Outlook Express Grouped Messages (plus ( + ) sign)

When many people participate in e-mail and newsgroup conversations, the replies to a given message can be hard to track. You can set up Outlook Express so that message replies are grouped under the original message. You can then choose to view only the original message or the message and all its replies by clicking on the plus ( + ) sign or minus ( - ) sign next to messages. The options to turn it on and off are detailed below.

** Note ** Conversations are grouped according to the title of the original message. For example, if the message that starts a conversation is titled "Ideas for using Outlook Express," all replies to that message will be titled "RE: Ideas for using Outlook Express."

De-activate grouped messages (no plus ( + ) sign or  minus ( – ) sign)

If you do not like the feature where your messages are grouped together and it has some how just started grouping the messages and adding the plus ( + ) sign (like what happened in my situation) then open Outlook Express and choose View > Current View > then take the tick out of Group Messages by Conversation. You should now be able to view your messages individually with no plus ( + ) sign or minus ( – ) sign next to messages.

Activate grouped messages (with a plus ( + ) sign or  minus ( – ) sign)

If this is a feature you want then open Outlook Express and choose View > Current View > then put a tick in Group Messages by Conversation. To display expanded conversations automatically for all messages, on the Tools menu, click Options, click the Read tab, and then select Automatically expand grouped messages. To display the original message and all replies to it, double-click the plus ( + ) sign to the left of the original message. To display only the original message, double-click the minus ( – ) sign next to the message.