Section 10.3. Reading Email | Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual

10.3. Reading Email

Just seeing a list of the names of new messages in Mail is like getting wrapped presentsthe best part's yet to come. There are two ways to read a message: using the preview pane, and opening the message into its own window.

To preview a message, click its name in the list pane; the body of the message appears in the preview pane below. Don't forget that you can adjust the relative sizes of the list and preview panes by dragging the gray border between them up or down.

To open a message into a window of its own, double-click its name in the list pane. An open message has its own toolbar, along with Previous and Next message buttons (which look like upward- and downward-pointing arrows).

Once you've read a message, you can view the next one in the list either by pressing Ctrl +U (for the next unread message), or by clicking its name in the list pane. (If you're using preview mode, and haven't opened a message into its own window, you can also press the up or down arrow key to move from one message to the next.)

10.3.1. When Pictures are Part of the Message

Sending pictures in email is a globally popular activitybut Mail doesn't want you to see them.

Mail comes set up to block images, because these images sometimes serve as " bugs " that silently report back to the sender whether you received and opened the message. At that point, the spammers know that they've found a live, working email addressand, better yet, a sucker who opens mail from strangers. And presto, you're on their "safe senders" list, and the spam flood really begins.

You'll know if pictures were meant to appear in the body of a message; see the strip that appears at the top in Figure 10-5.

Figure 10-5. To view blocked images in a message, click the warning itself (top). Or, to make Mail quit blocking pictures altogether, choose Tools Options Security; next, turn off "Block images and other external content in HTML messages."

10.3.2. How to Process a Message

Once you've read a message and savored the feeling of awe brought on by the miracle of instantaneous electronic communication, you can handle the message in several ways.

10.3.2.1. Deleting messages

Sometimes it's junk mail, sometimes you're just done with it; either way, it's a snap to delete a message. Click the Delete button on the toolbar, press the Delete key. (You can also delete a batch of selected messages simultaneously .)

The messages don't actually disappear. Instead, they move to the Deleted Items folder. If you like, click this folder to view a list of the messages you've deleted. You can even rescue some simply by dragging them into another folder (even right back into the Inbox).

Mail doesn't truly vaporize messages in the Deleted Items folder until you "empty the trash." You can empty it in any of several ways:

Right-click the Deleted Items folder. Choose "Empty 'Deleted Items Folder" from the shortcut menu.
Click a message, or a folder, within the Deleted Items Folder list and then click the Delete button on the toolbar (or press the Delete key). Youre asked to confirm its permanent deletion.
Set up Mail to delete messages automatically when you quit the program. To do so, choose Tools Options Advanced. Click the Maintenance button, and then turn on "Empty messages from the 'Deleted Items folder on exit." Click OK.

10.3.3. Replying to Messages

To reply to a message, click the Reply button in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+R. Mail creates a new, outgoing email message, preaddressed to the sender's return address. (If the message was sent to you and a few other people, and you'd like to reply to all of them at once, click Reply All in the toolbar.)

To save additional time, Mail pastes the entire original message at the bottom of your reply (either indented, if it's HTML mail, or marked with the > brackets that serve as Internet quoting marks); that's to help your correspondent figure out what you're talking about.

Mail even tacks Re: ("regarding") onto the front of the subject line.

Your insertion point appears at the top of the message box. Now, begin typing your reply. You can also add recipients, remove recipients, edit the subject line or the message, and so on.

Tip: Use the Enter key to create blank lines within the bracketed original message in order to place your own text within it. Using this method, you can splice your own comments into the paragraphs of the original message, replying point by point. The brackets preceding each line of the original message help your correspondent keep straight what's yours and what's hers. Also, if you're using HTML formatting for the message, you can format what you've written in bold, italic, underlined , or even in another color for easier reading.

10.3.4. Forwarding Messages

Instead of replying to the person who sent you a message, you may sometimes want to forward the messagepass it onto a third person.

To do so, click Forward in the toolbar, choose Message Forward, or press Ctrl+F. A new message opens, looking a lot like the one that appears when you reply. Once again, before forwarding the message, you have the option of editing the subject or the message. (For example, you may wish to precede the original message with a comment of your own, along the lines of: "Frank: I thought youd be interested in this joke about Congress.")

All that remains is for you to specify who receives the forwarded message. Just address it as you would any outgoing piece of mail.

10.3.5. Printing Messages

Sometimes there's no substitute for a printout of an email messagean area where Mail shines. Click Print in the toolbar, choose File Print, or press Ctrl+P. The standard Print dialog box pops up, so that you can specify how many copies you want, what range of pages, and so on. Make your selections, and then click Print.

10.3.6. Filing Messages

Mail lets you create new folders in the Folders list; by dragging messages from your Inbox onto one of these folder icons, you can file away your messages into appropriate cubbies. You might create one folder for important messages, another for order confirmations from shopping on the Web, still another for friends and family, and so on. In fact, you can even create folders inside these folders, a feature beloved by the hopelessly organized.

To create a new folder, see Figure 10-6.

Figure 10-6. To create a new folder, choose File Folder New, or right-click the Local Folders icon (in the folder list), and choose New Folder from the shortcut menu. Either way, this window appears. Name the folder and then, by clicking, indicate which folder you want this one to appear in. Usually, youll want to click Local Folders (that is, not inside any other folder).

Tip: To rename an existing folder, right-click it and choose Rename from the shortcut menu.

To move a message into a folder, drag it out of the list pane and onto the folder icon. You can use any part of a message's "row" in the list as a handle. You can also drag messages en masse onto a folder after selecting them.

10.3.7. Opening Attachments

Just as you can attach files to a message, people can send files to you. You know when a message has an attachment because a paper-clip icon appears next to its name in the Inbox.

To free an attached file from its message, releasing it to the wilds of your hard drive, use one of the following methods :

Click the attachment icon, select Save Attachments from the shortcut menu, and then specify the folder in which you want the file saved (Figure 10-7).

Figure 10-7. One way to rescue an attachment from an email message is to click the paper-clip icon and choose Save Attachments. You can also drag an attachment's icon onto your desktop. Either way, you take the file out of the Mail world and into your standard Windows world, where you can file it, trash it, open it, or manipulate it as you would any file.

Click the attachment icon, and select the attachment to open. Choose the name of the attachment in order to open the file directly (in Word, Excel, or whatever).
If youve double-clicked the message so it appears in its own window, drag the attachment icon out of the message window and onto any portion of your desktop.
Again, if youve opened the message into its own window, you can double-click the attachment's icon in the message. Once again, you're asked whether you want to open the file or save it to the disk.