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Checking and composing email

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Checking and composing email

When you log in to FortiMail webmail, it shows your Inbox folder, enabling you to see whether you have any new, unread email.

When you receive a secure email notification, you can log in to the FortiMail webmail to view your secure email. You will find that your secure email is either in the Encrypted Email mailbox or in the temporary mailbox your administrator set up for you, depending on the email delivery method the administrator chose for your email. The name of the temporary mailbox is the same as the subject line of your secure email.

You can reply or forward the email if your system administrator has enabled these functions for you. For an email in the temporary mailbox, you can view its header details or open it in a bigger window.

From this location, you can also:

  • read your email
  • compose and send email to other people
  • search your email
  • view the email that each mailbox folder contains
  • add new mailbox folders
  • compact your mailbox folders to save storage space
  • empty the Trash folder

The left-hand navigation pane shows a list of the other mailbox folders in your account, including Bulk. Like your Inbox, the Bulk folder is a special folder. For more information on the Bulk folder, see Bulk/quarantined email.

Composing email

To write a new email message, click the Compose Mail icon at the top of the page.

A new tab, named Compose Mail, appears in the right-hand display pane. The appearance, buttons and fields on the tab vary slightly by whether or not you have configured a signature (see Adding a signature to your email) and a separate Reply-to: email address (see Changing your display name, identity, and reply address), but otherwise contain:

Field/Button

Description

Send

Click to send the email.

Save Draft

Click to save a copy of your current composition to the Drafts folder.

To resume writing your email, click Drafts, then double-click the entry for your saved email. The email will open in a new tab.

Tip: Saved drafts are useful if you want to continue writing at a later time, and as a safeguard against browser crashes, connectivity loss, or inadvertently reaching your idle timeout (see Changing your password and idle timeout).

Attach

Click to attach a file. There are limits for the totoal size of the attachments. An error message will be displayed if the maximum size is exceeded.

Note: Ask your recipients if they can receive large files. While FortiMail webmail may allow large attachments, your recipients may not be able to receive them, resulting in an undeliverable email.

More

Cc

Enter one or more carbon copy recipient email addresses. Separate multiple recipients with a comma ( , ).

Carbon copy recipients will be able to see the other carbon copy recipients’ email addresses, and can include them if they reply to all.

Bcc

Enter one or more blind carbon copy recipient email addresses. Separate multiple recipients with a comma ( , ).

Unlike carbon copy recipients, blind carbon copy recipients cannot see the email addresses of other blind carbon copy recipients.

Reply-To

Click and enter the email address that is automatically inserted into the "To:" field when a user replies to an email message.

Request Return Receipt

Select to request the receiving mail server to send a delivery status notification (DSN) as soon as it receives the email.

Importance

Click to select the importance of the email.

Rich Text (or Plain Text)

Click to switch between rich text format or plain text for email authoring, replying, and forwarding.

Discard

Click to end composing email.

To:

Enter one or more recipient email addresses. Separate multiple recipients with a comma ( , ).

To include a recipient’s display name, type it before the email address and surround it with double quotes ( " ), such as:

"User One" <user1@example.com>, "User Two" <user2@example.com>

For more information on display names, see Changing your display name, identity, and reply address.

Subject

Enter the subject line of the email.

(Buttons with icons.)

Click the message body text box below these buttons to place the cursor, or select an area of text, then click a button to apply its effect.

For a description of each button, hover your mouse cursor over the button.

(No label for text box.)

Enter the text for your email. To apply formatting, select one or more characters, then click one of the formatting buttons above this text box.

If you have enabled your signature, the message body may already contain your signature as the last line of text. You can modify or remove this signature if you do not want to apply it to this specific email. For more information on signatures, see Adding a signature to your email.

Checking your email

When someone sends an email to you, if it is not detected as spam, it will appear in your Inbox. When you select one or more emails, the following buttons appear in the right-hand display pane:

Field/Button

Description

Refresh

Click to refresh your email list.

Move

Click to move the selected email(s) to a different mailbox folder. Select the destination folder, then click OK.

For information on creating a mailbox folder, see Creating a mailbox folder.

More

Mark As Read

Click to mark an email as previously read.

Email that have been previously read are not displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are not included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Mark as Unread

Click to mark an email as unread.

Email that have not been read are displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Safe List

Click to put the email sender on the safe list to allow emails from this sender to reach your inbox.

Block List

Click to blacklist the email sender so emails from this sender cannot reach your inbox.

Save As

Click to save the message.

Delete

Click to remove the message.

