Netscape Handbook: Sending & Receiving E-mail
Netscape Handbook: Contents
Surfing the Web
Communicating with Newsgroups
Index
- Tools for the Internet
- Setting up e-mail
- Receiving and sending e-mail
- Mail window
- Other Mail window features
- Message Composition window
- Mail toolbar buttons
- Mail menu items
- Address Book window
- Address Book menu items
Tools for the Internet
In previous chapters you read about fundamental techniques for exploring the Internet. This chapter covers the first of two primary tools for interacting with others on the Internet: sending and receiving e-mail.
The following chapter covers communicating through newsgroups, a second way you can interact directly with others across the Internet. As you read about e-mail and news, you'll see that their features overlap substantially. Essentially, mail and news perform the same tasks: letting you correspond with others. For both mail and news, you create messages in the Message Composition window.
The core difference between mail and news is in the scope of distribution. Mail is distributed on a person-to-person basis; news is distributed on a publication-for-all basis.
- A mail message is sent to an e-mail address for collection by an individual or organizational entity.
- A news message, commonly called a news article, is sent to a newsgroup (posted to a computer operating as a bulletin board) for collection by any Internet user who chooses to browse the list of posted messages.
Some organizational tools pertain to mail or news, but not both. For example, to organize mail messages you can drag and drop the messages into mail folders. News messages, on the other hand, are already organized among newsgroups and the News window does support the dragging and dropping of messages.
Setting up e-mail
This section gives you some background about Internet protocols and the preference items you use to set up your e-mail service. The remaining sections describe mail service in more detail.
Before you can exchange e-mail, you need to tell the Netscape application how to make the appropriate connection to the Nevada Bell Internet server computer handling various protocol. Where your World Wide Web server uses uses the HTTP protocol to transport page information, your outgoing and incoming Internet mail servers use mail protocols (SMTP and POP3).
Do you know the name of your e-mail servers? If not, you will have to find out from Nevada Bell Internet, your systems administrator, or resident know-it-all. After specifying the names of these servers as preference items in the Servers panel, Netscape software lets you send and receive e-mail.
Here are some of the preferences you can set in the Option|Mail panel.
- In the Servers panel, specify your mail server names in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server field and the Incoming Mail (POP3) Server field. You should specify local mail servers, if available. Often, the same server name is appropriate for both fields and the name can be as simple as mail. You should also enter your e-mail id (the part of your e-mail address to the left of the @ symbol; not the entire address and without the @ symbol) in the POP User Name field.
- In the Identity panel, specify your name, e-mail address (the entire address including the @ symbol), and your reply-to address (if you want mail replies sent to a different address than your e-mail address) in the designated fields. This and other information provided in the panel establishes your identity to those who receive your mail messages.
- In the Organization panel, specify whether you want mail messages threaded and the method messages are sorted. By default, mail messages are not threaded. When messages are threaded, replies are displayed adjacent to the original message and other replies to the original message. When messages are unthreaded (the box unchecked), replies are displayed according to the sorting order without regard to the position of the original message or other replies.
- In the Appearance panel, specify font characteristics of your message text and quoted text. By default, when you reply to a message, the original text is quoted (restated) with each line preceded by the > symbol. You can specify the style and size of the quoted text in your messages.
- In the Composition panel, specify whether you want your replies to automatically quote the original message, and whether you want a copy of your messages automatically sent to yourself, sent to another e-mail address, or stored on a disk file.
Receiving and sending e-mail
To display the Mail window and access e-mail features, choose Windows|Netscape Mail. Or, as a shortcut, you can click on the mail icon (the small envelope in the bottom-right of the Netscape and News windows).
When you open the Mail window, Netscape checks the server and retrieves any new mail. To receive mail, you'll have to enter your e-mail password each session (or specify in the Mail and News|Organization panel that your password be remembered across sessions).
After Netscape has initially checked the mail server for messages, Netscape can periodically recheck the server and inform you if any new messages have arrived. However, Netscape does not automatically retrieve these additional messages from the mail server. To retrieve new messages, press the Get Mail toolbar button or click the mail icon.
A setting in the Mail and News|Servers panel determines how often Netscape automatically checks the mail server for new messages. You can also click on the mail icon from the Mail window to manually check the server and retrieve new messages.
Netscape informs you of the availability of new messages using the mail icon.
