Q: I’m using Outlook Express in Windows XP.

How can I list my contacts in alphabetical order?

A: The once-popular Outlook Express e-mail program enjoyed a good ten-year run, from Windows 3 to Windows XP.

Microsoft’s Windows Vista finally killed it, unfortunately, substituting Windows Mail, which died a short two years later.

Outlook Express lovers can still run the popular program in Windows 7, however. Just download and install Microsoft’s Windows XP Mode, and you’ll create a fully-functional Windows XP computer running in its own window on your desktop. And inside that window, you’ll find Outlook Express awaiting on Windows XP’s familiar Start menu.

But whether you’re running Outlook Express in Windows 98, Windows XP or Windows 7, the program lets you view and sort your Contacts in either of two ways.

Sorting your Contacts from the Address Book

To see your Address Book in Outlook Express, click the Addresses icon from the program’s menu bar along the top (shown to the left).

The Address Book window appears, listing your contacts’ names and e-mail addresses, each in their own columns.

The Address Book normally lists your contacts alphabetically by name.

If it doesn’t, sort them by name by following this step:

Click the word “Name” atop the column listing your contact’s names (shown to the left).

Outlook Express quickly sorts that particular row alphabetically. Click it again to sorts in reverse alphabetical order.

In fact, this trick works throughout Windows whenever you see a list of files, in any version of Windows, including Windows 7.

Clicking any column’s header quickly sorts those files by that header’s name. You can sort files by name, size, or creation date; you’ll find a wide variety of column headers in your Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders.

You can sort photos by the date they were taken, for example, handy when trying to find vacation photos from a specific trip.

Sorting contacts within the preview pane

Depending on Outlook Express’ layout, Outlook Express may list your contacts’ names along the program’s left edge, usually in the bottom left corner.

(If they’re missing, here’s how to put those Contacts’ names back where they belong.)

To sort those contacts names, follow these steps:

1. Click the word Contacts, right above the box listing your contacts’ names.
2. When the drop-down menu appears, choose Sort by Name.

Outlook Express will sort the names alphabetically by their first name.

That feature seems to be missing from Windows Live Mail. Where did it go?

A: That feature, called “Request a read receipt for all sent messages,” lives on in Windows Live Mail. But finding it requires a different set of keystrokes.

But first, some background. The Request Receipt feature emails you when the recipient opens your sent email. Theoretically, you’ll know exactly when your boss saw your e-mail asking for that raise, for example.

The feature isn’t anywhere near foolproof, though. You’ll never receive that “message received” email under these conditions:

• When your e-mail recipient doesn’t use Windows Live Mail or Outlook Express.
• When the recipient reads the email on her smartphone rather than her computer.
• When the recipient clicks “No” when his email program asks permission to send the confirmation email.

When those stars align correctly, though, you’ll know when your email was opened. (Whether the recipient actually read it is another story.)

To turn on the return receipt feature in Windows Live Mail, follow these steps:

1. Click the Windows Live Mail main menu (it’s dark blue and unlabelled in the top, left corner), click Options, and choose Mail (shown below).



2. When the Options menu appears (below), click the Receipts tab, and click the box called, “Request a read receipt for all sent messages.



3. Click the OK button to save your changes and exit the menus.

That turns on the return receipts feature. It’s easy to turn on, and on those few occasions when it works, it could be just what you’ve been waiting for.

Q: When sending e-mail to many people in Outlook Express, I put their names on the Bcc (blind carbon copy) line to preserve everybody’s privacy.

However, when I open my Sent folder and look at that e-mail, it doesn’t show the Bcc line listing the recipients. How can I see the Bcc recipients on e-mails that I’ve sent?

My son says he can see them in his Google mail. What am I doing wrong?

A: Bcc, also known as “Blind Carbon Copy,” lets you hide your recipients’ e-mail addresses from each other. You can mass mail your vacation photos to your friends — some of  whom may not know each other — and preserve everybody’s privacy by placing their e-mail addresses on the Bcc line.

Later, when you open your Sent folder to view your previously sent e-mails, you always see the To and Cc fields. But you might not see the Bcc field, making it difficult to see who received your e-mail. Plus, not seeing the list makes it difficult to send another e-mail to the same group of people.

Some e-mail programs list the Bcc line on previously sent e-mails; other programs don’t. Outlook Express, for example, doesn’t show the Bcc list on your Sent e-mails. Google’s Gmail, by contrast, does.

