4. Mail
Contents
- The Message List
- Reading Mail
- Mark As:
- Moving/Copying Messages
- Delete/Undelete Messages
- Blacklist/Whitelist Senders
- Forwarding Email
- Message Composition
- Message Search
- Folders
- Filters
- Printing
- Sorting and Threading Messages
The Message List
The Message List is a list of all the visible messages in a particular mail folder. You may use the Left and Right arrow keys on your keyboard (or click on the Previous or Next arrows in the upper right corner of your screen) to jump to the previous or next page messages
Reading Mail
You may view the contents of a message by clicking on its Subject in the Message List.
While viewing a message, you can use the Left and Right arrow keys on your keyboard to go to the previous or next message, respectively.
If you want to view several messages at once, you may click the checkbox next to the messages you wish to view and click the "View Messages" link at the top of the message list.
If you do not wish to use the mouse, you can use your keyboard to select and view messages in your message list. In order to move between messages, use the Up and Down arrow keys while holding the Control (Ctrl) key. To begin at the bottom of the page, press Ctrl + Up; to begin at the top of the page , press Ctrl + Down. The current message is highlighted just as if you were mousing over it. To select or deselect a message, press the spacebar. To view that message, press the return key. To automatically select or deselect messages, hold down the Alt key while navigating through the message list.
Mark As:
When your message first arrives, it is Unseen. After you have opened or read it, it automatically becomes Seen. Messages which have been replied to are marked as Answered and messages that have been moved or deleted are marked as Deleted. You can manually mark a message or messages by selecting the messages (clicking on the checkbox to their left) and selecting the appropriate state for them from the pulldown menu and clicking Mark As:
- Seen: A message you have opened at least once
- Unseen: A message that you have not yet opened and read
- Answered: A message that you have replied to.
- Unanswered: A message you had replied to but now want to set as 'not replied to'
- Flagged for Followup: A message that you have flagged as important.
- Not Flagged: A message you had flagged for followup, but now want set to 'normal' importance.
- Deleted: A message marked to be deleted when the mail folder is purged.
- Not Deleted: A message previously marked to be deleted, but you now want set to 'normal'.
- Draft message: A message that you have saved to work on and send later.
- Not Draft: A message that you had previously marked as a Draft, but now want set as a normal message.
Moving/Copying Messages
While viewing messages in the message list, you may move or copy messages to a different folder by clicking the checkbox next to the message and selecting the destination folder from the pulldown menu next to the words Move|Copy. Once you have selected the destination folder, click the appropriate function, Move or Copy. Moving a message removes it from the current folder, Copy simply makes a copy in the new destination.
If you are viewing a message, you may move or copy it in a similar way, select the destination folderfrom the pulldown menu next to the words Move|Copy and click on either move or copy as appropriate.
Tip: You can move/copy messages to Tasks and/or Notes if you want to leave yourself a reminder to follow up on something but want to clean up your mailbox.
Delete/Undelete Messages
When viewing messages in the message list, you may mark them for deletion or remove the mark for deletion by clicking the checkbox next to the message(s) you wish to delete or undelete and select the function Delete or Undelete from the function list just above the message list.
If you are viewing a particular message, you may Delete or Undelete it by clicking on the appropriate function from the function list just above the message headers.
Blacklist/Whitelist Senders
When viewing messages in the message list, you may add their senders to the blacklist or whitelist by clicking the checkbox next to the message(s) and selecting Blacklist or Whitelist from the function list just above the message list.
If you are viewing a particular message, you may Blacklist or Whitelist its sender by clicking on the appropriate function from the function list just above the message headers.
Forwarding Email
When forwarding an email, you have several choices
Forwarding from the Mailbox View
In the mailbox view, you can forward multiple messages at the same time. Each message that you select will be sent, in its entirety, to your recipients. You will see each message as an attachment in your compose window. On the receiving end, the recipient(s) will see each email as an embedded email. To do this, select the messages to be sent by placing a check in the box on the left. Once the messages have been selected, click on Forward. A New Message box will appear. Complete the recipient, subject and text information. Click Send Message.
Forwarding from the Message View
When forwarding individual messages in the message view, you can choose from three different options:
- Entire Message: This option will attach the entire message to your email. The compose area will not contain any text from the forwarded message. This is the same as forwarding a single email from the mailbox view, except that the Subject: line will be set for you. Click on Forward and select Entire Message.
