Windows XP : Participating in Internet Newsgroups - Working with Newsgroups in Outlook Express

With your news account defined, your next chore is to subscribe to one or more newsgroups. If you don’t have the Newsgroup Subscriptions window open from the previous section, use any of the following techniques to display it:

• Select Tools, Newsgroups

• Press Ctrl+W

• Click the news account in the Folders list and then click the Newsgroups toolbar button

If you have multiple news accounts, click the one you want to work with in the Account(s) list. (If you elected not to download the account’s newsgroups from the server during the account setup, Outlook Express will automatically download the newsgroups now.) Outlook Express displays the account’s newsgroups, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Use this dialog box to work with newsgroups in Outlook Express.

Newsgroups are at the heart of Usenet, so you’ll need to become comfortable with basic newsgroup chores such as subscribing and unsubscribing. The next two sections take you through the basics.

Subscribing to a Newsgroup

Before you can read or post articles, you have to add a newsgroup or two to your news server account. You have two ways of doing this: You can subscribe to a newsgroup or you can open a newsgroup without committing to a subscription.

Either way, you must first display the group you want in the Newsgroup list. You can either scroll through the groups or type all or part of the newsgroup name in the Display Newsgroups Which Contain text box. Note that Outlook Express looks for group names that contain the text you type. If you type startrek, for example, Outlook Express will match alt.startrek, rec.arts.startrek.fandom, and so on. This example is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Outlook Express matches newsgroup names that contain the text you type.

Downloading Newsgroup Descriptions Some newsgroups have descriptions that give you a brief overview of what the group is about. By default, Outlook Express doesn’t download these descriptions because it slows down the group retrieval process. However, if you have a fast connection, you should tell Outlook Express to download the descriptions. To do that, return to Outlook Express and select Tools, Accounts. In the News tab, click the news account you want to work with and then click Properties to open the account’s property sheet. In the Advanced tab, activate the Use Newsgroup Descriptions check box and then click OK. Open the Newsgroup Subscriptions window again, click the new server, and then click Reset List. Outlook Express downloads the newsgroup names and their descriptions. To include the descriptions when searching newsgroup names, activate the Also Search Descriptions check box.

After you’ve selected a newsgroup, use either of the following techniques:

• If you just want to view the group without subscribing, click Go To. You’ll be returned to the Outlook Express window with the newsgroup displayed. If you later want to subscribe to this group, right-click the group name in the Folders list and then click Subscribe.

• If you want to subscribe to the group, click the Subscribe button. You can repeat this process for any other newsgroup subscriptions. In each case, Outlook Express adds the name of the group to the Subscribed tab. When you’re done, click OK to return to the main Outlook Express window.

Unsubscribing from a Newsgroup

If you get tired of a newsgroup, you can unsubscribe at any time by using either of the following techniques:

• In the Newsgroup Subscriptions dialog box, display the Subscribed tab, select the newsgroup, and click Unsubscribe.

• In the Outlook Express window, right-click the group name in the Folders list and then click Unsubscribe.