Technology
Help Desk
Webmail: Getting Started
Contents of this guide
- Logging in to Simmons Webmail
- Symbols and Features
- Configuring Settings and Options
- Reading Messages
- Composing and Sending Messages
- Composing and Reading HTML Messages
- Saving Draft Messages
- Replying to and Forwarding Messages
- Sending Attachments
- Checking Spelling
- Deleting and Undeleting Messages
- Stay Under Quota: Strip Attachments
- Managing Email Using Folders
- Selecting and Marking Messages
- Moving or Copying Messages
- Setting up Address Books
- Setting up a Distribution List
- Logging in to Simmons Webmail In order to log in to Simmons Webmail, go to http://email.simmons.edu/ and enter your email username and password. If you are unsure of your username or password, please contact the Help Desk at (617) 521-2222. You will be asked for your Simmons ID number.
- Symbols and Features
Below are the symbols used by Simmons Webmail that appear throughout this document.
Some of these symbols appear at the top of your Simmons Webmail screen and are used as buttons. Others are displayed to the left of your list of email messages to indicate the status of each message.
INBOX: this is the default folder to which messages arrive 
Refresh INBOX: click this to check for new messages 
Apply Filters: click this to apply filters to the inbox 
Unseen: indicates messages you have not yet read 
Answered: indicates messages to which you've replied 
New Message: click this to create an email 
Draft: indicates a message that has been saved and not sent 
Personal: indicates that you are the primary recipient of this email 
Options: click this to open the options page 
Help: many features show this to the right of the screen. Clicking it will pop open a window with more information about the feature 
Status bar : Each time you change a setting or complete an action, a yellow bar appears at the top of the current window. This bar confirms that the action you performed has been completed. It can be very useful for you to become accustomed to reading the status bar. It will indicate that Simmons Webmail has completed the intended task. 
Side bar : You can toggle the Side Bar open and closed by clicking the 
(Toggle) Button on the left-most portion of your screen. The Side Bar provides an easy way to navigate your email folders, address book, and options in Simmons Webmail. Click the 
(plus sign) next to a category to expand a list of options. The Mail category will show a list of all your email folders.
- Configuring Settings and Options
This section includes the following topics:
Personal Information | Deleting and Moving Messages | Mailbox and Folder Display Options | New Mail | Message Composition | Login Tasks
Click
(Options) from the toolbar at the top of the screen to change settings that affect how your email messages will look, where they will be saved, and other choices that affect how you use Simmons Webmail. The Options page is organized by the types of changes you may wish to make. Before you get started, you should customize Simmons Webmail to contain your own information and to fit your email needs.
- Personal Information
In General Options: Personal Information, you can change the name, address, and signature that people see when they read and reply to your email (your "identity" as Simmons Webmail calls it).
Click
(Options) from the toolbar at the top of the screen and click Personal Information, under General Options, on the main Options page. All of the options on this page refer to your ìDefault Identityî unless you choose to create a different identity. Your Default Identity contains the personal information that will be displayed in each email that you send or receive using Simmons Webmail. You should fill in your Name, Email Address, and Signature (if desired). Many of the other choices on this page are optional and change advanced characteristics of your messages. Technology recommends that you leave the default "Save sent mail " at the bottom of the page. If you do not do this, your outgoing messages will not be saved.
When you are finished editing your default identity, click Save Options to update your identity and return to the main options page.
- Deleting and Moving Messages
In Message Options: Deleting and Moving Messages, you can change how Simmons Webmail handles your deletions and choose whether you want to go to the next message after you delete, copy or move a message, or go back to the list showing all of your email messages.
Simmons Webmail creates a Virtual Trash Folder by default. This folder provides you with one place to review all of your deleted messages before permanently purging them. The 
(Empty Trash) button will remove all messages that appear in the Virtual Trash Folder from your Simmons email account.
Note: If you have changed the default settings and do not use the Virtual Trash Folder, you can decide to send your deleted messages to a Trash Folder instead of marking them for deletion (putting a line through them). The first time you delete a message, you will be notified that a trash folder has been created successfully.
Spam: Simmons Technology provides an automatic system (http://nospam.simmons.edu/) to prevent spam (unwanted, "junk" email) from getting to your inbox. The settings in Simmons Webmail will have no affect unless you have changed your options using the instructions provided at http://my.simmons.edu/technology/helpdesk/email/antispam.shtml.
