%brandDTD; ]>
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups lets you conveniently manage all your Internet communications from one place. You can set up and maintain multiple business and personal mail accounts and Internet newsgroups, all from one window — the Mail & Newsgroups window. In addition, you can access both Netscape Webmail and AOL mail accounts from within the Mail & Newsgroups window.
To start using &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups:
Mail & Newsgroups icon |
In this section:
Getting Started with &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups Importing Mail from Other Programs Getting Started with Newsgroups |
To set up a mail or newsgroup account, first open the Window menu and choose Mail & Newsgroups. If you haven't already set up an account, the Account Wizard appears automatically, enabling you to set up an account.
The Account Wizard guides you through the process of creating a new account. If you don't know a setting, click Cancel and ask your Internet service provider (ISP) or help desk.
If an account already exists, the Account Wizard doesn't appear automatically when the Mail window opens. Instead, after opening the Mail window, open the File menu and choose New, then Account. For more details, see Setting Up Additional Mail & News Accounts.
America Online (AOL) is one of the most popular Internet service providers. Netscape Webmail is a free mail service that's easy to use and is accessible from anywhere.
If you already have an AOL or Netscape Webmail account, you can use the Account Wizard set up &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to access mail from your account. From the Edit menu, choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings, and then click Add Account.
If you don't already have a Netscape Webmail account, you can sign up for a free account by clicking the "Free Webmail" icon in the folder pane.
Note: AOL Instant Messenger must be installed in order to set up and use an AOL or Netscape Webmail account. (AOL Instant Messenger is installed by default when you installed &brandShortName;).
Before you set up a mail account, your ISP or email provider should give you the following information:
Before you set up a newsgroup account, your ISP or email provider should give you the following information:
To set up a new mail or newsgroup account, begin from the Mail window:
The information requested by the Account Wizard depends on the type of new account you specify in its first window. The boldface headings that follow correspond to the windows you'll see when you're setting up an ISP or email provider account.
You must also provide the name of your incoming mail server and your outgoing (SMTP) server here. This is the name of the mail server that sends your messages (also known as the SMTP host). Click Next to continue.
Note: You need to specify only one outgoing mail server (SMTP), even if you have several mail accounts. The name of your SMTP host may not have been explicitly listed in the account setup information provided to you. For example, your SMTP host may be the same as your POP or IMAP host. If in doubt, contact your ISP or system administrator.
You are now ready to retrieve messages from your account. For detailed instructions, see Getting New Messages.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You use the Account Settings dialog box to add a new account or to change information for an existing account, including:
To add a new account or change settings for an existing account, begin from the Mail window:
The default account is the one that you want to log into when you first start Mail & Newsgroups.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To view or change information for an existing mail or newsgroup account, begin from the Mail window:
Important: If you need to change the server type (for example, from POP to IMAP) you must first remove the existing account. Next, you must exit &brandShortName; and restart it. You can then reopen the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box and recreate an account with the new server type by clicking Add Account.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you use AOL Instant Messenger, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups allows you to quickly correspond with friends and colleagues while you manage your mail. For example, you can quickly add entries on your Buddy lists to your address books, and send online colleagues instant messages from any message window.
Once you've signed on to AOL Instant Messenger, you can see whether the sender or recipients of incoming mail messages are signed on as well. When you see the IM presence icon to the right of someone's name in the envelope of the message, click the person's name, and then select Send Instant Message from the drop-down list to begin a messaging session.
Note: To see someone's IM presence icon, that person's screen name must exist in one of your address books.
To log on to AOL Instant Messenger:
AOL Instant Messenger icon |
For more information on using AOL Instant Messenger, see Getting Started with Instant Messenger.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section:
Choosing How You View the Mail Window |
For an IMAP account, you can retrieve new messages automatically and display them in the Inbox by opening Mail & Newsgroups and selecting the Inbox for the IMAP account.
For a POP account, you can select the Inbox and click Get Msgs to retrieve your messages. By default, messages from your POP account are deleted from the POP server when you retrieve them. You can change your POP server settings to automatically download new messages and to store a copy of messages on the server in addition to downloading them to your computer.
You can also set up Mail & Newsgroups to get new messages at startup and to check for new messages at timed intervals.
Mail & Newsgroups icon |
The Mail & Newsgroups icon on the status bar displays a green arrow to notify you when new messages have arrived.
New mail notification |
To set up a mail account to automatically check for new messages and download them, begin from the Mail window:
To set up &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to play a sound or display an alert when new mail arrives, see Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Mail & Newsgroups.
You can always retrieve messages manually at any time. To get new messages for the selected account or newsgroup, do one of the following:
To get new messages for all your mail accounts, begin from the Mail window:
If you are not currently logged into one of your mail accounts, Mail & Newsgroups first prompts you to enter your user name and password before retrieving new messages for that account. (If you have already stored your user name and password using the Password Manager, Mail & Newsgroups doesn't prompt you for this information.)
Note: You can also open the File menu (in the Mail window) and choose "Get New Messages for".
To get new messages for a specific mail account, begin from the Mail window:
Note: Mail & Newsgroups prompts you for your password the first time you retrieve messages for an account. You can choose to have Mail & Newsgroups store your password in the Password Manager at that time.
Password Manager can save all your user names and passwords on your own computer and enter them for you automatically. For more information, see Using the Password Manager.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Note: This feature is only available for an AOL account.
You can mark messages you've read as new to keep them in your New Mail folder. If the message is in your Old Mail or Recently Deleted Mail folder, marking it as new will move it back into your New Mail folder after you exit and restart.
To keep a message as new:
If the message is in your New Mail folder, it gets marked as a new message. If the message is in your Old Mail or Recently Deleted Mail folder, it gets marked as a new message and moves back into your New Mail folder after you exit and restart.
You can customize the layout of the Mail window (the window you see when you choose Mail & Newsgroups from the Window menu):
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To sort messages by categories such as subject, sender, date, or priority, begin from the Mail window:
To reorder column headings, begin from the Mail window:
To group messages by threading (subject), so each message is grouped with all its responses:
Thread button |
Tip: To identify unread messages in a collapsed thread where you've read the parent message, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups underlines the parent message. Expand the thread to see the unread messages.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To save a mail message as a plain-text, HTML, or Outlook Express file:
To print a selected message:
Note: The Print button is off by default. To display the Print button in the Mail toolbar, open the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Select the Mail & Newsgroups category, enable the Print button, and click OK.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
By default, you can view remote images in the mail messages you receive. To avoid downloading images embedded in web pages sent as message attachments:
By default, JavaScript is not enabled and plugins are enabled for mail messages you receive. To change these settings:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section:
Composing Mail and Newsgroup Messages Using the Message Composition Window Selecting Message Sending Options Confirming That Your Message Was Opened |
You can address, compose, reply to, or send a new message by doing one of the following:
Tip: Use the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box to specify the HTML text editor to use for composing messages sent from this account. (You can specify a different editor for each of your accounts.) Select the account, and check "Compose messages in HTML format" to use the HTML text editor for all messages. See Changing the Settings for an Account for more information.