Quick Filter

Use the filter to display specific type of email messages.

If you cannot immediately find the email that you want to display, you can search for it. For details, see Searching for an email.

Unless your network administrator has configured otherwise, spam should not appear in your Inbox. Instead, it should appear in your Bulk folder. For details, see Bulk/quarantined email.

You may be able to train FortiMail webmail to recognize your spam and legitimate email so that it can more accurately sort email into the Bulk folder. For details, see Report Spam and Clear Spam.

If you will be unable to check your email for an extended period of time, you can enable an automatic reply to notify senders that you are unavailable. For details, see Setting an auto-reply message.

To view an email, click Inbox in the left-hand navigation panel, then double-click an email to display in the right-hand display pane. While viewing an email, you can click one of the following buttons, located at the top of the right-hand display pane:

Field/Button

Description

Close

Click to clos the email and return to your inbox.

Reply

Click to compose a reply to the sender’s email address only. In a reply, the original email appears below your response and signature (if enabled; see Adding a signature to your email).

Unlike Reply All, this button omits any carbon copied addresses.

Reply All

Click to compose a reply to the sender’s email address, including as a carbon copy any email addresses that the sender had originally carbon copied.

Forward

Click to send a copy to a recipient.

Move

Click to move the email to a different mailbox folder. Select the destination folder, then click OK.

For information on creating a mailbox folder, see Creating a mailbox folder.

More

Mark As Read

Click to mark the email as previously read.

Email that have been previously read are not displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are not included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Mark as Unread

Click to mark the email as unread.

Email that have not been read are displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Detailed Header

Click to view a list of technical details about the message, such as the sender, the software used to compose it, and the email servers that it passed through on its way to the recipient.

Print

Click to print out the message.

Save As

Click to save the message.

Open in New Window

Click to open the message in a new browser page.

Delete

Click to move the mail to the Trash folder.

Report Spam

To train FortiMail webmail to recognize email similar to this one as spam in the future, mark the check box of the email, then click this button.

This button appears only if your network administrator has enabled this feature.

Clear Spam

To train FortiMail webmail to recognize email similar to this one as not spam in the future, mark the check box of the email, then click this button.

This button appears only if your network administrator has enabled this feature.

Searching for an email

If you cannot immediately find the email that you want to display, you can search for it.

To search for an email
  1. Click the blue magnifying glass icon located at the top of the page.
  2. Enter the exact word or phrase to display a list of all email that contain that exact phrase.
  3. Click Search Configuration and turn on the check boxes of the email attributes, such as Subject and Mail Body, that you want to search for a matching word or phrase.
  4. For best performance and results, also clear the check boxes of email attributes in which you do not want to search.

  5. Click OK.
  6. Click Search.
  7. A list of email appears that contains the exact phrase in any of the attributes that you enabled. To clear the search results and display all of the folder’s email again, empty the search field, then click Search again.

Creating a mailbox folder

In addition to pre-existing mailbox folders that are required by the FortMail webmail system, such as Inbox and Bulk, you can create your own mailbox folders.

For example, if you would like to move an email into a To Do folder when it represents a task that you need to schedule, you could create that To Do folder.

To add a mailbox folder
  1. In the left-hand pane, go to All Folders and click the icon that goes with your cursor.
  2. Select New Folder.
  3. In New Folder, enter the name of the new folder.
  4. Click Create.
  5. The folder appears in the left-hand navigation pane, under All Folders.

Managing your email account’s storage space

The storage capacity of your email account can vary by the number of email users, total amount of storage space available on the FortiMail network appliance, disk space quota assigned by your network administrator, and other factors.

Your account’s current disk space usage appears at the bottom of the left-hand pane, below the list of mailbox folders, in the Disk usage field.

If your email account runs out of storage space, senders may not be able to deliver email to you. To prevent this problem, regularly empty the Trash and Bulk folders and compact all mailbox folders.

For performance reasons, when you delete an email, it is marked for deletion but not actually removed from the hard disk at that time, and so still consumes some disk space. Compaction reclaims this hard disk space.

Until you empty the Trash and compact all folders, deleted email messages could still be consuming disk space.

To empty the Trash
  1. Go to Trash and and click the icon that goes with your cursor.
  2. Select Empty.
  3. A confirmation dialog appears.

  4. Click Empty.
To compact a folder
  1. Go to a folder and click the icon that goes with your cursor.
  2. Select Compact.
  3. FortiMail webmail expunges all email that you had previously marked for deletion and shrinks the folder to its most compact size.

