Little document about using Microsoft Exchange as your email program
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Before I get started, I would like to point out that a wealth of 
information is available over the Internet.  I do not intent to repeat 
that information here, there is just too much; I will just try and hit 
the highlights.  I would also like to point out that I do not represent 
Microsoft or CompuServe.  I just am just someone who had a problem with 
WinCIM and was able to solve it with Microsoft Exchange; it helps to be 
a programmer.


Here are some Internet sites that you might find of interest
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I have found lots of information about MS Exchange at the web sites 
that follow.  There were many more sites, but these were my favorite.

   Microsoft Windows 95 Detailed Questions and Answers February 1996
   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/qa/qa.htm

   Getting Started Guide: Introduction to Microsoft Exchange
   http://www.lsusd.lsumc.edu/csvc/docs/Exchange/Schplus.htm

   Ben Goetter's Microsoft Exchange Frequently Asked Questions
   http://www.halcyon.com/goetter/exclifaq.htm

   Jerry's Windows 95 E-Mail & News Page Lots of interesting mail 
   programs and add-ons
   http://www.syspac.com/~jbaldwin/email.html

   Detailed document about how to setup MS Exchange
   http://www.almac.co.uk/almac/services/email.html

   PC Week review of Microsoft Exchange
   http://www.pcweek.com/sr/0821/tmail.html


Answer to some common questions
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Q: Is Windows 95 required to run MS Exchange?
A: Yes

Q: Is MS Exchange free?
A: Yes, it comes with Windows 95.

Q: Does that mean I have to cancel my CompuServe service?
A: No.  Microsoft Exchange is not the same as the Microsoft Network 
   (MSN). In fact, you can use MS Exchange to receive email from both 
   CompuServe and MSN.

Q: Once I start using MS Exchange, do I have to stop using WinCIM?
A: No, but you might want to be consistent where you send or where 
   you receive mail.

Q: If CSMAIL can already be used to retrieve CompuServe mail, then 
   what would CS2Exchange be used for?
A: CS2Exchange would only be used once to import all the old WinCIM 
   messages into MS Exchange.  This type of utility would appeal to 
   the person that likes to save everything.  If you typically delete 
   messages after reading them, then CS2Exchange is not the utility 
   for you.

Q: What was that "begin 600 WINMAIL.DAT" stuff at the end of the message?
A: Microsoft has a document that explains the problem and a solution. 
   Actually, Ben Goetter's page is where I first found the problem 
   documented. I tried to prevent you from seeing this stuff, but 
   caught it too late.
      http://www.microsoft.com/kb/bussys/exchange/q136204.htm

Interesting MS Exchange Features
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If you were using MS Exchange now, and I knew it in advance, I could 
send you a fancy document with bitmaps that describe the advantages 
of MS Exchange. But since I don't know if you are using MS Exchange, 
I must try and describe the features with text alone.  I'm going to 
try and keep this document short, so if you want more information on 
a specific feature, just ask.  If you want specific instructions on 
how to use the CSMAIL transport from CompuServe, I can send you a 
document on that topic.

1) An elaborate folder list. Folders can contain folders that can 
   contain folders.  Folders can also contain text files, documents, 
   spreadsheets and faxes.  Folders can be customized to display 
   message attributes that have been sorted by any of the attributes, 
   like date, size or sender.  Other message attributes include 
   Importance, Category, Comments, Company, Keywords, Security, 
   Sensitivity, and Title.  You can password protect your personal 
   folders to keep others out.

2) There is a search tool that allows you to specify a particular 
   sender, a particular receiver, a subject, or some text in the body.  
   The search can by narrowed by message size, message date, and order 
   of importance.  The best part about the search feature is that the 
   results of the search can be dragged to the appropriate folder in 
   MS Exchange.

3) An advanced feature of MS Exchange is the ability to read Internet 
   or CompuServe mail from more than one account.  This would allow 
   multiple users to share the same machine but have separate email.  
   This feature is a tad complicated to setup, but there are a number 
   of books and Internet document that can wall you through it.

4) MS Exchange can send faxes directly out of the email program.  You 
   might think that this would put WinFAX PRO out of business, but, 
   instead, WinFAX PRO 7.0 was written to take advantage of this feature.

5) MS Exchange can send and receive email from CompuServe, 
   America Online, Microsoft Network and the Internet.

6) Mail can be sent with attachments using the MIME format.  The MIME 
   format is a standard that allows files to be transferred through a 
   variety of computers.  This feature will allow you to send documents 
   and spreadsheets to your friends.  If a particular friend is also 
   using MS Exchange, you can send mail that includes formatting like 
   bold, italics and various fonts.  This feature can be enabled and 
   disabled for each friend.

7) MS Exchange supports MAPI, which means you can send a message from 
   within most Windows 95 programs.  Even the Paint program has a Send 
   menu option.

8) When you reply to a message, the original text is placed at the 
   bottom. WinCIM can do this, but it will cost you extra.

9) MS Exchange can check your spelling.  Actually, this feature only 
   applies if you have the spelling checking in Microsoft Office 95 
   installed.  You can get WinCIM to check your spelling, but again, 
   it will cost extra.

10) The address book can contain groups of people.  Address Book 
    can contain fax and email addresses.  The addresses in the Address 
    Book can also contain personal information like Title, Company, 
    Department, Office, mailing address, and a variety of phone numbers.


Now for the down side of MS Exchange
---------------------------------

It is a memory hog.  I can't give specifics on how much memory is 
required, but suffice it to say that you should not keep MS Exchange 
running all the time unless you have over 16M RAM.  My suggestion is 
to just run it when you want to check your mail.

There were a large number of people who responded to my survey with 
disdain toward MS Exchange.  The biggest complaint was the time it 
took to load MS Exchange.  There were a number of people that 
complained about an interface that was not intuitive.  I disagree, 
but then I have a programmer's viewpoint.  (I was pleasantly surprised 
that I could drag messages over to MS Explorer and drag files over to 
MS Exchange.)


Interesting MS Exchange Add-ons
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Exchange was designed with add-ons in mind, which is probably why it is slow.  
Here are a few examples:
1) Deming Preview - adds a preview window to the MS Exchange client. 
   http://www.deming.com/preview/preview.exe
2) Internet Idioms - appends boilerplate text to outgoing messages. 
   http://www.halcyon.com/goetter/inetxidm.zip
3) MailAlert - reduced memory utility for monitoring incoming mail. 
   http://www.diamondridge.com/diamond/software/mailalert/mailalert.zip
4) Microsoft Internet Mail and Newsreader - Latest program from Microsoft. 
   http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/Mailnews95.exe
5) PGP Extension - sign, encrypt and decrypt messages within MS Exchange. 
   http://homepage.interaccess.com/~jon/PGPEXT.ZIP
6) Voice Email - create and send voice email. 
   http://www.bonzi.com/voicemsm/voicemsm.htm


Paul
CS2Exchange Software
cs2exchg@ma.ultranet.com

End of Document.

