The Net Goes Postal

Boasting by far the most attractive interface around, Outlook Express has taken the best from Netscape, pared those features down, and added its own little twists. Along the top of the screen are buttons for everyday tasks like composing and receiving email. Along the left side are icons representing email folders. In the top half of the remaining window, you'll find a list of messages from the active folder; below, you can view the selected message.

Like Messenger, Outlook Express lets you file messages into folders by dragging and dropping them. So it's easy to locate digital missives. But unlike the Netscape product, Microsoft's software doesn't allow for easy tracking of message threads.

Nevertheless, Outlook Express has its own strengths. While creating a group file (to copy everyone on a single message) can be a pain in Netscape's product, Microsoft has made it easy to build such a mailing list. Just select "New Group" from the address-book buttons, give the group a name, and then click on entries from your main address list to add members. This makes it a snap to send mass emails.

Outlook Express's address-book "import" function is worth its weight in silicon -- and then some: when you upgrade from another email package, you don't have to reenter all those intricate email addresses. Outlook Express even imports addresses from Messenger's and Eudora Pro's address books. Another highlight: Outlook Express manages multiple Internet email accounts. Identify your accounts, and set the program to scour them all at once or separately.

In most other respects, Outlook Express is on a par with Messenger. You can attach multiple files to a single message, and it handles all the major file-attachment formats without imposing restrictions on the size or type of file. And Outlook Express has followed Messenger's lead by letting you view attached HTML Web pages in your message window.

The main pitfall of Outlook Express, though, is that you can't set it to organize all your messages automatically. Sure, you can set filters to copy or move incoming messages to specific folders, but you can't exert control over outgoing missives. Get Eudora Pro if you want that kind of automation. And as we were going to press, Outlook Express was available only for Windows 95 and Windows NT users, with Macintosh and Windows 3.1 versions expected "soon."

Coordinates: Microsoft, 425-882-8080; www.microsoft.com

Your CyberLife: Slave to the Internet. Your inbox is stuffed with dozens of unread emails, and more are arriving every hour.

Power Tool: Eudora Pro 3.03 ($89; free 30-day-trial version available)

For Netizens who need an automated software package that can reduce the deluge of email to a trickle, there's just one choice among the Big Three: Qualcomm Inc.'s Eudora Pro. True, its look and feel is a little old-fashioned, and it doesn't support inline viewing of graphically souped-up Web pages. But Eudora Pro offers more automated control of where messages go, and what happens to them when they get there, than either Messenger or Outlook Express.

By filling out filter dialogue boxes, you can instruct Eudora Pro to do just about anything with incoming and outgoing messages: direct them to a specific folder, delete them, sound an electronic gong when a message arrives from the boss, or reply with canned thank-you messages. Especially appealing is the "redirect" function, which lets you automatically resend misdirected mail to the right person while retaining the original sender's address in the "From" line. This allows the final recipient (a new customer service rep, a department manager) to reply to the sender with the push of a button.

While both Netscape's and Microsoft's email packages simply dump outgoing messages into a single folder, Eudora Pro automatically filters your missives into designated mail-boxes. After you've created a mailbox for, say, Fast Company, you can arrange to have your messages to the editor automatically filed in that box. Creating filters to manage important outgoing messages can take some patience and practice. But if you deal with hundreds of messages a week, as I do, filters will save you many hours in the long run.

Easier to use is a feature that captures the addresses of people who email you. A single command lifts an address from an incoming message and plugs it into your address book. And Eudora Pro lets you keep multiple address books, so when a business contact becomes a personal contact, you can drag and drop the listing from your "company" book to your "@home" book.

In other respects, Eudora Pro behaves much like the Microsoft and Netscape programs. You can send and receive email with multiple attachments of any shape and size, and Eudora Pro recognizes incoming attachments in all the standard file formats. Eudora Pro's built-in spell-checker prevents major gaffes.