- Before you've checked for mail (for example, before you've opened the Mail window or if you haven't supplied your password), you'll see a question mark (?) adjacent to the envelope. This indicates Netscape cannot automatically check the status of the mail server.
- After you've check for mail, you'll see the envelope alone. This indicates there are no new messages for you.
- Subsequently, when Netscape automatically checks the mail server and finds new messages for you, you'll see an exclamation point (!) adjacent to the envelope. This indicates that new messages are available for retrieval. On Macintosh, you'll also be notified of new messages by a mail icon flashing in the menu bar.
Occasionally, you'll want to select multiple message headings, for example, to move messages to the trash. To select multiple, contiguous message headings, hold down the Shift key as you click on an item. To select multiple, noncontiguous message headings, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on an item. (On Macintosh, use the Shift key to select noncontiguous items). When two or more message headings are selected, the message pane is empty.
The Mail window and the Message Composition window, described below, contain menu items, toolbar buttons, and clickable icons to let you compose, view, organize, store, and deliver your mail in varied ways. Menu items offer the full set of features. Toolbar buttons provide basic mail features such as getting mail, deleting mail, composing mail, replying to mail, and displaying your messages. Small, clickable icons in the message header pane let you highlight individual messages as read or unread, and flagged or unflagged.
Mail window
When you first open the Mail window, you're prompted to enter your e-mail password. Use the password that you established with Nevada Bell Internet when you set up your Internet account. You'll have to enter your e-mail password once per session or specify in the Mail and News|Organization panel that Netscape remember your password.
When you open the Mail window, Netscape checks the server and retrieves any new mail. Thereafter, Netscape can periodically recheck the server for new incoming messages, though does not automatically retrieve the messages. You can set the number of minutes between checks in the Mail and News|Servers panel.
The Mail window consists of three panes: the mail folder pane, the message header pane, and the message content pane.
The mailbox pane and message header pane are organized in columns. Columns in the mailbox pane state a mail folder name, the number of unread messages it contains, and the total number of messages it contains. Columns in the message header pane state the sender name, its flagged status, its read status, the subject line, and date.
The mail folder pane contains a hierarchical list of your mail folders and three columns:
- Mail Folder shows the name of the mail folder.
- Unread shows the number of unread messages.
- Total shows the number of messages within the folder.
- The Inbox folder holds incoming mail messages to you. The folder always appears.
- The Outbox folder holds your unsent messages. The folder is created when the Message Composition window's Options|Deferred Delivery item is checked and you specify that a message be sent later.
- The Sent Mail folder holds copies of your sent messages. The folder is created when a mail file is specified in the Mail and News|Composition panel and you send a message.
- The Trash folder holds mail messages you are deleting. The folder is created when you delete a message.
When you select a mail folder by clicking on it, the message heading pane displays the titles of messages contained in that folder and the following columns:
- Sender shows the name of the sender of the mail message.
- The Flag icon shows if the message has been marked as noteworthy. Click the icon to toggle the flag status.
- The Read icon shows if the message has been viewed. Click the icon to toggle the read status.
- Subject shows the subject line of the message.
- Date shows the date and time the message arrived at your Inbox.
You can click on column titles in the message heading pane to temporarily rearrange items according to Sender, Subject, or Date.
Mail messages are unthreaded by default. On Macintosh, the message headings pane offers an area above the scroll bar that you can click on to show the current headings threaded or unthreaded. You can also use the View|Sort hierarchical menu to sort or thread messages so that replies are positioned adjacent to original messages. To arrange messages to your preferred criteria by default (that is, every time you open up the Mail window), you must set the preference items in the Mail and News|Organization panel.
When you select a message heading by clicking on it, the message gets displayed in the message content pane along with header information such as Subject, Date, From, To, and CC.
You can use toolbar buttons or menu items to move on to the next message or read a previous message.
The Edit menu contains items for deleting selected messages and folders. Deleted items are put into a Trash folder. Choose Empty Trash Folder to permanently delete the contents of the trash.
You can resize each of the three panes to accommodate mail information by positioning the cursor on the border lines between two panes (the cursor changes shape) and dragging to the proportions you desire. It's best to adjust the leftmost column first, because resizing a column repositions all the columns to the right. On UNIX, choose Options|Save Options to retain changes.
