Microsoft Office 97 for Windows and Microsoft Office 98 for Macintosh applications are mail­enabled: They can make use of the e­ mail application installed on your computer. In addition, Microsoft Outlook can use Word for composing e­mail messages, a feature known as WordMail. This interoperability of Office applications and e­mail is not dependent on a specific e­mail application, but instead depends on the interface that underlies many e­mail applications.

Most e­mail applications adhere to either MAPI or Vendor Independent Messaging (VIM). MAPI and VIM provide a common interface that Office applications can use; the details of the specific e­mail application do not matter. This section explains how Office works with MAPI and VIM e­mail applications.

Integrating Electronic Mail with Office

The Office 97 and 98 applications include commands to send and route documents through e­mail. In Office 97 (Windows), these commands work with simple MAPI applications as well as applications that support MAPI 1.0 or later, such as Microsoft Mail 3.x for Windows and Microsoft Exchange Client. These commands also work with 16­bit VIM­based mail applications, including cc:Mail and Lotus Notes.

In Office 98 (Macintosh), users running one of the following programs can both route and send documents through e­mail:

• Quarterdeck Mail
• Microsoft Mail
• StarNine Mail

Macintosh users can also distribute documents through e­mail using the Send command (File menu) if they have an e­mail program that supports the SMTP standard (for example, Outlook Express, Eudora Pro or Light, or Claris Emailer).

The following sections describe how the Office 97 Setup program or Office 98 installer program installs e­mail capability, how to configure Word as your e­mail editor, and how to use e­mail commands in Office applications.

Note    Windows NT Workstation version 3.51 and 4.0 do not support 16­bit VIM applications.

Installing E­mail Capability

The Office 97 Setup program or Office 98 installer program installs e­mail capability automatically if you already have an e­mail client (such as Microsoft Exchange Client or Outlook Express) installed on the computer. If you are running Office 97 (Windows) and have more than one e­mail client, you can designate during Setup which client the Office applications use.

The installer program in Office 98 for the Macintosh does not add any files during the setup process for e­mail support. That functionality is built into the Microsoft Office 98 library. The Office 97 (Windows) Setup program installs the following files for e­mail support.

To install VIM for Office 97 applications (Windows only)

1. Start the Office Setup program.
2. If you are running Setup for the first time, click Custom.

   – or –

   If you are running Setup after Office 97 has been installed, click Add/Remove.

3. Select the Office Tools option and then click Change Option.
4. Select the Lotus VIM Mail Support check box.

Using WordMail (Windows only)

Users of Outlook or Microsoft Exchange Client can use Word as their e­mail editor. WordMail allows you to use the editing and formatting capabilities of Word when you compose messages, but maintains compatibility with plain­text e­mail applications.

Installing WordMail

WordMail is installed when you choose the Typical installation during Setup. After running Setup, you can choose whether to use WordMail by making it available or unavailable. If you install Outlook with Office, WordMail is available by default.

To make WordMail available or unavailable for use with Outlook

1. On the Outlook Tools menu, click Options, and then click the E­mail tab.
2. Select or clear the Use Microsoft Word as the e­mail editor check box.

Note   WordMail does not support Microsoft Exchange Client extensions. If you install custom extensions, you must disable WordMail to use the extensions.

Setting Up E­mail Templates

By default WordMail uses the Email.dot template when you compose messages. This template provides styles for message headers and also provides predefined shortcut key functions.

By modifying this template, you can customize the appearance of the message headers, forward and reply headers, fonts, and message text. If you want to create customized WordMail templates, start with a copy of Email.dot to retain the basic e­mail orientation of this template. For example, you can customize the WordMail Formatting toolbar by modifying it in Email.dot or in a customized copy of this template.

Composing and Viewing Messages with WordMail

WordMail gives e­mail users access to most of the features of Word, including formatting, AutoCorrect, the spelling checker, and macros. The highlighter pen is particularly useful to mark areas of interest in long messages and replies.

A few Word features are unavailable in WordMail:

• The New command (File menu)

  Use commands on the Compose menu in Outlook to start a new WordMail message.

• The Save All command (File menu)

  Because each message is in its own window, Save All is not needed.

• The Templates command (File menu)

  To change the template used for WordMail messages, click Options on the Outlook Tools menu, click the E­mail tab, and then click Template to change templates. You cannot change the template for a message after you open or start composing a message.