Checking and composing email

When you log in to FortiMail webmail, it shows your Inbox folder, enabling you to see whether you have any new, unread email.

When you receive a secure email notification, you can log in to the FortiMail webmail to view your secure email. You will find that your secure email is either in the Encrypted Email mailbox or in the temporary mailbox your administrator set up for you, depending on the email delivery method the administrator chose for your email. The name of the temporary mailbox is the same as the subject line of your secure email.

You can reply or forward the email if your system administrator has enabled these functions for you. For an email in the temporary mailbox, you can view its header details or open it in a bigger window.

From this location, you can also:

  • read your email
  • compose and send email to other people
  • search your email
  • view the email that each mailbox folder contains
  • add new mailbox folders
  • compact your mailbox folders to save storage space
  • empty the Trash folder

The left-hand navigation pane shows a list of the other mailbox folders in your account, including Bulk. Like your Inbox, the Bulk folder is a special folder. For more information on the Bulk folder, see Bulk/quarantined email.

Composing email

To write a new email message, click the Compose Mail icon at the top of the page.

A new tab, named Compose Mail, appears in the right-hand display pane. The appearance, buttons and fields on the tab vary slightly by whether or not you have configured a signature (see Adding a signature to your email) and a separate Reply-to: email address (see Changing your display name, identity, and reply address), but otherwise contain:

Field/Button

Description

Send

Click to send the email.

Save Draft

Click to save a copy of your current composition to the Drafts folder.

To resume writing your email, click Drafts, then double-click the entry for your saved email. The email will open in a new tab.

Tip: Saved drafts are useful if you want to continue writing at a later time, and as a safeguard against browser crashes, connectivity loss, or inadvertently reaching your idle timeout (see Changing your password and idle timeout).

Attach

Click to attach a file. There are limits for the totoal size of the attachments. An error message will be displayed if the maximum size is exceeded.

Note: Ask your recipients if they can receive large files. While FortiMail webmail may allow large attachments, your recipients may not be able to receive them, resulting in an undeliverable email.

More

Cc

Enter one or more carbon copy recipient email addresses. Separate multiple recipients with a comma ( , ).

Carbon copy recipients will be able to see the other carbon copy recipients’ email addresses, and can include them if they reply to all.

Bcc

Enter one or more blind carbon copy recipient email addresses. Separate multiple recipients with a comma ( , ).

Unlike carbon copy recipients, blind carbon copy recipients cannot see the email addresses of other blind carbon copy recipients.

Reply-To

Click and enter the email address that is automatically inserted into the "To:" field when a user replies to an email message.

Request Return Receipt

Select to request the receiving mail server to send a delivery status notification (DSN) as soon as it receives the email.

Importance

Click to select the importance of the email.

Rich Text (or Plain Text)

Click to switch between rich text format or plain text for email authoring, replying, and forwarding.

Discard

Click to end composing email.

To:

Enter one or more recipient email addresses. Separate multiple recipients with a comma ( , ).

To include a recipient’s display name, type it before the email address and surround it with double quotes ( " ), such as:

"User One" <user1@example.com>, "User Two" <user2@example.com>

For more information on display names, see Changing your display name, identity, and reply address.

Subject

Enter the subject line of the email.

(Buttons with icons.)

Click the message body text box below these buttons to place the cursor, or select an area of text, then click a button to apply its effect.

For a description of each button, hover your mouse cursor over the button.

(No label for text box.)

Enter the text for your email. To apply formatting, select one or more characters, then click one of the formatting buttons above this text box.

If you have enabled your signature, the message body may already contain your signature as the last line of text. You can modify or remove this signature if you do not want to apply it to this specific email. For more information on signatures, see Adding a signature to your email.

Checking your email

When someone sends an email to you, if it is not detected as spam, it will appear in your Inbox. When you select one or more emails, the following buttons appear in the right-hand display pane:

Field/Button

Description

Refresh

Click to refresh your email list.

Move

Click to move the selected email(s) to a different mailbox folder. Select the destination folder, then click OK.

For information on creating a mailbox folder, see Creating a mailbox folder.

More

Mark As Read

Click to mark an email as previously read.

Email that have been previously read are not displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are not included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Mark as Unread

Click to mark an email as unread.

Email that have not been read are displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Safe List

Click to put the email sender on the safe list to allow emails from this sender to reach your inbox.

Block List

Click to blacklist the email sender so emails from this sender cannot reach your inbox.

Save As

Click to save the message.

Delete

Click to remove the message.

Quick Filter

Use the filter to display specific type of email messages.

