There are alternatives to Outlook Express.We show you how to get started with Thunderbird.

Outlook Express is one of the most popular email programs in existence, but this is largely down to the fact it is included with Windows. While the program is fine for anyone with basic emailing requirements, it is limited. With this in mind, we are going to take a look at an alternative. The name Mozilla is most readily associated with the Firefox web browser, but the same company is also behind a fine alternative to Outlook Express. Thunderbird is an email application that can cope with different email accounts and includes junk email filters. More advanced features include the option to view RSS feeds and a range of security options to protect your inbox. Here's how to download and use it.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THUNDERBIRD from www.mozilla.com/en¬us/thunderbird and opt to save the setup file to the Windows Desktop Once the download is complete, double-click the file to start the installation, click Next,agree to the licence terms and click Next again. Choose between standard or custom installation and run through the remainder ofthe setup procedure. Once this is complete, click the Finish button to launch the program for the first time THUNDERBIRD SIMPLIFIES THE PROCESS of switching email programs by offering to import existing settings from another program.When the Import wizard appears, choose the program you have been using up until now from the list - Outlook Express, perhaps - and click Next and Thunderbird will automatically transfer email accounts, settings and emails.The program will then launch automatically and ask if it should be made the default mail software - click Yes only if you are happy to leave your previous email tool for good.

IF AN EMAIL ACCOUNT has been imported, Thunderbird will ask for the correct password so that new emailscanbedownloaded.To add more email accountstotheprogram.click File, point to New followed by Account.select.Email account' and click Next. Enter the requisite name and email address, click Next and choose the type of email server which is to be used. Enterthe name ofthe email server, click Next before confirming the user name which should be used for the incoming and outgoing server. Click Next, enter a name for the account to aid identification,and click Next followed by Finish DOWNLOADING NEW EMAILS IS a simple matter of clicking the Get Mail button on the main tool bar, but avoiding spam is important. Thunderbird includes a spam filter which can be configured by clicking Tools followed by Junk Mail Control.On the Settings tab, leave the first box ticked so that emails from contacts are not identified as spam,and beneath this use the Handling section to decide how spam should be dealt with - moved to a specific folder or automatically deleted - and choose to clean up the HTML code contained in some junk messages.

NO JUNK MAIL FILTER is infallible, so it is'worth checking the Junk folder from time to time to ensure that no legitimate emails have been incorrectly identified. Thunderbird can learn about the types of email received so that future email can be better filtered. In the case of a legitimate email being identified as junk, right-click the affected message and select Mark followed by As Not Junk. Similarly, should a junk email appear in the inbox, indicate that it is spam by clicking the Junk tool bar button .

THUNDERBIRD MAKES IT EASY to find messages by organising them into folders. There is also a search facility which can be used by typing a search term into the box in the upper right of the screen. Click the small arrow next to the magnifying glass icon and choose which field should be searched and
results are displayed as you type.To save a search for use in the future, click the small arrow again, select 'Save Search as a Folder' and enter a meaningful name .

CLICK ON THE BUTTON labelled Name the monitor profile. When a Save As dialogue box appears, type a name for the profile (we called ours'WiziWYG'), then click on the Save button.The profile is a file containing the details ofyourWiziWYG settings so they can be applied without having to repeat steps three to seven every time you want to use them. Note that itis not stored permanently on disk until you click the Create Profile button. Creating the profile takes just a couple of seconds, after which you can click on Finish to close WiziWYG .

EVERY TIME YOU START Windows from now on, it will first display the colours as they were before you set up WiziWYG, then after the Windows welcome theme has played, the screen adjusts itself according to the WiziWYG profile.The change is implemented by an entry that WiziWYG adds to the Startup section of the Start menu,and you may wish to restart Windows to see this in action. Note that monitor colours while using WiziWYG are likely to be less vibrant and colour-saturated than before:this is not a fault but an indication that the application is doing what it is supposed to do .

THE CHANCES ARE THAT for playing games, watching DVDs and browsing the web you'll prefer the system's old settings to the new WiziWYG ones. Fortunately, you can have the best of both worlds by disabling WiziWYG's automatic operation and starting it yourself only when you intend to work on documents destined for colour printing. To make this change,drag the WiziWYG XP startup entry from the Startup section ofthe Start menu and drop it anywhere on the Windows Desktop.This creates an icon.ln future, WiziWYG's colour profile will be applied only when you double-click on this icon .

WITH LUCK, THE SCREEN display when using WiziWYG will be much closer to the appearance of your printouts than it was before. If you want it to be closer still, it's possible to make minor adjustments within the printer control panel before printing.To make such adjustments, click Properties in the Print dialogue box of any program. Printer control panels work differently for each make of printer but they all offer some form of colour adjustment. Experiment with different settings and make a note those that work best.You'li find that different settings are required for different types of paper.

NEWSGROUPS ARE LISTED TO the left ofThunderbird. Click a newsgroup and the dialogue that appears asks how many post headers should be downloaded. Depending on the type of newsgroup it is, you may only want to download the most recent posts, in which case enter a number in the text box, but in many cases it may be a better idea to download all of them in one go. Click Download and Thunderbird will synchronise with the news server .

THE DEFAULT LAYOUT OFThunderbird works well, but there are a few options to choose from. Open the View menu, choose Layout then select Message Pane to disable the message preview window which appears in the lower right of the screen - items can be viewed by double-clicking them when in this mode. From the same menu, it is also possible to choose between three different screen layouts¬Classic, Wide and Vertical.

EXTRA FEATURES CAN BE added to Thunderbird through the use of'add-ons;or'extensions' as they were known in earlier versions. ClickTools, then Add-ons followed by the Get Extensions link to be taken to the download page.This is organised into categories and once you have found something you like the sound of, click the relevant Install Now link before saving the .xpi file to the Desktop.

TO INSTALL A THEME (skin) or an add-on, click Tools followed by Themes orTools, then Add-ons followed by the Install. Navigate to the newly downloaded file, select it and click Open. When the Software Installation dialogue appears, click the Install Now button. Close the Themes or Extensions dialogue and restartThunderbird to complete the installation. It's possible to check for new versions by clicking the Find Updates button in the Extensions dialogue.