Composing messages in HTML format allows you to use different fonts, text styles (such as bold or italic) and text colors, tables, numbered or bulleted lists, and pictures in your messages. However, some recipients may only be able to read messages composed in plain text format. If you want to use the plain-text editor occasionally, you can hold down the Shift key while clicking the Compose or the Reply button to use the plain-text editor on an as-needed basis.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Use the Compose window to address, compose, and send mail and newsgroup messages. First specify whether you want to compose messages in plain text or HTML in the Account Settings Preferences panel (open the Edit menu and choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings).
To view the Compose window, click the Compose button on the Mail toolbar.
The Compose window contains the following:
You can click the following buttons:
If you've chosen to compose messages using the HTML editor, you see an additional toolbar with text formatting buttons similar to those in &brandShortName; Composer.
For help using the HTML editor, see Formatting Your Web Pages.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To address a mail message:
If you have address autocompletion enabled (it's enabled by default), type the first few letters of the recipient's name and wait for Mail & Newsgroups to complete the address. (Or you can type part of the name and immediately press Enter to have Mail & Newsgroups complete the address.)
Note: Use a comma to separate multiple addresses on the same line. Do not use a comma to separate first or last names. For example, multiple entries might be:
user1@netscape.net,user2@netscape.net
Tip: You can quickly address a message by clicking the email address contained in a message you're reading, and then selecting Compose Mail To from the pop-up menu.
Changing the Account From Which a Message is Sent
If you have multiple mail accounts, the account listed in the From field is based on the account (or server) you selected when you choose to create a new message. However, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups also allows you to change the account a message is sent from while you're composing a message. Click the From field to view a list of your accounts and then select the account you want. A copy of the message is saved in the Sent folder of the account where you sent the message from.
About Address Autocompletion
Address autocompletion allows you to address mail easily from the Compose window without having to search for names or type complete names. Mail & Newsgroups automatically checks your address books and an LDAP directory server (if available) and completes the name if it finds a unique match. It also prevents mistakes by showing all possible choices with additional information if it finds multiple matches. Address autocompletion is enabled by default.
If you don't want to use an address that Mail & Newsgroups provides, press Backspace to remove characters and then enter an alternate address.
To disable address autocompletion:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
While you're composing a message, you can select these additional message sending options from the Options menu:
Note for AOL accounts: If you send a message from your AOL account and request a return receipt, you will receive return receipts only from AOL recipients who open your message. You will not receive return receipts from recipients who have Internet addresses.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Note: This feature is only available for an AOL account.
You can retrieve (unsend) a message if:
To determine if the message can be unsent:
The message can be unsent only if the message status for the recipient contains "has not read the message". If you see a date and time next to a recipient's name in the message status, the message has been opened and you cannot unsend it. A status of "you can't check the status of Internet mail" next to a recipient's name indicates that the message was sent to an Internet address (a non-AOL email address) and cannot be unsent.
To unsend the message:
The message is removed both from your Sent Mail folder and from the New Mail folder of all recipients. (The message may not be removed until you exit.)
To reply to a mail message:
To include the original message each time you reply to any message, and to specify how to place the original message in the reply:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
When you forward a message, you can specify how to place new text relative to the original text: inline (in the body of the message; this is the default), or as an attachment.
To forward a message:
To set the default for forwarding messages:
Tip: To override the default for forwarding a message, select the message, open the Message menu, and choose Forward As, then choose Inline or Attachment.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can use return receipts to notify you when a recipient has displayed (opened) your message. The recipient must be using a mail program that supports the Message Disposition Notification (MDN) standard. Keep in mind that the recipient may choose not to send you a return receipt, even if you've requested one. Messages you send to a newsgroup address will not include a return receipt request, since news servers don't support this feature.
If you send a message from your AOL account and request a return receipt, you will receive return receipts only from AOL recipients who open your message. You will not receive return receipts from recipients who have Internet addresses.
To request return receipts for all messages you send, you can enable the global Return Receipt preferences. For non-AOL accounts, you also use the global Return Receipt preferences to specify how to manage requests you receive for return receipts. You can override these global preferences for individual accounts.
To request a return receipt on a per-message basis:
To automatically request return receipts when sending messages from each of your mail accounts:
For more information on setting return receipt preferences, see Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Return Receipts.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Note: This feature is only available for an AOL account.
Using your AOL mail account, you can check the status of messages you send to other AOL email addresses. The status displays the date and time you sent the message, and information about whether or not a recipient has opened your message.
To check the status of a message you've sent:
The message status displays the date and time you sent the message. If the message has been opened, the message status also displays the date and time that the recipient opened the message. If the message status contains "(has not read the message)", the recipient has not yet opened the message. A status of "(you cannot check status of Internet mail)" indicates that the message status cannot be determined because you sent the message to an Internet address (a non-AOL email address).
To save a mail message as a draft so you can complete it later:
Note: Your mail message will stay open after you save it as a draft.
To edit or send a message draft, begin from the Mail window:
Note: Sending the message removes it from the Drafts folder.
Tip: You can also double-click the message to open it for editing. This is especially useful if the message pane is closed.
To delete one or more unwanted message drafts, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Templates are useful for setting the default format for messages that you send regularly, such as weekly status reports. You can save a message as a template from any window in which it is displayed, including from within a Mail compose window.
To save a message to use as a template:
Alternatively, open an existing message that already has the formatting you want.
To compose a message using a template:
Note: Sending the message does not remove the template from the Templates folder. The template is preserved for future use.
To delete one or more unwanted message templates, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section:
Choosing HTML Message Sending Options Specifying Recipients for HTML Messages |
HTML messages can include formatted text, links, images, and tables—just like a web page. However, some recipients may not be able to receive HTML messages. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups allows you to compose mail and newsgroup messages using either the HTML (rich-text) formatting editor or the plain-text editor for each mail account you have. In addition, you can choose whether your addressees should receive HTML or plain-text messages by default, and how Mail & Newsgroups should handle messages when it's not known if an addressee can receive HTML-formatted mail.
To specify whether to use the HTML editor as the default for composing messages, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you understand how to work with HTML source code, you can edit or insert additional HTML tags, style attributes, and JavaScript in your mail message. If you are not sure how to work with HTML source code, it's best not to change it. To work with HTML code, use one of these methods:
For more information on editing HTML source code, see Using the Advanced Property Editor.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
By default, Mail & Newsgroups prompts you before sending HTML messages when it's not known whether the recipient's mail program can display HTML-formatted messages.
