Manage Mailing Lists with Outlook Express for Macintosh

Fortunately, Outlook Express has already filled out the "List address" with the right email address. You should nevertheless check this field whenever you set up a new mailing list profile. Sometimes, Outlook Express might insert a wrong value and this could have embarrassing consequences for you. You should always be able to retrieve the right address from the list's welcome letter.

The next step is to tell Outlook Express where to put all messages coming from the list. It is a good idea to set up a folder dedicated solely to a specific list (maybe you can collect a number of newsletter-style lists in a folder called "Newsletters"). I created a new folder for the Linux kernel mailing list called "Linux Kernel". (You can create a new folder if you choose "Choose folder..." from the drop-down list and then "New".)

Outlook Express can not only filter all messages coming from the list in the folder but also all messages you send to the list. This is very handy option, especially if you chose not to get your own messages from the list. This way there will be no holes in the threads where your messages should be.

With the option immediately below the filtering options you can turn off all other filters ("rules" in Outlook Express jargon) for messages coming from the mailing list. Turning this on and thus all other filters off usually does no harm, having other rules applied to mailing list messages sometimes can create confusion, so you will probably make use of this option.

And then there is a huge field for "Notes:". Surprisingly, there is a very good use for a huge field for notes in a mailing list profile. Here you can copy and paste the unsubscribe information (or any other information) from the mailing list's welcome message.

With the Linux kernel list, there is unsubscription information at the end of every message sent through the list. Copying that information to the mailing list's profile does not seem necessary. But still it may be helpful -- if you want to unsubscribe when there is no traffic on the list, for example.

With the information added, the dialog looks like this:

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If you now close the dialog with OK to add the profile, Outlook Express asks whether you want to add the list address to your address book. This is a good idea.

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Advanced Options

Revisiting the rule just created for the Linux kernel mailing list, you find there is a tab for "Advanced" options, too.

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From the other list addresses that can be inserted at the top of the tab, the most useful probably is the "List server address". This is the email address all mailing list commands (such as for subscription or unsubscription) must be sent. Let's add majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu here. The "alternate" and "list administrator" addresses are not so important. We leave them blank.

Under "Actions", you can for example specify a color that should be applied to all messages from the list. That's how you can detect them if you choose not to file them to a certain folder, for example.

Another interesting option is to automatically burst a digest of messages in its pieces of individual emails. In a digest, all messages sent to the list on a day (for example) are combined into one big email. This way, you get all the discussion without getting hundreds of individual email messages.

Finally comes the option to overcome the replying problem we had at the beginning. You can set up Outlook Express to always automatically use the list address when you reply to a message on the list.

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Now, whenever you reply to a mailing list message, it will certainly go to everybody on the list.