Electronic Mail (E-mail)

Opera has support for sending electronic mail messages. We are also working on a complete e-mail client, so that you can also receive and store mail. You are also welcome to make use of our web-based e-mail service called OperaMail, which is yours to use free of charge.

Ok, you want to send an e-mail to someone. For that you'd have to go to Preferences/Mail and enter some information first, so let's see what has to be set up for a successful send process:

1. Your Name
   It is standard procedure to add your name to any e-mails sent. This way the recipient recognises you and won't delete your mail right away because s/he doesn't see who sent the mail.
2. Your E-mail Address
   The mail server will want to know who the mail it accepts is from, so you would have to enter your e-mail address.
3. Mail Server
   Before you can send a mail, you need to tell Opera the name of the machine that will accept and pass on your e-mail. This machine is called a "mail server", and the protocol used for this is called SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol). Example: smtp.icon.co.za
   Note: You can ask your system administrator or Internet supplier for the name of your mail server.

In short:

To set up mail preferences:
Choose 'Mail...' from the 'Preferences' menu.
Fill in the fields for name, mail address and mail server or fill in the name of your own mail program.

Example:
Name: James A. Smith
E-mail Address: ja.smith@home.com
Mail Server: smtp-mail.home.com

Click on the 'OK' button.

You can also specify a file where Opera saves all outgoing mails, provided you use Opera for mailing rather than your own e-mail client. This procedure will be much improved with our new version 4.0.

How to send mail

If you would like to use e-mail from Opera, you can do it by simply clicking on e-mail-link in a web page or in a newsgroup.

At the moment Opera can only send mail but not receive it. We therefore suggest you use an alternative mail program, such as The Bat, Pegasus, Agent, Eudora or Becky! to manage your e-mails until Opera will come with a complete mail system in version 4.0.

TIP: If you use Pegasus Mail, you can use the command-line option -T to tell Opera to open a new message window in Pegasus with the e-mail address pasted into the To: field when you click on a mailto: link on a web page.

If you use Agent, enter this string (obviously adapted to your settings):

c:\agent\agent.exe c:\agent\data\agent.ini "/url:mailto:%1"

However it only works if Agent isn't already open. If it is, only the focus will change, but no mail window will be opened. More info on a proper solution is on our online support page.

If you use MS Outlook Express as your mailer, this is your command-line option:

"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe /mailurl:mailto:%

(change your office-folder, of course)

Also see these parameters!