To choose sending-format options for mail messages, begin from the Mail window:
Note: This preference applies only to mail messages, not to newsgroup messages.
If while composing a message you realize that one or more recipients may not be able to receive HTML-formatted mail, you can easily convert the message to a different format when you click Send:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can save time by indicating whether individuals in your address books prefer to receive either HTML messages or plain text messages.
If this recipient can only read messages sent as plain text (no formatting), then choose Plain Text. If you don't know or are not sure, choose Unknown.
If you choose Unknown, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups determines the sending format based on the Send Format settings for Mail & Newsgroups in the Preferences dialog box. If Mail & Newsgroups still can't determine the correct format, it will prompt you to choose a sending format when you send the message.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can quickly view the HTML and other code that generates an HTML message you've received:
Tip: To control how Mail displays HTML messages, open the View menu, and choose Message Body As, and then choose Original HTML, Simple HTML, or Plain Text.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
The HTML Mail Question dialog box appears when you try to send a message to someone whose mail program may not be able to display HTML messages or when Mail & Newsgroups cannot determine whether your recipient can display HTML messages. If you are in doubt, send the message in both HTML and plain-text formats.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section: |
To attach one or more files to an outgoing mail message:
Tip: You can also click inside the Attachments area in the Compose window to display the Attach File(s) dialog box.
Tip: You can also drag and drop one or more files from your desktop into the Attachments area in the Compose window.
Note: Make sure the names of the files you are attaching do not include these characters: forward slash (/), colon (:), or semicolon (;).
To attach a web page to an outgoing mail message:
Tip: When you are viewing a page in the Navigator browser, you can send the page to someone by opening the File menu and choosing Send Page.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you receive a mail attachment that consists of a file type that &brandShortName; can display (such as graphic files and HTML files), you see the attachment displayed inline (in the body of the message). For other file types, Mail & Newsgroups lets you open the attachment using another application, or you can save the attachment on your hard disk.
Tip: To read your messages without waiting for any attachments to download, you can disable attachment display. From the View menu, choose Display Attachments Inline to remove the checkmark and turn off attachment display.
To open the attachment, make sure you have a program on your computer that can open files of the same type as the attachment's file format. For example, if you want to open a .DOC file, make sure you have a program on your computer that can open .DOC files.
To open an attachment:
Note: If you are viewing your mail using an IMAP mail server, all attachments remain on the server.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To save an attachment:
Tip: To save all attachments, right-click the first one in the attachment list, and choose Save All. You can then specify the location where you want all the attachments to be saved.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section: |
How you delete messages depends on your mail server type: POP or IMAP. Deleted POP messages are automatically moved to the Trash folder. IMAP users can set different options for deleting messages.
To delete messages from your Inbox or other folders, begin from the Mail window:
To delete messages without opening them, begin from the Mail window:
Alternatively, click the Message Pane handle (the ridged area centered at the bottom of the message list) to close the message pane.
To set deletion preferences for IMAP messages:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you use a POP server to deliver your mail, or if you set up IMAP to use the Trash folder, follow these steps to delete messages from your Inbox or other folders:
To recover messages from the Trash:
To delete messages permanently:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section:
Adding Entries to Your Address Books Creating a New Address Book Card Searching Address Books and Directories |
Address books store email addresses and contact information for people you typically send mail to, such as colleagues, friends, and family. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups provides you with two address books: the Personal Address Book and the Collected Addresses Book—and you can create additional address books as well. You can also import address books from other mail programs and previous versions of &brandShortName;. The contents of these address books are stored locally on your hard disk.
Your address book may also list email addresses from an LDAP directory, which is located on an LDAP directory server. The directory server stores email addresses of people that are not included in your locally-stored address books. The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an industry-standard method for accessing Internet or intranet directory services such as corporate address books.
Use the Personal Address Book to add specific names of your choice. You can create mailing lists and edit individual address entries. If you have a Netscape Webmail or an AOL account, you can synchronize entries in your Personal Address Book with those in your Webmail or AOL Address Book.
By default, the Personal Address Book automatically collects the email addresses contained in outgoing mail messages. Addresses from outgoing messages are stored in the Personal Address Book as soon as you click Send.
The Collected Addresses Book is provided as an extra address book for your convenience.
To change address book settings, you use the preferences for email address collection.
An LDAP directory (also known as an address lookup service) stores email addresses of recipients who are not in your locally-stored address books. LDAP directories offer you access to large, centrally maintained databases of email addresses, which is especially useful with address autocompletion.
Automatic address collection is enabled by default. To change automatic address collection settings, begin in the Mail window:
To open the Address Book window:
Address Book icon |
To customize how the Address Book window and the cards are displayed:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can use any of the following ways to add entries to your address books:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups provides a default personal address book, but you can create additional address books.
To create a new address book:
Address Book icon |
Tip: To rename an address book, double-click its name (in the list of address books) to display the Address Book Properties dialog box, where you can enter a new name.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Address book cards can be used to store names, postal addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and information such as whether the addressee prefers to receive plain-text or HTML-formatted messages.
To create an address book card for an individual:
Tip: If you enter address information, &brandShortName; displays a Get Map button next to the address when you view this entry's address book card in your address book. Clicking the Get Map button displays a web page that contains a map to the address.
Tip: To quickly add entries to your address book, click any email address in messages you receive and select Add to Address Book from the drop-down list. The New Card dialog box appears where you can complete the information.
To view or edit the properties for an individual card:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you regularly send messages to a group of recipients, you can quickly address a message by using a mailing list that contains the names you want.
To create a mailing list and add it to your address book:
In the left side of the Address Book window, the mailing list appears underneath the address book you added it to.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Mailing lists are stored in the address book in which you created them.
To remove a member from the list, begin from the Mail window:
To add members to a mailing list:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups lets you quickly search an address book or directory by name or email address, or use a combination of criteria to perform a more specific search through an address book or directory.
To quickly search an address book or directory for a name or email address, begin from the Address Book window:
As soon as you stop typing, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups displays only those entries where the name or email address contains the search text you entered.
You can search address books or directories for specific entries. If you are not already viewing the Advanced Address Book Search dialog box, begin from the Address Book window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you have a Netscape 6 address book from another user profile or computer, or if you have an address book from a previous version of Netscape Communicator or another mail program, you can import its entries into the Address Book window as a new address book. Keep in mind that when you upgrade a user profile from an earlier version of Netscape, your address books are automatically included, so there's no need to import them.
