Mozilla Thunderbird Email Management

1. Mozilla Thunderbird  Email Management

2. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 1: Changing How Email is Organized Topic 2: Creating and Using Folders Topic 3: Attachments Topic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addressesTopic 5: Save as Draft Topic 6: Junk Mail Filtering -- Getting Rid of Spam Topic 7: Filtering Topic 8: Forwarding Topic 9: Carbon Copy Vs. Blind Carbon Copy Topic 10: Reply Vs. Reply All Topic 11: Signature Creation

3. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 1: Changing How Email is Organized To change the view in Thunderbird: Click on the column heading for the column you wish to sort. This will sort the message by that particular column. The triangle that appears in the column heading indicates the direction the email will be sorted in. Multiple clicks in the same header will toggle from ascending to descending and vice versa.

4. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 2: Creating and Using FoldersIntroduction One of the tools that has been added to email clients in order to help users organize their email is the ability to create folders. Especially when used in combination with rules (discussed in the next section). Folders make it easier to locate the email that you want to find or sorting your email in terms of how important it is for you to respond quickly by organizing your email for you. For instance, you could save all email relating to your job in a folder, or all the email you receive from a particular email list in a folder.

5. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 2: Creating and Using Folders In order to create a folder: Click new from the File menu and select Folder. A window will pop up asking you to name the folder and decide where you want this folder to appear. When you have selected a location, click ok.

6. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 2: Creating and Using Folders In order to begin populating the folder with email, you can either select one or more emails (pressing the shift button to select a range of consecutive emails, and the control button to select more than one non-consecutive emails) and click and drag them to the folder you wish for them to be in, or you can select one or more emails and right click on these emails, select, Move To and then select the location you wish to move the emails into.

7. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 2: Creating and Using Folders Hints and Tips It's a fairly good idea to create a folder for email you receive related to work, or to a specific project/topic. Conventional wisdom dictates that it is a good idea to keep as few emails as possible in your inbox, and to save important emails and attachments that you need to keep into subfolders. Usually it's a good idea to keep fewer than 20 emails in your inbox. Also email messages are not to be kept indefinitely. Important file attachments should be saved to your home folder.

8. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 3: AttachmentsIntroduction While in its simplest form email is just text, it has evolved to include much more than text, including files or programs attached to the email itself.

9. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 3: Attachments Mozilla Thunderbird In order to attach a file with an email that you are sending through Thunderbird you simply click on the attach button on the message you are writing. After that, a window will come up. Point this window to the files you wish to attach and these files will then be attached. If you need to attach multiple files from different directories it is possible to click the attach button multiple times. In order to save an attachment you have received, you right click on it. You will be given the option to either Open the attachment, Save the attachment, or Save All if you have received more than one attachment. If you choose Save or Save All, you will be prompted for the location you would like to save the attachments to.

10. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 3: AttachmentsHints and Tips It is a good idea to take special care when opening attachments. Email attachments are a common way for viruses to be distributed. Some viruses will use the email client of an infected computer to send an email containing the virus as an attachment to everyone in the infected user's address book. Take care when opening attachments sent to you even from people you know. It is important to know file sizes when you are sending attachments because some user's email may not accept files that are too large.

11. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addresses An important tool included in most email clients is the address book. This tool remembers addresses for the user and makes email communication easier. Besides recording emails for you so that you do not have to remember them, most email clients also offer you a way to create groups of multiple people you would like to send email to by only typing in the name of this group.

12. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addresses Thunderbird offers you the ability to search for an entry in your address book, and also gives you the ability to organize your address book entries in a number of different ways. By default, Thunderbird propagates the address book card with the name and email address for each individual you write to, although this can be disabled under options if you wish.

13. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addresses In order to view your address book: Click the address book button in the email client window. Your address book will pop up. The default way the address book is organized is alphabetically based on the names of the people in your address book. To change that, you simply have to click on the column headings and the address book will then be organized according to whatever column you click on.

14. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email ManagementTopic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addresses If you double click on an address book entry you will see the full entry for that person. Aside from the basic information Thunderbird collects, additional information can be added to this space, such as the individuals phone number or physical address. In order to write an email address to an individual: select the address book entry you wish to write to and click the write button.

15. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email ManagementTopic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addresses To create a list in Mozilla: Go to the address book and click on the New List button. This will open the new list window. Name your new list and add a description and nickname if you would like. To add email addresses to the list you can either type them in when you are creating the new list, or you can click and drag them from the address book to the new list after creating it. To send an email to everybody in the list, type the name of the list into the To: field on an outgoing Email

16. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 4: Organizing Addresses and pulling up addresses Hints and Tips Most email clients will add the recipient of your emails to your address book. They will also frequently finish email addresses you are writing for you. Lists are a very convenient way of writing to a large number of people without actually having to type in all of their email addresses. However, it is good etiquette to make sure everybody on your list needs to be receiving the mail you are sending and to quickly remove anybody who asks to be removed.

17. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 5: Save as DraftIntroduction Another tool provided by email clients is the ability to save an outgoing email you haven't finished as a draft. Then, when you have the time and energy needed to complete the email you can finish editing it and send it to its recipient.

18. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 5: Save as Draft In order to save a draft in Thunderbird: Select the Save button or go under the File menu and select Save As. Choose draft, and the message you are typing will be saved to your email drafts folder. Then, when you are ready to finish editing the email, just click on the drafts folder and you will see all of the drafts you have saved. Select the draft you wish to finish editing, and then select the edit draft button that appears over the message

19. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 5: Save as DraftHints and Tips It is easy to forget a draft after you have started one, which causes confusion and complicates communication. Remember to finish your drafts in a timely fashion. As a reminder, it's generally a good idea to mark the draft you are working on as unread in order to highlight the folder and the message.

20. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 6: Junk Mail Filtering -- Getting Rid of Spam Introduction One popular use of email filtering is to try to get rid of as much junk mail as possible. As email becomes more popular, marketers have increasingly been trying to use it to distribute their advertising, just as they have come to utilize standard mail for advertising. This advertising email is referred to as spam. Because most people receive quite a lot of spam, junk filtering is becoming more and more popular of a feature and increasingly elaborate measures are taken to reduce the amount of spam received by the user.

21. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 6: Junk Mail Filtering -- Getting Rid of Spam Mozilla Thunderbird offers a rather powerful spam filter that is built right into the software that learns from the user what is and is not spam. In order to turn on the junk mail filter: Go under the Tools menu and select Junk Mail Controls.

22. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 6: Junk Mail Filtering -- Getting Rid of Spam Click on the Adaptive Filters tab and click on Enable adaptive junk mail detection. Go to the settings tab and choose your settings. It is a good idea to white list people from your address book, so that the junk mail filter won't even search those emails for signs of junk mail. It is also a good idea to enable Thunderbird to sanitize the HTML found in emails marked as junk mail because sometimes security flaws in email clients can be manipulated through such things, or at the very least the email marketer can be using the HTML to see who is receiving and reading email. It is also a good idea to have the email marked as junk moved to a special folder, such as the trash or a junk folder. Once the spam filter is functioning, you can correct it by clicking off the trash icon, or by clicking it on if Thunderbird doesn't catch a spam

23. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 6: Junk Mail Filtering -- Getting Rid of SpamHints and Tips One idea that people sometimes use to block spam is to set up a "black list", a set of rules which establishes a list of people who are not allowed to write to you, and add the sender of each new spam to this list. This doesn't really work as spammers can fake email addresses and don't use an email address for very long. Establishing a "white list", or list of all people who are allowed to write to you is a better way to go. All email that comes to you from outside that list can be sent to the trash or another folder that you will have to go through to make sure good email doesn't get deleted. A good way to set up a white list is to have messages sent to you from anyone outside your address book automatically placed in a specific folder. It is sometimes a bad idea to click on the links in spam messages that promise to stop the sender from sending you any more spam if you click on these links. Spammers sometimes take your clicking on the link as proof that you have received the email and read it, and therefore start sending you more mail. It is usually best to ignore spam.

24. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 7: FilteringIntroduction Message filtering essentially functions by searching for keywords in the user's email and reacting to the keywords using rules the user has established in the email client. These rules establish which keywords to search for, and also where to move the emails which match these rules. One popular feature for filtering is sorting the email and placing them into appropriate folders prior to the user reading it in order that the user can quickly know which emails to give priority.

25. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 7: Filtering Go under the Tools menu and select Message Filters.

26. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 7: Filtering In order to create a new rule: first click new. fill in the top form to indicate the keywords that match what is unique about the message you wish to filter. By saying "Match all of the following" you are saying that all of the unique identifiers must be found. By saying "Match any of the following" you are saying that only one of the unique identifiers must be matched. After you have specified the unique identifier you wish the rule to react to, specify the reaction that you wish to take place. Select the reaction you wish to take place, and then specify any extra conditions that reaction may need. For instance, if you select Move to folder, you would then specify which folder to move emails matching the conditions you specified to. After you have completed the rule, click OK. You may then select the rule you created and click Run Now to see your newly created filter work on the folder you specify.

27. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 8: ForwardingIntroduction Forwarding, the act of sending an email that has been received by the user to one or more other users is important if you want to share an email you have received with one or more users.

28. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 8: Forwarding In order to forward using Mozilla Thunderbird: select the email that you want to send. then click on forward. The forwarded message will then open up in a new window, with the message you are forwarding being shown as an attachment. You then simply add the email address of the person you wish to receive the forward and click send. It is possible to change the preferences in Mozilla Thunderbird so that the email being forwarded shows up as part of the message body, but it makes little difference, either way the email is being forwarded. In order to change the preferences so that your forwarded message shows up as part of the email body: go under the Tools menu and go to Options. Then click on Composition and make sure that the Forward Messages drop down menu says Inline rather than As Attachment.

29. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 8: ForwardingHints and Tips Forwarding is a way to let someone in on a conversation, but care should be taken to make sure the information is not too confidential. Forwarding can also be a very quick way of offending friends and coworkers

30. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 9: Carbon Copy Vs. Blind Carbon Copy Introduction When a the user wishes to send email to multiple recipients, the user can either carbon copy or blind carbon the email addresses intended to receive the message. The difference between the two is that carbon copy allows the recipient of the email to see everyone the email was sent to, while blind carbon copy allows you to email to an email address without displaying that address to any other recipients.

31. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 9: Carbon Copy Vs. Blind Carbon Copy In order to carbon copy or blind carbon copy in Mozilla Thunderbird: Click on the line below where you type in the recipient's email address and it will open up a new line you can put an email address on. In the left column where it says "To:" you can change that to say either cc: or bcc: just by clicking on that column.

32. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 9: Carbon Copy Vs. Blind Carbon Copy Hints and Tips Generally it's a good idea to carbon copy most of the recipients of the email unless there is some individual you wish to remain anonymous for whatever reason. Blind carbon copy is a good way to keep someone informed, but not reveal other’s email address.

33. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 10: Reply Vs. Reply AllIntroduction While sending email is great, if an individual were unable to receive responses to that email, e-mail's value as a communication medium would be greatly diminished. Reply gives the user a convenient means by which they can give this response to the emails they have received. Reply all on the other hand is a tool that allows the user to reply not only to the person who sent the email, but to everyone who had been included in the original email. For instance, if a person sends you an email message and carbon copies it to ten other people, clicking on reply all will not only send the person who sent you the email a response, but also the ten other people the original sender sent the message as well. If the user had used reply in this instance instead, the reply would only have gone to the sender and not to everyone the sender sent the original email to.

34. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 10: Reply Vs. Reply All The process of sending a reply is very much like that of sending an email. Click on the message you wish to reply to, and then click the reply or reply all button. This will open a new email window addressed to the person who sent you the email with the message body filled with the old message. Then add your own message and hit send.

35. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 10: Reply Vs. Reply All Hints and Tips When responding to an email received from an email list, some people like to click reply all, which will send the reply to both the sender of the email and to the email list. However, it's generally better to simply send the reply to the email list. Otherwise the original sender receives two copies of the email. Reply All is a good way to keep all concerned members of a conversation in the loop.

36. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 11: Signature CreationIntroduction One nice time saving feature most email clients provide is the ability to add a signature to the end of your emails. Most people like to sign the end of their emails. Sometimes they add the name of the company they work for, their position in that company, and additional contact information. All of this could be saved in a signature file which then could be added to the end of an email, saving the user the cost of writing this information themselves each and every time they send an email.

37. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 11: Signature Creation To add a signature in Thunderbird: First create a text file in which you type the signature you wish to add to the end of your email. Then, under the tools menu, select "Account Settings." You will then be shown the account settings window. Select the account you wish to add the signature on, and down at the bottom of the settings window you will see an option which states, "Add this signature." Click that option on. Then click choose and select the file you created with your signature in it. Firebird does not support multiple signatures at this time.

38. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Topic 11: Signature CreationHints and Tips It is generally a good idea to include your name, the organization you work for, your work title, and additional contact information in all work related emails. It facilitates communication with the people you are speaking to, and helps to establish your identity for those people you don't know.

39. Mozilla Thunderbird     Email Management Have Fun