Sending Mail Messages

An email address is like your personal ZIP code for receiving mail messages. This is also the way you send messages to other email users. The format used for email addresses is username@location. Your system administrator uses this format to set up user (email) addresses.

This section gives you most of the information you need to address, compose, and send a message to another user.

Using Aliases

An alias is just a private name for one or more user names (or user addresses). By creating a distribution list of user addresses to which you frequently send mail and giving it an alias, you can just type the name of the alias instead of typing each address in the To field every time you send messages. The name you give to your alias can be descriptive of a group of users or just a name you will remember. This alias only works for your user name from your machine.

To Create an Alias

Choose Mail Options from the Mailbox menu to display the Mail Options dialog box.
Choose Aliases from the Category menu of the Mail Options dialog box.
Type the name for your alias in the Alias field.
Type the user addresses that will make up the alias in the Addresses field. Each of these should be in the form username@location and be separated by a comma, space, or both.
Click Add to add the information in the Alias and Addresses fields to the Aliases list.
You can also change or remove an alias in the same manner using either the Change or Delete button.
Click OK or Apply to make the settings take effect.

To Address, Compose, and Send a Mail Message

Once you have a user's email address, you can send a message.




	NOTE: If this is the first time you are using email and if you know your own email address, you can use these procedures to send a test message to yourself.

If Mailer is not already started, click the Mailer control in the Front Panel.
The mailbox appears.
Choose New Message from the Compose menu.
The (New Message) Compose window appears.
Figure 8-4 Compose window
Type the email address of the recipient in the To field and press Return.
You can send a message to a single user, multiple users, or an alias. For information on aliases, see “Using Aliases”.
Optional. Type the topic or title of the message in the Subject field and press Return.
Optional. Type the email addresses of users you want to be carbon copy recipients of this message in the Cc field.
Once your message is addressed, press Return to go to the text area and compose the message.
To find out about editing text in your message, see “Editing Text in a Mail Message” or “Formatting Text in a Mail Message”. Choose Include from the Compose window File menu to insert a text file into your message.
You can save the message you are composing at any time by choosing Save As Text from the Compose window File menu.
Optional. Add files to the message, if necessary.
To find out how to add an attachment, see “To Add an Attachment”.
NOTE: Choose Log Message from the Compose window File menu to save a copy of the message to a mailbox.
Click the Send button or choose Send from the Compose window File menu.
The Compose window closes and the message is sent.




	NOTE: Clicking Close removes the Compose window and discards your message. Be sure to save any text you might want later before closing the Compose window.

Editing Text in a Mail Message

The Compose window Edit menu provides ways to change the message text you are composing:

Undo	Reverses the last editing action in the text area.
Cut	Removes the selected text and stores it on the clipboard. Only one selection can be stored on the clipboard at a time. If text is already there, the most current selection overwrites it.
Copy	Stores a copy of the selected text on the clipboard. Only one selection can be stored at a time. If text is already there, the most current selection overwrites it.
Paste	Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the insertion point.
Paste Special	Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the insertion point surrounded above and below by Begin and End Included Message text, or indented markers.
Clear	Removes the selection and leaves the resulting white space.
Delete	Removes the selection and the resulting white space.
Select All	Selects all the text in the text area.
Find/Change	Opens a dialog box that enables you to search for words or phrases in your message and make changes to occurrences that are found.
Check Spelling	Runs the spell checker on your mail message and display a dialog box that lists words that might be spelled incorrectly. You can Find, Change, or Change All instances of a word.

Note that not all vendors' keyboards supply these keys. Please see your local vendor's documentation for alternate key bindings.

For more information on editing functions, see Chapter 10 “Using Text Editor”

Formatting Text in a Mail Message

The Compose window Format menu enables you to make formatting changes to the message you are composing:

Word Wrap	Toggle the text entry mode that causes lines to automatically wrap at the edge of the message. This may cause problems if the sender has word wrap turned on and the recipient window is a different size.
Settings	Display a dialog box for setting margins and paragraph alignment, and applying format settings to your message.
Templates	Enables you to quickly access the templates (text files) you created for using in your mail messages. For more information, see “To Create Templates for Mail Messages”.
Add Bcc:	Adds the Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) header to your Compose window. Bcc enables you to send a copy of a message to someone without those on the To or Cc line seeing the user's address. If you added other headers beside Bcc, they show up here.

For more information on editing functions, see Chapter 10 “Using Text Editor”

To Include a Template in a Mail Message

Choose New Message from the Compose menu.
Choose Templates from the Compose window Format menu and select the desired template from the list.
Your template is added to your mail message.

For more information on templates, see “To Create Templates for Mail Messages”.

To Include Multiple Messages in a New Message

From the Message Header List, select the email messages to be included in your new message.
Shift+Click enables you to select several messages in a row by moving the highlight up or down the message header list. Control+Click enables you to select discontiguous messages one at a time from the list.
Choose New, Include All from the Compose menu.
Compose and send your message as usual.

To Include a Text File in a Mail Message

You can drag and drop a text file from File Manager to the Compose window of a mail message or follow these steps.