• The Send To command (File menu)

  Send documents directly from Outlook, or create a document in Word and then route or send it.

• The Print Preview command (File menu)

  To preview a WordMail message, paste it into a separate Word document and use the Word Print Preview command (File menu). This gives you a preview of the body of the message only, without the message headers (name, address, and subject lines), which are always included when you print the message in Outlook. To print the Outlook headers on a separate page from the message text, insert a page break at the beginning of the message text in WordMail. This preserves pagination of the body of the message.

• The MailMerge and Envelopes And Labels commands (Tools menu)

  To use WordMail messages in mailings, copy the message into a separate Word document.

• The Customize command (Tools menu)

  To change the WordMail Formatting toolbar, modify it in Email.dot or in a customized copy of the Email.dot template.

• The Window menu

  Because each message is in its own window, the Window menu commands are not needed. To view the message in a split window, copy the message to a separate Word document.

Sending Messages Between WordMail and Other E­mail Applications

Both Outlook and WordMail save messages in Rich Text Format (RTF). To be compatible with other e­mail clients and editors, WordMail saves messages in both RTF and plain­text formats. Recipients who do not have WordMail, such as users of Microsoft Mail 3.x for Windows or cc:Mail, receive the plain­text version.

When converting from RTF to plain text, WordMail converts the RTF items to their nearest plain­text equivalent. If the converted message is returned to WordMail from the plain­text application, all of the RTF items that were converted to plain text remain plain text. WordMail does not reconvert the message to RTF format.

The text editor in Outlook supports some but not all of the RTF features available in WordMail. If you are running Outlook but have not enabled WordMail, you can see most of the rich text in a message created in WordMail. For information about Outlook support of RTF, see "Sharing Information with Microsoft Exchange Client" in Chapter 13, "Upgrading to Microsoft Outlook."

Using E­mail Commands in Office Applications

When Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint are installed with e­mail capabilities, the Send To submenu appears on the File menu of each application. Commands on this submenu allow you to send the document as e­mail or to route the document to a number of recipients. The Mail Recipient command starts the e­mail client and creates a new message that includes the document as an attachment. The Routing Recipient command opens the Add Routing Slip dialog box, where you enter a list of recipients, an accompanying message, and routing options.

Unlike the other Office 97 (Windows) applications, when Microsoft Access is set up to use e­mail, the Send command appears on the File menu. This command has the same function as the Mail Recipient command in the other Office applications. Access users who want to route information must export the information to one of the other Office applications.

When Outlook is installed with Office 97 on a computer connected to Microsoft Exchange Server, the Send To submenu on the File menu in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word also includes the Exchange Folder command. This command allows you to post a copy of a document in a public folder so that others can open it. For more information about public folders, see your Microsoft Exchange Server documentation.

Using Address Books (Windows only)

DLL File	Purpose
Mapi32	Provides 32­bit MAPI support
Mapivi32	Provides 16­bit VIM support
Mapivitk	Communicates with the 16­bit VIM information service
	Word 97 (Windows) and WordMail allow you to choose names and addresses from the MAPI personal address book (PAB) or the Outlook or Schedule+ 95 contact list stored on your computer. Click the Insert Address button to see a list of the names most recently used, or to browse the address book.

{<PR_GIVEN_NAME> <PR_SURNAME> | <PR_DISPLAY_NAME>}

{{<PR_GIVEN_NAME> <PR_SURNAME> | <PR_DISPLAY_NAME>}\r} 
{{<PR_STREET_ADDRESS>\r}
{{<PR_LOCALITY>}{, <PR_STATE_OR_PROVINCE> <PR_POSTAL_CODE>}\r} 
{<PR_COUNTRY>\r}
| <PR_POSTAL_ADDRESS>\r}

In Office 97 (Windows), the WordMail and Office Binder features may increase the e­mail traffic on your network. Both Outlook and WordMail messages are larger than plain­text messages. This is true especially if your environment mixes WordMail and plain­text e­mail clients, because plain­text clients receive both plain text and RTF versions of messages from WordMail users. WordMail messages are slightly larger than Outlook messages, but are smaller than a Word document sent as an attachment to an e­mail message. Office Binder files can result in large e­mail messages.