I am using Windows ME and Outlook Express 6. I wanted to know how to
eliminate the scroll bar at the bottom of the page when I am trying to
send a letter to someone. The scroll bar appears when I get to the end
of the first line at the far right side of the page. I wanted to be
able to set Outlook up to be able to drop to the next line
automatically without me having to hit the Enter key.

Hi Scoobie ~

What you're describing is easy enough to do by turning on or enabling
"text wrap" in Outlook Express 6.

To do that:

1. Click on Tools - a drop down menu will appear. Scroll down to
   the bottom.

2. Click on Options - and a popup window should appear.

3. Click on the Send tab - about half way down the page is an area
   entitled "Mail Sending Format"

4. Click on Plain Text, and click on the Plain Text Settings.

5. Where it says Automatically wrap text at "  " characters, you can
   set that. Usually 65 to 70 is a safe number for anyone receiving 
   or sending email. Click on OK to close.

6. Click on 'apply' to close the next window and then 'OK' to close
   that.

Give that a try, if it's still a bit too wide, you can adjust the
numbers to be a bit smaller, but I'd not go too much smaller than 60,
as your mail that people get may look a bit strange if they have
certain adjustments on their own email software.

Note that this setting only applies to messages you send in plain
text. Email that contain rich HTML formatting automatically wrap to
the recipient's window size.

You can read about this and some other adjustments for Outlook Express
on About.Com, here:
   - http://email.about.com/cs/oetipstricks/a/et042001.htm


==============

Search Strategy
   - Outlook Express: Text Wrap


Hope this helps,
Serenata

---

Request for Answer Clarification by scoobie-ga on 10 Sep 2003 23:59 PDT

Your answer is the same I received from 2 other sources. I tried this
before and it does not eliminate the scroll bar that appears at the
bottom of the page when you get to the end of the first line that you
type. I wanted to be able to go to the second line and suceeding lines
automatically without hitting the Enter key.

---

Clarification of Answer by serenata-ga on 11 Sep 2003 06:12 PDT

Hi again Scoobie ~

Thanks for your Request for Clarification.

If two people have already told you the same thing about to change
Outlook Express's line width to wrap automatically and it's not
working, then we need to figure out what it is that is causing these
settings NOT to work in your case.

As you can see, the way you were told in the standard way to adjust
that line width, and if it's not working for you, there is a
possibility there may be a glitch in your Outlook Express and need to
reinstall it or there's something in your computer which will not
accept these settings.

Before we get to that point, though, you might supply some information
which may help troubleshoot this:

What size window are you currently using to send outgoing email? (ie.,
full screen? smaller? Is it wide enough to hand the setting you have?)

What size font (default font) are you using? (it defaults to Times
Roman as a rule, about 12 pt)

What is the line width you have set? That is, is the window for
creating email wide enough to accommodate the line width you have set?

As you using PLAIN text, and not Rich text for your email? (click the
format tab while you are composing outgoing email)

Are you using just a plain space between the words, and NOT a Ctrl
Space, which will produce one long line of text?

Are you copying/pasting really long URLs or other unbroken material
which would not necessarily break at the line width you have set?

Are you using any graphics or background graphics or stationery that
might produce this effect?

You might want to check your newsgroup mailing size as well, to make
sure it is the same size as your plain text settings and that they
agree.

Outlook Express by default is set at 76 spaces wide, so it should have
wrapped at that length in the first place.

 ===============

If you are not doing anything different than other users, there is the
possibility you may need to reinstall the Outlook Express in the hopes
it 'fixes' what isn't working for you or to make it work as it should.

Start with the above questions, and specifically make sure you are
indeed using plain text with no stationery or any kind of graphic as a
part of your email for starters and see if it works.

Hope this helps,
Serenata

The Clarification the Researcher sent me solved my problem. I scanned
through the information and found that I was producing one long line
of text and this was not allowing the feature in Outlook Express to
take hold. For example I was typing kkkkkkklllllllllooooo across the
page from the left margin to the right. There were no spaces in
between. Testing it this way is not the way a person normally types.
When a person normally types there are spaces between letters. Once I
typed normally to the end of the first line the wrap feature took
effect and it went to the second line and the third and suceeding
lines automatically. In essence I was producing one long unbroken line
of text. Thanks so much for solving my problem. I included a 10.00
tip. Thank you Serenata-ga

Thank you Scoobie ...

I must admit, I didn't think you were typing one long line (over the
number of characters you had set your wrap for), and I'm thrilled you
found the answer without having to reinstall or 'fix' Outlook Express.

I have seen this happen, though, even here on Google Answers, when we
have long URLs which get added unbroken. All of a sudden, we've got a
scrollbar at the bottom.

And thank you for your generous tip, that was a very nice thing to do.

Serenata