You can import address books from Netscape Communicator, Netscape 6, Eudora®, Microsoft® Outlook®, Microsoft® Outlook® Express, or text files (LDIF, tab-delimited (.tab), comma-separated (.csv), or text (.txt) formats). When you import an address book, Mail & Newsgroups creates a new address book with the imported entries.
On Windows systems, you can also import mail messages and settings from Communicator, Eudora, Outlook, and Outlook Express.
To import an address book, begin from the Mail window:
Tip: Communicator address book files (pab.na2) are stored in your user profile directory (for example, C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users, where \Users contains the user profiles directories).
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can export a &brandShortName; address book if you later want to import it into another user profile, move it to another computer, or use it with another program that can import address books. You can export an address book to one of these file formats: Netscape (.ldif), tab-delimited (.tab), comma-separated (.csv), or text (.txt) formats.
To export an address book, begin from the Address Book window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Synchronizing address books saves you time when you are away from your computer, because your address book is always accessible on the web from your Webmail or AOL account.
You can synchronize address books in your Netscape Webmail or AOL account with entries in your &brandShortName; Personal Address Book. If you add, edit, or delete an entry in one address book, you can automatically update the other address books so that entries in both address books match.
Note: To synchronize your address book, you must already have an AOL or Netscape screen name. If you do not yet have a screen name, you can sign up for one at http://home.netscape.com.
To perform an address book sync, begin from the Address Book window:
For example, if you want to synchronize your Personal Address Book with your Netscape Webmail address book, enter your Webmail user name and password. If you want to synchronize your Personal Address Book with your AOL address book, enter your AOL user name and password.
You can continue to synchronize your address book throughout your Mail session (without having to log in again). Just click Sync or choose Sync &brandShortName; Address Book from the Tools menu.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Adding an LDAP directory to your address book allows you to search the directory for email addresses and other contact information. You can also use the directory for address autocompletion when addressing mail messages.
You typically add or remove LDAP directories using instructions provided by your system administrator. Check with your system administrator for the information you will need in order to add a new directory to your address book.
To add a new directory, begin from the Address Book window:
The directory you added appears in the list of address books in the Address Book window.
To delete a directory, begin from the Address Book window:
For information on downloading or synchronizing a directory for offline use so that you can search it or use it for address book autocompletion while working offline, see Downloading Directory Entries for Offline Use.
If you are not already viewing the Directory Server Settings dialog box, begin from the Mail window:
General Tab
Advanced Tab
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section: |
Note: This feature is not available for AOL accounts.
To create a message folder, begin from the Mail window:
Tip: Double-clicking a folder opens it in a new Mail window.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Note: This feature is not available for AOL accounts.
To rename an existing folder, begin from the Mail window:
Note: If you rename a folder that you've been using to store filtered messages, the filter will automatically update to use the renamed folder.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can copy a folder and its contents to another mail account, or move a folder within the same mail account.
To move or copy a folder, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can move messages from one folder to another by using either of these methods:
Note: If you drag and drop a message from an IMAP or POP mail server folder to a local folder on your hard drive, the message is moved to the local folder and removed from the server folder.
To copy a message from one folder to another:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Users with IMAP mail accounts can share mail folders with other users on the same network. Sharing folders allows several users to see and work with the same messages, similar to a newsgroup. To use shared folders, your IMAP mail server must support Access Control List (ACL) management. Check with your system administrator or help desk if you are not sure that shared folders are supported by your IMAP mail server.
To share a mail folder with other users on your network, or to view sharing information for a folder, begin from the Mail window:
Folders listed under Local Folders, or folders listed under a POP mail account cannot be shared.
The Privileges button is only available if the IMAP mail server allows you to set folder sharing privileges. If this button is not available, you can view the folder sharing privileges for this folder but cannot change them.
In the list of folders for your mail account, a shared folder displays a distinctive folder icon to indicate that it is shared.
To send a message that tells others how they can subscribe to your shared folder, begin from the Mail window:
Only message recipients who share the same network will be able to subscribe to your shared folder.
Subscribing to a shared folder is similar to subscribing to a newsgroup. To subscribe to a shared folder, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can apply labels to messages to help you organize and prioritize them. You can apply a standard color and text label to messages, or you can customize the label colors or label text to suit your needs.
One powerful way to use labels is to set up a message filter to automatically label incoming messages from a specific sender. For example, you can set up a message filter so that incoming messages from your boss are labeled "Important" and appear in red. See Creating Message Filters for more information.
You can also quickly view messages you've labeled by choosing a message view. See Using Message Views for more information.
To apply a label to a message, begin from the Mail window:
The message header changes to the label color you chose. To see the label text, you must display the Label column in the Mail window.
Tip: To quickly label messages or remove a label, select one or more messages and press 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on your keyboard. Press 0 to remove a label.
To display the Label column, begin from the Mail window:
Note: Message labels apply on a per-account basis. For example, if you move or copy a labeled message to another mail account, the label is not preserved. Similarly, if you forward a labeled message to another recipient, the label is not preserved. For IMAP mail accounts, if your IMAP server supports user-defined keywords, message labels will persist when you log in to your mail account from a different location. In an AOL mail account, when a labeled message is automatically moved from New Mail to the Old Mail folder, it loses its label.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can customize label colors or text to suit your needs.
To customize labels, begin from the Mail window:
Your changes are immediately applied to all labeled messages in all your mail accounts.
Tip: To restore the default label text and colors, follow the steps above to display the label settings, and click Restore Defaults.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To sort messages by label, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To remove a message label, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You might want to mark a message you've read as unread if you later want to re-read the message or respond to it.
To mark a message as unread, begin from the Mail window:
Read column |
You can flag messages that you later want to download for offline use.
To flag messages, begin from the Mail window:
Flag column |
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Message views help you locate, organize, and prioritize your messages by quickly displaying only those messages that match specific criteria. For example, you can choose a message view that only displays today's messages, or switch to another message view that only displays messages you've read that include attachments. For your convenience, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups comes with a pre-defined set of message views, but you can also create your own custom message views.
To display messages using a pre-defined message view, begin from the Mail window:
The message view persists if you view messages in another folder or account. To return to viewing all messages (the default view), choose All from the View drop-down menu.
See Labeling Messages for information on creating labels.
To edit the name or criteria for a message view, begin from the Mail window:
To delete a message view, begin from the Mail window:
If you are not already viewing the Message View Setup dialog box, begin from the Mail window:
Tip: To view messages that contain a header not listed in the first drop-down menu (for example, if you want to view messages that include the header Resent-From), choose Customize and type the header you want to search for. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups adds your custom header to the drop-down list, so you can then choose it to view matching entries. Make sure you enter the custom header correctly, since Mail will only find entries that exactly match what you type.
