%brandDTD; ]> Organizing Your Messages and Controlling Junk

Organizing Your Messages

Creating a Folder

To create a message folder, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Open the File menu, choose New, and then Folder. You see the New Folder dialog box.
  2. Type the name of the folder.
  3. Click the drop-down list and choose a folder location and click OK. Your new folder appears in your Mail Folders list.

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Renaming a Folder

To rename an existing folder, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select the folder you want to rename.
  2. Open the File menu and choose Rename Folder. You see the Rename Folder dialog box.
  3. Type the new name and click OK.

Note: If you rename a folder that you've been using to store filtered messages, the filter will automatically update to use the renamed folder.

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Moving or Copying a Folder

You can copy a folder and its contents to another mail account, or move a folder within the same mail account.

To move or copy a folder, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select the folder you want to move or copy.
  2. Do one of the following:

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Filing Messages in Folders

You can move messages from one folder to another by using either of these methods:

To copy a message from one folder to another:

  1. Select the message and right-click to display the pop-up menu.
  2. Select Copy To and then select the destination account and folder from the drop-down list.

Tip: Alternatively, you can copy a message between folders by holding down the Shift key while dragging the message from the message list over another folder.

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Sharing Folders With Other Users (IMAP Only)

Users with IMAP mail accounts can share mail folders with other users on the same network. Sharing folders allows several users to see and work with the same messages, similar to a newsgroup. To use shared folders, your IMAP mail server must support Access Control List (ACL) management. Check with your system administrator or help desk if you are not sure that shared folders are supported by your IMAP mail server.

To share a mail folder with other users on your network, or to view sharing information for a folder, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Within an IMAP account, select a folder that you want to share, or select a folder whose sharing privileges you want to view.

    Folders listed under Local Folders, or folders listed under a POP mail account cannot be shared.

  2. Open the Edit menu, and choose Folder Properties.
  3. Click the Sharing tab.
  4. Click Privileges. You may be prompted to enter your network user name and password.

    The Privileges button is only available if the IMAP mail server allows you to set folder sharing privileges. If this button is not available, you can view the folder sharing privileges for this folder but cannot change them.

  5. Follow the instructions on the screen to add users and to set their folder access privileges.
  6. Click OK to confirm your changes.
  7. Click OK to close the Folder Properties dialog box.

In the list of folders for your mail account, a shared folder displays a distinctive folder icon to indicate that it is shared.

To send a message that tells others how they can subscribe to your shared folder, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select the shared folder.
  2. Right-click to display a pop-up menu, and choose Copy Folder Location.
  3. Click Compose to display a Mail compose window.
  4. Click in the message body, open the Edit menu, and choose Paste.
  5. Address the message, type a subject, and type the message text. Tell message recipients that they can subscribe to the shared folder by clicking the link you pasted into the message.

    Only message recipients who share the same network will be able to subscribe to your shared folder.

  6. Click Send.

Subscribing to a Shared Folder

Subscribing to a shared folder is similar to subscribing to a newsgroup. To subscribe to a shared folder, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Open the File menu and choose Subscribe. You see the Subscribe dialog box.
  2. If necessary, click the Account drop-down list to choose another IMAP mail account.
  3. Select the folder that you want to subscribe to.
  4. Click Subscribe or click in the Subscribe column next to the folder. You see a checkmark next to each folder to which you subscribe. Click Unsubscribe to cancel a selection.
  5. Click OK. The list of your subscribed folders appears in the Mail window.

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Tagging Messages

You can apply tags to messages to help you organize and prioritize them. You can apply a standard color and tag text to messages, or you can create your own color and tag text to suit your needs.

One powerful way to use tags is to set up a message filter to automatically tag incoming messages from a specific sender. For example, you can set up a message filter so that incoming messages from your boss are tagged Important and appear in red. See Creating Message Filters for more information.

Applying a Tag

To apply a tag to a message, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select the message you want to tag.
  2. Open the Message menu, and choose Tag.
  3. Choose the tag you want to apply from the list.

The message summary row changes to the color of the tag with the topmost priority. To see the tag text, you must display the Tags column in the Mail window.

Tip: To quickly tag messages or remove a tag, select one or more messages and press one of the number keys 1-9 on your keyboard. Press 0 to remove all tags.

To display the Tags column, begin from the Mail window:

Note: Message tags apply on a per-account basis. For example, if you move or copy a tagged message to another mail account, the tags are not preserved. Similarly, if you forward a tagged message to another recipient, the tags are not preserved. For IMAP mail accounts, if your IMAP server supports user-defined keywords, message tags will persist when you log in to your mail account from a different location.

