Hayes A+ Email - Messages and Documents
Tutorials:
Reading messages
To read a message in a list, double-click that message to open it in a new window. The header section at the top tells who sent the message, to whom it was addressed and the subject. If there are any attachments they will be listed in the header. Either the header or the message text area may have a scroll bar. To change the magnification of the text in any message, use the control at the bottom left of the window.
When you are done reading, close the message window. If the message is in your mailbox it will remain listed in your mailbox until you delete or move it. If the message is in a conference it will remain until it expires or has been deleted by someone with permission to do so.
You can open messages in sequence in the same window without
closing and opening each one. To do this, click the Next
Unread 
, Next
in Thread 
or Previous
in Thread 
button
on the toolbar of any message, depending on which message
you want to read next. After you read a message its red flag
will be gone. You can put the red flag back again by selecting
it, then Message > Mark as Unread.
Sending a new message
- Click the New Message button
on
your toolbar. A New Message window will open with
a header section, a message body section, a row of formatting
tools and a ruler. To enter any field in the header or the
body of the message, click or TAB between fields. - Type something informative in the Subject: field.
- Address the message by typing or by using the Directory. (See the section Addressing messages.)
- Enter your message in the body of the message window. You can paste text or images into the message and you can use editing tools to change the way your message look. (See the section Message editing features.)
- If you want to attach a file to your message, first be sure you have a copy of the file on your computer or a removable disk and the file has an appropriate extension. Click the paperclip button on the message window toolbar and navigate to the location of your file. Select the file and click Open. (See the section Attaching a file to a message.)
- If you do not want to send the message at this time, close
the message window. The unsent message (or draft) will be marked with
a white flag
in
your mailbox until you send it. If you are using a separate inbox/outbox for your mailbox view, these unsent messages will be located in your Drafts folder. You can open the unsent message
to edit it if you like and you can also delete it. - When you are ready to send the message, click the Send button
on
the toolbar. A copy of your sent message will remain in your
mailbox. If you open it again you will see an icon similar
to a postage cancellation at the top right of the message header. - If you are sending a message to a conference, you may want to override the default expiry period for that conference. First send the message, then select that message in the conference and File > Properties (Windows) or File > Get Info (Macintosh) to change the expiry period.
Replying to a message
Replying to a message creates a new pre-addressed message with the same subject as the one that you replied to, prefixed by Re:. Open the message you wish to reply to and click the Reply button on the toolbar. The triangle next to the reply button gives you a pull-down menu with additional options. If you want to quote any part of the original message, select the text in the message (by highlighting the text with your mouse) before replying. The different reply options are explained below.
Important Note: No matter which option you choose, carefully check the header addresses in the new message. You can delete any address in the header before sending the message. |
- Reply - The message will be addressed as determined by the reply preference for your account. The reply preference can be changed in your account preferences. Choices are: Reply sender, Reply all or Automatic. (Automatic is equivalent to Reply Sender for messages in your mailbox).
- Reply All - The message will be addressed to everyone who was addressed in the original message, whether in the To: field, the CC: field or the Bcc: field.
- Reply Sender - The message will be addressed to the sender of the message only.
- Reply Conference - When replying to a conference message, it will be addressed to that conference.
- Reply with Quote - The message will be addressed as determined by the reply preference in your account, and the entire content of the message you are replying to will be included as a quote (highlighted in gray).
- Reply Original Author - The message will be addressed to the person who sent the original message, whether it was addressed to you, to another user, or to a conference.
Forwarding a message
To forward a message you received, Message > Forward. Address the message as usual. If you like, you can add some text before you send the message. The original sender's address will be listed below your own in the From: field.
Addressing messages
Messages are addressed in two ways: by typing the names of one or more recipients into the message header or by using the Directory. Using either method you can enter names in the To: field and optionally in the Cc: and Bcc: fields.
Addressing a message by typing the recipient name(s) in the message header.