If the message sender has included a page attachment, you can check the View|Attachments Inline menu item to display fully formatted HTML page information appended to the message body or check the View|Attachments as Links menu item to display a link to the attached page. If the message sender has included a file attachment, you can click on a link that presents the Save As dialog for saving the file to your hard disk. Beside each link to an attachment, you'll find information detailing the attachment's name, file type, and encoding.
The Mail toolbar buttons and menu items offer further options for viewing, creating, sending, and storing mail messages.
Other Mail window features
Here are other basic features you'll find in the Mail window:
- Searching in messages: Choose the Edit|Find menu item to search for text in the message header or content panes. When the first occurrence of matching text is found, the message is selected and displayed in the message field. Choose Edit|Find Again for additional occurrences.
- E-mail addresses: Choose Message|Add to Address Book to insert the address of the sender of the selected message into your Address Book.
- Marking messages: The Message menu also contains items that let you mark messages as read or unread, and flagged or unflagged. When you wish to mark or flag multiple selections, the menu item is more convenient than clicking on the small icons in the pane.
- Navigation: The Go menu contains items for navigating among adjacent messages, unread messages, and flagged messages.
- Viewing messages: The Options menu contains items that help determine the content of the message heading and message panes. You can specify that the message heading pane Show All Messages or Show Only Unread Messages. You can have header information displayed within each message by checking the Show All Headers item. Use the Document Encoding menu item if you wish to select alternative character sets. To preserve your menu changes for subsequent sessions, choose the Options|Save Options menu item.
Message Composition window
You can create and send e-mail and newsgroup messages using the Message Composition window. When sending e-mail, you can transmit Internet pages and disk files as attachments, including fully formatted HTML pages displayed within your mail message.
To display the Message Composition window, choose File|New Mail Message or File|Mail Document, or one of several toolbar buttons and menu items in the Mail and News windows. You can also display the Message Composition window by clicking on the Nevada Bell Internet directory button designated to initiate e-mail.
The View menu items let you hide or display numerous types of address fields. Fields can contain more than one address.
- The From field shows your e-mail address.
- The Reply To field contains the e-mail address where you want replies to your e-mail sent.
- The Mail To contains the e-mail address where you want your message sent.
- The Mail Cc field contains the e-mail address where you want a copy of your message sent.
- The Mail Bcc field contains the e-mail address where you want a blind copy of your message sent. A blind copy does not display the address of the copy recipient
- The File Cc field contains the location where you want to store a copy of the message you're sending. By default, messages are stored in the folder specified in the Mail and News|Servers panel.
- The Subject field contains a description of your e-mail. If you're sending mail from a news message, this field is preset with the name of the current page.
- The Attachment field shows the page name or file name of any attachments you've designated.
On Windows, you can click on some field labels to produce the Address Book window or Attachment file dialog to simplify text entry. On Macintosh, you can click the small triangle icon in the upper-left of the window to show or hide the address and attachment fields.
Here are the Message Composition buttons:
- Send (Now), available when you check Options|Immediate Delivery, distributes the current message into the network and closes the window.
- Send (Later), available when you check Options|Deferred Delivery, stores the current message in the Outbox folder on your disk for distribution into the network at a later time. Choose File|Send Mail in Outbox to distribute deferred messages.
- Quote puts the current message into the quoted text format.
- Attach lets you send a separate document along with the e-mail message. Press Attach Location (URL) to specify an HTML page. Press Attach File to specify any other type of file. Press Delete to remove a selected entry. The dialog also offers radio buttons for choosing how to send the attachment. Select the default, As Is (Source), to send files in their original form. Choose Convert to Plain Text if you want your attachment sent as ordinary ASCII text. By attaching an HTML page in source format, the recipient of the attachment can use Netscape to view the page fully formatted directly in the Mail window. The View menu in the Mail window offers options that let you view attachments either inline (the page appears within the message body) or as links (a link to the page appears within the message body).
- Address opens the Address Book window.
- Stop halts transmission of the message you are sending.
- File|Send Now (Same as Send Now toolbar button.)
- File|Send Later (Same as Send Later toolbar button.)
- File|Attach File (Same as Attach toolbar button.)
- File|Include Original Text imports the text of the current page into the message field. The imported text is appended to any other content in the field and each line is preceded with a greater-than (>) symbol.
