Downloading message bodies in Outlook Express

[ibe98765]

Does anyone know of any setting in OE to download only headers on Usenet, ignoring the message bodies until I decide to read that message? I can't seem to find any setting which lets me do this.

[Gus K]

I don't think there is. You might want to try a real news reader. You may want to give Xnews a shot (free) It also handles the y -enc downloads.

[littlebone]

I, too, recommend Xnews. But I checked my OE because it only downloads headers. I have to double-click on a message to view the contents. I am not sure what I had to do to get OE to have this behavior. If this helps, here are some of my settings:Tools->Options: General Tab (General section)When starting, go directly to my 'Inbox' folder - uncheckedNotify me if there are any new newsgroups - CheckedAutomatically display folders with unread messages - CheckedRead Tab (Reading Messages Section)Mark message read after displaying for [5] seconds - checkedAutomatically expand grouped messages - uncheckedAutomatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane - checkedRead all messages in plain text - uncheckedShow ToolTIps in the message list for clipped items - checkedRead Tab (News Section)Get [300] headers at a time - checkedMark all messages as read when exiting a newsgroup - uncheckedView -> Current ViewShow All Messages is selectedGroup Messages by Conversation is checkedAll other entries in current view are not selected or checkedView -> LayoutPreview Pane sectionShow Preview pane is unchecked.

[Guest LilBambi]

It's been awhile since I used OE, so I looked it up and found a great tutorial on using Outlook Express for Newsgroups at the POV-Ray site (great little program by the way):http://www.povray.org/resources/newsgroups/oetut.php

Reading News Offline If you have the type of internet connection where you pay by the minute to be online, or if your time online is restricted to a few particular hours per day, than you may want to download all the newsgroup messages at once then disconnect and read the messages offline. You can then reconnect later on to send any replies and to retrieve any new messages. With the mouse, highlight a newsgroup in the left hand window of Outlook Express by clicking the right button of the mouse once while the mouse pointer is hovering over the newsgroup name, then go to the menu item File --> Properties and select the Synchronize tab as displayed below in figure 25.Now there will be three more options to chose from: New headers this option only downloads the headers of the messages which includes information about the author, subject and date of the message. You may consider using this option for binary groups, then you can select the discussions that you are interested in and they will be download the next time you synchronize the newsgroups. New messages (headers and bodies) this option downloads all of the new messages in this newsgroup, including the header information and the bodies of the messages. You'll probably want to use this option for the text based groups such as povray.general and povry.newusers etc. All messages (headers and bodies) this option will download all available messages in the group, so if you have set a download limit of 500 messages in Tools --> Options on the Read tab, then this limit will be overridden. When you have made your selection either press the Return/Enter key or with the mouse click on OK. Make sure these properties are set for each group that you are subscribed to and then to synchronize/download the newsgroup messages select Tools --> Synchronize All. At this point if you are not connected to the internet you will be prompted to connect, follow these prompts and you will see the newsgroups downloading as displayed below in figure 27. Here you can check the Hang up when finished box and Outlook Express will automatically drop the internet connection when all of your messages have been downloaded. Alternatively you can leave the box unchecked and disconnect using your usual method. To download individual threads/discussions highlight a message in that thread, then select the menu item Tools --> Mark for Offline --> Download Conversation Later, you will see a blue arrow appear next to that thread and the thread will be downloaded next time you synchronize.

This part of the tutorial, with the figures noted above are toward the bottom of the page.Hope this helps.

[ibe98765]

Question resolved! I figured it out.How to set up to read headers only in Outlook Express newsgroups:- Click on the news account in the left hand pane (note: NOT the newsgroup). - In the right hand pane you will get the Synchronize menu. - Select one or any combo of the newsgroups there for the setting to apply to. Make sure the checkbox under synchronization settings is checked on.- Click the Settings button. It is here that you will have a choice of "All messages", "New messages" or "Headers only".Under Tools-Options-Read there is an option for "Automatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane". If you turn this on, then when you are looking at messages and click on one (and are connected), the message will be downloaded and displayed automatically in the preview pane. If you turn this setting off, then when you click on a message in the group you are reading, you will see a message in the preview pane saying that the message body was not downloaded. Pressing the space bar will automatically download it (if you are connected).I've spelled this out in detail so that others can find it in the future through the search.