In addition to being the tool for managing your e-mail, Outlook Express manages newsgroups. With Outlook Express, you can subscribe to newsgroups from the Sympatico.ca news server, as well as read and post newsgroup messages.

1. Launch Outlook Express. If Microsoft Internet Explorer is open, you can access your mail by clicking the Mail button on the Internet Explorer toolbar (click and hold with Macintosh), then selecting Read News in the pop-up menu. Otherwise, launch Outlook Express from the start menu (on Macintosh, double-click the Outlook Express icon).
2. Click the Sympatico.ca folder (or one of the newsgroups within it) in the folder list in the left-hand pane of the Outlook Express window.

The fist time you run Outlook Express, you will be asked if you want to download the entire list of newsgroups from the server. You will need this list in order to know what newsgroups you can subscribe to.

The Outlook Express news window

The Outlook Express news window on Windows

The Outlook Express news window on Macintosh

The Sympatico.ca news server is represented by a folder in the folder list (just like your Inbox e-mail folder). If you click the + ( with Macintosh) next to the Sympatico.ca folder, you will see names of the newsgroups you are currently subscribed to. However, when you first start with the Sympatico version of Outlook Express, you are not subscribed to any newsgroups.