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Customizing Tags

You can customize tag colors and text and their order to suit your needs.

To customize tags, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences. You see the Preferences dialog box.
  2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, click Tags. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)
  3. Edit the tag text, or replace it with your own tag text. The tag can be up to 32 characters long.
  4. To change the tag color, click the color block next to that tag and select a new color.
  5. Click the Move Up and Move Down buttons to reorder the tags. Tags at the top will have higher priority when coloring messages.
  6. Click OK.

Your changes are immediately applied to all tagged messages in all your mail accounts.

Tip: To undo all customizations and restore just the default tags' text and colors, follow the steps above to display the tag settings, and click Restore Defaults.

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Sorting Messages by Tags

To sort messages by tags, begin from the Mail window:

  1. To display the Tags column if it is hidden, click the Show/Hide Columns icon and select Tags from the list.
  2. Click the Tags column to sort messages by tags, and within each tag type, to sort messages by date.

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Removing Tags

To remove a message tag, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select one or more tagged messages.
  2. Open the Message menu, and choose Tag.
  3. Choose the tag you want to remove or None to remove all tags from this message.

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Marking or Flagging Messages

You might want to mark a message you've read as unread if you later want to re-read the message or respond to it.

To mark a message as unread, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select a Mail or Newsgroup folder to display its messages.
  2. Click in the Read column of each message you want to mark as unread. Messages marked as unread display a symbol in the Read column. Messages marked as read display a symbol in the Read column. If the Read column is not visible, click the Show/Hide Columns icon and select Read from the list.
Read column

You can flag messages that you later want to download for offline use.

To flag messages, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select a Mail or Newsgroup folder to display its messages.
  2. Click in the Flag column of each message you want to download. A flag appears where you clicked to indicate that the message has been flagged. If the Flag column is not visible, click the Show/Hide Columns icon and select Flag from the list.
Flag column

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Using Message Views

You can apply preset or custom message views to help you manage messages by filtering displayed messages.

To use a message view, open the View menu and choose Messages. Choose an option from the submenu.

Tip: You can quickly change the message view from the View box in the Search Bar. If you do not see the Search Bar, open the View menu, choose Show/Hide, and then choose Search Bar.

Quick mail search bar

Creating a Custom View

You can create custom message views to only display messages matching certain criteria.

To change or create a custom message view:

  1. Open the View menu, choose Messages, and then choose Customize.
  2. To create a new view, click New. To modify a view, select a view and click Edit.
  3. Type a name for the message view.
  4. Select the matching option you want Mail to use: all of the following conditions (criteria) you choose, or any of the following.
  5. Use the drop-down lists to choose the search criteria (for example, Subject, Sender, contains, doesn't contain) and then type the text or phrase you want to match.

    Tip: To search for messages that contain a header not listed in the first drop-down menu (for example, if you want to search for messages that include the header Resent-From), choose Customize and type the header you want to search for. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups adds your custom header to the drop-down list, so you can then choose it to search for matching entries. Make sure you enter the custom header correctly, since Mail will only find entries that exactly match what you type.

  6. Click More to add criteria and Fewer to remove them.
  7. Click OK to confirm your settings.
  8. Click OK in the Customize Message Views dialog box. The selected view setting applies automatically.

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Creating Message Filters

Message filters allow you to manage and organize your messages. You can create message filters that &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups uses to automatically perform certain actions on incoming messages based on criteria you specify. For example, you can create a message filter that automatically moves incoming messages to a particular folder. Message filters operate on a per-account basis.

If you are not already viewing the Message Filters dialog box, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Open the Tools menu and choose Message Filters. You see the Message Filters dialog box.
  2. If you have multiple mail accounts, choose the one to which you want to apply the filter.
  3. Click New. You use the Filter Rules dialog box to specify the types of messages to act on, and the actions you want the filter to perform.
  4. Type a name for the filter.
  5. Select when you want the filter to be applied. This setting enables you to define some filters to be applied in an automatic way (when checking mail), on demand (manually run), or both. After classification means that junk and phishing controls will be run before applying the filter.
  6. Select the matching option you want Mail to use: all of the following conditions (criteria) you choose, any of the following conditions you choose, or all messages.
  7. Use the drop-down lists to choose the search criteria (for example, Subject, Sender, contains, doesn't contain) and then type the text or phrase you want to match.

