Number 221 - October 2001

Saving Email as You Create It
by Don Edrington, PC Chat, June 3, 2001
A complaint I hear frequently is that of having an online connection dropped while one is composing an email and that there seems to be no way to retrieve what has been written. The solution to this problem reminds me of the old election-day admonition to "vote early and vote often." The trick here is to "save early and save often." Unfortunately, the means of saving e-mail that's being written online varies dramatically from one email service to another.     Let's begin with Outlook Express. The first point to be made is that OE can be launched, and email can be composed without going online. In other words, don't log on to your ISP until the letter is complete and ready to send. This precludes losing the letter as a result of being bounced offline in the middle of writing it.     Unfortunately, it's still possible to be kicked offline even as you are sending the email, which can also result in its being terminally lost. However, if you have taken the precaution of saving the email with a filename, it can always be recovered. Do this: launch Outlook Express, and choose New Message. When the blank email form is displayed, fill in the To: and Subject: lines, along with CC: and/or BCC: if wanted. Then type the first few words of your message.     Now click on File, Save As: and type in a filename for the letter. Choose .EML as the file type. The letter will now be saved in the My Documents folder. Continue typing, and periodically do another File, Save As:, making sure the same filename is used. When told the file already exists and asked if you want to replace it, click Yes.     Doing a final File, Save As: just before sending the email will assure you of having a backup copy. If, for any reason, the letter is lost in transmission, simply double-click My Documents and then double-click the letter's ".EML" icon. This will launch OE and put your letter in place, waiting for the command to send it.	Doing the above in AOL or CompuServe is somewhat different. Begin a new e-mail in the usual way, and then do File, Save As:. You can create the letter either offline or online. Give the letter a filename and choose a place to save it. I prefer the Desktop because it's easy to find things there. The e-mail will be saved with a .TXT or .RTX extension, depending on which version of AOL/CS you're using.     If your email somehow gets lost, launch AOL or CompuServe and go to File, Open:. Browse your way to the saved file and double-click it. This will open the file as a text document, which you'll then need to Copy and Paste into a new, blank, outgoing e-mail box before being able to send it.     To save an outgoing e-mail in Netscape, do this: Launch Netscape and start a new, blank message, using Ctrl+M. Begin creating your letter (online or offline) and then go to File, Save As, File. Give it a filename and choose HTM for the extension. Again, I recommend saving it on the Desktop.     Continue composing your letter, pausing periodically to do File, Save, or Ctrl+S. If your Netscape letter gets lost in transmission, simply locate it on your Desktop and double-click it. Having been saved with an .HTM extension means a double-click will launch Netscape (assuming it's your default browser, which it normally would be if you are using it to send email). The file would then appear as a text document, which would need to be copied and pasted into a new Netscape email.     Saving Hotmail, Yahoo, Eudora and Juno letters offer still other adventures. But we're out of space. However, the way to always be sure of having a backup copy of your email is to compose it in your favorite word processor, and then copy and paste it into an outgoing email.
Number 221 - October 2001