Keep in mind that the view may display no matching messages, if no messages match the criteria you chose.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Message filters allow you to manage and organize your messages. You can create message filters that &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups uses to automatically perform certain actions on incoming messages based on criteria you specify. For example, you can create a message filter that automatically moves incoming messages to a particular folder. Message filters operate on a per-account basis.
If you are not already viewing the Message Filters dialog box, begin from the Mail window:
Tip: To search for messages that contain a header not listed in the first drop-down menu (for example, if you want to search for messages that include the header Resent-From), choose Customize and type the header you want to search for. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups adds your custom header to the drop-down list, so you can then choose it to search for matching entries. Make sure you enter the custom header correctly, since Mail will only find entries that exactly match what you type.
Tip: To automatically label incoming messages, choose "Label the message".
To manage your filters, begin from the Mail window:
Note: Filters are applied to each incoming message in the order you choose, until a filter action results in the message being deleted or moved to the Inbox folder.
Note: If you delete a folder that you've been using to store filtered messages, the filter will no longer work. Incoming messages that match the filter criteria will appear in your Inbox. If you rename or move the folder, the filter will automatically update to use the renamed or moved folder.
Tip: Filters don't apply to existing messages. If you have existing messages in a folder that you want to filter, select the folder and choose Run Filters on Folder from the Tools menu.
Tip: Messages are filtered before they are analyzed to determine if they are junk mail or not junk mail.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can quickly create a filter for messages from a particular sender. For example, if you want to automatically move all incoming messages from your child's teacher into a folder called "School", you can quickly set up a filter to do this.
To create a filter for messages from a specific sender, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To apply all filters to a folder that contains messages you've already received, begin from the Mail window:
To apply a specific filter to messages in a folder, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups lets you quickly find text in a single message, search messages by subject or sender, or use a combination of criteria to perform a thorough search through all messages in a specific mail folder, newsgroup, or account.
To locate text in a single message, begin from the Mail window:
To quickly search for messages in a selected folder by subject or sender, begin from the Mail window:
As soon as you stop typing, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups displays only those messages in the selected folder where the subject or sender contains the search text you entered.
You can search mail folders or newsgroups for specific messages. If you are not already viewing the Search Messages dialog box, begin from the Mail window:
Tip: To search for messages that contain a header not listed in the first drop-down menu (for example, if you want to search for messages that include the header Resent-From), choose Customize and type the header you want to search for. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups adds your custom header to the drop-down list, so you can then choose it to search for matching entries. Make sure you enter the custom header correctly, since Mail will only find entries that exactly match what you type.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Mail automatically detects incoming messages that appear to be junk mail (also known as spam). Junk mail detection is turned on by default for all accounts.
When Mail detects a message that appears to be junk mail, it marks the message's Junk Status column with a junk mail icon, like this:
By default in a new profile, the Junk Status column is located to the right of the Subject column, but you can relocate it by dragging it to the new location.
In this section: |
At first, you must "train" Mail to recognize what's junk. Initially, Mail may make some mistakes by marking some messages as junk that you don't consider to be junk mail, or by not recognizing some messages as junk that you do consider to be junk mail. By training Mail to recognize junk mail, you will improve the accuracy of junk mail detection.
Once Mail is correctly identifying junk mail, you can use the Junk Mail Controls to automatically move incoming junk mail to the Junk folder.
To train Mail to identify what is junk:
To train Mail to identify what's not junk:
Over time, Mail becomes smarter at identifying the types of messages you consider to be junk. You'll know when Mail is fully trained, because you'll no longer have to correct it.
To train Mail more quickly: Avoid marking messages as junk and then later marking them as not junk. If you mark a message as junk, and then later mark it as not junk, Mail is not immediately trained to recognize that new messages of the same type are not junk. It may take several more times of marking these types of new messages as not junk before Mail is fully trained.
Messages marked as junk mail are marked with a special junk mail icon, as described in the preceding section.
To view all junk mail messages by grouping them together:
You may have to scroll up or down to see the junk mail messages grouped together.
To only display messages not marked as junk in a folder:
To quickly delete messages you've marked as junk: From the Tools menu, choose Delete Mail Marked as Junk in Folder. If you selected the Junk folder, you can use this command to quickly empty the Junk folder.
Using multiple profiles: If you access your mail accounts using more than one profile (for example, if you access your Mail from two different computers, one located at work and the other one at home), you must train Mail to detect junk mail for each profile. Also, make sure you use the same junk mail settings for both profiles. Otherwise, junk mail will be analyzed differently in each profile, with different results.
Using filters: Keep in mind that if you've set up a filter that moves new messages into a folder, the new messages are analyzed after they arrive in the destination folder specified by the filter.
While Mail is analyzing messages: Try to avoid clicking Stop while Mail is analyzing new messages. Mail starts analyzing the junk status of new messages when you open a folder that contains new messages. While Mail is busy analyzing messages, the &brandShortName; logo in the upper right corner of the Mail window will appear animated, and the status bar at the bottom of the Mail window will flash the text "Downloading message..." as each new message is analyzed.
Clicking the Stop button while Mail is analyzing messages cancels junk mail analyzing before all messages have been analyzed. Messages that Mail did not analyze do not get analyzed the next time you open that folder (since they are no longer marked as new). Instead, you will have to manually mark them as junk or not junk. Alternatively, you can select the folder and choose Run Junk Mail Controls on Folder from the Tools menu.
Messages with future dates: If you've set Junk Mail Controls to automatically delete messages in the Junk folder, but you notice that some messages still remain in the Junk folder, it's possible that the messages have future dates. Mail cannot automatically delete junk messages that have future dates. You must manually delete these messages.
If you have a slow connection: To detect junk mail, Mail must analyze the contents of each message to determine whether the message is junk. If you have a slow dialup connection, this may cause mail retrieval to seem a bit slow the first time you open a folder that has new messages.
The slowdown is proportional to the number of messages in the folder — the more you have, the longer it takes to analyze all the messages. If you have fewer than a hundred or so messages in the folder at any given time, you probably won't notice any slowdown.
If you are not already viewing the Junk Mail Controls dialog box, open the Tools menu and choose Junk Mail Controls.
Note: To improve the accuracy of junk mail detection, you must first train Mail to recognize junk mail. For information on how to get started, see Controlling Junk Mail.
However, it's possible for mail software belonging to your friends or colleagues to become infected by viruses that automatically send virus-infected junk mail to everyone in their address books.
If some of the people in your address book have had problems with such viruses, you may want to deselect this checkbox. When this option is turned off, Mail analyzes incoming messages regardless of whether the sender is in your Personal Address Book.
To apply Junk Mail Controls to messages in a folder: Select the folder, open the Tools menu, and choose Run Junk Mail Controls on Folder.
