Because of file size limitations in TeachText, the POPmail manual had to be divided into two separate files: BASIC STUFF and ADVANCED STUFF.
This document gives information about POPmail II basics: how to send, receive, read, and archive E-mail messages.
E-mail any comments, suggestions, or bug reports to
popmail@boombox.micro.umn.edu
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ORGANIZATION OF THIS DOCUMENT
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This document is divided into two parts.
PART 1: Using POPmail
Gives basic information about using POPmail's Browser, Sender, and Archive windows.
PART 2: Button Reference
Lists all the buttons available in the three different windows and explains what they do.
This TeachText documentation incorporates graphics depicting the different windows and buttons in POPmail II. When you print it, you may find weird page breaks.
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OTHER DOCUMENTATION
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Other files give information about POPmail: READ ME FIRST, ADVANCED STUFF, and HOW TO EXPORT MSGS.
If you need to learn how to set up POPmail, refer to READ ME FIRST.
To learn about other POPmail features -- appending and enclosing other files, previewing messages, and using the find and spelling utilities -- refer to ADVANCED STUFF.
If you would like to learn how to export messages from a POPmail 1.X or TOPmail HyperCard stack, refer to HOW TO EXPORT MSGS.
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ON-LINE HELP WITH SYSTEM 7
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If you are using System 7, learn about POPmail with the Balloon Help feature.
This part gives you an overview of the basics and step-by-step instructions about using the Message Browser, Message Sender, and Archive Browser in POPmail.
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HOW TO RETRIEVE AND READ MESSAGES
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You use the Message Browser window (shown below) to retrieve messages that are waiting for you on your mail server. It is usually the first window you see when you open the POPmail application.
THE MESSAGE BROWSER WINDOW
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The Message Browser consists of three main sections: 1) a row of buttons, 2) a message list with information about the sender, subject, and date and 3) a section that displays the message. You can resize the message list and message sections by dragging the line that separates the two.
For more information about the buttons in the Message Browser window, refer to Part 2 of this document.
RETRIEVING MESSAGES
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You can retrieve your messages from your mail server, in three different ways:
1. Click once on the Fetch button. This button appears on all of POPmail's windows. If the Message Browser window is not currently active, clicking on the Fetch button retrieves your messages and brings the Message Browser window to the front.
2. From the Mail menu, choose the Fetch command.
3. Use a keyboard shortcut: COMMAND-E.
If you have any messages waiting for you to read on your mail server, the POPmail status box, which appears in the upper right-hand corner, will display the number of messages being retrieved by POPmail. The first message is highlighted in the message list and its text is displayed in the message part of the window. You can begin reading your messages even though POPmail may be in the process of retrieving more messages. If there are no messages waiting, the Status box will say so.
Messages that you retrieve are saved in the Incoming Messages folder. Each message is named with a code that begins with "i", which indicates that it can only be read with the Message Browser. You cannot open a message by double-clicking on it.
READING MESSAGES
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To read your messages, follow these steps
1. To read a message, click once on its line in the message list. The text of this message will appear in the message section of the window. You might have to scroll through the message list to see additional messages (the scroll box indicates approximately where you are in relation to the total number of messages in your Incoming Messages folder).
An unread message is bulleted (•) to show it is unfinished business. The bullet is removed when you leave that message either deliberately or when you fetch new mail.
If you want to emphasize a particular message in the index for later reference, you can add an outlined diamond (◊) after its date information. To do this, click on the message line in the index and then either select Mark from the Edit menu or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-4. To remove the diamond, select the message and then either choose Unmark from the Edit menu or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-5.
2. To read another message, you can choose Previous Message (COMMAND-2) from the Mail menu to go to the previous message. Or, choose Next Message (COMMAND-3) from the Mail menu to go to the next message.
If you would like to see information about the header of the message you are reading, select Show Header (COMMAND-H) from the Mail menu. To display the text of the message again, select Hide Header (COMMAND-H) from the Mail menu.
