Email Essentials

E-Mail Essentials

Mail Protocols (Rules governing transmitting and receiving of data):

POP (Post Office protocol) - just like getting your mail home and reading it there- when you open your mailbox, the messages are downloaded to your local hard drive from which you can then read it off-line. To save connect time, one can compose message while not connected and choosing deferred delivery ® send. Upon connection, the message is sent

IMAP - requires that you stay connected to send and read messages. To download your mail to the local drive see Saving Mail to the H: drive at http://www.stfx.ca/TSG/Documents/folders.html

Getting ready to receive mail messages: Set your Identity by choosing EDIT ® Preferences ® Under Mail & Groups, select Identity ® Type your name ® Type your complete e-mail address

Set preferences in Messages: check; quote original message when replying and send copy of message sent to Sent Box. Also wrap text after 72 characters. You may wish to check other preferences as well . See the TSG documentation: Netscape Messenger Preferences athttp://www.stfx.ca/TSG/Documents/Netscape_Messenger_Preferences.html

Replying to a message: Click on message header you want to reply to, click Reply button – Reply to sender

Go to message section and add your text wherever you want

Click on Send button

Forwarding messages:

While message is highlighted

Click on Forward button

Add a message to the message section if you wish

Click Send button

Removing unwanted letters (Sending them to the Trash folder)

Click on message header and then click on Delete button

If more than one letter is to be deleted, hold down the CTRL key and then click succeeding headers to select them. The SHIFT key in combination with a click will select all messages in between. Emptying trash Folder

Deleted messages remain in the trash until emptied. They can be retrieved if still wanted. (At WEBFx all mail in trash cannot be retrieved)

Click onto Trash folder, click on File à Empty Trash Folder

Filing messages into selected folders

Create folders to hold messages according to content

To create a mail folder called Info 130 within your mailbox, click Mail on Imap.stfx.ca in the location box. Click on New Folder button. A text box opens for you to name the new folder which will be a sub folder of Mail on imap.stfx.ca. Click OK

Filing messages to selected folders

While reading message, click on File button à select the folder to which you want the message filed. The message is deleted from the inbox and now appears in the folder you have chosen.

Attaching files to your mail – such as Documents containing text, images, spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations

Begin composing a new letter with To: address filled in

Click on Attach button à File (You may also attach a web page and address card) à browse for File name in the appropriate directory à Open (Path and file name will be displayed)

Most often, it is best to attach the files as text files or as lower versions of other application files because they are usually upwards compatible, unless you are going from and to systems using the same software.

Type subject and message areas as usual

Attaching a Signature file to your outgoing messages - some people like to attach witty quotations to the end of their messages and change them now and then.

1. Create a short file in notepad containing your name with important information about yourself, and some sort of saying if you wish. Save it to your home directory with file name

sig.txt

2. While in Messenger, click Edit --> Preferences® Mail & News ® type in location of directory in which sig file is located Send a Web Page by e-mail - this is not advised since it may send too large a file to be accepted by the recipient's mail server. While viewing a page which you deem interesting to the receiver, click on File à Send page à insert address of recipient ( In the message pane you only see the URL or address of the Web page)à Send

Be cautious about this because they can be very large files. It is better to send someone the link alone within the mail message and if preferences are set to HTML, the receiver can just click on the link to go to the page you wish them to see.

Reading messages with attached files

Message is directly readable with the same systems on sending and receiving end

When receiving on some systems, attachments may have to be saved first and read later with the correct software application. Creating a Distribution List in your Address Book (Addressing several people at one time- gets your messages out efficiently to family, friends, and associates)) Click on Communicator à Address Book à New List à Fill in Nickname <Enter> for each name on the list à when finished, click OK

Using your address book when sending mail
While addressing a message: click the address book button and select the person or distribution list à click on To: or CC: à click on OK

Alternatively, you can type the nickname of the person or the list in the TO: field

Finding People's E-mail addresses: Telephone them and ask them – that is the low tech and easiest way

Find them at Queen's University at http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html

Go to the University or their work organization's Home Page and Search their Student/Staff E-mail directory

Subscribing to a Mailing List - or discussion forum. There are thousands of lists discussing every imaginable topic (gardening to Survivor talk). Lists can be public or private, moderated or unmoderated, you may receive every message from the group or you may receive a daily digest of all the messages. Membership can range from a handful to thousands of subscribers. Generally the more subscribers the greater the traffic flow of messages. To subscribe to a listserv, the following general instructions are usually followed. However, this can vary so you need to get the proper subscription instructions for each list you want to join.

To Subscribe:

In the mail to text box, enter the address of the list server that hosts the list.

In the message window, type subscribe list name. Then click on send.
You are then sent a message that you are subscribed or you may be required to confirm your subscription.

Our Class Mailing Listserv - will allow me and all the members of the class to make announcements to all of the members at once.

Subscribe to the Class discussion forum called Info 130.12 or Info 130.14 depending on your section at

http://listproc.stfx.ca/scripts/lyris.pl?site=stfx&page=topic&topic=academic&text_mode=0

Click on Join Info13012 or Info13014. Fill in the 1st four blanks. Type in your complete email address. Then click on Save

Filtering Mail - allows your mail server to file incoming messages into pre-selected folders

Sending incoming messages directly to pre-selected folders Click on Edit à Mail Filters à New à Specify the criteria for selection of messages and give the name of the folder into which these messages should be moved.

Click radio button filter to on à OK
Applying the above filters to your mail allows you to control unwanted junk mail from filling up your inbox by deleting or sending selected mail directly into the trash folder.

For a detailed description on how to Create Mail Filters, see: http://www.stfx.ca/TSG/Documents/Creating_Mail_Filters.html To Log out --> Start --> Shutdown --> login as different user (Never leave your computer without login off first)

Please report any corrections to:
Ram Palanisamy at rpalanis@stfx.ca