Note for AOL accounts: By default, Mail moves junk mail to the local Junk folder (under Local Folders). When Mail moves junk mail to the local Junk folder, they are also copied to the Recently Deleted Mail folder under your AOL account, where they are deleted after 24 hours. If you want to move a message from the Recently Deleted Mail folder back into your AOL New Mail folder, you must do so before the message gets deleted from the Recently Deleted Mail folder. Otherwise, you can find the message in the Junk folder under Local Folders.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to import mail messages and settings from Netscape Communicator, Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora. To import address books from these programs, see Importing Address Books.
In this section: |
To import mail messages from Netscape Communicator, Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora, begin from the Mail window:
For Netscape Communicator, the wizard imports a copy of all Communicator mail folders included under Local Folders. Imported mail is added as a new folder under Local Folders in the Mail window. (The Communicator mail folders still remain in their original location).
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To import mail settings from Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
In this section: |
If you have set up an account on a newsgroup server, you can join (subscribe) to newsgroups (also called discussion groups).
To subscribe to a newsgroup, begin from the Mail window:
If you are an IMAP mail user, you can also subscribe to message folders located on an IMAP server. (Your Inbox is a type of message folder.) Follow the instructions above for subscribing, but select an account from the Account drop-down list. For more information on sharing folders and subscribing to folders, see Sharing Folders With Other Users (IMAP Only).
[ Return to beginning of section ]
When you open your newsgroup server, you see the list of newsgroups to which you subscribe. The server downloads the headers of new messages in each newsgroup.
To read newsgroup messages, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To start new threads (discussions):
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To post a response to the newsgroup:
To reply to an individual as well as post a response to the group:
To redirect a posting to another newsgroup:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To monitor unread messages in threads that are of interest to you:
To ignore a message thread:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To remove a newsgroup from your list:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If the newsgroup you want to subscribe to is on a different server, you must first set up access to that server.
To set up an additional newsgroup server, open the File menu in the Mail window and choose New, then Account.
Once you've set up access to the new server, you can subscribe to newsgroups on that server. In the Mail window, open the File menu, and choose Subscribe.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups' offline feature lets you download your mail and read it offline (while disconnected from the Internet). If you use a dial-up (modem) connection to access your mail and you want to reduce the time you are connected, or, if you need to temporarily disconnect from your company's network while traveling or switching locations, you can download your mail so that you can read it offline. The offline feature can automatically download incoming messages and then later send all your outgoing messages when you reconnect.
If you occasionally want to work offline, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups lets you easily:
If you frequently work offline, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups also lets you:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can tell &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to automatically download your Inbox messages for offline use. Later, when you go back online, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically synchronizes your Inbox messages with the server.
To automatically download your Inbox for offline use, begin from the Mail window:
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically downloads all messages in your Inbox so you can read and respond to them while working offline. After disconnecting, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups remains open so you can continue to work with your messages.
To reconnect to the Internet so you can work online:
When you go back online, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically synchronizes your Inbox messages with the server, by replicating any changes you made while working offline.
Tip: &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups saves any messages that you send while working offline in the Unsent Messages folder under Local Folders. To have &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically send your unsent messages when you reconnect, use the Preferences command on the Edit menu to change the offline preferences for all your accounts.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To download a specific folder for offline use, begin from the Mail window:
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically downloads all messages in the selected folder so you can read and respond to them while working offline. After disconnecting, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups remains open so you can continue to work with your messages.
Note: Message headers that have been downloaded for reading offline display a darker gray envelope or newsgroup icon.
To reconnect to the Internet so you can work online:
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically synchronizes the offline folders with the server, by replicating any changes you made while working offline.
Tip: &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups saves any messages that you sent while working offline in the Unsent Messages folder under Local Folders. When you reconnect, choose Send Unsent Messages from the File menu to send all your saved messages at once. To have &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically send your unsent messages when you reconnect, use the Preferences command on the Edit menu to change your offline preferences.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To download selected messages for offline use, begin from the Mail window:
To download flagged messages for offline use, begin from the Mail window:
After you disconnect, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups remains open so you can continue to work with your messages.
Note: Message headers that have been downloaded for reading offline display a darker gray envelope or newsgroup icon.
To reconnect to the Internet so you can work online:
Tip: &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups saves any messages that you sent while working offline in the Unsent Messages folder under Local Folders. When you reconnect, choose Send Unsent Messages from the File menu to send all your saved messages at once. To have &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups automatically send your unsent messages when you reconnect, use the Preferences command on the Edit menu to change your offline preferences.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You can download (replicate) the entries in a directory server to your computer so that they are available when you work offline. Once you've downloaded directory entries, you can use the same procedure to update your local copy of the entries with the latest entries on the directory server.
To download or update an address book LDAP directory for offline use:
Depending on the number of directory entries, the download process may take a while, so please be patient.
After the download finishes, you can work offline and search the directory or use it for address autocompletion when composing messages. After you've been using your local copy of the directory for a while, you may wish to update it to get the latest entries from the directory server. To update your local copy, use the procedure described above.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To set up one or more accounts for working offline, you use the Offline and Disk Space preferences in the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box. Once set, you don't need to change these preferences each time you want to work offline.
Here's a summary of the steps you will follow to set up your accounts for offline use:
Once set, you don't need to change these settings. See the sections below for information on setting offline and disk space preferences for IMAP accounts.
Tip: To set the Offline & Disk Space preferences for the current account, open the File menu, choose Offline, and then choose Offline Settings.
Important: You must select at least one category (mail messages or newsgroup messages) in order for the download to work.
For subsequent offline sessions, you can skip step 1.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Before you can read mail and newsgroup messages while offline, you must first select them for downloading. You can set up an entire account for offline use. You can also choose which folders and newsgroups that you want to use offline.
Note: Keep in mind that selecting more items may increase download time and disk space used.
To select accounts, folders, and newsgroups for offline viewing, begin from the Mail window:
Note: You see only the newsgroups and folders that you've already subscribed to. POP accounts and local mail folders don't appear in the list.Your AOL account is not included in the list because working offline with your AOL account is not available.
Once set, you don't need to change these settings each time you want to go offline. However, if you do want to change them, you can easily do so before going offline, since the same Select button is available when using the Download and Sync command.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you have already selected mail folders and newsgroups for offline use, you are now ready to download and synchronize them. If you haven't yet selected items to download, you can choose them before you go offline.
If you are not already viewing the Download/Sync Now dialog box, follow these steps:
To download and synchronize your messages, begin from the Mail window:
Important: You must select at least one category (Mail messages, Newsgroup messages) in order for the download to work. If the checkboxes are disabled, it means that you haven't yet selected items to download. Use the Select button to select items to download.
