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: My computer has Windows 7, and I am using Windows Live Mail.

When I place an apostrophe into an email (such as “I don’t understand”) my recipient sees a strange Greek-like symbol. I would like to fix this and would really appreciate any suggestions.

A: Windows Live Mail uses “smart quotes,” which are typesetting symbols to “fancy up” the quotes and apostrophes so they curl in the appropriate direction. As shown in the figure above, smart quotes change quote marks from "this" into “this.” (Note the subtle change in the shapes.)

Unfortunately, not every e-mail program recognizes smart quotes, and some e-mail programs confuse them with characters from other languages. That’s when you end up with people saying, “it’s all Greek to me.” (I’m sure the Greeks have their own phrase for the problem.)

There’s no way to turn off smart quotes from within Windows Live Mail, but here’s a workaround:

• Type your apostrophe, then type the backspace key. Windows Live Mail immediately replaces the smart quote with the regular apostrophe.

You’ll need to do this when typing regular quote marks, as well.

Try it a few times, and you’ll see how the apostrophe or quote mark changes subtly when you press the Backspace key. It’s an extra step, but it will keep your recipients from seeing the symbols.

Windows Live Mail no longer offers that option.

How am I supposed to shrink or resize a photo before I e-mail it?

A: The latest version of Windows Live Mail is the culprit here, and I’ll explain why.

Most digital photos today are enormous. They’re often too large to send through e-mail. For most e-mail programs (and Microsoft’s previous version of Windows Live Mail), you resize and e-mail your photos by following these steps:

1. Select the photos you want to e-mail.
2. Right-click the selected photos, choose Send To, and select Mail Recipient.
3. When the Attach Files box appears (shown above), choose the photo’s new size from the Picture Size box.
4. When Windows automatically resizes the photos and attaches them to a new e-mail in your e-mail program, you can address the e-mail and send it along.

But once you install the newly updated Windows Live Mail, these steps stop working. Microsoft’s new version of Windows Live Mail stops sending the resized photos as attachments and simply embeds thumbnails of the photos into your e-mail message. That makes your message look like this:

To make matters worse, the new Windows Live Mail doesn’t even send your photos to your friend. Instead, the program uploads your photos to one of Microsoft’s computers called SkyDrive. Your friends must then visit SkyDrive to download the photos. And if your friend forgets, it’s too late: SkyDrive deletes the photos after a certain time period.

So, how do you resize photos and send them as attachments? Well, you can switch to a different e-mail program, like Mozilla’s Thunderbird. Or, if you want to stick with Windows Live Mail, you can add photo resizing by downloading another Windows Live product, Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011.

Then, to resize your photos and e-mail them as attachments, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 from Windows’ Start menu.



2. When the program opens, select the photos you want to e-mail. (A light-blue box appears around your selected photos, as shown below.)



3. Click “Create” from Windows Live Photo Gallery’s top menu; the program shows you ways to share your photos.



4. From the Photo Email option, choose Send Photos as Attachments.



5. When the Preparing Files window appears, choose the photos desired size (800×600 works well), and click the Attach button.

By following those steps, Windows Live Photo Gallery resizes your photos, fetches Windows Live Mail, and places your newly resized photos as attachments to an e-mail. From there, you can e-mail your newly resized photos to your friend.

Finally.

Q: I tried to find out how to attach a document to an email in your book.

I followed the steps, but my email instantly changed to a “SkyDrive photo album.”

I’m trying to attach scanned documents, not photos. Your book doesn’t address any of this, and it doesn’t even mention SkyDrive. What’s wrong?

A: About a year after Windows 7 For Dummies was published, Microsoft released a new version of Windows Live Mail. The new version differs quite a bit from the older version of Windows Live Mail that’s described in the book. For example, Microsoft added SkyDrive, which is causing your problems.

The book’s being updated, but here’s what’s happening: When you e-mail photos to a friend, Windows Live Mail no longer sends the photos to your friend. Instead, Windows Live Mail uploads those photos to a storage space called “SkyDrive” that lives on Microsoft’s computers. Windows Live Mail only mails thumbnail-size images to your friend.

