GovernMail Help

Welcome to GovernMail, the program which brings you the latest government links and information. GovernMail is designed with an easy-to-use interface to make reaching government officials and information easy and exciting. Simply click on selections in the bar on the left side of the GovernMail window to switch between government sites and government branches. Some of they key areas in GovernMail outlined below:

1. emailing Government Representatives:

Individual emails:
Individual government representatives can be emailed by clicking on blue underlined links in the contact tables (ex. House, Senate, World Leaders). GovernMail can be configured to launch these emails through GovernMail's email composer window or through an external email program. To switch selections go to Options on the GovernMail menu and click on "Use External email Program For Links".

Note that some US House members do not have direct email addresses and instead use web forms. On these links, the browser will open to the representative's email link. Some of these links go to a generic House email page where you will need to specify the House member's district to email them.

Group emails:
US Congress members and the President of the United States can be emailed in group messages in GovernMail. To set up a group of Congress members to email, click on the checkbox beside each representative you would like to email. After selecting the representatives, click on the Mail icon on the toolbar next to the web browser's URL. This will open a new window where you can review your selections. If you do not want to email a representative you selected, click on the checkbox adjacent to the representative you do not want to email, to remove the checkmark from the box. If you would like to hide the names of the representatives you are emailing from other representatives check the BCC Representatives checkbox. This will prevent each representative from seeing the full list of representatives you are mailing. This will also reduce the total size of the message each representative receives, but will still include all of your message.
After verifying the list of representatives you would like to email, click on the Compose Message button. This will open a new window where you can enter your message. Simply fill in the subject line and enter your message. After you finish entering your letter, click on the "Send Message" button to send your message.

Advanced Selection:
For the US Senate and House there is also a selection to select all representatives or representatives by party. To access this option, click on the Senate or House icons in the bar on the left side of the screen. Then, click on the "Full Select..." button. This will bring up a new window where you can click on the check boxes to select the group you would like to email. Then click on the OK button to make your selection. This will bring you back to the main GovernMail window where you continue to make selections.

2. Visiting Representatives Sites

Visting representative web sites is very intuitive in GovernMail. All web site links are in blue and underlined within the GovernMail tables. The Multimedia and Additional Links selections on the GovernMail selection bar link directly to their respective web sites. For either type of link, simply click on the link and the internal browser will load to the site you selected.

3. Latest Support Information

For the latest support information, including information on bugs, fixes, and other frequently asked questions, please visit the GovernMail online support site at http://www.vista-x.com/governmail/gvhelp.htm.