If you chose to work offline once the download completes, then &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups immediately switches to offline mode. Otherwise, when you are ready to go offline, click the Online/Offline indicator in the lower right corner of the Mail window to go offline.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
To work offline and reconnect later, begin from the Mail window.
When you are ready to work offline:
Note: Message headers that have been downloaded for reading offline display a darker gray envelope or newsgroup icon.
Tip: To set &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups' download behavior when going offline, open the Edit menu, choose Preferences, and then click the Offline & Disk Space category. You can choose to have &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups prompt you to download messages when going offline, to automatically download messages, or to not download any messages.
To reconnect and synchronize your messages:
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups synchronizes your messages with the server by replicating any changes you made while working offline.
Tip: To set &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups' behavior when going online, open the Edit menu, choose Preferences, and then choose the Offline & Disk Space category. You can choose to have &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups prompt you to send unsent messages, to automatically send unsent messages, or to not send unsent messages.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes the settings in the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box. Unlike the Preferences dialog box, which applies settings to all accounts, the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box lets you specify settings on a per-account basis.
If you are not currently viewing the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box, follow these steps:
In this section: |
This section describes how to view or change your Account Settings, such as your user name, reply-to address, and signature file. If you are not already viewing the Account Settings, begin from the Mail window:
Tip: If you select this option, but you later want to compose a message or reply to a message using the plain-text editor, hold down the Shift key and click Compose or Reply in the Mail toolbar to temporarily choose the plain-text editor. Shift-clicking the Compose button or the Reply button switches to the other editor.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups can work with two types of mail servers: IMAP and POP. If you are not sure which server type your Internet service provider supports, ask your service provider. If your Internet service provider supports both, the following descriptions may help you choose which one to use.
In this section:
About Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) |
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Advantages: Your messages and any changes to them stay on your server, saving local disk space. Also, you always have access to an updated mailbox, and you can get your mail from multiple locations. Performance on a modem is faster, since you initially download message headers only.
Disadvantages: Not all ISPs support IMAP.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Advantages: Your messages are downloaded to your local computer all at once, but you can also specify whether to keep copies of the messages on the server and delete messages on the server when they are deleted locally. Most ISPs currently support POP.
Disadvantages: If you use more than one computer, messages might reside on one or the other, but not both. POP doesn't work as well as IMAP over a slow link connection. Also, you can't access all mail folders from multiple locations.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you are not already viewing the IMAP server settings, begin from the Mail window:
In most cases, advanced IMAP server settings are automatically supplied by the server. If you are unsure about the settings for this dialog box, contact your ISP or system administrator.
If you are not already viewing the advanced IMAP server settings, begin from the Mail window.
For more information, see Adding and Removing LDAP Directories.
Tip: To see how much storage space is allocated and in use for a folder stored on an IMAP server, select the folder and choose Folder Properties from the Edit menu, and then click the Quota tab.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you are not already viewing the POP server settings, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to change news server settings. If you are not already viewing news server settings, begin from the Mail window:
Note: The path to the newsrc file is displayed for your information. The newsrc file stores information about the newsgroups to which you are subscribed, and the messages you have read in each newsgroup.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes the settings for sending automatic copies, and for storing copies of outgoing messages, message drafts, and message templates.
By default, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups stores copies of your outgoing messages in the Sent folder for the current account. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups also stores message drafts in the Drafts folder and message templates in the Templates folder for the current account. (For AOL and Webmail accounts, the Sent folder is not available. The Drafts and Templates folders are stored under Local Folders.)
If you are not already viewing the settings for Copies & Folders, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
You use Addressing settings to override the global LDAP server settings specified for all address books in the Preferences dialog box. LDAP server settings affect the behavior of address autocompletion, and you can change these settings for each account if necessary.
Address autocompletion uses your address books to find matching entries when you type email addresses in the addressing area of the Compose window.
If you are not already viewing the Addressing settings, begin from the Mail window:
The directory you select will also be searched for matching certificates when you attempt to send an encrypted message to one or more recipients for whom you don't have certificates on file.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Offline & Disk Space settings let you conserve disk space or set up an account so that you can use it while offline (disconnected from the Internet). The settings available depend on the mail server type (IMAP, POP, or News) associated with the account.
In this section: |
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you are not already viewing the offline and disk space preferences for an IMAP account, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Messages from POP accounts are always downloaded to your local machine. This section describes how you can save disk space for a POP account. If you are not already viewing the Disk Space preferences for a POP account, follow these steps:
Begin from the Mail window.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
If you are not already viewing the offline and disk space settings for a News account, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to use the Return Receipts account settings. If you are not currently viewing the Return Receipts settings, follow these steps:
You use the Return Receipts settings to define return receipt settings for outgoing messages from this mail account. You also use the Return Receipt settings to specify how to manage requests you receive for return receipts. These settings override global return receipt preferences you specified using Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Return Receipts.
Tip: Choose this option if you want to use a filter that automatically moves return receipt confirmation messages to a folder you specify. For information on creating and using filters, see Creating Message Filters.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to configure the Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings that control mail message security. Before you do so, however, you must obtain one or more mail certificates. For details, see Signing & Encrypting Messages.
If you are not already viewing the Security settings for your mail account, begin from the Mail window:
In this section: |
The main purpose of the Security panel in Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings is to select two certificates:
Depending on the policies of the certificate authority (CA) that issues your certificate(s), you can use one certificate for both purposes or two different certificates. If you specify a certificate to use for digital signing, you can choose to use the same certificate for encryption unless you want to specify a different one for encryption.
The certificates you select here are included with every signed message you send. These certificates allow your recipients to verify your digital signature and to encrypt messages that they send to you.
You use the Digital Signing area in the Security panel to specify how you want to sign your email messages:
Regardless of whether the "Digitally sign messages" checkbox is selected here, you can change your mind before you send an individual message.
To change the digital signature setting for a message you are writing in the Compose window, click the arrow below the Security icon near the top of the window and select or deselect "Digital Sign This Message". For details, see Signing & Encrypting a New Message.
You use the Encryption area in the Security panel to specify how you routinely want to use encryption when sending your messages:
Regardless of which encryption option you select, you can change your mind before you send an individual message.
To change the encryption setting for a message you are writing in the Compose window, click the arrow below the Security icon near the top of the window and choose the encryption setting you want. For details, see Signing & Encrypting a New Message.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Local Folders is the account where &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups saves any messages that you send while working offline. Messages you send while working offline are saved in the Unsent Messages folder under Local Folders. Any folders you create under the Local Folders account reside on your hard disk, so Local Folders is a good place to save messages that you want to keep.
If you are not already viewing the Local Folders settings, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Even if you have multiple mail or news accounts, you generally need to specify only one outgoing (SMTP) server to handle the delivery of your outgoing mail.
