Newsreader questions

[Guest]

Due to some changes at my company, I can now use Outlook Express as my
newsreader, which means I no longer need to wrestle with the web-based
newsreader interface. However, I have never used OE as a newsreader, and am
a little uncertain about a few things.
I have reviewed OE Help, but still have a few questions:
When replying, do I click Reply Group? Is an individual reply directed only
to the person who posted the item to which I am replying? If so, I don't
plan to use that option unless for a specific future reason that I cannot
quite picture. In general I expect I would reply to the group.
If I make a new post, does it go automatically to the group?
If I use OE to search the newsgroup, will it search messages I have not yet
downloaded?
Any other pointers that could help me navigate smoothly?
I am posting this using the web-based newsreader, but am looking forward to
leaving that clunker behind me.
Thanks in advance.

 

[James McNellis]

I would suggest you try an Outlook Express newsgroup.

But, to answer your questions:

Reply Group replies to the newsgroup.

Reply replies by e-mail to the person to whom you are replying.

When you send a reply to the group, it is posted immediately, though it may
take some time for it to appear in your newsreader (to let it propogate).

I am sure you can find other tips on an Outlook Express newsgroup.

HTH--

James.

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

Answers inline....

--

Ken Snell
<MS ACCESS MVP>

Due to some changes at my company, I can now use Outlook Express as my
newsreader, which means I no longer need to wrestle with the web-based
newsreader interface. However, I have never used OE as a newsreader, and
am
a little uncertain about a few things.
I have reviewed OE Help, but still have a few questions:

When replying, do I click Reply Group?
Yes.


Is an individual reply directed only
to the person who posted the item to which I am replying? If so, I don't
plan to use that option unless for a specific future reason that I cannot
quite picture. In general I expect I would reply to the group.

Don't reply to the sender. Most people use "munged" email addresses as the
'reply to' address, so the email won't go through. But it's also bad form to
send email directly to sender unless requested to do so by the sender.

If I make a new post, does it go automatically to the group?

So long as you are currently in that group, and use the Write Message
command, then the message will go to the group that you are in. You can add
other groups (crossposting) by typing those names into Newsgroups box with a
comma between each group name.

If I use OE to search the newsgroup, will it search messages I have not
yet
downloaded?

Not-yet-downloaded posts and messages will not be searched. Downloaded posts
that you have not read yet can be searched only in the subject or sender
areas. You must read a message before you can search its content.

 

[BruceM]

Ken,

Thanks for the reply. You cleared up the few specific questions that stood
in the way of my getting started with reasonable confidence. I'm sure I
will figure out more as I go. It appears that something like Google groups
search will continue to be the best way to find specific information. This
reply is going out through the OE newsreader, so in a few minutes we will
see if I understand how this works.

 

[Van T. Dinh]

Yep. My OE is set to delete posts after 2 weeks so I mostly rely on Google
Group Search:

http://groups-beta.google.com/advanced_search

--
HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)