E-Mail Tips

Courtesy of TipWorld

PREFERRED MAIL After you're set up for Netscape Mail, you can tinker around with the Mail (and Newsgroup) configuration. To do this, select Options\|Mail and News Preferences, which opens the Preferences dialog box. Each tab contains settings for the way your mail is set up. Take a note of the default settings (and change them if you want) and feel free to fill in any empty fields. For example, you may want to change the appearance of the text fonts or adjust the number of messages you can receive at one time (the maximum is 3,500, for you message maniacs). As with other Netscape Navigator preferences, your best bet is to tweak things a few times to get the settings you really want.	MAIL THAT WEB PAGE RIGHT AWAY! Have you just found the most amazing Web site and need to let your friends in on it right away? Netscape Mail allows you to mail it to other Netscape Mail users directly from the page. All you need do is select File\|Mail Document while you're in the page. Netscape Mail launches automatically, with the page's URL in the message body field. If you want to send the text only, click Quote; if you want to send the text as an attachment, click Attach. Otherwise, it's just like sending any other mail message.
SIGNATURE TUNE Everybody wants to be recognized. In Netscape Mail you can identify yourself in the exact same way each time you send an e-mail. Better yet, you can do this automatically, without having to type the same thing over and over again. This is done through a signature file, which is simply a block of text that gets appended to your mail file every time you send a message. The signature file usually contains things like your name, a title, and/or your location or e-mail home (something like James Bond, License to Kill - Super Spy List Serve Moderator). Anyway, here's how to append your e-mail with a signature file. First, use any text editor (say Notepad) to create a simple text file and save this to your hard drive. Now you need to tell Netscape to use this file as a signature. To do this, open Netscape and choose Options\|Mail and News Preferences, then click the Identity tab. Enter the name of the signature file in the appropriate box (let's call it SIG.TXT), and you're all set. You can enter the file name automatically by clicking Browse and selecting the file from the Location list that appears.	SIGN ME, SHORT AND SWEET If you do use a signature file on your e-mail messages, be sure to keep it short and to the point. Long signature files take up bandwidth, and if they are particularly cutesy or pointless you may find yourself flamed unmercifully. Do yourself a favor, keep it to no more than two to four lines of text (at most).
KEEPING UP QUOTED APPEARANCES You know that quoted text in Netscape Mail messages is identified by the greater-than symbol (>). You can also use different text styles and sizes to distinguish this from the new text. To set this up, select Options\|Mail and News Preferences from the Netscape menu, then click the Appearance tab. There are four text styles available for quoted text (Plain, Bold, Italic, or Bold Italic), and three text sizes (Plain, Bigger, or Smaller). You can choose only one of each.	QUOTE QUOTAS We told you how easy it is to use quoted text in Netscape Mail messages. In fact, it can be almost too easy. The fact is, using too much quoted text from a message takes up precious bandwidth. Therefore, don't just quote text willy-nilly. Highlight and delete any unnecessary stuff before you send a reply, especially things like signature files and forwarding gobbledy-gook. You should, in fact, only quote the stuff that directly pertains to the new message you're sending. (In other words, if someone sends a message with 10 points in it, and you only want to comment on one, you don't need to quote the other nine.)
THAT'S A WRAP! When you compose a message in Netscape Mail, the lines automatically wrap at the right side of the composition window, no matter what size it is. When the message is received, however, the lines automatically wrap at 72 characters. This ensures that all messages you send have a consistent look to the recipient. You can change this if you want the messages to wrap exactly as you have written them. To do this, open Netscape Mail and select View, then uncheck the option Wrap Long Lines. Now the lines wrap at whatever size the composition window is.	BLIND MAILING LIST Netscape Mail, of course, allows you to send one message to many users. But suppose you want to send that message to a group, but don't want the other recipients to see who else got it. Easy as pie-- Netscape allows this through a Blind Cc field in the Message Composition window. To send a blind message, open a new message, then enter your address in the Mail To field (the message MUST be addressed to someone). The Blind Cc field does not display by default, so if you don't see it, select View\|Mail Bcc. Enter all the mailing addresses of the group recipients in the Blind Cc field. Now when you mail the message it'll show each recipient your address and their address, but no others.
NO NICKNAME, NO MAIL Mailing lists in Netscape mail make it easy to send a message to multiple recipients without having to enter all their addresses in the Mail To field. Be aware, however, that you must have a nickname entered for the list when you create it, or it won't get to all the list members. To create a list, open the Message Composition window, open the Address Book (Window\|Address Book) then select Item\|Add List. Here's what happens if you don't specify a nickname. When you click the list name to mail to that list, only the address of the first person on the list appears in the Mail To field and the message goes only to that person. When you have a nickname specified and click that list name, the list name displays in the Mail To field, and the message goes to all list members.

