sandisuetoo's tutorial for               very simple stationery for outlook express

Ok, let's get started, but first you will need to download a graphic to your harddrive.  (if you like my pink roses in the left margin, right click on them) Just find the graphic, right click and put it in a folder on your desktop where you will be able to find it.  You can do that by clicking on my "clip art for stationery" button upper left corner.  If you find clip art at other locations, be sure you get a small one, or resize it.  OE recommends no larger than 10 kb ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.  Open outlook express.  At the top of the page, click on "message", "new message using", "select stationery". 2.  Go almost to the bottom of the list to "select stationery" and click which will bring up a box. 3.  Click on "create", click "next", click "browse", find the clipart you downloaded on the list. 4.  In the line labeled 'tile', click the drop down and choose to tile "vertically" (leave the defaults 'top & left") 5.  If you want something other than white for your background check "color" and choose your color from the drop down box. 6.  Click "next".  Choose your font style, font size, and if you want something other than black, choose text color, if you want bold or italic, click on your choices (Hint:  I have found that the font size needs to be set larger than usual, as a rule I use at least 14.  Check the area they give you for viewing to see the changes you are making--editing is not easy later--actually I usually start over. 7.  Click "next".  Set your left margin so your print doesn't start on your graphic and down 25 from top (or your choice) 8.  Click "next".  Give your stationery a name (and remember it) 9.  Click "finish". 10. A new box will come up, click "ok" and your stationery will pop up in front of you ready for use. When you go to use it again, just go to "message" (at top of OE), click "new message", your new stationery should be the first stationery listed. If it isn't listed, go down and click "select stationery" and look for it under the name you gave it, when you find it in the list, hilite it, click "OK" and a new email form will pop out at you. In researching for this tutorial I have discovered that you can also use a texture, which will give you a full background color or print, but you need to be care that your text will show up on your choice.  So, if you would rather use a background,  choose a background pattern (plain or a muted print, swirl, etc.) instead of a clip art.  When you get to #4, instead of tile "vertically", click tile "full page".  You can skip # 7, then continue as above.

If you are like me, you have stationery in OE that you no longer use or care about.  You can delete unwanted stationery by double clicking on "my computer", double click "CDrive", double click "program files", double click "common files", double click "microsoft shared", double click "stationery", now you can just hilite any stationery you want to delete and click "Delete" on your keyboard, or right click on the hilited area and click on "Delete" on the menu that pops up.  If you accidently delete something you didn't want to you can go to the "recycle bin" on your desktop and double click on it, find the deleted stationery on the list and hilite it, click on "restore" and it is back where you deleted it from.

Hope I have made this clear, because it is so simple and your family and friends will really be impressed when you send them an email on stationery you have made yourself.  A warning tho, it is addictive, as is paintshop pro, which is what got all this started.  If you have any questions, I will be happy to try to answer them

We are in luck.  I just found out from  a good email penpal how to imbed a midi, wave, etc in your outgoing email using Outlook Express.  It is SOOOOOO easy.  Bring up your message in Outlook Express, click on "Format" at the top of the message, click on background, click on sound.  This brings up a box  click on browse, find the midi in your files that you want to use.  Make a choice on whether you want the midi to play a certan number of times , or be continuous.  Click OK and walla, you have music in your outgoing email.  Neat, huh!!

You can also make your background stationery the same way you imbeded the midi------- instead of  clicking on sound, click on picture, browse to find the graphic or texture you want to use for the background.  If you would just like a color other than white for your email, use the color tab.

Tip: Sometimes I cut and paste the tutorials I work on to a blank email or to a wordpad to work off of.