Using Internet Mail

Subjects covered in this document
Making a shortcut to Internet Mail on your Desktop
Working Offline
Checking you mail automatically while browsing the Web
Reading and managing your mail
Deleted Messages - Where do they go?
Using the Address Book
Sending E-mail
Attaching Files to Messages
Customizing your messages
Changing or checking your personal settings
How to Setup Multiple E-mail Accounts with Internet Mail

Making a shortcut to Internet Mail on your Desktop

Internet Mail is accessed by pressing Start/Programs/Internet Mail. (Internet Mail may also be accessed from your browser by clicking the Mail button on the toolbar, and clicking Read Mail).

You may also make a shortcut to Internet Mail on your desktop.

Right Click on the Start button in Windows 95
When the context menu appears, choose Explore
In the left pane of Windows Explorer click on Programs one time with the left mouse button
In the right pane of Windows Explorer right-click on Internet Mail and choose copy from the context menu
Close Internet Explorer
Holding your mouse in a empty area on your desktop, right click and choose paste from the context menu

Working Offline

Many users have the concept that they have to be connected to read and write e-mail. This is far from the truth. Here are a few tips for working offline.

Open Internet Mail by double-clicking on the icon just created on your desktop
If Internet Mail prompts you to connect to the Internet, click Cancel. You will then have to click OK when Internet Mail pops up an error stating it could not find the mail server
From the Mail menu choose Options
Click the Send tab and uncheck "Send messages immediately"
Click the Read tab and uncheck "Check for new messages every _ minutes"
Click the Connection tab and ensure that "I use a modem to access me e-mail" is checked
Verify that the correct Dial Up Networking connection is listed in the box
Check the option "Disconnect when finished Sending and Receiving".
Click Apply, then OK to close the option box

Your e-mail client is now set up to work offline. Let's try it.

Make sure you are not connected to the Internet. If you are, disconnect now
Open Internet Mail and press "New Message" on the toolbar
In the TO box, enter a recipients address. If you do not know one, enter comments@netease.net
Tab to the SUBJ box and enter a subject. For example: Testing Offline Mail
Tab to the message body and type your message
Click the Send button, usually indicated by an envelope on the toolbar of the New Message
You will receive a prompt informing you that your message has been placed in your Outbox and will be delivered the next time you choose Send & Receive
You may write as many messages as you like at this time. They will all go to the Outbox
When you are finished writing messages, and you wish to send them, press "Send and Receive" on your toolbar
Internet Mail will prompt you to connect to the mail server. Insert your password if needed and press Connect
Internet Mail will dial the number, sign on, send any outgoing messages, retrieve any new messages, then disconnect. Unless you have a large amount of messages, the whole process will take less than a minute

Note: Internet Mail will only automatically disconnect if it prompts the connection. If you connect with Dial Up Networking or from within any other program, Internet Mail will not prompt to close the connection.

Checking your mail automatically while browsing the Web

If you would like Internet Mail to check your mail periodically while you are browsing the Internet, follow these steps.

Connect to the Internet by double-clicking on the Internet icon.
Once connected, click the Mail button on the toolbar of Internet Explorer. Choose Read Mail from the menu that pops up
When Internet Mail opens, from the Mail menu choose Options
On the Read tab, check the option "Check for new messages every _ minutes". Adjust the interval to your liking
Click Apply, then OK to close the Options box
Minimize Internet Mail by clicking the dash on the far right of the title bar
Internet Mail will check for new messages at the interval you specified and place an envelope in your System Tray (Next to your clock on the Task Bar) if a new message arrives

Note: To maintain your offline connection needs, remember to go back and un-check this option before closing Internet Mail. If you forget, Internet Mail will attempt to connect each time you open the program.

Reading and managing your mail

Internet Mail has several panes which you can customize for your needs. The Message header pane list the messages in the current folder. The Folder pane displays the current folder name. In most cases you will want to leave this pane set to Inbox. Clicking the arrow to the right of this pane displays a list of available folders to view. These include Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, and Deleted Items, plus any custom folders you may have created.

The Preview pane is found below the Message header pane. You can hide the Preview pane by choosing Layout from the Edit menu and un-checking Preview pane.