- Type a destination address in the To: field. Then
type the ENTER, RETURN or TAB key. The cursor will remain
in the To: field so that you can enter another name
if you wish. Names will appear side by side horizontally.
To move to the next (Cc:) field, type
the ENTER, RETURN or TAB key one more time, or else click
in the field.
The address can be in any of these forms:
Hayes A+ Email
name. If you type
the first letters of a name, Hayes A+ Email will
complete it for you or will let you select from
a list of names that match what you typed.
Conference
name. If a conference was open when you
chose New Message, the message was automatically
addressed to that particular conference.
Internet
email address (e.g. friend@college.edu)
or anyone not in the Wellesley Hayes A+ Email
system.
Personal
Address name or Personal Mail List name that
you created and saved in your Contacts
folder.
- An icon will appear next to the address if it is correct. (Hayes A+ Email names need to match a user or conference name in the Directory. Internet addresses are only checked for proper format.) You can enter more than one address by pressing ENTER or RETURN after each; however, you should not send to a long list of addresses. If you have a message that needs to be read by many people at you school district, post it to one or two appropriate conferences. This will keep the system from being bogged down and will avoid the annoyance of seeing the same message repeatedly.
- If you like, you can enter addresses in the Cc: field as you did for the To: field. If you need to use a Bcc: (blind carbon copy) field, View > Show Bcc.
Addressing a message by using the Directory
Method 1:
Click in the header of a new message then click the Directory button on the toolbar. The Directory will open with extra buttons for addressing messages.
Select any name then click the To:, Cc: or Bcc: button to put that name into the header of your new message.
Method 2:
Drag a name from the Directory or Contacts Folder into a header field.
Method 3:
Click in the header field you want to address (e.g. To: or Cc:) then double-click any name in the Directory.
Method 4:
Right-click a name in the Directory and choose Create Mail To. This method does not work with conferences or Personal Contacts entries.
Message editing features
There is a toolbar of formatting buttons and pull-down menus just above the body of each message you create. These tools are also in the Format menu at the top of the window. Select your text and apply fonts, sizes, colors and styles using these tools.
Pasting text copied from other Hayes A+ Email messages or other applications
In most cases this is a standard and straightforward process (CONTROL-V or from the Edit menu choose Paste) however if your pasted text includes links or other formatting that you don't want, from the Edit menu choose Paste Plain Text.
Background
You can select a color or image for the background of your message. Click in the body of an unsent message and Format > Format Background.
Links
There are several ways to insert a link from a Hayes A+ Email
message to a Web page. The most straightforward way is to
type the URL. While you are editing the message it will appear
as normal text, but after you send the message it will become
a blue underlined link. The reader can click on this link
to open the page in a Web browser. The second method creates
a link similar to one on a Web page. Type some text describing
the link, highlight it, then click the Make Link button 
on
the toolbar or Edit > Make Link. Enter the URL in the Target URL field
and click OK. You can make a link to a Hayes A+ Email
conference by dragging the icon of a conference to the body
of a Hayes A+ Email message and you can make a link to a Web
page by dragging the symbol from the browser location/address
bar (e.g., 
)
to the message area. Double-click the Format Link button in
the unsent message if you want to make a change.
| If you are the controller of a conference or have been assigned Edit Items permission in a conference, any links in messages in that conference will appear to be regular text (not blue and underlined). You can right-click (Windows) or hold down the mouse (Macintosh) on the link then choose Open Link from the pop-up menu. |
Spell Check
Edit > Check Spelling or click the check
spelling button 
in
the row of buttons between the message header and the body. You can also set spell checking options in your preferences, Edit > Preferences then the Content tab and then Spell Check tab.