- Body Text Only: If you only want to forward the body of the email, choose this option. Any attachments to the original email will not be included in your forward. The text will appear in the compose area, and you can edit it if you wish or add your own comments. Click on Forward and select Body Text Only.
- Body Text with Attachments: To forward the attachments of an email along, along with the body as described in #2 Body Text Only, use this option. The body text will be placed in the compose area for you to edit, and all attachments to the original message will be copied to your forward. Click on Forward and select Body Text with Attachments.
Message Composition
To write a message, click "New Message" in the upper left corner of the EduMail Advanced Mail screen
Actions
The Send Message button transmits your email message to the intended recipient(s). Make sure you do want to send your message, as this action is final and cannot be reversed.
The Save Draft button places an unfinished message in a folder called Drafts accessible through the folder drop-down box at the top-right of your screen. You can then finish the message later by switching to the Drafts folder, clicking on the saved message to open it, and then clicking on Resume. Be sure to record a Subject before you save the draft so that you can easily identify which message you want within the Drafts folder.
You can change whether you are returned to the last folder you were viewing or back to the same message after saving a message as a draft by selecting the Options icon. Choose the Mail Options Application. Select Message Composition. Select or deselect the Should the compose window be closed after saving a draft? box.
The Cancel Message button discards the message in progress and simply returns you to the last folder you were viewing.
Writing a Message
Choose the Identity. Unless you have added another identity, this will always be the Default Identity. Enter the correct email address of the recipient of your message. This can be done using the To, Cc (carbon copy) or Bcc (blind carbon copy) lines. Carbon copies are usually sent to recipients who need not be the direct recipients of the message, but may need to receive the message for their information, usually indirectly concerned about the subject of the email. All "To:" recipients and "Cc:" recipients can see the entire list of both kinds of recipients. Blind carbon copies are usually sent to recipients who may need to read what is being written WITHOUT the other recipients knowing that they are receiving the email. Thus "blind" means that the identity of these recipients is hidden from all other recipients of the email. Only you and the Bcc recipients will know that they received a copy. To enter multiple recipients, separate the email addresses with commas.
Note: Use of any other punctuation to separate multiple email addresses will result in an error.
Enter the subject of your message. It is best to keep the subject short, simple and descriptive. The subject line is the easiest way for you and your correspondents to remember what was in the email, thus is very important in organizing your email and finding important ones later. Also, when you Reply or Forward an email, this subject line is copied over into the new message so that is becomes a valuable way of identifying which messages go together to form a "thread" to an email conversation. As a suggestion, if a replied or forwarded message contains new ideas, you may want to alter slightly the "Subject" line so that recipients can follow the progression of the "thread".
Charset is the character set to send the outgoing message with. The default Charset is Western (ISO-8859-1).
Click Check Spelling to check your spelling. To have EduMail always check the spelling of your message before sending it, select the Options icon. Choose the Mail Application. Click on Message Composition. Check the Check spelling before sending a message? box. Then click the Save Options button.
To attach a document to your mail message, Click Attachments. Click the Browse button and select the file to be attached. The path and name of that file now appears in the Attachment box. Decide whether you want the file to be viewed as an attachment or inline with the rest of the message. The recipient's mail reading software must be able to handle the inline display of the file type, otherwise this part will be viewed as an attachment instead. More than one file can be uploaded to a message. Click Update to immediately view changes or the changes will automatically be performed when the message is sent.
Note: For large files and/or slower Internet connections, the process of uploading and attaching your file to the email may take a while. Please be patient and do not click other links or buttons while you are waiting for a file to upload.
To delete an attached file(s), you must first have clicked Update. Check the Delete button. Click Update to immediately view changes or the changes will automatically be performed when the message is sent.
To change the description for your attachments (the text the recipient will see that describes the attachment), after clicking Update, enter a description into the Description field. Click Update to immediately view changes or the changes will automatically be performed when the message is sent.
To keep a copy of the message you send, select the Save a copy in box. Choose the folder in which you wish to save it. The default is the Sent folder. Saving copies of important emails you send could be useful for record keeping of what was discussed. . To have EduMail always save a copy of your message to a folder before sending it, select the Options icon. Choose the Mail Application. Click on Personal Information. Check the Save sent mail? box. Choose the desired mail folder from the drop-down menu. Then click the Save Options button.
