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Sending Messages

To Compose a New Message

  1. Click the Compose icon on the toolbar to display the New Message page.
  2. Enter the email addresses of people who should receive your message. Use a comma to separate multiple addresses. The fields available include:
    • To. Enter a recipient’s email address to send the message to the recipient.
    • Cc. Enter a recipient’s email address to send a copy of a message to the recipient.
    • Bcc. Enter a recipient’s email address in this field to send a blind copy of a message to that recipient. These addresses are not listed with the message when it is delivered.
  3. Click the Subject field and type the subject of your message.
  4. Click in the message text box, and type the text of the message.
  5. From the drop-down menu, select the Priority. Options are Normal, Urgent, and Non-Urgent.
  6. From the Request Receipt drop-down menu, select an option. Options are None, When delivered, When Viewed, and Both.
  7. Under select the Security options, set Signed Message and Encrypted Message check boxes as desired. Default options are set in the Options - Mail page. For more information about S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.
  8. If the New Message page does not have these check boxes, you do not have permission to sign or encrypt a message.

  9. Click Send.

To Reply to a Message

You can respond to the sender of a message, or to the sender and all recipients listed in the To, From, Cc fields of the original message.

  1. Click Reply to reply to the sender, or Reply All to reply to the sender and all the other recipients.
  2. A New Message page appears with the name of the recipient or recipients.
  3. The subject of the original message is prefaced with Re:, and the original message appears inline in the New Message page.

  4. (Optional) Enter the email addresses of additional people who should receive your message. Use a comma to separate multiple addresses. The fields available include:
    • To. Enter a recipient’s email address to send the message to the recipient.
    • Cc. Enter a recipient’s email address to send a copy of a message to the recipient.
    • Bcc. Enter a recipient’s email address in this field to send a blind copy of a message to that recipient. These addresses are not listed with the message when it is delivered.
  5. Click in the message box and type the message text.
  6. Verify that the S/MIME features are set as desired in the Options - Mail page before you send the message. For more information about S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.
  7. If the New Message page does not have these check boxes, you do not have permission to sign or encrypt a message.

  8. Click Send.

To Compose a Draft

  1. In the New Message page, enter a subject for your message and type the text of the message.
  2. At the bottom of the page, set the Sign and Encrypt check boxes. An S/MIME message is stored in the Drafts folder as encrypted if you select that feature.
  3. Verify that the S/MIME features are set as desired before you send the message. For more information about S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.
  4. Default options are set in the Options - Mail page.

    If the New Message page does not have these check boxes, you do not have permission to sign or encrypt a message.

  5. Click the Save Draft icon in the New Message page to save the message in the Drafts folder.
  6. Close the New Message page.

To Retrieve and Send a Draft

  1. Click the Drafts folder.
  2. Click the Subject of the draft you want to retrieve.
  3. The New Message page appears with your draft. Revise the message, if desired.

  4. Enter more recipient names in the To: field, if desired.
  5. Verify that the Sign and Encrypt check boxes at the bottom of the page are set as desired.For more information about S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.
  6. The default options are set in the Options - Mail page.

    If the New Message page does not have these check boxes, you do not have permission to sign or encrypt a message.

  7. Click Send.

To Check Spelling

Select one of the following methods:

To Correct Spelling

  1. In the display of highlighted words that the spell checker does not recognize, find the word to change.
  2. Click the word to select it.
  3. Select the correct spelling of the word from the suggested list (if suggestions are available), or type the word correctly in the Replace the word with: field.
  4. The word appears in green when you spell it correctly.

To Format Message Text


Note

You can format messages if your Web browser is Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.


  1. In the New Message page, click the Rich Text (HTML) link.
  2. Click the location where you want new formatting to start. To change the format of text, select the text to change.
  3. Click the formatting tool you want to use, or select the option you want from one of the drop-down menus. These tool are available:
    • Format. Sets text of a paragraph to a preset format (drop-down menu).
    • Font. Sets text style (drop-down menu).
    • Size. Sets text size, based on HTML font sizes (drop-down menu).
List of options available in the formatting tool

Note

The emoticon appears only if your service provider provided this facility.


To Forward a Message

To forward an opened message, and any files attached to it as an attachment, or quoted text:

  1. In the left pane of the Mail page, click the name of the email folder with the message you want to forward.
  2. Click the subject of the message to open the message.
  3. Determine whether to forward the message as an attachment or as part of your new outgoing message, and complete one of the following:
    • To forward the message as an attachment, click Forward. The forwarded message appears as an attachment in the Attachments field of your outgoing message.
    • Click Forward Inline to quote the original message and forward the attachments. The original attachments are listed in the Attachments field of your outgoing message. HTML messages appear as attachments in the New Message page even if you selected Forward Inline.
    • In the Subject field, a Fwd: label is added to the subject of the original message.