    Tip: To search for messages that contain a header not listed in the first drop-down menu (for example, if you want to search for messages that include the header Resent-From), choose Customize and type the header you want to search for. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups adds your custom header to the drop-down list, so you can then choose it to search for matching entries. Make sure you enter the custom header correctly, since Mail will only find entries that exactly match what you type.

  8. Click + to add criteria and - to remove them.
  9. Use the list to choose the action you want the filter to perform on the messages (for example, Move Message To). Use + and - to add or remove additional actions.

    Tip: To automatically tag incoming messages, choose Tag Message from the drop-down list.

    Tip: Message filters are applied one after another. It could be that you don't want all filters to be run if one or more messages match some conditions. For instance, you may want to tag all messages from your boss's email address as Important, and you may want all messages containing the word Memorandum in their subject to be moved to a folder named Pending Reads, but you don't want any message from your boss to be moved to another folder, even if it contains Memorandum in the subject. So the first message filter you define should match your boss's email address, and would contain two actions: Tag Message as Important and Stop Filter Execution.

  10. If you have chosen Move or Copy message to a folder, then select a destination folder in which to store the messages, or create a new folder.
  11. Click OK to confirm your settings.
  12. To run filters on existing messages in a folder, select the folder in the bottom dropdown list and click the Run Now button.
  13. Click OK in the Message Filters dialog box. The filter begins filtering incoming messages as soon as you click OK.

Note: You can also run message filters manually at any time. In the Mail window, choose Tools, and then select Run Filters on Folder to apply filters to the current folder, or Run Filters on Message to apply filters to the selected message (if any).

To manage your filters, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Open the Tools menu and choose Message Filters. You see the Message Filters dialog box.
  2. If you have multiple mail accounts, choose the one to which you want to apply the filter.
  3. Choose from the following:
  4. Click OK when you are done managing your filters. If you created a new filter, it begins filtering incoming messages as soon as you click OK.

Note: If you delete a folder that you've been using to store filtered messages, the filter will no longer work. Incoming messages that match the filter criteria will appear in your Inbox. If you rename or move the folder, the filter will automatically update to use the renamed or moved folder.

Tip: If you have existing messages that you want to move to another folder, use the Run Filters on Messages option in the Tools menu.

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Filtering Messages From a Specific Sender

You can quickly create a filter for messages from a particular sender. For example, if you want to automatically move all incoming messages from your child's teacher into a folder called School, you can quickly set up a filter to do this.

To create a filter for messages from a specific sender, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select a message from a specific sender.
  2. Open the Message menu and choose Create Filter From Message. Or, in the message header pane, right click the sender name and choose Create Filter From.
  3. You see the Filter Rules dialog box. Using the sender's email address, &brandShortName; prefills the filter matching criteria and the filter action (Move Message to). You can change or add new rules to the matching criteria.
  4. Choose a destination folder in which to store the incoming messages from the specified sender, or create a new folder. You can also choose other actions for this filter, or change the default one.
  5. Note that, if you leave the filter name empty, &brandShortName; will provide a name for it based on the first criterion.
  6. Click OK to confirm your settings. You see the Message Filters dialog box, where you can create, delete, or edit message filters.
  7. Click OK. The filter begins filtering incoming messages from the specified sender as soon as you click OK.

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Searching Through Messages

&brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups lets you quickly find text in a single message, search messages by subject or sender, or use a combination of criteria to perform a thorough search through all messages in a specific mail folder, newsgroup, or account.

To locate text in a single message, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Select the message, open the Edit menu, and choose Find in This Message.
  2. Type the text that you want to locate in the dialog box.
  3. Click Find to locate the first occurrence of the text.
  4. Continue clicking Find to locate additional occurrences, or click Cancel when you are done.
  5. Choose Find Again from the Edit menu to continue searching for the text throughout the rest of the message.

To quickly search for messages in a selected folder by subject or sender, begin from the Mail window:

  1. To the right of Subject or Sender contains:, type the subject text or sender name that you want to find. You can type only part of the subject or sender, or you can type the exact word or name that you want to find.

    As soon as you stop typing, &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups displays only those messages in the selected folder where the subject or sender contains the search text you entered.

  2. Click Clear to erase the search text and show all messages in the selected folder.

Searching for Specific Messages

You can search mail folders or newsgroups for specific messages. If you are not already viewing the Search Messages dialog box, begin from the Mail window:

  1. Open the Tools menu and choose Search Messages. You see the Search Messages dialog box.
  2. Next to Search for messages in, choose the account, newsgroup, or folder through which you want to search.
  3. Select Search subfolders to include all subfolders in the search.
  4. Select Search local system to search only messages from newsgroups or IMAP accounts that have been saved locally.

