16. Windows 10 Internet Communications
Working with Email
The short history of the Mail app is not a particularly happy tale. Beginning with Windows 8, you can safely say that, despite its prominence on the Windows 8 Start screen, Mail might have been the most underwhelming email client ever created. You could literally use the fingers of one hand to count the tasks you could perform with the original version of Mail: send new messages, read incoming messages, reply to a message, forward a message, and move a message to a different folder. Yes, that’s the complete list.
The Windows 8.1 version of Mail was an improvement, to be sure, with new features for easier folder management, designating favorite people, and selecting multiple messages.
In Windows 10, the Mail app has had a complete makeover to give it a clean, modern look and to make its interface consistent with other updated Windows 10 apps, particularly Calendar and People. You can also flag messages, easily switch between Mail and Calendar, and format your messages with several new font, paragraph, and style options.
In previous editions we concluded that the Mail app was not a serious email tool, and that judgment still stands. If you’re a heavy email user, you’re still better off using Outlook or a strong web-based client such as Outlook.com or Gmail. However, this chapter is about Windows 10 Internet communications, so it’s high time we dealt with the details of the native Mail app, if for no other reason than you can see what it’s capable of.
Setting Up Mail Accounts
If you haven’t yet started Mail—and therefore haven’t yet defined your first mail account—or if you have multiple accounts and need to set up the others, this section shows you how to do it within Mail.
Specifying Basic Account Settings
Here are the steps to follow to set up an email account with just the basic settings (which should be enough to get most accounts up and running):
1. Start the process using one of the following techniques:
Start Mail for the first time and then select Add Account.
In Mail, select Settings (the gear icon), select Accounts, and then select Add Account.
2. In the Choose an Account dialog box, select the type of account you’re adding: Exchange, Outlook.com, Google, iCloud, or Other Account (see Figure 16.1). Note that although the dialog box lists POP (Post Office Protocol) under Other Account, in our experience most POP accounts don’t get set up properly if you go that route. Instead, you need to select Advanced Setup and enter your account details manually, as described in the next section. This also applies if Mail has trouble identifying your IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) account settings.
3. In the dialog box that appears, type the email address and password for the account.
4. Click Sign In. Mail connects to the server and obtains the settings to configure the account automatically.
5. Follow any further instructions that appear. For example, in some cases you might need to specify your name (iCloud) or that you accept a connection to the account (Gmail).
6. Click Done.
Specifying Advanced Internet Account Settings
If Mail can’t configure your account automatically (which is the case with most POP-based accounts, as well as some IMAP accounts), or if you want complete control over the settings used in your account configuration, you must perform an advanced Internet account setup. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Start the process using one of the following techniques:
Start Mail for the first time and then select Add Account.
In Mail, select Settings (the gear icon), select Accounts, and then select Add Account.
2. In the Choose an Account dialog box, select Advanced Setup. The Advanced Setup dialog box appears.
3. Select Internet Email. The Internet Email Account dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 16.2.
4. Specify your account data:
Account Name—Type the name you want Mail to use for the account.
Your Name—Type your name.
Note
The data for your incoming and outgoing mail servers should have been supplied to you by your ISP when you set up your account. If not, or if you can’t find the data, contact the ISP’s tech support department.
Incoming Email Server—Type the domain name for your incoming mail server (such as pop.provider.com).
Account Type—Use this list to select the incoming mail server type: POP3 or IMAP4.
User Name—Type the username assigned to your account by your mail provider.
Password—Type the password assigned to your account by your mail provider.
Outgoing (SMTP) Email Server—Type the domain name for your outgoing mail server (such as smtp.provider.com).
Outgoing Server Requires Authentication—Leave this box checked if your mail provider requires authentication before it will send your messages. (See the sidebar, “Enabling SMTP Authentication” for more details.)
Use the Same User Name and Password for Sending Email—Leave this box checked if your provider’s outgoing server uses the same logon as the incoming server.
Require SSL for Incoming Email—Leave this box checked if your provider requires that incoming mail be sent over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.
Require SSL for Outgoing Email—Leave this box checked if your provider requires that outgoing mail be sent over an SSL connection.
