Setting Your Preferences

Setting your user preferences (Back to Top)

Your default user preferences are configured when your account is created. These options define how your mailbox, address books, and calendar applications work. You can also set up your personal email identities and POP accounts and select a theme for your mailbox.

You can change the settings from the Preferences tab. If an option described here is not visible in your view, it is not available for your account.

You can set preferences in the following tabs. Click on the word for a detailed description of the tab.

  • General

    • You are logged into the standard web client. To set this to be the default Client Type when you log in, select Advanced.
    • Advanced offers the full set of Web collaboration features. This Web Client works best with newer browsers and faster Internet connections.
    • Standardis recommended when Internet connections are slow, when using older browsers, or for easier accessibility.
    • In Theme select the background color for your mailbox interface.
    • If the time zone displayed here is not correct, select the defaulttime zone for your account. This determines the date and time for messages that you send or receive and the time to display for Calendar appointments. This can be different from your computer time zone configuration.
    • In Search Settings, you can choose to automatically include the Junk and Trash folders in any search you perform. By default these folders are not searched.
    • In Search Language, check Always Show Search String to show search string details in the search text box.
    • Enable Always show selection checkboxes to display a checkbox for each item in the Content pane. Use the checkbox to select one or more items to perform the same action on, such as delete, move, mark as read/unread.
  • Mail

    • Select how many items (messages or conversations) to display per page. The default is to display 25 items per page, but you can select 10, 50, or 100 items per page.
    • Select how you want to group your mail, by conversation or message. If you have the Conversation feature, Conversations is the default.
    • Polling interval is how often your computer checks for new mail. The default is every 5 minutes.
    • Specify whether to view mail as HTML, for messages that have been formatted as HTML. Turning this off causes mail to be displayed as plain text, showing the HTML tags themselves rather than applying them as markup.
    • Message Preview options
      • Set whether to show the reading pane when viewing mail. The default is to always show the reading pane.
      • Of enabled, the client displays snippets of messages in email list. When the cursor is over the subject of a message, the first few words of the message are displayed.
      • If enabled, double-click opens messages in new window
    • Enable Images to download pictures automatically to your HTML email message. When this is enabled, you do not need to click the display image message to see the image.
    • Default Mail Search defines the search to execute when you log in. The default search is your Inbox. When you log in, the results of your Inbox display. You can change this field to have another folder, tag, or a saved search displayed when you first open the Mail Client. See Query language description for the syntax. Enable and specify an address to send notifications that you have received new mail.
    • Specify an address to forward your email to. You can have the original email deleted from your mail mailbox.
    • Specify whether to send an auto-reply message to incoming mail. This is frequently used as an away message or vacation message saying that you are out-of-office, and what the message should say.
    • Configure the Messages from me section to handle messages you send that include your address as one of the recipients of the message or that are included in an address, such as a mailing list that includes you.
  • Composing

    • Set which text editor you want as the default, either HTML or plain text.
    • Set the default font settings to be used when using HTML to compose in Mail and Calendar. You can define the font style, size and color to use as your default style. Arial, 12 point black is the default.
    • Always compose in new window opens a new compose window, separate from your mail mailbox, when you compose a message. You can view and navigate your mailbox while the compose window is open.
    • Messages you compose are automatically saved as a draft every few minutes. If you would prefer not to have this automatically saved, disable the feature.
    • Select whether to include the original text in the body of your reply message. You can choose to include original text, not include it, include it as an attachment, include it in the body with a prefix that you choose, or include only the most recent message. (In other words, it will quote only what was written by the person who sent the message, and not previous text.)
    • Specify whether to prefix each line with > of | for the previous email messages that are forwarded or replied to, if you chose to quote original text.
    • By default, the Save copies of messages to sent folder is enabled. Copies of messages you send are saved to your Sent folder.
    • Specify how to include the original text of a message when you forward a message, in the body of the message, in the body with a prefix, or as an attachment.
  • Signatures

    You can create signatures for your email messages. Your signature can include your name and additional closing text to the maximum number of characters that your account allows. If you create multiple identities, you can create different signatures and assign them to specific addresses.

    • Enter the signature that should appear on your email messages.
    • Specify the placement of your signature in your email messages: either add the signature below all messages in the email or have the signature added at the end of your composed, replied to, or forwarded text.
  • Address Book

    • Enable the feature to automatically add addresses to your address book when you send mail. If this is enabled, addresses are saved to your Email Contacts folder.
    • Select whether you would prefer to view contacts as a list or as business cards.
    • Select the number of contacts to display per page. The default is 25.
    • Import Contacts to your Contacts list. The file to import must be in a comma-delimited format.
    • Export your contacts list. The file exports in a coma-delimited format.
  • Accounts

    The accounts tab is used to create and manage your personas. Persona is the mail identity used in the From field of email messages you send.

    The default style is defined in the primary identity. When you create new identities, you can use the same settings as the Default Identity or you can set different preferences.

    The Add External Account button lets you identify your external POP/IMAP accounts so that this web client can retrieve email from your other accounts. You can also set up so that replies to those messages use the corresponding POP/IMAP address.

  • Mail Filters

    Use the Mail Filters tab to define mail filtering rules. To learn how to set up mail filter rules, see How filtering works.

