Composing a Message

Click the Compose menu icon in the top menu bar to open a new message composition window.

A new message composition window will open. Use this window to compose new messages.

At the top of the message composition window are the "header" fields. This is where you set your identity, who you are sending the message to, what the subject of the message is, and what character set your email will be encoded in. If sending to multiple people in the To, Cc, or Bcc fields, separate the addresses with commas (not semi-colons or spaces -- these will not work properly).

Next are some utility buttons and checkboxes. Here you can access utilities like the address book, spell checker, and so on. Also you can specify options like requesting a read receipt, delivery confirmation, sending attachments as links rather than attachments, and saving a local copy of the messages you send. All of these are optional, and can be ignored or the default value used.

In the main, center section of the window is the message composition area. Enter the text of your message in the space provided. When finished click on the Send Message button to send your message.

About the Header Fields

There are several addressing fields which contain email addresses for the message recipients. These fields differ in logical importance and in concealment purposes, but otherwise function the same. The fields are:

To:: The To: field specifies direct recipients of the message. These are people to whom the message is directed. All the recipients will see these addresses in the To: field of the message.
Cc:: The Cc: field specifies recipients who should receive a "carbon copy" of the message. All recipients will see these addresses listed in the Cc: field of the message.
Bcc:: The Bcc: field specifies recipients who should receive a "blind carbon copy" of the message. This is similar to the Cc: field, except that these addresses will not show up in the other recipients messages. In this way, you can send a copy to someone without the other recipients knowledge.

The next header field is the Subject: field. While a subject line is not required. A subject line allows the recipient to know what the message is about without having to open and read the message. It also allows for easy recognition, threading, searching or filtering of messages. Good subjects are as short and concise as possible, conveying the contents of the message in as few words as possible.

The last header field is the Charset field. This allows you to set the character set your message will be encoded in. If you don't know what this means, you should use the default setting provided there by your system administrator.

Saving a Message as a Draft

You can save a message you are composing as a draft, so you can finish and send the message at another time. The message is saved in your Drafts folder, ready for you to resume at your convenience.

Tip: If you specify a meaningful subject on messages before you save them as a draft, it will be much easier to find the correct message later when you want to resume it.

Begin composing your message. When you are ready to stop, click the Save Draft button.
From the folders pop-up menu in the upper left corner of the folder view, select the Drafts folder.
The Drafts folder will open. To open the draft message, click its subject or sender.
To resume working on the message, click on the Resume link.