Composing Email Messages

If you are new to Outlook 2007 you should read this page carefully, even if you are familiar with other email programs or previous versions of Outlook. That's because the way you create a message in this version of Outlook is in many ways unique. First off, there's the way that Microsoft has replaced the menus and toolbars of other mail programs. Secondly, even old features like the spelling checker and the way you create signatures are different than what you may be used to. So please read along to really understand how to create new messages with Outlook 2007.

The New Message Window

The way you start creating a new message in Outlook 2007 depends on the view you are in. If you are in a Mail View, you can either click the New button, or you can use the CTRL+N keyboard shortcut. If you are in a different view, you can create a new mail message with the CTRL+SHIFT+M keyboard shortcut.

Regardless of how you do it, once you tell Outlook you want to create a new mail message, a New Message window like this one appears:

If you look at the figure, you'll notice that in the place where you might expect to see menus and toolbars, there is instead a strange looking bar with tabbed pages. That's the ribbon, which is the new way you do things in much of Outlook 2007 as well as Office 2007. The tabbed pages of the ribbon serve to break up things into logically related groups of tasks. Once you get used to it, you can quickly navigate the ribbon to find the actions you want to take, without digging down through multiple layers of menus.

To create a message, you enter the email address of the recipient into the To field. You can also click the To... button to search for addresses in Outlook's Contacts folder and other locations.

Enter the addresses of anyone you want to receive copies of the message in the Cc field, and enter a descriptive subject in the Subject field. If you want to be extra careful, you can click the Check Names icon on the ribbon to have Outlook confirm that the email addresses you entered are properly formed.

Now you're ready to create the body of your message. Click in the large open area at the bottom of the New Message window and start typing your message. If you wish to format the body of your message you can do so by clicking the Format Text tab on the ribbon and applying any of the formatting options on that tabbed page. As always, be aware of who you are sending your message to, and be sure to use the appropriate writing style for that recipient. If you would speak differently to your boss than you would to your friends, be sure to use the same logic when writing your message.

Add a Signature

Many times, particularly if you are composing a message at work, you'll want to add some standard information at the end of the message. This information could be anything, from your contact information, to legal disclaimers, to a marketing message. Whatever it is, if you need to add it to messages repeatedly, you will want to create and use a signature that contains the information so you don't have to keep entering it manually for every message.

To learn about creating and using signatures, visit this page.

Check Your Spelling Before You Send the Message

Before you send your message, it is wise to check your spelling. To do this, press the F7 key. This launches Outlook's spelling checker. The spelling checker is the same one used in Microsoft Word 2007, so it is quite powerful and efficient.

If the spelling checker doesn't find any problems, it pops up a small box telling you it didn't find any problems. If the spelling checker does detect a problem, it displays the following box, which gives you a complete set of options for correcting each mistake or updating the spelling checker's dictionary. Make any corrections necessary using this box, and you'll be ready to send your message.

Note: If you need to change the format of this message, you can learn how here.

Send Your Message

Assuming nothing has been changed from the default settings, sending a message with Outlook is super simple. Simply click the Send button and your message will be on its way.

Note: There's actually a good bit more that goes on between when you click Send and when your message leaves your computer for its destination. But that's normally transparent to you and not something to worry about.

Return to the main Outlook 2007 Mail page.