Creating Email Accounts in Outlook 2007

The create a new e-mail account wizard earns a spot as one of the more notable improvements in Outlook 2007. You don't have to do much more than enter an e-mail address and password to set up an account.

Some Internet service providers don't make it easy to access the needed e-mail account configuration information. Outlook 2007 takes that part off your hands with its wizard. The wizard, however, doesn't always work. Instead, you'll need to manually set up the e-mail account.

Do these steps and Outlook should take care of the rest (does not apply to Exchange accounts):

1. Select Account Settings from the Tools menu.
2. Click New.
3. Click Next from the Choose E-mail Service page as Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP is the right option.
4. Enter your name, E-mail address and password in the Auto Account Setup window.
5. Click Next and Outlook searches for your server settings. It might take a few minutes to do its job. Cross your fingers that it works.
6. Click Finish on the Congratulations! window.
7. Click Close.

This works for most POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts. However, if you receive an "X" next to "Search for [e-mail address] server settings," this means Outlook couldn't connect to the server. Here you can either verify you entered a valid password or try connecting through an unencrypted connection.

FYI: POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) and IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol) are e-mail protocols that allow you to access e-mails in any e-mail application like Outlook.

If "Auto Account Setup" fails or you prefer to set up your Internet e-mail account manually, do these steps instead:

1. Select Account Settings from the Tools menu.
2. Click New.
3. Click Next from the Choose E-mail Service page as Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP is the right option.
4. Check the box next to Manually configure server settings or additional server types.
5. Click Next.
6. Select Internet E-mail Service. These steps take you through setting up Internet E-mail.
7. Fill the boxes in Internet E-mail Settings window based on information you received from your e-mail or Internet Service Provider (ISP).
8. Click More Settings and select the Outgoing Server tab.
9. Check the box next to My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication. In most cases, the outgoing server requires authentication and uses the same settings as the incoming server. You may need to check with your ISP for this information.
10. Click OK.
11. Click Test Account Settings button to verify the settings. If you see an X by any item, review the error message and check the help file or contact your ISP.
12. Click Finish.

The default setting for e-mail delivery is to remove copies of messages from the server. You may be setting up an e-mail account on a laptop or other computer that isn't your primary for managing e-mails. If you download e-mail messages to the secondary computer, you won't be able to get them on the primary. These steps will leave copies of messages on the server:

1. Select Account Settings from the Tools Menu.
2. Select the account and click Change.
3. Click the More Settings button.
4. Select the Advanced tab.
5. Check the box next to Leave a copy of messages on the server.

You're all set. Press F9 to send and receive e-mail messages.