About the Message list

Showing or hiding messages you have read

Marking a message as read or unread

Flagging a message

About grouping messages by subject

Add or remove columns from the Message list

On the View menu, point to Columns, and then click the column you want to add or remove.

Sort the Message list

Click the column heading you want to sort by.
To switch the sort order between ascending and descending, click the column heading again.

Adding or removing columns from the Message list

About grouping messages by subject

To help yourself organize the many replies that can result from a single message, also called threads, you can group messages by subject in the Message list. When you group messages by subject, Microsoft Outlook Express displays all of the replies to a message under the original message. This means you can view only the original message in a group or you can expand the group to view the original message and all of the replies to it.

Grouping messages by subject

Group messages by subject

In the Folder list, click the folder that contains the messages you want to group.
If the Folder list is hidden, click Folder list on the View menu.
On the View menu, click Threaded.
To show all of the messages in a group, click the triangle next to the group.


	To quickly show the contents of all groups in the Message list, click Expand All on the View menu. To hide the contents of all groups, click Collapse All on the View menu.

Show or hide messages you have read

On the View menu, choose Unread Only.

Marking a message as read or unread

Mark a message as read or unread

In the Message list, click the message.
On the Message menu, do one of the following:
- To mark the message as read, click Mark as Read.
- To mark the message as unread, click Mark as Unread.

Showing or hiding messages you have read

Flag a message

In the Message list, click the message, and then click Flag.

Filter the Message list

In the area above the Message list, specify which messages you want to show by clicking options on the pop-up menus and typing text in the text box.

Removing a filter from the Message list

Remove a filter from the Message list

In the area above the Message list, delete the text you typed.

Search folders for message text

In Microsoft Outlook Express, you can search for messages in two ways:

Find You can search for messages that contain specific text in an address, a subject, or the body of a message.
Advanced Find You can search by using a variety of criteria or more than one criterion at a time. For example, you can search for a message from your manager that contains certain words in the subject, was sent two days ago, and includes an attachment.

If your search is successful, a new window appears with a Message list that contains all the messages that match your criteria.

Search for messages using advanced criteria

About folders

Search folders for message text

Click Find.
In the Find box, type the text you are searching for.
Under Headers, select or clear the check boxes for the fields you want to search.
Under Location, do one of the following:
- To search all of your folders, click All Folders.
- To search a specific folder, click the folder or click Choose Folder on the pop-up menu.
Click Find.

Searching for messages using advanced criteria

Searching for text in a message

Search for messages using advanced criteria

On the Edit menu, click Advanced Find.
Under Location, do one of the following:
- To search all of your folders, click All Folders.
- To search a specific folder, click the folder or click Choose Folder on the pop-up menu.
Under Criteria, select items from the Subject and Contains pop-up menus, and then type the text that applies to your selected criterion.
To add more criteria, click Add Criterion, and then repeat step 3.
If you have two or more criteria, click an option on the Match pop-up menu.
Click Find.

Searching folders for message text