Composing and Sending a Message

• Introduction
• Email Addresses
• The To, CC and BCC boxes
• The Subject box
• The Message
• Expand names
• Spell-checking your message
• Special Characters
• Attachments
• Sending

Introduction

After logging in to Web Mail, you will be presented with a series of icons along the top of the screen:

To write and send a message, click on the "Compose" icon.

The "Compose Message" screen will appear:

Email Addresses

The most important information in any message is the email address of the recipient(s).

For staff members it will look like: givenname.familyname@adelaide.edu.au

For students it will look like: givenname.familyname@student.adelaide.edu.au

• NOTE: These addresses must be typed exactly as they are given to you.
• DO NOT finish with a full-stop.

It will be almost impossible to guess the email address for people outside the University. If you don't know their email address then phone, fax or write to them first to obtain it.

The To, Cc and Bcc boxes

You can put the email address of the primary recipient of your message in the To box. Other recipients can be added to the To box by separating their email address from the previous one with a comma.
Other recipients can also be put in the Cc box. Cc stands for Carbon Copy and recipients in this box are treated the same as those in the To box. All recipients of the message will be able to see who else was sent the message by looking at the contents of the To and Cc boxes.

The Bcc or Blind Carbon Copy box is different to the To and Cc boxes. Any name of email recipient entered into the Bcc box will not be displayed to the other recipients.

Expand names

The Expand Names tool is a handy way to fill in the To, Cc and Bcc fields.  You can enter in the beginning of a name for anyone who is listed in the University of Adelaide address book or your own personal address book.  Then by clicking on expand names you will be presented with a list of email addresses with the same beginning.  You can then simply select one from the list instead of having to type in the whole address. 

Note: For this tool to work you will need to have made the address books you wish to search from available in the Options section.  Click on the Options icon  and then under "Other Options" select "Addressbooks".  Click on the names of the address books you wish to search from and then click to move them into the selected address books box.  You can then follow the instructions to set the fields to search within each selected address book.

The Subject box

All email messages should include a Subject to inform the recipient of the general message topic. Some people receive many messages every day and will need to prioritise their reading.  To ensure that your message is read, put a short (2 to 5 words), meaningful summary of the message into the subject box.

The Message

Enter the text of your message into the large open box.

Spell-checking your message

You can spell check the content of your message at any time by clicking on the "Spell Check" icon above the text box.  The Spell Checker will suggest replacements for misspelt words automatically, which you can change or ignore.

Special Characters

If you need to use any special characters such as letters with accents or Greek symbols then click on the Special Characters Icon    at the top of the "Message Composition" window.  From here you can select any characters you need and then copy and paste them into your message.

Sending the message

Click on the button to dispatch the message. Once it has been sent it is irretrievable, so be sure that you mean what you say.