be one of them, wouldn't you?
    
    One last note: you may want to look at Outlook Express, the mail client
    that comes with Internet Explorer 4. I don't have any direct experience
    with it, but it's supposed to be more POP-friendly while keeping the
    same basic interface. It's not as high-end feature rich, though,