- Edit|Paste as Quotation inserts the contents of the clipboard into the message as quoted text (each line preceded by the greater-than (>) symbol.
- View|Show All displays all possible address fields available in the Message Composition window. Other View menu items let you individually select the fields you want visible in the window.
- Options|Mail and News Preferences (Same as the Options menu item in the Netscape, Mail, or News window.)
- Options|Immediate Delivery, when checked, specifies that the Message Composition window offer a Send Now menu item and toolbar button so that messages you have written are sent over the network immediately. The option is saved across sessions.
- Options|Deferred Delivery, when checked, provides a Send Later menu item and toolbar button so that the messages you've written are stored in your Outbox folder (deferred) until you explicitly decide to send them. Choose the Mail window's File|Send Mail in Outbox menu item to deliver deferred messages. If you close the Mail window with mail in your Outbox, a dialog asks you whether you want to send the deferred messages now. The option is saved across sessions.
Mail toolbar buttons
- Get Mail
Connect to the mail server and bring any available mail messages into the Inbox. - Delete
Puts the currently selected message in the message heading field into the Trash folder. - To: Mail
Displays the Message Composition window for creating a new mail message. The To field is blank. - Re: Mail
Displays the Message Composition window for replying to the current mail message. The To field is pre-addressed to the original message's sender. - Re: All
Displays the Message Composition window for replying to the current mail message. The To field is pre-addressed to the original message's sender and all other recipients of the current message. - Forward
Displays the Message Composition window for forwarding the current mail message as an attachment. The To field is blank. The original Subject field is prefixed with Fwd. - Previous
View the previous unread message in the message list. - Next
View the next unread message in the message list. - Print
Prints the currently selected message in the message heading field. - Stop
Halts any ongoing transmission of messages from the mail server.
Mail menu items
When you position the mouse over each Mail window pane, you can use the pop-up menu as a shortcut to several of the menu bar items listed here.
- File
New Web Browser creates a new Netscape window.
New Mail Message displays the Message Composition window for writing a new mail message.
New Folder creates a new mail folder.
Add Folder (Open Folder) displays the standard Open Folder dialog box.
Save As produces a dialog box for saving the current message as a file.
Get New Mail connects to the mail server and retrieves messages addressed to you.
Send Mail in Outbox connects to the mail server and sends any outgoing messages you have stored in the Outbox folder for deferred delivery.
Empty Trash Folder permanently removes messages placed in the Trash folder.
Compress This Folder recovers disk space from deleted messages.
Page Setup displays the standard Page Setup dialog box.
Print Messages prints a selected message.
Close closes the Mail window.
Exit/Quit exits the Netscape application. - Edit
Undo/Redo reverses the last action.
Cut removes the current selection and places a copy on the clipboard.
Copy places a copy of the current selection on the clipboard.
Paste puts a copy of the contents of the clipboard at the position of the selection marker.
Delete Message moves the current message to the Trash folder.
Delete Folder permanently removes the selected folder.
Select Thread selects all messages in the current thread.
Select Flagged Messages selects messages in the current thread that are designated in the Mark column of the message headings pane.
Select All Messages selects all messages in all threads.
Find searches for text in the current message.
Find Again searches for the same text as the previous search. - View
Sort lets you arrange the position of messages in the message heading field according to Date, Subject, Sender, or Message Number and can specify Ascending order. Choose Again to sort again. Choose Thread Messages to sort messages so that messages and their responses are grouped together.
Unscramble (ROT-13) lets you decode a certain type of message in which the sender has shifted the message's characters.
Load Images displays the images of the current message if they have not been automatically loaded.
Refresh redraws the current message.
Reload brings the message from the server again.
Document Source produces a View Source window showing the current page in HTML format.
Attachments Inline, when checked, lets you to view a page attachment as part of the message. If the sender has included an HTML page as an attachment, the formatted page is appended to the message body.
Attachments as Links, when checked, lets you to access a page attachment using a link. If the sender has included an HTML page as an attachment, a link to the formatted page is appended to the message body. Clicking on the link displays the page in the message content pane. - Message
Reply displays the Message Composition window for writing a response with the Send To field pre-addressed to the sender of the previous message.
Reply to All displays the Message Composition window for writing a response with the Send To field pre-addressed to the sender and other recipients of the previous message.
Forward displays the Message Composition window for sending the current messages as an attachment with the Subject field and Attachment field automatically filled in.