    Note: The checkbox will be disabled if it's not possible to search remotely stored messages.

  5. Select which matching option Mail & Newsgroups will use to search for messages that match all or at least one of the conditions (criteria) that you choose.
  6. Use the drop-down lists to indicate the search criteria (for example, Subject and contains) and then type the text or phrase that you want to match.

    Tip: To search for messages that contain a header not listed in the first drop-down menu (for example, if you want to search for messages that include the header Resent-From), choose Customize and type the header you want to search for. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups adds your custom header to the drop-down list, so you can then choose it to search for matching entries. Make sure you enter the custom header correctly, since Mail will only find entries that exactly match what you type.

  7. Click More to add criteria and Fewer to remove them.
  8. Click Search to begin, or click Clear to reset your entries. The search results appear in lower part of the Search Messages dialog box.

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Controlling Junk Mail

This section describes how to use &brandShortName;'s Junk Mail Controls to filter unwanted mail, and how phishing detection works.

In this section:

Using Junk Mail Controls

&brandShortName;'s Junk Mail Controls feature can evaluate your incoming messages and identify possible junk (or unsolicited) messages. The feature uses the Bayesian classification method. You first train &brandShortName; by showing it a bunch of mail that is junk, and a bunch of mail that is not. Then, you let it auto-classify new mail for you. If &brandShortName; makes any mistakes, you can correct them.

To use Junk Mail Controls:

  1. First, train &brandShortName; to recognize Junk messages and Non-Junk messages. There are three ways to toggle junk status of the selected message(s):

    When you toggle junk status, a trash-can icon will appear or disappear in the Junk status column to indicate the junk status of the selected message.

  2. Open the Edit menu, and choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings. You see the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box.
  3. Click the Junk Settings category for your mail account.
  4. Enable the feature and &brandShortName; will automatically classify incoming messages. (See Junk Mail Controls Options. Details on the other settings there can be found in the Junk Settings preference panel description.)
  5. If you have trained it on virus mail, consider disabling the white listing (many mail viruses send bulk messages to people in the address book of the infected computer).
  6. Make sure to correct the Junk Mail Controls when it incorrectly labels messages either as junk or not junk.
  7. To analyze existing messages, select messages, open the Tools menu and choose Run Junk Mail Controls.

Note: &brandShortName; will only run Junk Mail Controls when the training database has information on non-Junk messages. If Junk Mail Controls do not work, select some messages and explicitly mark them as Not Junk.

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Junk Mail Controls Options

To fine-tune how Junk Mail Controls work, use the Junk & Suspect Mail preference panel for account-independent settings and the account manager's Junk Settings for settings of a specific mail account.

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Junk Mail Controls and Filters

Junk Mail Controls run after mail filters (unless you set the filter to run after classification, where classification includes junk and phishing scanning) and apply only to the Inbox folder and its sub-folders. Use this to your advantage, for example, you can filter mail you are sure not to be Junk to a special folder outside of Inbox so that the messages will not be classified as Junk (especially useful if you subscribe to newsletters or if you are on a moderated mailing list).

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Phishing Detection

Phishing is a particularly common fraudulent business scheme in which a party creates counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging personal data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers. Hijacking brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, phishers often convince recipients to respond.

In many cases, you'll receive a link to a phishing page via an email which claims to come from an official-looking address. You can also end up at these pages by following links that you find on the Web or in IM messages.

Tip: Since a forged URL can look very similar to a genuine one, it's safer to use a bookmark you've created or to type the URL into the location bar by hand instead of following a link in an email message. Always consider the risk of a forged URL if you're asked to log in or provide private information on a website.

&brandShortName; Mail phishing detector is enabled by default. When it encounters a mail which seems to be scam, it will show a warning bar in the message window.

If you think that the email is a valid one, you can click on the Not Scam button, and the warning bar will disappear.

When a user clicks on a link in an email that appears to be a phishing URL, &brandShortName; will prompt the user with a dialog box before the website is opened.

This prompt will appear if either of the following is true: the host name of the actual URL is an IP address, or the link text is a URL whose host name does not match the host name of the actual URL.

Note: Phishing detection has a higher precedence than Junk Mail detection.

For more technical details on this subject, see the online document Know your Enemy: Phishing.

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