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PREFERRED MAIL After you're set up for Netscape Mail, you can tinker around with the Mail (and Newsgroup) configuration. To do this, select Options\|Mail and News Preferences, which opens the Preferences dialog box. Each tab contains settings for the way your mail is set up. Take a note of the default settings (and change them if you want) and feel free to fill in any empty fields. For example, you may want to change the appearance of the text fonts or adjust the number of messages you can receive at one time (the maximum is 3,500, for you message maniacs). As with other Netscape Navigator preferences, your best bet is to tweak things a few times to get the settings you really want.	MAIL THAT WEB PAGE RIGHT AWAY! Have you just found the most amazing Web site and need to let your friends in on it right away? Netscape Mail allows you to mail it to other Netscape Mail users directly from the page. All you need do is select File\|Mail Document while you're in the page. Netscape Mail launches automatically, with the page's URL in the message body field. If you want to send the text only, click Quote; if you want to send the text as an attachment, click Attach. Otherwise, it's just like sending any other mail message.
SIGNATURE TUNE Everybody wants to be recognized. In Netscape Mail you can identify yourself in the exact same way each time you send an e-mail. Better yet, you can do this automatically, without having to type the same thing over and over again. This is done through a signature file, which is simply a block of text that gets appended to your mail file every time you send a message. The signature file usually contains things like your name, a title, and/or your location or e-mail home (something like James Bond, License to Kill - Super Spy List Serve Moderator). Anyway, here's how to append your e-mail with a signature file. First, use any text editor (say Notepad) to create a simple text file and save this to your hard drive. Now you need to tell Netscape to use this file as a signature. To do this, open Netscape and choose Options\|Mail and News Preferences, then click the Identity tab. Enter the name of the signature file in the appropriate box (let's call it SIG.TXT), and you're all set. You can enter the file name automatically by clicking Browse and selecting the file from the Location list that appears.	SIGN ME, SHORT AND SWEET If you do use a signature file on your e-mail messages, be sure to keep it short and to the point. Long signature files take up bandwidth, and if they are particularly cutesy or pointless you may find yourself flamed unmercifully. Do yourself a favor, keep it to no more than two to four lines of text (at most).
KEEPING UP QUOTED APPEARANCES You know that quoted text in Netscape Mail messages is identified by the greater-than symbol (>). You can also use different text styles and sizes to distinguish this from the new text. To set this up, select Options\|Mail and News Preferences from the Netscape menu, then click the Appearance tab. There are four text styles available for quoted text (Plain, Bold, Italic, or Bold Italic), and three text sizes (Plain, Bigger, or Smaller). You can choose only one of each.	QUOTE QUOTAS We told you how easy it is to use quoted text in Netscape Mail messages. In fact, it can be almost too easy. The fact is, using too much quoted text from a message takes up precious bandwidth. Therefore, don't just quote text willy-nilly. Highlight and delete any unnecessary stuff before you send a reply, especially things like signature files and forwarding gobbledy-gook. You should, in fact, only quote the stuff that directly pertains to the new message you're sending. (In other words, if someone sends a message with 10 points in it, and you only want to comment on one, you don't need to quote the other nine.)
THAT'S A WRAP! When you compose a message in Netscape Mail, the lines automatically wrap at the right side of the composition window, no matter what size it is. When the message is received, however, the lines automatically wrap at 72 characters. This ensures that all messages you send have a consistent look to the recipient. You can change this if you want the messages to wrap exactly as you have written them. To do this, open Netscape Mail and select View, then uncheck the option Wrap Long Lines. Now the lines wrap at whatever size the composition window is.	BLIND MAILING LIST Netscape Mail, of course, allows you to send one message to many users. But suppose you want to send that message to a group, but don't want the other recipients to see who else got it. Easy as pie-- Netscape allows this through a Blind Cc field in the Message Composition window. To send a blind message, open a new message, then enter your address in the Mail To field (the message MUST be addressed to someone). The Blind Cc field does not display by default, so if you don't see it, select View\|Mail Bcc. Enter all the mailing addresses of the group recipients in the Blind Cc field. Now when you mail the message it'll show each recipient your address and their address, but no others.
NO NICKNAME, NO MAIL Mailing lists in Netscape mail make it easy to send a message to multiple recipients without having to enter all their addresses in the Mail To field. Be aware, however, that you must have a nickname entered for the list when you create it, or it won't get to all the list members. To create a list, open the Message Composition window, open the Address Book (Window\|Address Book) then select Item\|Add List. Here's what happens if you don't specify a nickname. When you click the list name to mail to that list, only the address of the first person on the list appears in the Mail To field and the message goes only to that person. When you have a nickname specified and click that list name, the list name displays in the Mail To field, and the message goes to all list members.