  • Calendar

    • Select how you would like to view your mail calendar. The default is by work week.
    • Specify which day of the week should be the first day of the week in your calendar.
    • If you travel between time zones, you may want to select to show the time zone list in the appointment view.
    • If you create many appointments without attendees, checkUse the QuickAdd dialog.
    • A mini-calendar is displayed in Calendar. You can enable mini-calendar to be visible from any view.
    • Set the number of minutes before an appointment to be reminded. The default is five minutes.
    • Import and export other calendar programs.
  • Shortcuts

    Keyboard shortcuts let you use the application without going to the mouse. A large number of shortcuts is available. You can also create custom shortcuts by assigning numeric aliases to folders, tags, and saved searches.

    • The Shortcut List shows all the existing keyboard shortcuts.
    • The Mail Folder Shortcuts tab is used to create a shortcut to quickly go to your email folders and to move a message to that folder. You select the folder and assign a number to it. For example, if you assign 3 to the Inbox folder: From anywhere in your mailbox, typing v3 will move you to the Inbox. Selecting an item and type - 3, will move the item to the Inbox.
    • The Saved Search Shortcuts tab is used to create shortcuts to quickly access Saved Searches. You select a saved search and assign a number to it. For example, if you assign 3 to your favorite search, then from anywhere in your mailbox, you can type s3 to quickly run that search.
    • The Tag Shortcuts tab is used to create shortcuts to quickly access all items with a specific tag or apply a tag to a message or contact. You select a tag and assign a number to it. For example, a tag called Follow up is assigned 3. From anywhere in your mailbox, you can type y3 to see all items marked with Follow up. Select an item and type t3 to tag that item with Follow up.

    You can assign any number, but it cannot be repeated within a shortcut tab.

Changing your user preferences (Back to Top)

Your default user preferences are configured when your account is created. These options define how your mailbox, address books, and calendar applications work.

You can change the settings from the Preferences tab. If an option described here is not visible in your view, it is not available for your account.

The general direction for changing your preferences is as follows:

  1. Click Preferences.
  2. Click the tab containing the preference you want to change. See the Help topic for each of these tabs for specific details
  3. Change the settings.
  4. Click Save.

Also see Setting your user preferences

Restore default preferences (Back to Top)

On each of the Preferences tabs except for the Mail Filter tab, the Restore Defaults button on each page resets any changes for that page to the default system settings that were in effect when you first logged in to your new mail account. You must click Save in order to commit these changes.

New mail notifications (Back to Top)

You can configure your mail options to be notified at another email address when you receive mail to your mail mailbox. This feature may be useful if you do not receive a lot of mail to your mail account, but when you do receive mail, it's important enough to require a timely response.

To set notification:
  1. Click the Preferences tab.
  2. Click the Mail tab.
  3. In the Receiving Messages section, check Send a notification message to, and enter the email address.
  4. Click Save. The notification feature is enabled immediately.

Creating away messages (Back to Top)

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This feature is also known as an out-of-office auto-reply message. You can set a vacation message that automatically replies to people who send you messages when you are out of the office for an extended period of time. That message is sent to each recipient only once, regardless of how many messages that person sends you during the designated vacation period.

To set a vacation message:
  1. Click the Preferences tab.
  2. Click the Mail tab.
  3. In the Receiving Messages section, check Send auto-reply message.
  4. In the text box, enter the message to be sent, such as "I am currently out of the office and am checking voice mail but not email. I will return on August 1, 2007."
  5. Set the start and end dates for using this message.
  6. Click Save. The away message feature is enabled immediately.

Saving messages you send (Back to Top)

The Sent folder contains copies of mail messages that you have sent. You can delete your copies at any time.

By default, Save to Sent is enabled. You can change this from the Preferences, Compose tab.

Creating Personas (Back to Top)

Creating different mail identities, called personas, allows you to use multiple email addresses from your mailbox. You might want to do this to manage different roles in your job and personal life from this single email account.

To create a persona open the Preferences tab and configure the following:

  1. On the Accounts tab, click Add Persona.
  2. In the Persona Settings section enter a name for this persona. This name is used to identify the persona in the From list when composing an email. It does not appear in the email message.
  3. In the text box below From: type the name that should appear in the From field of your outgoing email messages (for example, John). This is the friendly name that is shown before your email address. In the second box, select the email address to send messages from. Your account configuration may let you create an address.
  4. If replies should be sent to a name and address different from that which you configured in From, check Reply-to. Enter the name and address that should receive replies for this identity. For example, replies to training messages John sends should be sent to Team Training at training@xample.com.
  5. You can select a signature to use for this persona. If you have not created the signature, you can come back and edit this persona later. If you do not want the signature to be applied automatically, select Do Not Attach Signature.
  6. If you want messages in specific folders to automatically use this persona, check Replying to or forwarding messages in folder(s). Click the folder icon to select one or more folders from the list of existing folders or to create a new folder. Type a comma or semi-colon to separate folders entered in the box.
  7. Click Save to save this persona.

If you need to create the signature, go to the Signature tab after you click Save. See Using a signature.

Changing your default time zone (Back to Top)

The default time zone setting that is displayed in the Preferences>General tab is used to localize the time for received messages and calendar activities in the standard web client.

When using the standard web client, the time zone on the computer is not used to set the time a message is received or for calendar activities; the time zone setting in the Preferences>General tab is. However, when using the advanced web client, the time zone setting on the computer is used to as the time stamp for received messages and for calendar activities, not the time zone setting on the General tab.

  • Because the advanced web client and the standard web client do not use the same time zone source to render messages, you may notice that the same message has a different time when displayed in one or the other client. You can avoid this by having the computer time zone and the web client time zone set to the same time.