3. After reading a message, you can leave it in your Message Browser or click once on the Recycle button.
4. Clicking on the Recycle button will give you three options: 1) you can decide to keep the message in your Incoming Messages folder, 2) discard it, or 3) archive it for future reference.
Option 1: Click once on Keep to leave the message in your Incoming Messages folder.
Option 2: Click once on Discard to delete the message.
Option 3: Click once on Archive so that you can read it later when using POPmail's Archive Browser. The file is transferred into the folder that is designated as the one POPmail should use for Archived Messages. Each message is also renamed by replacing the initial "i" in its name with an "a", which means it can be read with only the Archive Browser. (For more information, see READ ME FIRST, FILE MANAGEMENT section.)
NOTE: If you want to delete or archive more than one message, hold down the COMMAND key as you click on each message. If the messages are contiguous, click once on the first message, then hold down the Shift key as you click on the last message in the list.
SORTING MESSAGES
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You can organize the messages listed in the Message Browser in three different ways: by date, by sender, by subject, or by status (marked, unmarked, or unread). POPmail's default order is by date. To change, click once on either the From or Subject headers over the message index. In a list sorted by subject, replies to messages will appear after the original message. To return to the messages being sorted by date, click once on the Date header over the message index.
NOTE: This feature is not available if the option "Skinny window sizer" has been checked in the Options command dialog box from the Set Up menu.
RENAMING MESSAGES
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If you wish to edit the subject displayed in the message list, hold down the Option key and click on the name of the message. A dialog box will appear where you can type in a new name. Click on the OK button and the message will appear in the list with a new subject.
ENCLOSURES
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Sometimes you may receive a message that says another file has been sent as an enclosure. Look in the Enclosures folder for the file.
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HOW TO CREATE AND SEND A MESSAGE
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You use the Message Sender window (shown below) to compose and send messages.
THE MESSAGE SENDER WINDOW
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The Message Sender consists of four main sections: 1) a row of buttons, 2) the Recipient box where you type in the E-mail address(es) of the person(s) to whom you are sending a message, 3) the Subject box where you type the subject of your message, and 4) the Message box (unlabeled) where you type in the text of the message that you are sending.
In the Recipient box, there are two options to send copies of your message to other individuals: carbon copy (Cc) and blind carbon copy (Bcc). Selecting either of these options allows you to type in the E-mail address of the individual who you want to receive a copy of your message. "Cc" lists the E-mail address of the copy recipient in the header of the message. "Bcc" does not list the E-mail address of the copy recipient in the header of the message.
If you have correspondents to whom you routinely send E-mail, you can use the Make button or the Edit Groups command in the Setup menu to set up groups. (See Make in Part 2 for instructions on how to set up a group).
To use a group that has already been set up, click on the downward-facing triangle next to "To" and hold down the mouse button. A pop-up menu displaying an alphabetized listing of the groups you have defined will appear (alphabetized by uppercase then lowercase initial characters). Select the group you want by dragging the mouse until the group name you want is highlighted. Then, release the mouse button. The E-mail addresses of the group you select will automatically appear in the Recipient box.
For more information about the buttons in the Message Sender window, refer to Part 2 of this document.
SENDING MESSAGES
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To send a message, follow these steps.
1. Select the Open Sender command from the File menu. Or click once on the New button when you are in the Message Browser or Archive Browser window. Or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-N.
2. Click in the Recipient box and type in the E-mail address(es) of the person(s) to whom you are sending the message. If you wish, you can click on the radio buttons next to Cc or Bcc and type in the E-mail addresses of people to whom you want to send a copy of the message.
3. Press Tab, or click in the Subject box. Type a subject for the message.
4. Press Tab, or click in the box located under the Subject box (the unlabeled message box). Type your message here. You can also use Paste from the Edit menu to insert text you have copied from another Mac application.