5. Click Sign-in. Mail adds your Internet account.
Specifying Advanced Exchange Account Settings
If you’re setting up an Exchange ActiveSync account and Mail can’t configure your account directly from the server, or if your Exchange server requires special settings, you must perform an advanced Exchange account setup. Follow these steps:
1. Begin by using one of the following techniques:
Start Mail for the first time and then select Add Account.
In Mail, select Settings, select Accounts, and then select Add Account.
2. In the Choose an Account dialog box, select Advanced Setup. The Advanced Setup dialog box appears.
3. Select Exchange ActiveSync. The Exchange dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 16.3.
Figure 16.3 Use the Exchange dialog box to fill in the details for your Exchange ActiveSync account.
4. Specify your account data:
Email Address—Type the address assigned to your Exchange account.
Password—Type the password assigned to your account.
User Name—Type the username assigned to your account.
Domain—Type the internal domain address used by your Exchange server.
Note
The data for your account and servers should have been supplied to you by your Exchange administrator when you set up your account. If not, or if you can’t find the data, contact your support department.
Server—Type the Internet domain name for your Exchange server.
Server Requires Encrypted (SSL) Connection—Leave this box checked if your Exchange server requires that mail be sent and received over a secure connection.
Account Name—Type the name you want Mail to use for the account.
5. Click Sign-in. Mail adds your Exchange account.
Maintaining Accounts
Your accounts appear in the Accounts pane (select Settings and then Accounts), as shown in Figure 16.4. To make changes to an account’s settings, click it in the Accounts pane and use the dialog box that appears. Depending on the account, this dialog box enables you to change the password, edit the name associated with the account, specify what gets synced, and delete the account.
Handling Incoming Messages
Incoming email messages are stored in your mailbox on your ISP’s server until you use an email client such as Mail to retrieve them. The easiest way to do that is to let Mail check for and download new messages automatically. However, if you want to check for messages manually, click the menu icon (the “hamburger” icon in the upper-left corner), and then click the Sync icon (the two arrows forming a circle) beside the name of the account you want to check.
Controlling Sync Settings for an Account
For IMAP accounts, Mail downloads incoming messages as soon as the server sends the notification that new items are available. However, Mail uses a dynamic process to determine the optimal frequency for syncing. For example, if you receive new messages only sporadically, Mail will eventually start checking for new messages less often to save battery power. If your incoming message counts rises, Mail will adapt by increasing its syncing frequency.
To control the sync settings yourself, follow these steps:
1. In Mail, select Settings (the gear icon) and then select Accounts to open the Accounts pane.
2. Select the account you want to configure. Mail opens the Account Settings pane for that account.
3. Select Change Mailbox Sync Settings. Mail opens the Sync Settings pane for that account type. For example, Figure 16.5 shows the Sync Settings pane for an Outlook account.
4. In the Download New Content (or Download New Email) list, select the frequency with which you want Mail to sync new messages to your PC: As Items Arrive, Based On My Usage (this is the default dynamic option), or a specific interval (such as Every 15 Minutes).
5. For web-based accounts (such as Outlook and Gmail), use the Download Email From list to specify how far back Mail should sync your older messages: The Last 3 Days, The Last 7 Days (the default), The Last 2 Weeks, The Last Month, or Any Time (to download all available messages).
Tip
It’s possible to change the sound that indicates the arrival of a new message. Right-click the Volume icon in the notification area and then select Sounds. In the Program Events list, select New Mail Notification and then click Browse to choose the sound file you want Mail to play when it delivers new messages.
6. If you don’t want Mail to sync email automatically, under Sync Options click the Email switch to Off.
7. Select Done to close the Sync Settings pane.
8. Select Save to put the new settings into effect.
Processing Messages
Each new message that arrives is stored in the Inbox folder’s message list and appears in a bold font. To view the contents of any message, select it in the message list; Mail displays the message text in the reading pane.
When you have a message selected, you can do plenty of things with it (in addition to reading it, of course). You can flag it, move it to another folder, reply to it, delete it, and more. Most of these operations are straightforward, so we’ll just summarize the basic techniques here:
Dealing with attachments—If a message has an attachment, you’ll see a paper clip icon to the right of the sender’s name. You have two choices:
Open the attachment—In the reading pane, click the attachment icon to download the file; then click the thumbnail that appears once the download is complete.
Save the attachment—In the reading pane, click the attachment icon to download the file. When the download is done, right-click the attachment thumbnail and then click Save.