Images
You can drag an image to the body of your message but the image format must be JPG or PNG in order to work properly. If your image is some other format besides JPG or PNG (such as GIF), you can either convert it using an image editing program or you can copy it to your computer's clipboard then paste it into the Hayes A+ Email message body where it will be converted to a JPG file. Screen shots paste as PNG files. You can change the alignment of your image on the page or change its size by double-clicking the image and changing the settings in the Format Image dialog box. If you want to add a tool tip to the image (text that appears when you point to the image) add the text to the comments field. You can resize an image that is in the body of a message by dragging its corner. This will not change the file size, so an image that you have dragged to be smaller will still use the same amount of space in your account.
Tables
To create a table, Edit > Table > Insert Table.
A New Table form will appear, allowing you to enter the number
of rows and columns you want. Click in any cell to enter
text or to paste an image. To add or remove cells, Edit > Table then Insert or Delete
Rows or Columns. To change the
table or cell layout and the width and color of the borders Format > Format
Table. To change the color of a cell, select the
cell(s) then Format > Format
Cell. You can copy and paste tables from Excel and
Word files into Hayes A+ Email messages. Formatting of tables (such as changes in color, font, text
size) will only be preserved when you copy and paste from
Word into Hayes A+ Email or vice versa. To preserve formatting
done in Excel, you will need to copy and paste from Excel
into Word, then from Word into your Hayes A+ Email message.
You can convert tabbed text to a table. Select
the text and Edit > Table > Convert
to table.
Attachments
Opening and saving attachments
| When an attachment is opened within Hayes A+ Email by double-clicking the attachment name, it is not automatically saved in a download folder. This is to avoid inadvertent saving of private files where they can be found by others. Certain file types such as Word and Excel are saved in a temporary folder called fcctemp and are deleted when you exit Hayes A+ Email. If you would like to edit an attachment and/or save it on your computer, you must choose a location other than the temporary folder using the instructions below. |
Saving an attached file to your computer or removable disk without opening it:
One method for saving an attachment is to drag its name from the message header to your computer desktop (not the Hayes A+ Email Desktop). Another method is to follow this procedure:
- Open a message with an attached file.
- Click once on the attachment filename to select it.
- File >Save Attachment.
- Navigate to the location on your computer where you would like to save the file.
- Rename the file, if you like, and click Save.
Opening an attachment before saving it:
| For security reasons, when an attachment is opened within Hayes A+ Email by double-clicking the attachment name, it is not automatically saved on your computer. Certain file types such as Word and Excel are saved in a temporary folder called fcctemp and are deleted when you exit Hayes A+ Email. If you would like to edit an attachment and/or save it on your computer, you must choose a location other than the temporary folder using the instructions below. |
- Either double-click the attachment filename in the message header or click the filename once to select it, then File > View File. Note that your attachment is open but has not yet been saved to your computer. If you want to edit it or keep it, you must explicitly save it on your computer.
- Certain file types such as JPEG and TXT open in a Hayes A+ Email window. For other file types, Hayes A+ Email attempts to find a program to open the attached file. If this is not successful, a message will display telling you that the file can not be opened. (This will happen if, for example, your attachment is a Word file but there is not a .doc extension on the file name. A Windows computer is not able to tell that this is a Word file without the extension.) If this happens you can still save the attachment to your computer without opening it using the method above. Then launch a program that you think will open the file and File > Open.
- To save the opened attachment on your computer or
a removable disk, File > Save As then
navigate to the location on your computer where you
would like to save.
Note: Be sure that you DO NOT save in the fcctemp directory as everything in fcctemp is deleted when you exit from Hayes A+ Email.
Attaching a file to a message
Almost any type of file (e.g. text, image, sound) can be attached to a Hayes A+ Email message. Executables and script files are not allowed as attachments. You can even attach a Hayes A+ Email Mail list. Because there are different kinds of computers, operating systems, and application software, you need to think about whether the recipient of your message will be able to use the attached file. For example, if you send an Excel file to someone who does not have Excel on their computer, that person will not be able to use the file.
In order for Windows computers to recognize which program will open the file you should add a standard extension to the file name - a period followed by 3 or 4 characters. (Files created with Macintosh software usually do not have an extension by default so you will need to add it to the filename yourself.) For example a Word document might be named expense.doc. Some common extensions are in the following table.
