Right, I didn’t realise there were people out there using Outlook Express, but I had a quick poke around and here’s a cool trick you might like to try:

Open the correct folder in Outlook Express and arrange the window so it only takes up half of the screen. Hold down the Ctrl button and left-click on all the emails that you want to save.

Click on the Start button and then My Documents to open a Windows Explorer window. Then create a new folder for the selected emails. Drag and drop the emails into this folder to create a copy. If you don’t want them in Outlook Express any more, they can now be deleted.

There you go, it doesn’t matter if your email is invitation to a non 12 step program or just a collection of jokes, you can now treat them as normal file system objects and back them up by making copies of them.

As you can imagine, this isn’t an uncommon problem. Most email servers have a size limit on incoming email and you hardly need a 12 megapixel image for a quick look at something, or to download to a digital frame. There are a number of of products out there that will resize your photos for you. Any painting package will do it for you and if you don’t use it already, the free Paint.Net is one package that you should have in your arsenal. There’s something better you can use though, which might fit your purpose a bit better.

Image Resizer for Windows is a tool that lets you right-click on an image and just pick a smaller size for it. It’s a free download and presents a dialogue box with options to save a copy of the photo at a different resolution that’s more suitable for emailing.

This can be easily done in Windows Live Mail, although the software calls groups ‘categories’. Click on Contacts in the bottom left of the main Live Mail window to bring up the Windows Live Contacts. It can also download your contacts list from Windows Live Messenger or Hotmail.

Click the arrow next to New, then from the dropdown menu, click Category. In the window that appears, give the category a name and choose which people in your contacts list you would like to add to it. People can belong to more than one category. Their names will appear at the bottom. Click on Save when you’re happy with the selection.
Advertisement

Now close the contacts list and return to the main Windows Live Mail screen. Click New to begin writing a new email. Either type the category name in the box labelled ‘To:’ or click the ‘To:’ icon and select the category from your contacts list.

Email addresses can be added and removed from the category as needed. Open the contacts list in the same way as before, right-click on the category and click edit category.

Be careful though, as any changes you make in Live Mail will be carried over into Messenger and Hotmail, including deleting a contact and creating a group. If you create a group in Windows Live Mail, it will also appear in Messenger. You probably won’t be able to get an insurance quote to protect you from that sort of thing

I haven’t had an opportunity to play with an iPad, but I’ve researched your problem and here’s what I found.

To set up mail

1. Tap Mail
2. Select your account type. Tap Other if your account is not listed.
3. Enter your account information and tap Save. Mail configures most email accounts automatically. Otherwise, you will be prompted for any additional settings.
4. Once your account information is saved – you can start sending and receiving email.

You can configure additional accounts by tapping Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account

Check SMTP settings

1. Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Under Accounts, tap the account from which you’re trying to send mail.
2. Under Outgoing Mail Server, tap SMTP.
3. Tap the SMTP server for your email account and verify the settings are correct.
4. If you have multiple email accounts on iPad, try using an SMTP server from another account. Tap the SMTP account and Select On on the On/Off slider.

There you have it; not as easy as turning on the porch lights, but not hard either.

Enjoy your iPad!

I’ve have a poke around Yahoo Help and Yahoo Answers and it looks that the reason behind Error Code 5 is that you’re trying to use the same account from more than one place. There are a number of reasons why this might be happening:

• You could have more than one tab on your browser pointing at Yahoo Mail
• You could be using a desktop client (like Outlook) while trying to use your web mail
• You and your wife could be sharing the same email account and trying to access it at the same time

I’m not sure what you’re doing, but Yahoo Mail is designed to be used by one user at a time. System security sometimes locks down things tighter than an mmf drawer, but it’s usually just a matter of understanding what’s going on so that you can get around the problem.

Let me know if you’re doing any of those things above.

This is a very useful feature if you’re worried about email being lost in spam filters (this is easier then you think if your email has words like “Viagra” or “treatments for acne” in it). A return receipt sends an email back to you automatically when the recipient opens the message. Just keep in mind that it’s not infallible as most email programs give the recipient the opportunity to cancel the receipt.

Here’s what you do: When you create a new email in Thunderbird click on the Options menu and choose the Return Receipt option. This is what it looks like:

That’s all you need to do. When your email gets read, you should receive notification of this.

I answered this question a couple of days ago, but have come across another option which sounds a lot better than my previous answer. It’s a service called Zookoda which is designed specifically for bloggers. It offers a range of different services you can choose to use to keep your users and readers informed of what’s going on. Here are some great features that might tempt you to give it a try:

• You get tools to manage email newsletter subscribers. They can sign themselves up and opt out of the list, but you can also decide who gets the list.
• You can design your own subscription forms.
• You can design your own newsletter that matches your blog design.
• You can schedule recurring broadcasts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
• A comprehensive range of reports. You get to view real-time open, bounce, click and unsubscribe data.
• Reach mobile and offline users by emailing blog content in text format.

So .. how does it work. The first step is to register with the website, supply your details and have a look around. Once you decide to go ahead, the first thing to do is to Create a New Mailing List.

All you need to do is supply a name and description and you’re set. The next step is to create a subscription form for your mailing list. This is what the form looks like:

If you click on the image you’ll see all the fields in greater detail. There are quite a few fields there, but the ones that look complicated have a default value. For your initial try, just keep all the defaults in place, just to see how it works. Once you have filled in the form, you get to choose the look and feel for your form. You will be presented with a screen like this:

Pick the one that matches your blog most closely. Once this is done, you’ll be shown back to the Subscription Form screen. Just click on the Scripts button and the site will show you the code you need to add the mailing list to your website.

Just copy out the code you need and paste it into your blog. I’ve just added one to the sidebar on the right. Give it a try!

This question was asked to me by Marcus Troy, who runs a blog focusing on fashion and gadgets. Quite interestingly, he popped in to have a chat using the Google Talkback feature I had added to another blog. Worked quite well too.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. It’s actually quite easy to do, using a website that is now part of Google arsenal, called Feedburner. If you go to the website, the first thing it will prompt you for is your website URL. It will then figure out the RSS feed for the website and offer you a host of functionality you can add on easily to your website. You can then replace your feeds with the Feedburner ones so you can track and control your subscribers. There’s even a WordPress plugin to make things even easier for WordPress users.

Once you’re all set up there are a myriad of functions you can add to your blog including:

• Feed Stats – showing you how many subscribers you have to your feed
• Optimise your feed – by making it more readable, adding pictures or Geotags
• Feed Widgets – Show how many readers you have straight on your blog
• Headine Animator – Get an image for your website or email showing your latest posts
• Monitise – Add adverts to your RSS feed to earn some money from it

And, as per the question, you can also set up an email subscription service for your readers. If you click Email Subscriptions under Publicize, you will be given some HTML code to add to your blog that will allow users to subscribe to your feed. You will end up with this section on your blog:

 

Users can now key in their email address, after which they will be prompted for confirmation before they are added to the list. They can also remove themselves at any time through Feedburner’s website. It’s a free service that is run transparently for you and the great thing is .. it just works! It doesn’t matter if your website is all about chimps, about Leptovox or about job listings, if it’s got an RSS feed, you can use this service.