5. Click the Post button to send the message. POPmail displays what it's doing in the Status box.
RESPONDING TO A MESSAGE YOU HAVE RECEIVED
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Sometimes you may wish to have portions of a message that you've received from a correspondent included in the message that you're sending. In fact, the courteous E-mail correspondent routinely includes the original message.
To reply to a message, follow these steps.
1. From the Message Browser window, click on the Reply button.
2. The Message Sender window will appear with the original sender's E-mail address in the Recipient box and the original message in the Message box. The first line of the message indicates the name of the original correspondent, and symbols (>) are inserted at the beginning of every line to indicate that the following text is from a previous message.
3. Edit the original message, if needed, and add your response.
4. Click once on the Post button to send the message.
If the current Message Sender window already contains text, you will get a new Message Sender window. The previous Message Sender window will stick around until you either post (COMMAND-T) or discard the message (COMMAND-D). If you quit from POPmail without sending all your messages and then open POPmail again, Sender windows with any unsent messages will appear in front. To get rid of a Sender window, you must either successfully send or purposefully discard the message.
FORWARDING MESSAGES
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Sometimes you may wish to send an entire message that you have received to others (forwarding a message).
To forward a message, follow these steps.
1. From the Message Browser window, either hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Reply button or from the Mail menu, choose the Forward command.
2. The Message Sender window will appear with an empty Recipient box and the original name of the message with the word "(fwd)" appended to it in the Subject box. The text of the forwarded message is copied into the Message box and bracketed with "Forwarded Message begins here" and "Forwarded Message ends here."
3. Make any changes to the message or add an explanation.
4. Click once on the Post button.
MANAGING SENDER WINDOWS
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If you are using a portable computer and connecting via a modem and SLIP, you may find that you prefer to fetch your messages, and then disconnect from the network so that you can respond to your messages off line. Later, you may wish to reconnect to the network to send messages. You can use commands under the Windows menu to manage your Sender windows.
Three commands can be used. "Open all Senders" command opens any unsent Sender windows. "Close all Senders" command puts away any message that has been unsent. "Post All Open Senders" sends all messages that are currently in open windows. POPmail checks the Outgoing Mail folder to see if there are any previously posted but unsent messages. If there are, POPmail will repost these messages. If there aren't, POPmail will report "All mail has already been sent." This command will not post messages in closed Sender windows.
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STORING MESSAGES FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
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You use the Archive Browser (shown below) to read messages that you have stored for future reference. You can read messages from the Archived Messages folder or from a custom folder you have created to store messages that pertain to a particular topic.
THE ARCHIVE BROWSER WINDOW
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The Archive Browser looks and acts much like the Message Browser. It consists of three main sections: 1) a row of buttons, 2) a message list with information about the sender, subject, and date the message was sent, and 3) a section that displays the message.
The difference between the Archive Browser and the Message Browser is found in two buttons: Msgs (Messages) and Recycle. When in the Archive Browser, clicking on Msgs button either opens the Message Browser or makes it the active window (brings it to the front). When in the Archive Browser, clicking on the Recycle button gives you the same choices of keeping, discarding, or archiving the message. The difference is that clicking on the Archive button brings up a dialog box that asks you to select the folder where you want the message to be saved. In addition, the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-K is ignored in the Archive Browser.
For more information about the buttons in the Archive Browser window, refer to the Part 2 of this document.
For information on how to read messages in the Archive Browser, refer to the Message Browser.
ARCHIVING METHODS
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When you archive messages, you can follow two methods.
The first is for those of you who want to store all your messages in just one place.
The second is for those of you who may want organize messages by topic. To do this, POPmail offers an option so that you can archive messages in a specific folder.
Method One: Archiving Messages in One Folder
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If you want to use the first method and store messages in just one place (typically named the Archived Messages folder), follow these steps.