If you cannot immediately find the email that you want to display, you can search for it. For details, see Searching for an email.

Unless your network administrator has configured otherwise, spam should not appear in your Inbox. Instead, it should appear in your Bulk folder. For details, see Bulk/quarantined email.

You may be able to train FortiMail webmail to recognize your spam and legitimate email so that it can more accurately sort email into the Bulk folder. For details, see Report Spam and Clear Spam.

If you will be unable to check your email for an extended period of time, you can enable an automatic reply to notify senders that you are unavailable. For details, see Setting an auto-reply message.

To view an email, click Inbox in the left-hand navigation panel, then double-click an email to display in the right-hand display pane. While viewing an email, you can click one of the following buttons, located at the top of the right-hand display pane:

Field/Button

Description

Close

Click to clos the email and return to your inbox.

Reply

Click to compose a reply to the sender’s email address only. In a reply, the original email appears below your response and signature (if enabled; see Adding a signature to your email).

Unlike Reply All, this button omits any carbon copied addresses.

Reply All

Click to compose a reply to the sender’s email address, including as a carbon copy any email addresses that the sender had originally carbon copied.

Forward

Click to send a copy to a recipient.

Move

Click to move the email to a different mailbox folder. Select the destination folder, then click OK.

For information on creating a mailbox folder, see Creating a mailbox folder.

More

Mark As Read

Click to mark the email as previously read.

Email that have been previously read are not displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are not included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Mark as Unread

Click to mark the email as unread.

Email that have not been read are displayed in a bold font in the list of email messages, and are included in the count of unread email that appears next to each mailbox folder.

Detailed Header

Click to view a list of technical details about the message, such as the sender, the software used to compose it, and the email servers that it passed through on its way to the recipient.

Print

Click to print out the message.

Save As

Click to save the message.

Open in New Window

Click to open the message in a new browser page.

Delete

Click to move the mail to the Trash folder.

Report Spam

To train FortiMail webmail to recognize email similar to this one as spam in the future, mark the check box of the email, then click this button.

This button appears only if your network administrator has enabled this feature.

Clear Spam

To train FortiMail webmail to recognize email similar to this one as not spam in the future, mark the check box of the email, then click this button.

This button appears only if your network administrator has enabled this feature.

Searching for an email

If you cannot immediately find the email that you want to display, you can search for it.

To search for an email
  1. Click the blue magnifying glass icon located at the top of the page.
  2. Enter the exact word or phrase to display a list of all email that contain that exact phrase.
  3. Click Search Configuration and turn on the check boxes of the email attributes, such as Subject and Mail Body, that you want to search for a matching word or phrase.
  4. For best performance and results, also clear the check boxes of email attributes in which you do not want to search.

  5. Click OK.
  6. Click Search.
  7. A list of email appears that contains the exact phrase in any of the attributes that you enabled. To clear the search results and display all of the folder’s email again, empty the search field, then click Search again.

Creating a mailbox folder

In addition to pre-existing mailbox folders that are required by the FortMail webmail system, such as Inbox and Bulk, you can create your own mailbox folders.

For example, if you would like to move an email into a To Do folder when it represents a task that you need to schedule, you could create that To Do folder.

To add a mailbox folder
  1. In the left-hand pane, go to All Folders and click the icon that goes with your cursor.
  2. Select New Folder.
  3. In New Folder, enter the name of the new folder.
  4. Click Create.
  5. The folder appears in the left-hand navigation pane, under All Folders.

Managing your email account’s storage space

The storage capacity of your email account can vary by the number of email users, total amount of storage space available on the FortiMail network appliance, disk space quota assigned by your network administrator, and other factors.

Your account’s current disk space usage appears at the bottom of the left-hand pane, below the list of mailbox folders, in the Disk usage field.

If your email account runs out of storage space, senders may not be able to deliver email to you. To prevent this problem, regularly empty the Trash and Bulk folders and compact all mailbox folders.

For performance reasons, when you delete an email, it is marked for deletion but not actually removed from the hard disk at that time, and so still consumes some disk space. Compaction reclaims this hard disk space.

Until you empty the Trash and compact all folders, deleted email messages could still be consuming disk space.

To empty the Trash
  1. Go to Trash and and click the icon that goes with your cursor.
  2. Select Empty.
  3. A confirmation dialog appears.

  4. Click Empty.
To compact a folder
  1. Go to a folder and click the icon that goes with your cursor.
  2. Select Compact.
  3. FortiMail webmail expunges all email that you had previously marked for deletion and shrinks the folder to its most compact size.