Using the OE Wizard
Have you ever made a stat or a topper in the OE Wizard, only to find that it's not quite the way you want it to look? The background is missing, or the font isn't what you wanted, or the text isn't quite positioned correctly? There is an easy fix to these problems, and more. You just have to know where to look!
Many people these days are using 1024X768 screen resolutions. But even if you are using a smaller screen resolution, the Wizard will help you put your topper where you want it every time. If you are unsure of what resolution you are using right now, go to your control panel and click on display. It will tell you under "settings". But be advised, if you make your toppers to fit an 800x600 screen resolution, they will not display properly on the larger resolutions.
So, let's begin.
Do you have a file set up on your computer for your eml files? If not, make one up and put it on your desktop or somewhere where you can access it easily. From now on, you will be going to this file to get these beautiful stationeries that you will be making. My file is set up like this, with different files for different occasions:
To begin, make your topper in PSP. If you do not have one...I have provided one for you in the zip file here. This topper is for screen resolution 1024x768.If you are making your own...remember to write down the color you wish to use for your background before you close up PSP! If you are using my topper, the background color is #FDFDCB.
The first thing we are going to make is a topper with a plain, colored background. I will show you how to do one with a patterned background in part 3 of this tutorial.
After you have your topper and the background color written down, open up the Wizard. You do this by opening Outlook Express, going to the envelop icon below File in the top, left-hand corner of your screen. Pull down the menu and select "select stationery" as below:
This will open up a window that looks like this. Click on "create new":
The Wizard will welcome you! Click Next and you will see a window that looks like this:
Browse to the folder where your topper is by clicking on "browse". Position should read "top" and "center" and below that, "do not tile". Leave the color as default for now. We will change that later. Click "next" when you're finished.
The next box will take you to your font selections. Choose which one you wish to use, but remember, the font you choose will only be visible on the recipients computer if they have it installed on their computer, so try and stick with a default font. Choose your color, and the size, but don't worry too much about the color if it isn't what you want. I'm going to show you how to change it after we're finished in the Wizard. Click "next" when you are finished.
The next window will show you where to place your margins. I choose 100 for the left margin, and 350 for the top margin, since that is the height of our topper. Click "next" when you are finished.
The next window will ask you to name your new stat. Don't worry about this name too much, because we are not going to be using the HTML file as our permanent file. Name it something so you can find it easily. We will go back in OE and delete this file later. I named this topper "goodnight bear". A new window will open that looks like this:
Click on OK and your new stat will open. But hummmm, it doesn't quite look like we want it to, does it? It still has a white background below the topper and there's no music. Plus, our text really isn't the size or the color we wanted. So, let's go fix that!