1. When you're in the Message Browser window, select the message you want to store for future reference.
If you want to select more than one message, hold down the COMMAND key as you click on each message. If the messages are contiguous, click once on the first message, then hold down the Shift key as you click on the last message in the list.
2. Click once on the Recycle button.
3. In the Recycle button's dialog box, click once on Archive.
The message is moved from your Incoming Messages folder to your Archived Messages folder. (For technical information on file type and renaming, see READ ME FIRST, FILE MANAGEMENT section.)
You can also choose the Archive command from the Mail menu or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-K.
To read the message later, click once on the Go To Archive Button when you are in the Message Browser window or choose the Open Archive command from the File menu.
Method Two: Archiving Messages to a Custom Folder
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If you want to use the second method and archive messages in a more organized manner, follow these steps.
1. Select the message you want to archive in either the Message Browser or Archive Browser message list.
2. Hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Recycle button. (The Shift key determines the method you'll be using to archive messages.)
Or from the Mail menu, choose the Archive To command. Or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-L.
3. A dialog box resembling the typical Macintosh Save As dialog box appears. There is one difference. Rather than "saving" the message under a certain name, you want to select a folder where you want to store the message.
4. Maneuver until you see the name of the folder you wish listed in the dialog box.
If the folder isn't created yet, you can click once on the New Folder button and name it. The selected message is then placed in the newly created folder and you can continue reading your messages.
5. Click once on the name of the folder.
The name of the folder that the message will be moved to will appear on the Choose button.
6. Click once on the Choose button.
READING MESSAGES ARCHIVED IN CUSTOM FOLDERS
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To read messages that have been saved in a particular folder, follow these steps.
1. Hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Open Archive Button when you are in the Message Browser window.
2. A dialog box resembling the typical Macintosh Open dialog box will appear.
3. Maneuver until you see the name of the folder you wish listed in the dialog box.
4. Click once on the name of the folder.
The name of the folder that will be selected appears on the Choose button.
5. Click once on the Choose button.
The folder you picked will remain the Archived Messages folder until you change it to another one. To do so, either use the Set Archive Mail Folder command from the Setup menu or Shift-Click on the Archive button.
RENAMING MESSAGES
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If you wish to edit the subject displayed in the message list, hold down the Option key and click on the name of the message. A dialog box will appear where you can type in a new name. Click on the OK button and the message will appear in the list with a new subject.
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MANAGING WINDOWS
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You may find you have the Archive Browser, Message Browser, and several Message Sender windows open all at once. To move among the windows, use the Windows menu (shown below).
The bottom of the menu lists all the open windows, with the active window designated with a check mark beside its name. Selecting another window from the list makes that window the active window. You can also choose the Next Window command (COMMAND-M) to go from one window to the next.
Because Message Sender windows are saved until a message is either posted or discarded, several commands under the Window menu are used to manage them. To bring back any senders you have closed, use the Open All Senders command. To put away all Message Sender windows that are open, use the Close All Senders command. To send messages in all the open Sender windows, use the Post All Open Senders command. If there are not open Sender windows and the Post All Open Senders command is chosen, POPmail will check to see if there are any posted but unsent messages and will either reply "All mail has already been sent" or, attempt to resend the messages. If a Message Sender window has been closed, but has never been sent, POPmail will not attempt to send it.
Message Sender buttons: Post, Enclose, Fetch, Save, Options, Make, and Msgs.
Enclose
Click here when you want to send another document along with your message. Be sure to consider what kind of computer (Mac or IBM/compatible) and mail reader software (POPmail, TOPmail, ELM, or Unix Mail) your recipient is using before selecting this feature. (For more information about enclosing a document, see ADVANCED STUFF.)
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-E, to tell POPmail to retrieve any messages waiting for you from your mail server, which acts like an electronic mailbox.
Click here to create a list of correspondents. After the group definition screen appears, follow these steps:
1) Type a name for the group, followed by a space.
2) Type the E-mail addresses of the group members, separating each by one space.