- Mailbox and Folder Display Options
In Other Options: Mailbox and Folder Display Options, choices include sorting criteria, sorting direction and setting the number of messages per page in the mailbox view.
Click
(Options) from the toolbar at the top of the screen and click Mailbox and Folder Display Options in the right-most column. 
You can change the order in which email is sorted when viewing your list of messages.
Click Save Options to save your changes.
- New Mail
In Message Options: New Mail, you can control how often Simmons Webmail will check for new mail and whether or not to notify you (through a pop up notification or sound) when you have new mail. By default, you must click the
(Inbox) button at the top of your screen to check for new messages. You should avoid changing the setting to check for email too frequently (e.g. every minute) as this can slow down your Internet connection and cause other problems.
Click
(Options) from the toolbar at the top of the screen and click New Mail, under Message Options on the main Options page. Make your selection and click Save Options to save your changes. - Message Composition
In Message Options: Mail Composition, you can customize how you send mail, where drafts are saved, and how spell checks are performed.
Click
(Options) from the toolbar at the top of the screen and click Message Composition, under Message Options on the main Options page. 
By default, "Compose messages in a separate window" is checked. This means that when you click New Message to compose an email, a window will pop up for you to type into.
Click Save Options to save your changes.
- Login Tasks
In General Options: Login Tasks, you can define maintenance operations that occur each time you login. If you have a Login Task scheduled, you will be presented with a confirmation message when you login, before seeing your email messages. You can choose to "Perform" or "Skip" the maintenance before continuing.
By default, Simmons Webmail is set to Purge the Trash Folder on a monthly basis. This means that when you login, all messages in your Trash Folder that are older than 30 days will be permanently removed from your Simmons email account. You will be presented with a confirmation message before this happens.
Simmons Technology recommends that you leave this default setting and choose to Perform Maintenance Operations when asked. This will ensure that you stay within your email quota and do not keep messages that you have already deleted in your trash.
You can schedule other login tasks to be performed under Login Tasks Options. You can also choose how often these operations will be performed.
Click Save Options to save your changes.
- Personal Information
- Reading Messages
You can select a mail folder from the Open Folder list at the top right hand corner. Click the folder that you wish to open and the messages contained in the selected folder will be displayed.
Alternate Method
Side bar : The Side Bar provides an alternate way to navigate your email folders. Click the (plus sign) next to the Mail category and click Inbox to read your mail.Read a Message
To read a message, click the sender or subject link of the message.
Sort Messages
You can sort messages by date, sender, subject, or size simply by clicking on the corresponding word at the top of your email list. You can also the reverse the sorting (from ascending to descending) by clicking on the triangle arrow next to wordTip: Sorting by size is a good way to see which messages are using the most of your quota.
- Composing and Sending Messages
If you want to write a new email message, click
(New Message) from the toolbar at the top of the screen. A Message Composition window will pop up for you to type your message. When you finish composing your message, click Send Message. You can use the Address Book function to find an email address by clicking
(Address Book) when you compose a message. You can locate someone by Name or Email Address. From the list of addresses, you can select an email address and add it into the appropriate To, Cc or Bcc fields. For more information about your Address Book, please see Section 14. If you have configured your identity to save sent messages, the message will automatically be saved to your chosen sent folder. For more information on configuring this option, please see section 3a.
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Composing and Reading HTML Messages
Composing HTML Messages
You can use Simmons Webmail to send messages using HTML formatting. This allows you to bold and underline text, to change the font size and color, and to format the message in ways normally reserved for a word processing application. Some people enjoy this capability.
To send HTML formatted text, you can click
(Switch to HTML composition) in the Message Composition window. You can set this by default if you go to Message Options: Message Composition, then click the box labeled "Compose messages with an HTML GUI by default." Note that not all web browsers support this feature.
Once the Option has been set, when you click
(New Message) the Message Composition window will include this toolbar:
You can use this toolbar much as you would in a word processor to change the look of the text in your email.
Please be aware that sending a message in HTML format is not a reliable means of conveying your message. Many modern email clients, including Simmons Webmail, make it more difficult to view messages of this type. A recepient of your email may not be able to view your message as you intended, if at all. HTML formatted email can also pose a problem for those who use special software because of accessibility needs, or those who read email using a mobile device such as a cellphone or handheld computer.
