Outlook Express makes it easy to keep track of your outgoing and incoming messages. You can create folders to store all the messages you send and receive, and you can search through these folders for particular messages by keyword. Moreover, you can have the messages in a particular folder listed in many different ways to make it easier to find messages. Many folders are created for you, but you can create others of your own.

Rather than keeping all your messages in a single folder such as your Inbox, it's a good idea to file them away into folders as soon as you've read them, or to just delete them. After all, there's nothing more frustrating than an Inbox stuffed with old mail. Imagine keeping all your old paper mail in your mailbox at the front door!

To transfer a message into a folder

1. In the message list pane, click once on the message you want to transfer and hold down the mouse button.
2. While continuing to hold the mouse button, drag the message to the folder list and hold it over the folder you want to transfer the message to.
3. When the destination folder becomes highlighted, release the mouse button. The message will be transferred to the selected folder.

TIP: You can transfer more than one message at a time. To do this, hold down the Control key (on Macintosh, hold down the Command key ), then click once on all the messages in a folder that you want to transfer, or hold down the Shift key and click on the first and last message of a series of messages to select them all. Then drag as described above.

To create a folder (Windows)

1. Right click a folder in the folder list, then select New Folder from the pop-up menu.
2. Enter a name for your folder in the Folder name text box.
3. Select a location for the new folder. If you do not want it to appear inside any other folder, select Outlook Express at the top of the list.
4. Click OK.

To create a folder (Macintosh)

1. Click the File menu, select New, then select Folder in the submenu.
2. Enter a name for your folder, then press the Return key on your keyboard.

TIP: If, after creating a folder, you want your new folder to appear inside another folder, you can simply click it once and hold the mouse button down, then drag it over the desired folder (the target folder should darken) and then release the mouse button. Your folder will now be inside that folder.

To delete a folder

Single-click the desired folder, then click the Delete button on the toolbar. (The pre-set folders can't be deleted in this way.)

To search for a message

1. Click the Edit menu, click Find Then in the submenu (with Windows), click Message.
2. Make and entry for one or more of the search criteria available in the window.
3. Click Find Now (Find with Macintosh).

Find window with Windows

Find window with Macintosh

Displaying messages in a particular order

At the top of the Message List pane is a narrow table header with a set of horizontal buttons. By clicking on any of these buttons, the messages in the folder will be listed in corresponding order. For instance, clicking the From button will display the messages in aphabetical order by sender's name, and clicking the Subject tab will display all the messages in alphabetical order by the subject line of each message.

When you click any of these buttons, a small arrow head appears on the button ( ). If the arrow head is pointing down, the messages will be listed in descending order. Clicking once on the same button will change the direction of the arrow head and list the messages in ascending order.