It may vary with the version of OE that you use, but shouldn't matter that you're on Win98.

In OE, click "View" on the Toolbar, and then "columns," and make sure that you're displaying the date(s) you want to see. You can choose "sent" or "received" or both to view.

Under "View" you can also select "Sort by" but only the displayed columns are available there. If you don't display it, you can't sort on it.

You can also, in any folder, click on the header bar to change the sort. If you click the "From" column, for example, your mail will be sorted by sender. Click the same column again and the order will be reversed.

When you click a header to change how things are sorted, the dots in "View" - "Sort by" are moved, so whatever you clicked last remains your "default sort" until you change it again.

If the way your messages are sorted seems to have changed, it's likely that you've clicked a header bar and thus changed your selection of how they should sort. Just click the bar at the top of the "Received" or "Sent" column to re-sort them. Click again if they sort in the wrong order (last top or earliest top)

You should be aware that some messages may have "floatable dates." MSN and Hotmail are common offenders in sending messages that change their date to the current date every time you open them. This way it always looks like the message just arrived. One or two such in your inbox shouldn't confuse your sorts, but if you let a lot of these "magic messages" accumulate they could mess up your listings.

John