File type |
Extension |
Microsoft Word |
.doc |
Microsoft Excel |
.xls |
Microsoft PowerPoint |
.ppt |
Web page |
.html or .htm |
QuickTime movie |
.mov |
Adobe Acrobat |
You may attach more than one file to a message by repeating
the process of clicking the Attach
file 
button
and navigating to the file you want to attach. If you
want to attach several files that are in a folder, navigate
to that folder and select it. All individual files in
the folder and its sub-folders will be attached but the
file structure (levels of folders) will not be retained.
Be careful that you don't have duplicate filenames.
Another way to attach a file is to drag it from its location on your computer to the header of your unsent message. The file name will appear in the Attachments field in the header. Mail Lists can be attached this way as well. Just drag the icon from your Address Book to the header of an unsent message and it will be attached.
When sound files are attached to a message, a sound player pane may be added to the message header. The recipient's preferences may be set to automatically play sound files the first time the message is opened. If you wish to avoid this, you can embed the sound file in the content of your message instead of sending the file as an attachment. To do this, drag (or copy and paste) the file into the content portion of your message. The recipient may then download the file by clicking the icon in the message content.
There is a limit of 63 characters for attachment filenames. If your filename is longer it will be truncated.
It is helpful to describe the attachment in the message text. Because many people are rightly concerned about receiving a virus with an email attachment, the message should address the recipient by name, include the sender's name and some information about the attachment. If you have an attachment that contains important time-sensitive information, it may be a good idea to include this information as text in the body of the email message in addition to or instead of the formatted attachment.
Unsending messages
Hayes A+ Email allows you to unsend certain messages that were addressed to other Hayes A+ Email users and conferences. Although the message may have already been read by one or more people, the message will disappear from the mailbox or conference where it was sent. This will only work for messages that were sent to other Hayes A+ Email addresses, not Internet addresses. You should check the history of the message before unsending so you are aware of who may have read it.
To unsend a message sent to a Hayes A+ Email user
or conference, open your copy of the message your mailbox,
then Message > Unsend. A white flag will
appear beside the message in your Mailbox. You can edit the
message and send it again if you like.
You cannot unsend any messages that were:
- sent to a non-Hayes A+ Email account
- moved from the recipient's Mailbox to a folder
- deleted by the recipient
- deleted from your own mailbox (your sender copy)
Message history
Hayes A+ Email keeps history data for every message that is created in or sent to a Hayes A+ Email address. You can view the history of any message in your Mailbox. You can sometimes view the history of conference messages. (The conference controller can choose whether or not to have the history feature turned on.) Because you don't know how others handled the message -- how it was received, downloaded or marked -- you should not strictly rely on the message history. For example, if someone opens a message then clicks the Reply button, the message history notes a reply, however the reply may have been re-addressed, deleted or left unsent.
- Select the message in your Mailbox or a conference.
- Message > History. The history window will tell you when a message was created, when it was sent, and the people within the Hayes A+ Email system who have opened, forwarded or downloaded the message. For messages sent to Internet addresses, the message history will indicate the time the message was routed to a remote server (indicating receipt of your message by that person's email system). Message history cannot tell you if or when a message on a remote system (not your school district, non-Hayes A+ Email) has been opened.
Personal Stationery
If you repeatedly send similar messages and would like to have a partially pre-filled message saved, you can create personal stationery. You may save several different stationery messages.
Open a new message and enter information that you would like to save, such as a name or mailing list in the header, an introductory paragraph in the message area, a graphic etc.
Close your message without sending it.
Select the message in your mailbox and File > Properties (Windows) or File > Get Info (Macintosh). Check the box labeled Stationery.
If your mailbox is in a split window the stationery will move to the upper or left pane.
When you want to use the stationery, double-click it and a duplicate of the stationery will open for you to complete and send.
Documents
Documents you create in Hayes A+ Email can be named and saved to any folder.