Is there a reference book for Windows Live Mail?
JUST for WLM.

I don't mean one of those Big Fat Windows-Everything books with about 2
pages on "how to set up your account" but very little on "how to get the
program to do what you want the way you want (to the extent that it will
allow you to)."

I mean, basically, a printed version of the help files only more helpful.
What settings are where; how to find obscure things that were so easy in OE;
what is now missing so I don't keep looking for it; what MS has decided I
"should" do & how, and then how to make WLM work -- to the extent that it
can, anyway -- in a way I'm comfortable with.

IOW a decent reference work. To help this old fogey cope with s/w that is
apparently written by & for people who are barely beyond puberty (with
eyesight to match).

I wish WLM's windows were more readable, especially the "read" messages.
bj
 

Surely you jest !!!  LOLOLOL !!

Only the "un"helpful, Help screens . . . . . . .
Let us know what we can help you with - we can't fix everything, but there's 
a lot we can walk you through if you are just new to the program and need a 
how-to.


"bj" <bjones44@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message 
news:#4WxSLHlKHA.2188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Is there a reference book for Windows Live Mail?
> JUST for WLM.
>
> I don't mean one of those Big Fat Windows-Everything books with about 2
> pages on "how to set up your account" but very little on "how to get the
> program to do what you want the way you want (to the extent that it will
> allow you to)."
>
> I mean, basically, a printed version of the help files only more helpful.
> What settings are where; how to find obscure things that were so easy in 
> OE;
> what is now missing so I don't keep looking for it; what MS has decided I
> "should" do & how, and then how to make WLM work -- to the extent that it
> can, anyway -- in a way I'm comfortable with.
>
> IOW a decent reference work. To help this old fogey cope with s/w that is
> apparently written by & for people who are barely beyond puberty (with
> eyesight to match).
>
> I wish WLM's windows were more readable, especially the "read" messages.
> bj
>
> 

"bj" <bjones44@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message 
news:#4WxSLHlKHA.2188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Is there a reference book for Windows Live Mail?
> JUST for WLM.
>
> I don't mean one of those Big Fat Windows-Everything books with about 2 
> pages on "how to set up your account" but very little on "how to get the 
> program to do what you want the way you want (to the extent that it will 
> allow you to)."
>
> I mean, basically, a printed version of the help files only more helpful. 
> What settings are where; how to find obscure things that were so easy in 
> OE; what is now missing so I don't keep looking for it; what MS has 
> decided I "should" do & how, and then how to make WLM work -- to the 
> extent that it can, anyway -- in a way I'm comfortable with.
>
> IOW a decent reference work. To help this old fogey cope with s/w that is 
> apparently written by & for people who are barely beyond puberty (with 
> eyesight to match).
>
> I wish WLM's windows were more readable, especially the "read" messages.

Don't we all - there are plenty of old fogeys who frequent this group! I 
don't know of any book that would help, but Winston's blog at 
http://liveunplugged.spaces.live.com/default.aspx has lots of goodies and 
answers to many of your questions. Otherwise, I suspect that most of the 
knowledge about this program is to be found right here in this newsgroup, 
and the best way to access it is via Google Groups. There are almost 10,000 
threads indexed there:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop/topics
-- 
Noel

 

From Msft, the online help(click the '?' on the WLM toolbar to access the help option) is all that is available.

Not aware of any third party reference books at this time(but I've not looked recently).

Folks in this forum(young and old) are more than happy to answer questions you may have :)

-- 
  ...winston
  ms-mvp mail

"bj" <bjones44@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message news:#4WxSLHlKHA.2188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Is there a reference book for Windows Live Mail?
> JUST for WLM.
> 
> I don't mean one of those Big Fat Windows-Everything books with about 2
> pages on "how to set up your account" but very little on "how to get the
> program to do what you want the way you want (to the extent that it will
> allow you to)."
> 
> I mean, basically, a printed version of the help files only more helpful.
> What settings are where; how to find obscure things that were so easy in OE;
> what is now missing so I don't keep looking for it; what MS has decided I
> "should" do & how, and then how to make WLM work -- to the extent that it
> can, anyway -- in a way I'm comfortable with.
> 
> IOW a decent reference work. To help this old fogey cope with s/w that is
> apparently written by & for people who are barely beyond puberty (with
> eyesight to match).
> 
> I wish WLM's windows were more readable, especially the "read" messages.
> bj
> 
> 

Hi, bj.

I hope to be an "old fogey" some day.  I'm only 74 now.

It's not really hard to make WLM look a lot like OE, but it takes several 
steps, some of them not very discoverable.

First, turn on the Menu Bar (File | Edit | View...).  The WLM Team thought 
that we'd like another line of text on-screen so they turned off that bar by 
default.  Press <Alt> to see it for a moment, but it will disappear again as 
soon as you use it.  There are several ways to toggle in on 
(semi-)permanently - just like in OE; one is to just press <Alt>+M, M.

Now, with the Menu Bar on, you can see the Tools button, which has the 
also-familiar Accounts and Options choices, which lead to many other 
settings that we can change to fit us - just like in OE.  Also on the Menu 
Bar is the View button; this has the Layout choice, where we can choose what 
to show (Reading pane (OE called this the Preview pane), Message List, etc.) 
and where to show it on the screen.

At the bottom of the View menu is Customize toolbar, which is also available 
via other paths, such as by simply right-clicking on the Toolbar.  We can 
add or remove buttons here, and move them around, just about like in OE. 
Note that there are MULTIPLE Toolbars in WLM; the one in Mail is not the 
same as in News, and the one in the Reading Pane is not the same as in a 
Compose window; be sure to explore and customize each of them as you need 
them.  We each use WLM in different ways, so my choices won't match yours, 
but my line-up when reading News is:  New | Reply group | Forward | Print | 
Newsgroups | Next Unread | Next Folder | Mark Unread | Sync everything | 
Sent Items | Inbox.  Note that I removed "Reply" (which was the default, as 
I recall) and replaced it with "Reply group"; this is only for News - in 
Mail, I still have the "Reply" button.

I could go on, but once you have the Menu Bar, with its View and Tools 
buttons, an OE user should feel at home and be able to find the rest of the 
tweaks that he/she needs.  If you can't find something, please post back.

But there's nothing we can do about the washed-out UI but hope that the WLM 
Team will fix it in the next build.  :>(

RC
-- 
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"bj" <bjones44@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message 
news:#4WxSLHlKHA.2188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Is there a reference book for Windows Live Mail?
> JUST for WLM.
>
> I don't mean one of those Big Fat Windows-Everything books with about 2
> pages on "how to set up your account" but very little on "how to get the
> program to do what you want the way you want (to the extent that it will
> allow you to)."
>
> I mean, basically, a printed version of the help files only more helpful.
> What settings are where; how to find obscure things that were so easy in 
> OE;
> what is now missing so I don't keep looking for it; what MS has decided I
> "should" do & how, and then how to make WLM work -- to the extent that it
> can, anyway -- in a way I'm comfortable with.
>
> IOW a decent reference work. To help this old fogey cope with s/w that is
> apparently written by & for people who are barely beyond puberty (with
> eyesight to match).
>
> I wish WLM's windows were more readable, especially the "read" messages.
> bj