3) Press the Return key twice to begin a definition for another group.
To select a group from your list, click on the pop-up menu (the downward-facing triangle next to To:). A list of the groups you have defined will appear. Select a group from this list and the E-mail addresses of the members of the groups will be automatically inserted in the Recipient box.
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-B, to open the Message Browser window or, if already open, make it the active window (bring it to the front).
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-N, to open the Message Sender window so that you can compose a new outgoing mail message. More than one Message Sender may be open at a time.
Click here to open the Archive Browser window so that you can view messages that were stored for future reference.
If you've set up several folders to organize archived messages according to topics, holding down the Shift key and clicking on this button allows you to select a specific folder.
Click here to display an Options dialog box for choosing optional features.
1. "Reply to ALL recipients" sends a reply to everyone who received a message, including the individuals who were sent carbon copies. If this is not checked, your reply is sent just to the sender of the message.
2. "Save a copy when I post a message" saves a copy of every message you send (in the Incoming Messages folder).
3. "Skinny window sizer" removes the FROM/SUBJECT/DATE and MESSAGE headings from the Message Browser and Archive Browser windows.
4. "Notify me when new mail arrives" lets you know whenever a mail message is received by your mail server, regardless of what application you are currently using.
NOTE: In System 7, you must have POPmail running in the background; in System 6, you must be running POPmail in the background under MultiFinder.
5. "Check spelling whenever I post a message" automatically checks a message for misspellings whenever you send a message. NOTE: You must have HyperSpeller properly installed for this feature to work (see ADVANCED STUFF for more information).
6. "Append signature whenever I post a message" adds the information you typed in for you Signature whenever you send a message. This is the only option that is activated in a new copy of POPmail. To override this option, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Post button. If this option is checked and you hold down the Shift key, your signature will not be appended to the message being posted.
7. "Server does not add date to message header" is specifically added for mail servers that do not add the date to messages. In most cases the mail server automatically adds the time and date to mail messages. If your mail server does not do this, check this box.
8. "Save documents for: _____" allows you to designate a word processor so that saved messages can be opened by that particular application. Click once on the Set button then select the word processor you wish to use from the applications you have on your computer.
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-T, to send your message when you are done typing. Holding down the Shift key overrides whatever option that was chosen for adding a signature to the end of a mail message.
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-P, to print a copy of the message currently displayed in the window. The standard dialog box for printing will appear. Click once on the OK button to print the message.
Click here to discard or archive the message showing in the window.
Clicking while holding down the Option key discards the message without asking if you really want to do so. The key combination COMMAND-D is a keyboard shortcut for discarding the message in the same manner.
Clicking while holding down the Shift key (or COMMAND-L) allows you to archive the message for future reference. A dialog box from which you can select a folder appears.
The key combination COMMAND-K archives the message in the currently selected Archived Messages folder.
To delete or archive more than one message at a time, you have two options. If the messages are all in one block, click on the first message, hold down the Shift key and click once on the last message. All messages between the first and last message will be selected. If the messages are scattered, hold down the Command key and click once on each one.
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-R, when you want to respond to the author of a message. The Recipient box and the Subject box are automatically filled in for you.
Clicking while holding down the Shift key allows you to "forward" the message to another person. The Message Sender window is made active and the Subject box is automatically filled in with "Forwarded message." Be sure to type in the E-mail addresses of the recipient(s) before posting the forwarded message.
Click here, or use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND-S, when you want the currently displayed message saved in a plain text file format that can be opened by the application you designated in Options. The message’s subject is used for the filename.
Located in the upper right hand corner of each window, this box lets you know what POPmail is doing. When it goes to fetch mail, it informs you that it is validating your account and password on the mail server. Then it relays the total number of messages waiting and how many have been transferred to your Mac's disk. It also lets you know when there are no messages waiting for you. When sending mail, it relays the process step-by-step until your mail is sent successfully.