Forward Quoted displays the Message Composition window for sending the current message as quoted text in the content area.
Mark as Read designates that the current message has been viewed.
Mark as Unread designates that the current message has not been viewed.
Flag Message distinguishes the current message with a small icon in the flag column of the message headings field.
Unflag Message removes the current message's distinguishing icon.
Add to Address Book creates an address book entry of the sender of the current message.
Move transfers the current message to the folder you select.
Copy transfers a copy of the current message to the folder you select. - Go
Next Message displays the next message listed in the message heading pane.
Previous Message displays the previous message.
First Unread displays the first unread message.
Next Unread displays the next unread message.
Previous Unread displays the previous unread message.
First Flagged displays the first marked message.
Next Flagged displays the next marked message.
Previous Flagged displays the previous marked message.
Stop Loading halts any ongoing transmission of messages from the mail server. - Options
Show All Messages, when checked, displays both read and unread messages in the message header pane.
Show Only Unread Messages, when checked, displays only unread messages in the message header pane.
Show All Headers, when checked, displays full header information including Return Path, Received, Message ID, and Content Type. When unchecked, the message content pane displays only the basic address fields.
Document Encoding lets you select which character set encoding a document uses when document encoding is either not specified or unavailable.
Save Options preserves any changes made to your menu settings for subsequent sessions (excluding the preferences panel items, which are saved by pressing OK). - Window
This menu lets you switch among Netscape's primary or currently open windows. - Help
This menu contains the same items as Netscape's main window.
Address Book window
Use the Address Book to simplify the process of addressing the e-mail you send. To display the Address Book window, choose Window|Address Book. The window operates similarly to the Bookmarks window. You organize your addresses with address book icons and mailing list folders.
Any individual you add to your address book is represented by an icon. These individual icons appear first in the address book. Mailing list folders appear after the individual icons. Use the Address Book's menu items to create and modify entries.
Adding addresses: To add an individual, choose Item|Add User. You'll see the Address Book Properties dialog where you can enter a nickname, name, e-mail address, and description. To modify an address book entry, select the icon to modify, then choose Item|Properties.
You can enter an abbreviation or other alternative name in the Nickname field to further simplify addressing the mail you send. When you compose new mail, simply enter the nickname (rather than the e-mail address), then press Enter or Return. The nickname automatically expands to the corresponding e-mail address in the address book.
Mailing lists: Mailing lists, represented by folder icons, contain aliases to individuals in your address book. Each individual in a mailing list is also represented by an individual icon outside of the mailing list.
To add an address to a mailing list, drag and drop the individual icon on to the mailing list folder. The individual icon remains in its place and the alias, notated in italics, is stored in the folder. Choose Item|Add List to create a new mailing list folder.
Address Book menu items
Menu items specific to the Address Book window work as follows
- File|New Mail Message displays the Message Composition window for writing a new mail message to selected users.
- File|Import lets you append the contents of an address book file (an HTML-formatted page) into the active address book file.
- File|Save As lets you save the active address book file (as an HTML-formatted page). Enter a file name of your choice, then click OK.
- File|Close closes the Address Book window while saving the current list.
- File|Quit (Macintosh only) exits the Netscape application.
- Edit|Undo-Redo reverses the previous action.
- Edit|Cut-Copy-Paste (Macintosh only) performs the standard editing features.
- Edit|Delete (Delete Address on Macintosh) removes the current selection. If the selection includes a folder, the folder's contents are also removed.
- Edit|Find lets you search for items in the Address Book list (both names and addresses).
- Edit|Find Again performs the Find command again.
- Item|Add User lets you create a new e-mail address entry. You can enter an abbreviated name in the Nickname field that serves a shortcut when addressing e-mail. Enter the full name you want to use in the Name field and the proper address in the E-mail field. You have the option of adding information to the Description field.
- Item|Add List lets you insert a new folder (mailing list) below the individuals in the list. You can enter an abbreviated name in the Nickname field to serve as a shortcut when addressing e-mail to the entire list. Enter a name for the new mailing list folder (temporarily titled New Header). You have the option of adding information to the Description field.
- Item|Properties (Edit Address Book Entry on Macintosh) lets you edit the information of the selected address or folder.
Netscape Handbook: Contents
Surfing the Web
Communicating with Newsgroups
Index
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