When your friend receives the thumbnail images, he or she can do any of these things:

• View the thumbnail images
• Click a thumbnail image to see the larger image living on SkyDrive
• Watch a slide show of your larger images
• Download the full-size images from SkyDrive

There’s a catch, though. Microsoft deletes your photos from SkyDrive after 90 days, leaving your friends stuck with the thumbnail-sized pictures.

As for your scanned documents, Windows views all scans as “photographs” of pages. Windows isn’t smart enough to know the difference between a vacation photo and meeting notes. So, when you try to e-mail the scanned documents, Windows Live Mail automatically converts them to the slide show you’re seeing.

To stop Windows Live from mailing your scanned documents — or even your photos — as SkyDrive slideshows, send your images as attachments by following these steps:

1. Open Windows Live Mail by clicking the Start button and clicking Windows Live Mail.
2. When Windows Live Mail appears, click “Email message,” and a blank e-mail will appear.
3. In the blank e-mail, click the Insert tab, and choose Attach File.
4. When the Open window appears, navigate to your scanned document or documents, select them, and click the Open button.
5. Address your e-mail, and click the Send button.

One more thing: Now that SkyDrive’s in the mix, Windows Live Mail no longer lets you send scanned images by right-clicking them, choosing Send To, and selecting Mail Recipient. Those keystrokes used to resize your photos and add them as attachments to a blank e-mail window.

With the new version of Windows Live Mail, though, those keystrokes automatically format your images in Windows Live Mail’s new “Sky Drive” slide show format.

If you’re frustrated with Windows Live Mail, you might want to switch to a competing e-mail program,  like Google’s Gmail.

A: When you’ve accidentally misspelled your own name in your e-mail program, how do you correct the mistake?

If you’re using Windows Live Mail, the free e-mail program I cover in Windows 7 For Dummies, changing your own misspelled name is fairly easy. Follow these steps to correct or change your name in Windows Live Mail:

1. Click the Start menu, and choose Windows Live Mail.
   
2. Click the Tools menu, and choose Accounts from the drop-down menu.



3. Click the e-mail account you want to change, and click the Properties button.



4. Click in the Name box, change the name to its proper spelling, and click the OK button to save your changes.

Windows Live Mail will update your e-mail’s “From” name to its latest spelling.

Using a program other than Windows Live Mail? Let me know, and I’ll add that program’s steps to this post.

Q:

On Internet Explorer 8′s Page menu, the “Send Page by E-mail” and “Send Link by E-mail” options are both “grayed out,” and I can’t choose them. Help!

A: Windows 7 lacks an e-mail program, an inconvenience Microsoft tries to remedy by letting people download the free “Windows Live Mail” e-mail program.

But once installed, Windows Live Mail doesn’t always tell Internet Explorer that it’s now in charge of your e-mail, leading to the “grayed out” options shown in the image above.

The fix? You must whisper in Internet Explorer’s ear about your new e-mail program by following these steps:

1. Click the Start button and choose Default Programs.
2. Choose the bottom option, “Set Program Access and Computer Defaults.”
3. Click the word Custom.
4. In the section called “Choose a default web browser,” choose Internet Explorer.
5. In the section called “Choose a default e-mail program,” choose Windows Live Mail.
6. Click OK to save your changes.

Windows 7 tells Internet Explorer to start using Windows Live Mail, and the options on Internet Explorer’s Page menu begin working again.

Not using Windows Live Mail or any other e-mail program? If you log onto a Web site to read your e-mail, Internet Explorer’s disabled links have a different problem.

Q:

“You cannot send digitally signed messages because you do not have a digital ID for this account.”

I can turn off the digital signatures for one email at a time but I’d love to get this thing turned off permanently.

A: Digitally signed messages rely on mathematical formulas to deliver e-mail securely. The digital signature lets both recipients and senders know that their messages haven’t been changed since leaving an Outbox and arriving in an Inbox. But casual correspondence rarely requires that level of security, making digital signatures a problem both for the senders and recipients.

To keep Windows Live Mail from adding a digital signature to each of your messages, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Live Mail from the Start menu.
2. Click the Menu Options icon and choose Safety Options, as shown in the figure above.
3. When the Safety Options window appears, click the Security Tab and remove the checkmark from the “Digitally sign all outgoing messages” option.
4. Click OK to save your changes.