| Nucleus Internet 101 |
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Using Mac Mail
Starting Mac Mail Mac Mail is the email program that comes with Macintosh (Apple) computers, but this can be a bit misleading... "Mac Mail" is not actually the name of the program, it's the name that non-Mac users refer to it as. In fact, the program is simply called, "Mail". Other programs are available, but Mail is included free of charge, similar to Outlook Express for Windows. To start Mail, simply find its icon along the the Dashboard - it looks like a mail stamp - and use your mouse to left-click on it: Account Configuration If you've haven't previously opened Mail, then you will be prompted to begin the setup of a new mail account at this point. In order to properly setup Mail, you will need your full email address and the associated password, as provided by your service provider(s). If you have internet access through or have your mailboxes hosted by an ISP other than Nucleus Inc., then you will need the server names as well as the email accounts and passwords to complete setup. Here are the steps you'll see when configuring your account. Go into Mail's Preferences, then go into Accounts section and click the '+' on the bottom left. Click continue and enter your POP (incoming mail) server info as follows. On the next screen, ensure SSL is unchecked and choose "Password" for authentication. Again continue to the next screen and enter your information similar to below. Ensure SSL is disabled and again choose Password authentication. The process is finished and the next screen will allow you to review your settings. Clicking continue brings you to the final screen for the setup wizard. Click done and your account is now ready for use. A key point to keep in mind when using Mail is that if you delete your account settings, then you also automatically delete all of the email associated with that account. Not all mail programs do this so if you're a first time user of Mail, be aware of this behavior! The Layout of the Main Screen Mail presents a basic/straight forward user interface with your folders (Mail Boxes) on the left, your messages on the top-right, and the message contents on the bottom-right. The folders area shows you the categories MM keeps for your email in. When mail arrives, it is automatically filed to the Inbox. If you delete a message, it is then moved to the Deleted folder. You can create additional folders and then drag specific messages into them as a means of organizing your email. Clicking your mouse on "Inbox" highlights it and causes the messages it contains to be displayed on the right. Clicking any of the folders will have the same effect. On the right, you can the messages contained in the currently selected folder. You'll notice that the mail items are organized as a list of columns and at the top of each there are names, such as "From", "Subject", and "Received". Finally, the bottom-right area shows you the contents of the actual message itself. If you click on an email listed in the top-right, it's contents are shown here. Receiving Email Typically, Mac users stick with Mail, even though other applications are available such as Outlook, Eudora, or Mozilla Thunderbird. Mail is set, by default, to receive email automatically each time it's started and then subsequently once every 5 minutes. Contrary to to other mail programs, it will not remove those messages from the mail server right away, but instead leaves them for about a week and then deletes them. This situation is a bit like your post office "replicating" and storing you mail for a brief period to ensure safe delivery.
When manually clicking Get Mail, be sure that you have previously clicked "Inbox" on the left, otherwise no messages will appear to arrive, even though they may have. Once you've received some messages, you will likely begin wanting a way to organize them. You can create new Mail Boxes, such as "Keepers" and "Online Help", by clicking the "plus" in the bottom left corner of the screen. Creating and Sending Email Creating messages is a straight forward process that begins by clicking the button marked "New" across the top of Mail. A new window will open presenting a form which you fill out with a recipient email address, the subject, and the contents of the actual message itself. Here's what you'd see: Once you've got that nailed down, click the "Send" button to have the message delivered. Afterwards, you can click on the "Sent" Mailbox and you'll see your message appear there, rather than in the Outbox (where it appears briefly after you click send). Managing Contacts Managing your contacts is done through the Address Book application, a separate program from Mail. From here you will be able to create, update, and delete the vCard's (Virtual Card - a kind of electronic business card with a person's contact information on it). You'll also be able to create Directories for categorizing your vCard's, allowing you to seperate Friends, Family, and Business contacts, for example. Start the Address Book application by clicking its icon on the dashboard: Add a contact by clicking the '+' at the bottom of the Name column and then fill out the fields for the contact's vCard on the right-hand side of the window: Add a new Group Directory by clicking the '+' at the bottom of the Group column and then type a name for it. Here we're making one for people who are our friends: Move existing contacts to a new Group by dragging-and-dropping their vCard from the current group into the new one: View the contacts for a Group by clicking the Group name - the list of vCard's will appear under the Name column: Update the details on the vCard for one of your contacts by clicking their vCard and then clicking Edit. Keep in mind you may first need to click the proper group for your contact before their vCard becomes visible.
Importing/Exporting Mail and Contacts Unfortunately, Mail offers no simple way of performing import and export options for your email. If you're migrating to another mail program, it may support a feature that can do this, but it depends on the software you choose. As far as your Contacts go, you actually need to use the Address Book application for import/export operations. The feature is nevertheless limited in that you're only able to export one VCard from your contacts at a time. Alternately, however, you are able to backup your Address Book by accessing the backup option(s) from the File options menu. Here's how:
Searching Your Mail Searching through your old messages is done by typing a search phrase into the text-box at the top right corner of Mail's window. As you type your search phrase, in this case "support", you will see any matches that are found appear in the main viewing area beneath the search box.
Sending Attachments An attachment is a document, picture, video or any other type of computer file, that is sent with an email. It is manually selected from the files on the computer and transmitted without further user interaction. The size and types of email attachments are often restricted - for example, you will find that you are typically unable to email files ending with ".EXE" since such files are widely known to be exploited by malicious users in order to spread viruses. Another isntance are messages that have too many attachments and so become oversized - attachments such as pictures, video, and audio clips tend to rapidly use up the space allowance (you should avoid sending messages that are over 10MB). In the following images, you can see how you are able to select a file from your computer. Once you've finished these steps, you can complete and send your message as you normally would.
Sending to More than One Person - Carbon Copies and Blind Carbon Copies Occasionally you may want to send the same email to multiple people but don't want to create & send a message for each of them specifically. Sending to multiple recipients simultaneously is done by sending Carbon Copies or Blind Carbon Copies. The difference between Cc's vs. BCc's is that email delivered as a Cc allows the recipient to see the addresses of the other recipients of the message, whereas BCc-delivered mail prevents this. Adding recipients to your message can be achieved by either typing the person's email address into the Cc field, or by clicking the button labeled, "Cc:" when creating a new message. Doing the latter opens your address book and allows you to add people via point-and-click. The steps are as below:
In order to BCc individuals, you first need to click the Cc: button but then add your recipients using the "BCc:" button in the selection window that comes up next:
If you accidentally add someone as a Cc: or BCc:, or for some alternate reason need to revise your list of recipients, you can certainly remove them afterwards. By clicking the Cc: button while creating a new message, you can hilight (right-click) on the individuals already given as recipients and choose "Remove" from the popup menu: Setting up a Signature Frequently you'll receive email from people which always appears to have the same foot-note, like a customized hand written signature. It's usually apparent, however, that the sender has not manually typed this signature for every message that they've sent out. If the feature is enabled, MacMail will automatically append each email you send with your signature. Click the Mail menu option and go into Preferences then head onto the Signatures tab as follows: |
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