Reading HTML Messages
Using Simmons Webmail, you may from time to time receive a message that looks strange. When you click on the message subject to read the email, instead of seeing a message you may see a variation of this:
Sometimes you may be able to read the email message, but sometimes there will be a warning or error message instead of the email you wish to read. This means that the message you received was sent using HTML format. You must click the
link to view the message as the sender intended you to see it. Clicking the link will pop-up a new window that will display the HTML message in your default web browser external to Simmons Webmail.
This feature is by design in Simmons Webmail. Viewing HTML formatted messages can allow malicious programs to collect personal information that is stored on your computer. Many modern email clients do not permit the display of HTML formatted messages for security reasons. It is imperative that you trust the sender of the email before clicking the link to view the attached HTML message.
- Saving Draft Messages
If you are composing a message and want to finish it later, you can click Save Draft in the Message Composition window. The draft message will be saved in a drafts folder. (This folder will be automatically created the first time you use Save Draft). You can retrieve the draft messages by using the Open Folder pull-down list at the top right hand corner or by using the Side Bar. Click resume at the top of the email window to continue typing the email.
- Replying to and Forwarding Messages
To reply to a message, click on the message (in order to open it). Click Reply (see "A" in picture below) to reply only to the sender, or Reply to All (see "B" in picture below) to respond to the sender and all other recipients. A window similar to that of Message Composition will be displayed. When you finish composing your reply, click Send Message.
Similarly, click Forward (see "C" in picture below) to forward the open message to others and click Send Message to send your message.
- Sending Attachments
In the bottom section of the Message Composition window, there is an Attachments section. Click Browse to select from your computerís directories and double click the file name to select a file. The selected file will be shown in the Attachment window. Click Attach and the file name, size and file type will be shown.
Important: You must click Update to attach your chosen file to the email. If you do not click Update, the attachment will not be sent. Click Send Message to send your message.
In case you wish to remove the attachment before sending your message, look again at the Attachments section. Under the box to add an attachment, a list of attached files is shown. Next to the attachment you wish to remove, click the box under the file name marked Delete and press Update. The selected files will be removed from the attachment list accordingly.
Important: if you save your sent mail (the default Webmail setting), Webmail will not save attachments in your sent-mail, unless you change the "Save Attachments with messages in sent-mail folder?" option to Yes when you add an attachment. You can change the global setting through Options, but Technology recommends you do not change the global setting in order to more easily stay under quota. In your sent-mail, Webmail does indicate that a message included an attachment, whether you saved the attachment with the message or not.
- Checking Spelling
If you would like to check for spelling errors in the message you are writing, click Spell Check in the Message Composition window. Click Next to go through the following pages until the end. Select Done when the spell check is done.
- Deleting and Undeleting Messages
To delete a mail message, select the message by clicking the checkbox to the left of the message. See Section 12 for more on selecting messages. Then click Delete (either at the top or bottom of the page)
You can click
(Empty Trash) to permanently remove your deleted messages from your Simmons email account. By default, this button will purge all messages that appear in your Virtual Trash folder. If you have selected the option to move all deleted messages to the Trash folder and do not use a Virtual Trash Folder, then Empty Trash will purge deleted messages from the Trash folder only. If you do not use any Trash Folders and your messages are marked deleted (with a line through them), Click Purge Deleted at the top of the page to permanently remove your deleted messages from your Simmons email account.
If you have deleted a message you did not intend to delete and wish to undelete it, navigate to the Virtual Trash folder. Select the message you wish to undelete by checking the box to the left of the message and click undelete at the top of your message list.
- Stay Under Quota: Strip Attachments
In the old Webmail (before March 2007), an attachment to a message was always saved within the message itself (including messages stored in your sent folder). To remove the attachment from your Simmons email account (which you might want to do to stay under quota), you had to delete the entire message.
With the new version, you can strip an attachment from a message. This allows you to save an attachment to your computer, strip the attachment from your message, and keep the message in Webmail without the attachment.