When new messages arrive in your mailbox, the headers will appear in the Message Header pane. You will be able to see Who the message is from, the Subject of the message, and the Date of the message. Unread message will appear in Bold until they have been read. Note: If you have the preview pane turned on and the new message is highlighted as the first message in the box, it will appear as read after it has been highlighted for more than 5 seconds. Unwanted messages can also be deleted from your mailbox by clicking on the message in the Message Header pane and pressing the Del key on your keyboard.

To open a message from the Message Header pane into it's own Window, simply double-click on the Message header. You will now be able to print the message, save it to disk, or whatever you wish to with the message. Holding your mouse over the icons on the toolbar will display what each function does.

If you use e-mail a lot for corresponding with business associates or organizations, such as a mailing list, you can organize your mail in folders so that your inbox is not so cluttered and messages pertaining to a specific subject are found easily.

For our example we are going to create two folders. One for a mailing list we have subscribed to and the other for messages from our best friend.

Open Internet Mail and click the File menu
Choose Folder then Create
Type the name of your folder. (In our example we will type Mailing List. You may choose a name of your choice)
Press OK
Back to the File menu choose Folder and Create again
This time we will type Best Friend and press OK
To see the contents of the new folders, click the arrow to the right of the Folder pane and select the folder you wish to view.

Now, let's create a rule to automatically place messages from the mailing list into the Mailing List folder. In our example, we will say that the mailing list address is subscribers@netease.net.

Open Internet Mail and click the Mail menu
Choose Inbox Assistant from the menu
Click the Add button
In the From box type the e-mail address of the mailing list. In our example, subscribers@netease.net
Check Move to Folder and choose Mailing List
Click OK to close the Inbox Assistant
Repeat these steps for each rule you would like to apply.

To define these rules you will need to know the exact address that the sender users.

Now when we press Send and Receive, messages addressed from the Mailing List will go directly in to the Mailing List folder and not fill up our Inbox unnecessarily.

If you have messages you would like to store in another folder, you might follow the above steps and create a folder for these messages. For example, Sales

Any messages in your Inbox that you want to store in the Sales folder may be moved by right clicking on the message in the Message Header pane and choosing Move To from the context menu. Choose the Sales folder for the destination.

Deleted Messages - Where do they go?

When you delete a message it is sent to your Deleted Items folder. This folder is much like the Recycle Bin in Windows 95. The messages will go to the Deleted Items folder until such time you choose to empty it.

To automatically remove deleted messages from the Deleted Items folder follow these steps:

From the Mail menu choose Options
On the read tab, place a check in the option "Empty message from Deleted Items folder on exit"
Click Apply, then OK to close the options
When you exit Internet Mail, the folder will be cleaned out saving some disk space

Using the Address Book

The Address Book found in Internet Mail has places to store a lot of information about your correspondents. To access the Address Book press the Address Book on your toolbar or choose Address book from the File menu. We will insert a new entry in the address book.

Once the address book is open, press New Contact on the toolbar
Type in as much information as you want about the new contact. First Name, etc. Note: You do not have to fill in all fields. Simply inserting a display name is sufficient.
In the e-mail address, type in the contacts address and click the Add button. Note: The first entry displays (default e-mail) next to the address. If a person has more than one address available, they may be added here as well
There are tabs for Home, Business, and notes about the contact which you can also fill in
When you are finished entering information, press OK
The new contact is now on your list
Highlighting their name and pressing Properties on the toolbar will display the listing again

If you have a group of correspondents that you wish to write the same message to without having to retype the address multiple times, you can create a Group in your address book.

Open the Address book and press New Group on the toolbar
Type in a name for your group. For example Clients
From the list of existing entries in your address book, choose names to add to the group. Press the arrow pointing to the empty list box to add the names you want on the list
Press OK
You now have a list called Clients listed in your Address Book
The members of this list can be modified by highlighting the Group name and pressing Properties on the toolbar. You can add or delete members as needed

Sending E-mail

It seems as though everyone has an e-mail address these days and people are quickly learning that corresponding via e-mail is easier than the traditional methods. A few rules to follow when sending e-mail are:

Make sure of the address you are sending to. If a correspondent's address is listed as john.doe@domain.com then addressing it to johndoe@domain.com will probably result in a delivery failure.
Make sure you use the proper syntax. A common mistake is to accidentally insert a comma in the place of the period. Generally, Internet Mail will give you a syntax error when it attempts to deliver a message addressed like this.
Even though the number of recipients is not limited, some mail servers will reject messages addressed to a large number of people. Try to limit the number of recipients of a message to 10 or less to ensure proper delivery