If you are not already viewing the Outgoing Server (SMTP) settings, begin from the Mail window:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Netscape Webmail is a free web-based mail account from Netscape.net that lets you send and receive mail from anywhere that you have Internet access. Choose Sign Up to get your free Netscape Webmail account. Choose Set Up Your Account if you have an existing Netscape.net Webmail account, so that you can set up &brandShortName; to use it.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
The sections listed below describe the Mail & Newsgroups preferences that apply to all your mail and newsgroup accounts. To see these preferences:
(Mac OS X) Open the browser menu and choose Preferences.
In this section: |
This section describes the main Mail & Newsgroups preferences. If you are not already viewing the Mail & Newsgroups main preferences, follow these steps:
Note: This setting is present only on Windows. Setting the browser Mail & Newsgroups as the default mail application may disable another mail application. To restore the other mail application as the default, deselect this option.
When Mail launches, show the Start Page in the message area: Select this to enable the Start Page. The Start Page appears in the message area when you first open &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups. This page is the default page, but you can enter a different web page or URL of your choice. To disable the Start Page, deselect this option. Click Restore Default to return to the original page provided by &brandShortName;.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes the preferences for window layout and message windows. If you are not already viewing the Windows preferences, follow these steps:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Message Display preferences allow you to choose how messages are displayed (for example, font style and color) in all accounts. If you are not already viewing the Message Display settings, follow these steps:
Plain-Text Messages: Select the font you prefer for viewing plain-text messages: fixed width or variable width. Choosing a font style, size, and color for quoted plain-text messages can help you more easily distinguish quoted text (usually a message that's been forwarded to you or by you).
This: | Converts to: |
:-) | |
:) | |
:-( | |
:( | |
;-) | |
;-p |
Languages: Click the Character Coding drop-down list to select the language you want Mail & Newsgroups to use as the default for incoming mail and newsgroup messages. This is recommended if it's likely you might receive messages in which the character set is not indicated, such as when reading messages in international newsgroups.
Tip: You can later view or change the character set coding (language) for a specific folder. In the Mail window, select a folder from the list of Mail folders. Open the View menu, and choose Character Coding.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes the preferences for notifications when new messages arrive. If you are not already viewing the Notification preferences, follow these steps:
Show an alert: (Note: This setting is present only on Windows) Select this if you want the browser Mail & Newsgroups to display a sliding alert above your system tray in the lower right corner of your screen when new messages arrive. The sliding alert only appears once when new messages arrive, and won't appear again until you bring the Mail & Newsgroups window to the front.
Sliding new mail alert |
When the alert appears, clicking the link displayed in the alert will take you to the first folder that has new mail. If no browser applications are running, Quick Launch must be enabled in order to display the new message alert.
If any browser application is running, then Quick Launch does not need to be enabled in order to display the new message alert. For information on using Quick Launch, see Using Quick Launch.
Once the browser Mail has been started, the new message alert will continue to work even after you close the Mail window (as long as another browser application is running).
Play a sound: Select this option if you want &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to play a sound when new messages arrive. You can choose to play the default system sound or a custom sound.
If no browser applications are running, Quick Launch must be enabled in order to play a sound when new messages arrive. If any browser application is running, then Quick Launch does not need to be enabled in order to play a sound when new messages arrive. For information on using Quick Launch, see Using Quick Launch.
Once &brandShortName; Mail has been started, the new messages sound will continue to work even after you close the Mail window (as long as another &brandShortName; application is running).
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Composition preferences affect how you create messages in all accounts. If you are not already viewing the Composition settings, follow these steps:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Send Format preferences allow you to specify how you want to format your outgoing messages. If you are not already viewing the Send Format settings, follow these steps:
You can always override these preferences for an individual message by using the Options menu in the Mail Compose window.
For example, if you typically send mail to multiple recipients that have the same domain name (for example, your colleagues all have email addresses that end in "netscape.net"), and you know that this domain name is capable of displaying HTML messages, then you can add the netscape.net domain to the list of HTML Domains so that Mail & Newsgroups will automatically send messages in HTML format to these recipients.
Similarly, if you typically send mail to recipients at a domain that you know can only receive Plain Text messages, you can add that domain name to the list of Plain Text domains, so that Mail & Newsgroups automatically sends messages to that domain in plain-text format.
Note: If you regularly compose HTML (formatted) mail messages, keep in mind that sometimes not all recipients use mail programs that can display HTML formatting properly. Send Format preferences allow you to specify how you want to format messages that go to recipients who cannot display HTML-formatted mail. You can convert messages to plain text, format them only as HTML, or format them as both HTML and plain text. These preferences apply to all your mail accounts, but only to mail messages and not to newsgroup messages.
Whenever you add a person or address card to your address book, you can specify whether that addressee can receive HTML-formatted messages. However, when this information is unknown, you can set Send Format preferences for how Mail & Newsgroups formats these messages.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
Addressing preferences allow you to control the settings for &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups address books (for example, email address collection and address autocompletion). If you are not already viewing the Addressing settings, follow these steps:
Note: If while addressing mail, multiple email address matches are found, Mail & Newsgroups displays a list of all possible choices.
If you select Directory Server, choose a directory server from the list. A directory server lets you look up addresses that are not stored in one of your local address books. The directory you select will also be searched for matching certificates when you attempt to send an encrypted message to one or more recipients for whom you don't have certificates on file.
See Adding and Removing LDAP Directories for information on setting LDAP directory server settings.
Note: Directory server settings you enter from the Preferences dialog box apply to all your mail accounts. You can override these settings for individual accounts by specifying different LDAP directory servers or server settings using the Addressing settings for an account in the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box. To set different addressing options for a specific account, open the Edit menu and choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to use the Labels preferences panel. You use the Labels preferences to define the label text and colors for message labels. If you are not currently viewing the panel, follow these steps:
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to use the Return Receipts preferences panel. If you are not currently viewing the Return Receipts panel, follow these steps:
You use the Return Receipts preferences to define return receipt settings for outgoing messages from all your mail accounts. You also use the Return Receipt preferences to specify how to manage requests you receive for return receipts.
Tip: Choose this option if you want to use a filter that automatically moves return receipt confirmation messages to a folder you specify. For information on creating and using filters, see Creating Message Filters.
To override these global preferences for individual accounts, see Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings - Return Receipts.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
This section describes how to use the Offline & Disk Space preferences panel. If you are not currently viewing the panel, follow these steps:
The Offline & Disk Space preferences allow you to set preferences for working offline, going online, and disk space.
See Working Offline for information on working offline.
[ Return to beginning of section ]
13 May 2003
Copyright © 1994-2003 Netscape Communications Corporation.