In your options you can also setup maintenance tasks that empty or rename these folders periodically. You may not want to save every email since you could have problems with your disk storage quota being used up quickly, especially when you send large attachments. A mailbox with full storage quota will not be able to receive new incoming email.
Message Search
Search Criteria
You may search for messages from your folders using different search criteria. To conduct a search, click the Search icon. Enter text to the fields you want to add to your search criteria. Select the message flag(s) to add to your search criteria. Select the folder(s) from which to search for the messages. Click Search.
If any messages matched your search criteria, they will appear in the Search Results view.
Folders
Folder Actions
You can access the Mail folders by clicking the Folders icon. Select folders by clicking the check box to the left of the desired folder(s). To select all folders at once, click the check box to the left of the drop-down menu. Next, select the action you wish to perform on the folders via the drop-down menu above. Folder actions include create, rename, delete, empty, purge, etc.
Create
New folders can be created to help organize mail messages. To create a folder in the base level, from the Folder Navigator, select Create from the drop-down menu without selecting a folder. EduMail will not allow you to create Subfolders (folders within folders).
Rename
To rename a folder, from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Rename from the drop-down menu. Type in the new folder name. Click OK. When renaming, all subfolder paths will automatically be renamed.
Delete
To delete a folder and all messages inside the folder, from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Delete from the drop-down menu. When deleting a folder with subfolders, these subfolders will not be automatically deleted. To remove them, you must manually select all the desired folders by clicking the check box to the left.
Empty
To delete all messages inside a folder, but not delete the folder itself, from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Empty from the drop-down menu. Click Empty Selected Folders.
Purge
To delete all messages inside a folder marked as deleted, but not delete the folder itself, from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Purge from the drop-down menu. This option only appears if not using a trash folder.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
When a folder is subscribed, it will appear in all drop-down folder lists. (These options only appear if using IMAP folder subscriptions.) To subscribe, from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Subscribe from the drop-down menu. To unsubscribe, make sure Show Unsubscribed is selected. Select Unsubscribe from the drop-down menu. You can choose to Show Unsubscribed or Hide Unsubscribed folders by clicking on this option located to the right of the drop-down menu.
Mark All Messages as Seen/Unseen
To mark all messages in a folder as seen, from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Mark All Messages as Seen from the drop-down menu. To mark all messages in a folder as unseen, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Mark All Messages as Unseen from the drop-down menu.
Download
To download all messages in a folder in a single file (mbox format), from the Folder Navigator, select the desired folder(s) folder by clicking the check box to the left. Select Download from the drop-down menu. To download the file in ZIP compressed format, instead select Download [.zip format].
Show/Hide Unsubscribed
You can choose to Show Unsubscribed or Hide Unsubscribed folders by clicking on this option located to the right of the drop-down menu in the Folder Navigator. To subscribe or unsubscribe to a folder, select the checkbox next to the foldername and use the Subscribe or Unsubscribe action in the drop-down menu.
Expand All
To expand all folder entries within the Folder Navigator, select the Expand All option.
Collapse All
To collapse all folder entries within the Folder Navigator, select the Collapse All option.
Virtual Inbox
Virtual Inbox is a saved search that does away with the need to search every mailbox for messages marked as new. Instead, all currently subscribed mailboxes are searched for new messages and the results are displayed in a single mailbox.
Filters
Apply Filters
Click on the Apply Filter icon next to the folder name in the mailbox view to filter all messages according to the specified rules.
Printing
To print a message you are viewing, click on the "Print" link at either the top or bottom of the message. The message will open in a new window formatted for printing. Depending on your web browser and operating system, the print dialog box may open for you. If it does not open, then pull down the web browser's File menu and choose Print to open the print dialog box.
Sorting and Threading Messages
Sorting Entries
When viewing a list of messages, you can sort the messages by any column by clicking on the appropriate column heading. To switch columns between ascending and descending order, click on the arrow icon in the column heading.
Threading
To group messages by threads (subject), so each message is grouped with all its replies, click the [Thread] link in the subject column heading. To return to normal subject sorting, click on the [Subject] link in the subject column heading.
Last updated on March 17, 2009