Choose New Message from the Compose menu.
Choose Include from the File menu in the Compose window.
You see your file system.
Indicate the text file to be included in your email message.
Click OK.
The file is included in the text area of your message.
Compose and send your message as usual.

To Send an Automatic Message (Vacation Mail)

Choose Mail Options from the Mailbox menu.
The Mail Options dialog box appears.
Choose Vacation from the Category menu.
Select On.
Type a subject and message for your vacation message.
If you use the variable $SUBJECT in your message, the user will see his or her message title in your reply. For example: "I am on vacation. Your message regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return."
Click OK or Apply.
Your vacation message takes effect the next time someone sends you a message.




	NOTE: To turn off vacation mail, follow steps 1-3 but select Off instead.

To Find or Change Text in Your Message

Choose Find/Change from the Compose window Edit menu.
The Find/Change dialog box appears.
Figure 8-5 Find/Change dialog box
Type (or copy and paste) the text you want to locate in the Find field.
Optional. To automatically change the located text to replacement text, type the replacement text in the Change To field.
Click the appropriate Find option:
- Click Find to find and select the text.
- Click Change to change the first instance.
- Click Change All to change all instances.
Click Close to remove the dialog box.

To Check Spelling in Your Mail Message

Click in the Compose window at the beginning of your mail message.
Choose Check Spelling from the Compose window Edit menu.
The Spell dialog box appears, displaying a list of potentially misspelled words with the first word highlighted.
To correct a word, select it, and type the correction in the Change To field.
To see a word in context, select it and click Find.
Click Change to correct a single occurrence, or Change All to correct all occurrences.
The word is corrected in the text.

To Edit Text in Message View

To edit the text in an existing mail message:

Select the message you want to change.
Choose Forward Message from the Compose menu.
Address the message to yourself.
Edit the message in the Compose window and send it.




	NOTE: You may want to create a separate mailbox for these edited messages as they can add to the size of your Inbox.

Creating and Using Mailboxes

Once you create a few mailboxes, you can use them to help you organize your mail. You can create mailboxes by project, users, email lists, or any other system that works for you.

To Create a Mailbox

Choose New from the Mailbox menu.
Type the mailbox name and location in your file system.
Refer to “Opening and Saving” for more information.
Click New.
The new mailbox is created and opened.

To Open a Mailbox

Choose Open from the Mailbox menu.
Select the mailbox you want to open.
Refer to “Opening and Saving” for more information.
Click Open
The mailbox is opened into a separate window.

To Close a Mailbox

Choose Close from the Mailbox menu or Window menu.

When the last open mailbox is closed, Mailer quits completely.

To File a Message in Other Mailboxes

Once you have created a mailbox other than your Inbox, you can file messages in it. You can create mailboxes by project, users, email lists, or any other system that works for you.

There are several ways to file messages in other mailboxes:

Choosing Other Mailboxes from the Move menu (or the Copy To submenu of the Message menu) and indicating the desired mailbox.
Adding to your Move menu (or the Copy To submenu on the Message menu) mailboxes where you frequently file messages. For information on adding mailboxes to your Move menu, refer to “To Add Mailboxes to the Move and Copy To Menus”.
Setting your Move menu to display the most recently visited mailboxes. For information on this option, refer to “To Add Mailboxes to the Move and Copy To Menus”.
Dragging and dropping messages to other mailboxes. See “To Drag and Drop Messages to Other Mailboxes” for more information.

To Remove a Mailbox from Your File System

Open File Manager and locate the mailbox to be deleted.
Choose Delete to Trash from the File menu.
The mailbox is deleted.

See “To Put an Object in the Trash Can” in Chapter 5 “Managing Files with File Manager” for more information.

To Drag and Drop Messages to Other Mailboxes

Make sure your mailbox is open on the desktop and its Message Header List is visible.
Open two or three frequently used mailboxes on the desktop, making sure you can see the Message Header List.
Select a message.
Drag the message and drop it onto the appropriate mailbox Message Header List. If you hold down the Control key during the drag and drop, the message is copied. If you do not hold down Control, the message is moved.

To Add Mailboxes to the Move and Copy To Menus

Once you have set up a number of mailboxes, you may discover that there are several mailboxes you use frequently. You can customize your menus to show these few key mailboxes, which makes filing by mailbox menus much more efficient.

Choose Message Filing from the Category menu of the Mail Options dialog box.
The Message Filing dialog box appears.
Type the path to the mailbox and click Add.
The mailbox is now added to the Move menu and the Copy To submenu of the Message menu.

Use Delete or Change to alter what is in the Path/File Name field once a mailbox name is selected.




	NOTE: You can change the path where Mailer starts looking for your mailboxes if you would like it someplace other than the default location.

To Display Recently Visited Mailboxes in the Move Menu

Choose Message Filing from the Category menu of the Mail Options dialog box.
The Message Filing dialog box appears.
Increase or decrease the amount of mailboxes you have recently opened in the "Display up to: Recently visited mailboxes" field.
Click OK or Apply to make the change take effect.
The desired number of mailboxes appear on the Move menu.