We are now going to compose a new message in Internet Mail using entries we have put in our address book

Press the New Message button
Press the tiny rolodex card next to the TO box. This will bring up your Address Book
Double-click on a recipients or group name in the Address Book. Note how their name goes to the right pane under TO. You can add as many names in the TO box as needed.
When you are satisfied with the recipients list, press OK. Note how the Display Name appears in the TO box now
Tab to the SUBJ box and enter a short subject
Tab to the body of the message and type your message
When you are through, press the Send button on the toolbar of the new message
Your message is now in the Outbox waiting to be sent the next time you choose Send & Receive

If you do not have the recipients name in your address book and you do not want to add it, simply type in their e-mail address in the TO box in the above example.

Attaching Files to Messages

Attaching a file to a message using Internet Mail is easy. Perhaps you have a document or picture file you would like to send to a recipient. Using Internet Mail follow these steps:

Press the New Message button
Type the e-mail address of the recipient or choose one from your address book
Tab to the SUBJ box and type a subject
Tab to the message body and type a message
Click the Paper Clip on the New Message toolbar
When the Insert File box appears, browse your hard drive until you locate the file you want to send
Double-click on the file name to insert it as an attachment in your message
You will see the attachment at the bottom of your new message
Press the Send button to send the message to your Outbox

Be careful when sending large files. Large files take more time to transfer. Also, many mail servers will reject messages with files over 3 MB. As a general rule, keep attachments under 1 MB.

Customizing your messages

You can customize the way your messages look in Internet Mail several ways. Add a signature, send it in HTML format, and much more. A word of caution when sending messages in HTML format; If the recipient does not have an HTML compliant mail client, they will simply see the HTML code which may appear garbled to them. It helps to know who your recipients are and what they are using to read e-mail. If you are unsure, you should compose your messages in Plain Text (default).

To change your format to HTML, do the following:

From the Mail menu choose Options
Click the Send tab
Under Mail Sending Format check HTML
Press Apply, then OK to close the Options box
You will now be able to write message in HTML format
To toggle the feature off, follow the above steps and check Plain Text under Mail Sending Format

If you would like to sign your messages automatically each time you write a message, follow these steps:

From the Mail menu choose Options
Click the Signature tab
Check the Text box.
Type your signature as you want it to appear in your message

John Doe

Anytown, USA

Please visit my website at http://www.anysite.com

E-mail: johndoe@anydomain.com

Your message here will be inserted in each new message you write

You can also create a file with your signature. In the above steps your would check File on the signature tab and choose your file from a location on your hard drive.

Changing or checking your personal settings

If you find it necessary to change your mail settings, you can follow these steps:

From the Mail menu choose Options
Click the Server tab
The Full Name box is your display name that will appear in the From box of messages you send
The Organization box generally may be left blank unless you want to insert your company name here. This information is found in the message header of messages you send
Your e-mail address should be in lower case in the proper format
Your POP3 mail server should be mail.netease.net. Your SMTP Server should be smtp.netease.net.
This may vary from your original installation
Logon using account should be checked with your Username and Password filled in
Press the Advanced Settings button
All information on this box should be left at default with the exception of the Reply-To box. You may either leave this box blank or insert a valid e-mail address here. For example if you want any replies to be sent to sales@yourdomain.com, insert it here

How to Setup Multiple E-mail Accounts with Internet Mail

If you have more than one e-mail account in your household, follow these steps to setup multiple accounts and separate address books.

Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, then double click the Passwords icon
Click the User Profiles tab, and then click "Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings. Windows switches to your personal settings when you log in."
Click OK. When you are prompted to restart your computer, do so.
When prompted to log on to Windows, type in a unique Username and Password for the selected user.
Start Internet Mail and configure the users account.
Exit Internet Mail and choose Start, then Shutdown.
Click "Close all programs and log on as a different user," Click Yes, then log on a different user.
Open Internet Mail again and configure the second users account.

Users will be required to log on to the computer anytime they wish to access their individual settings.

Internet Mail has many features that are designed to make your e-mail capabilities easier and more efficient. We have just covered the basic features here to assist you in getting started with Internet Mail. We encourage you to refer to the help files within Internet Mail as well as explore the possibilities of what each feature can do. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to send us e-mail at comments@netease.net