  4. Enter the email addresses of people who should receive your message. Use a comma to separate multiple addresses. The fields available include:
    • To. Enter a recipient’s email address to send the message to the recipient.
    • Cc. Enter a recipient’s email address to send a copy of a message to the recipient.
    • Bcc. Enter a recipient’s email address in this field to send a blind copy of a message to that recipient. These addresses are not listed with the message when it is delivered.
  5. (Optional) Attach new files to your outgoing message. They appear in the Attachments field.
  6. Verify that the S/MIME features are set as desired. For more information about S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.
  7. Default options are set in the Options - Mail page.

    If the New Message page does not have these check boxes, you do not have permission to sign or encrypt a message.

  8. Click Send.

To Send a Signed and Encrypted Message

The Sign all outgoing Messages field and the Encrypt all outgoing Messages are enabled if you selected them in the Settings option of the Options tab.

You can chose not to send signed and encrypted messages by deselecting the options within the New Message page. Encryption significantly increases message size.

  1. Click the Send icon in the upper left corner of the New Message page, or click the Send button in the lower right corner of the New Message page.
  2. An error message appears if a problem occurs during the signing and encryption process, and the message is not sent.

  3. (Optional) If you receive a message indicating that message size exceeds the system limits, reduce the size of your message or attachments and send it again.

Understanding S/MIME

Mail supports the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME) specification. To use the S/MIME features to sign or encrypt a messages:

Keys and Certificates

Keys contain information to identify them as only belonging to their owner. This information is referred to as a certificate. Keys and their certificates are issued from within your organization or purchased from a third-party vendor. The issuing organization is referred to as a certificate authority. You typically have only one private-public key pair, but multiple pairs are permitted.

Before Mail uses your private or public key, it checks its expiration date in the certificate against the current date. If your key has expired, you receive a message in a pop-up page, and no further S/MIME messages are created with that key. Your certificate is also checked against a certificate revocation list. If your certificate matches a certificate on the list, Mail may or may not use your key, depending on how your system is configured.

Once validated, the key is used when you send, read, forward, or reply to messages. A message can be signed, encrypted, or signed and encrypted.

Keys and their certificates are stored in one of two ways:

Understanding S/MIME Settings

Your system administrator sets your initial S/MIME settings for Mail. The settings control whether your outgoing messages are signed, encrypted, or signed and encrypted.

The settings also control whether S/MIME check boxes are displayed as checked (feature selected) or unchecked (feature deselected). The check boxes are:

Review these examples of using S/MIME settings:

S/MIME Functions

Table 4 lists and describes the S/MIME mail actions.

Table 4  Allowed S/MIME Actions

Mail Action

Description

Send a signed message with or without attachments

A signature at the end of the message ensures that you sent the message. Your private key is used to create the signature.

For information, refer to Keys and Certificates and Understanding S/MIME

Send an encrypted message with or without attachments

The recipient’s public key encodes your message. The message arrives at its destination with an S/MIME icon to indicate that no tampering occurred during transmission.

For information, refer to Keys and Certificates and Understanding S/MIME

Read a signed or encrypted message with or without attachments

A signed or encrypted message carries an S/MIME icon at the end of the message’s Subject line. You can read a signed or encrypted message from any folder for your account.

For information about icons, refer to Understanding S/MIME

Forward a signed or encrypted message with or without attachments

When you forward an S/MIME message, it is transmitted with S/MIME features in effect for your outgoing messages, not with S/MIME features it might have arrived with. You must ensure that a forwarded message is properly signed or encrypted.

For information about overriding the S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.

Reply to a signed or encrypted message with or without attachments

When you reply to an S/MIME message, it is transmitted with S/MIME features currently in effect for your outgoing messages. The message you are replying to is part of your response but is not automatically sent with the S/MIME features it arrived with. You must ensure that your response and the original message are properly signed or encrypted.

For information about overriding S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.

Save a draft message

Drafts of a new S/MIME messages are stored in the Drafts folder as encrypted, if you selected that option.

For information about overriding S/MIME settings, refer to Understanding S/MIME.

S/MIME Icons

S/MIME messages, whether signed or encrypted or both, appear in your Inbox folder with a small icon at the end of the Subject line. The icons are:

To View Java Console Messages

If your system administrator enables the Java Console for you, the S/MIME applet writers a variety of operating messages to the Java Console as your signed and encrypted messages are processed.

  1. Navigate to the page’s Control Panel.
  2. Double click the Java Plug-in 1.4 icon.
  3. Click the Basic tab.
  4. Click the radio button for Show Console.
  5. Click Apply.

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