At the top of your email message, you will see buttons to Download or Strip the attached files. If you click the
(Download) icon, you can save the attachment to your computer and leave it attached to the email. If you then click the 
(Strip) icon, it will remove the attachment from the email. This will greatly help in avoiding possible quota warnings.Note: It is important to Download the attachment before you Strip it.
By default, attachments will not be saved in your sent folder.
Please see Sending Attachments for further explanation.
- Managing Email Using Folders
You can better manage your email through the use of folders. By creating folders you can sort messages into categories that you define rather than storing them all in one location. This can help you more easily decide which messages are important to save and you will be able to locate a particular message faster. You can manage your mail folders by clicking
(Folders) from the tool bar at the top of the screen. This will display the following screen: 
To create a folder, click the Choose Action pull-down window and click Create Folder. A dialog box will appear. Type the name of the folder to be created. Then click OK. The new folder will appear in the Folder Navigation window and you can also find it from the Open Folder pull-down list.
You can rename or delete the mail folders by clicking the appropriate options under the Choose Action pull-down list. All the messages inside a folder will be deleted if you delete a folder.
- Selecting and Marking Messages
In order to move, copy, delete, or mark a message you must first select it.
Selecting individual messages by handYou can select a message by clicking the checkbox to the left of it. You can check the box next to any number of messages on the current screen.
Selecting multiple messages automatically
You can select multiple messages in the folder you are currently viewing by using the Select pull-down list. You can select all the messages at once by choosing All from the pull-down list.
Marking Messages
You can change the status of a message by marking it. For example, you may wish to indicate that several messages in your Inbox are important to you. You would first select the messages you want to mark. Then choose Important from the Mark As pull-down list.
Now each of these messages will have a
(flag) displayed next to it.
Selecting Marked Messages
You can use the Select pull-down list to select all messages of a chosen status from the current folder. Following our example, you can select all the messages you had previously marked Important by choosing Important from the Select pull-down list. - Moving or Copying Messages
You can move or create a duplicate of any number of messages to another folder. To do this, first select the messages using any method shown in Section 12. Then choose the folder you wish to move or copy to from the Messages to pull-down list.
Next click either move or copy at the top of the screen to complete the action.
- Setting up Address Books
You can store email addresses and personal contact details in your Address Book.
Each user has a personal address book. To edit your address book, click
(Addressbook) from the toolbar at the top of the screen. - Add an address:
Click
(New Contact). On the next screen, choose My AddressBook from the drop-down list. (You cannot add a contact to the Simmons Directory.) The only mandatory field is Name, but you cannot send an email to a contact without providing an email address. When you finish entering the information, click Add. - Search an address:
Click
(Search/Advanced Search) to search for a saved address. 
The Search function allows search by Name or Email, and the Advanced Search function provides more fields for searching. You can search your own address book or the entire Simmons Directory (see below). Enter the word for which you would like to search and click Search to start searching.
- Browse the address book:
Click
(Browse) to browse and select My Addressbook to
browse the contents of your address book. You cannot browse the entire Simmons directory here; you can only perform searches on it.
You will notice that addresses are organized alphabetically by the person's last name, and that by default, a truncated list of your addresses will be displayed. You can use the links at the bottom of the page to navigate through your addresses. Click the letter corresponding to the first letter of the last name you wish to view.
If you click All, all of your addresses will be displayed on the same page. This may cause your web browser or Internet connection to perform slowly if you have many addresses.
- Import/Export an address book:
Click
(Import/Export) to import an address book into your address book under Simmons Webmail or to export your address book saved under Simmons Webmail to your own disk. When you finish editing the address book, click
(Mail) on top or the browser's Back button to go to the Inbox screen.
- Add an address:
- Setting up a Distribution List
Note: you must have at least one email address in your address book before you can make a distribution list. See Section 14a to add an address.
To create a distribution list- To edit your address book, click (Addressbook) from the toolbar at the top of the screen.
- Click Browse to see all the email addresses.
- Check the boxes in front of the e-mail addresses to be added to the list.
- In the Select List pull-down box on the right, select My AddressBook, under Create a new contact list in:
- Click the Add to button to add the selected names to the list.
- Give a name to the distribution list.
- Click Compose to create an e-mail
- In the To field, enter the name of the distribution list.
- All email addresses in the distribution list will be shown in the To field.
- Compose the mail and send.
- To edit your address book, click