But even though Outlook Express doesn’t show the Bcc line on e-mails you’ve sent, you can still view the recipients by following these steps:

1. Open Outlook Express and click your Sent Items folder.
2. Right-click the e-mail you’ve sent using Bcc.
3. Choose Properties from the pop-up menu, and click the Details tab.

There, just above all the technical gibberish, you’ll see all the names listed in the From, To, and, most important, the Bcc fields.

Of course, you can view this information only because you sent the e-mail. The recipients listed on the Bcc fields won’t be able to see the other recipients by using this trick.

Q: I want to e-mail a photo in Windows XP.

When I right-click the photo, choose Send To, and choose Mail Recipient, Outlook appears instead of Outlook Express.

How can I make Outlook Express appear, instead, so I can mail my photo?

A: Both Outlook Express and its pricier cousin, Microsoft Outlook, can send e-mail. So, when you want to e-mail something, Windows XP needs to know which program should automatically grab the mail and push it through the Internet’s tubes.

In computer terms, that means you need to choose which e-mail program should be the default program: the program to jump in when you say “mail this” but don’t choose a specific program.

Windows XP lets you handle that decision in the “Set Program Access and Defaults” area. So, to make Outlook Express handle your mail chores in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button and click the All Programs area.
2. Click Set Program Access and Defaults.
3. Click Custom; a screen appears where Windows lets you select your default Web browser, e-mail program, and media player.
4. In the “Choose a Default E-mail Program” area, click the Outlook Express button.
5. Click the OK button to save your choice.

That tells Windows XP to remember that you prefer Outlook Express to handle your mail chores, and not Outlook.

Of course, should you wish to use Outlook to send an e-mail or two, there’s nothing stopping you. To do that, just fire up Outlook, and send your e-mail directly from within that program.

When you find the wrong program opening a file or carrying out a task, changing the default program setting often solves the problem.

Q: The Contacts area is missing from Outlook Express. The Contacts list is so helpful when composing my emails;  I just click the address in the Contacts folder, and it appears in the e-mail’s “To” line. Help!

A: Many Windows programs let you customize their layout, showing only the portions you find useful and hiding the rest.

Unfortunately, sometimes a misplaced click will hide a feature you’ve depended upon for years.

In your case, Windows XP’s Outlook Express is now hiding the list of Contacts that usually appears in the program’s lower left corner.

To make the Contacts folder reappear, change Outlook Express’ Layout settings by following these steps:

1. Click the Start button, and open Outlook Express.
2. Click the View menu and choose Layout.
3. When the “Windows Layout Properties” window appears, click to put a checkmark in the Contacts box.
4. Click the Apply button, and the Contacts pane immediately reappears in its rightful spot.
5. Click OK to save your changes.

If you’d like to view other changes offered by the Windows Layout Properties window, spend some time in Step 3 to click the other checkboxes: Folder Bar, Folder List, Outlook Bar, Status Bar, Toolbar and Views Bar, clicking Apply after each one, in turn. If you like the change, keep it; if you don’t, click the checkbox again to return to normal.

For example, I remove the “Folder Bar” from the layout, as it takes up a little too much space on my laptop’s screen.

But whether you change layout items or not, experimenting with the Layout window lets you know exactly where to go if a Layout item suddenly disappears.

The solution? Place the recipients’ addresses in your e-mail program’s Bcc: field, not the To: field or the Cc. “Bcc” stands for “Blind Carbon Copy.” Everybody listed in the Bcc: box still receives the message, just as if they had been listed in the To: or Cc: boxes. However, the message’s recipients won’t be able to see the e-mail addresses of all the other recipients. Most e-mail programs list an option for Bcc: near or below the Cc: area.

Unfortunately, Windows XP’s Outlook Express doesn’t usually show the Bcc: box as an option when sending mail. To turn on the Bcc line in Outlook Express, follow these steps:

1. Open any message stored in your Inbox.
2. Choose All Headers from that message’s View menu.
3. Close the message.

That’s it. You probably won’t see anything exciting happen.

But the next time you try to send or forward a message, you should be able to see the Bcc spot, ready for use. The Bcc area should then be available for use on all your future messages.

If, by some twist of Computer Fate, the Bcc: area suddenly disappears, repeat the three steps listed above to put it back in place.