Flagging a message—If you want to remember to deal with a message later, you can add a flag icon to the message by selecting the message and then selecting Flag.
Tip
On a touch PC, you can toggle a message flag by swiping right on the message.
Moving a message to a different folder—Later in this chapter, we show you how to create new folders you can use for storing related messages. To move a message to another folder, right-click the message (or click the message and then click More Options in the reading pane), select Move, and then select the destination folder.
Replying to a message—Mail gives you two reply options:
Reply—This option sends the reply to only the person who sent the original message. Mail ignores any names in the Cc line. To use this option, select the message and then select Reply (or press Ctrl+R).
Reply all—This option sends the reply not only to the original author, but also to anyone else mentioned in the Cc line. To use this option, select the message and then select Reply to All (or press Ctrl+Shift+R).
Forwarding a message—You can forward a message to another address by selecting the message and then selecting Forward (or pressing Ctrl+F). Mail inserts the full text of the original message into the body of the new message and appends a greater than sign (>) to the beginning of each line.
Deleting a message—To get rid of a message, select it in the folder and then either select the Delete icon (the trash can) or press Delete (or Ctrl+D). Note that Mail doesn’t really delete the message. Instead, it just moves it to the Trash folder. If you change your mind and decide to keep the message, open the Trash folder (select the More Folders icon and then select Trash) and move the message back to the folder it came from. To remove a message permanently, open the Deleted Items folder and delete the message from there.
Tip
On a touch PC, you can delete a message by swiping left on the message.
Setting Swipe Options
Mail is configured to respond to swipes by initiating so-called quick actions: Swiping right on a message toggles the message flag, whereas swiping left on a message deletes it. You can configure these quick actions by following these steps:
1. In Mail, select Settings (the gear icon) to open the Settings pane.
2. Select Options to open the Options pane.
3. In the Quick Actions section, tap the Swipe Actions switch to Off if you don’t want to use any quick actions.
4. If you want Mail to automatically open the next message in the list after you perform a quick action on the current message, tap the Auto-Open Next Item switch to On.
5. Use the Swipe Right/Hover list to select the quick action that Mail performs when you swipe right on a message.
6. Use the Swipe Left/Hover list to select the quick action that Mail performs when you swipe left on a message.
7. Tap outside the Options pane to close it and put the new settings into effect.
Sending Messages
Composing a basic message in Mail is straightforward, and it isn’t all that much different from composing a letter or memo in WordPad.
Initiating a New Message
You have a number of ways to get started, not all of them well known. Here’s a summary:
In Mail, select the New Mail (+) icon or press Ctrl+N.
In Internet Explorer, press Alt+F to pull down the File menu, select Send, and then choose one of the following commands:
Page by E-mail—Select this command to create a new message with the current web page as the content of the message.
Link by E-mail—Select this command to create a new message with a URL shortcut file attached. This file is a shortcut for the current website that the recipient can click to load that site into Internet Explorer.
In a web page, click a mailto link. This creates a new message addressed to the recipient specified by the link.
Note
If you have multiple email accounts configured, it’s not all that obvious how you specify which account to use to send a message. Ideally, the From field would be a drop-down list of your accounts, but alas that’s not the case. Instead, you must first select the Mail app’s Menu button (the hamburger icon in the upper-left corner), select the account you want to use, and then initiate the New Mail command.
From here, use the To field to enter the address of the recipient; click Cc & Bcc and then use the Cc field to enter the address of a recipient that you want to receive a copy of the message; use the Bcc field to enter the addresses of any recipients you want to receive blind copies of the message. Note that in each field you can specify multiple recipients by separating the addresses with a semicolon (;).
Use the Subject field to enter a brief description of the message, and then use the box below the Subject field to enter your message. After you click or tap inside the message body, the ribbon comes alive, as shown in Figure 16.6. Use the Format tab to apply font formatting, paragraph formatting, and styles; use the Insert tab to attach a file, build a table, insert a picture, or add a link; use the Options tab to check the message spelling and to mark the message as either High Importance or Low Importance. When you’re done, select Send (or press Alt+S).
Creating a Signature
A signature is (usually) a few lines of text that provide contact information and other data. Mail provides a default signature—Sent from Mail for Windows 10—that redefines the word lame. To craft your own signature (or to control whether or not Mail uses a signature at all), follow these steps:
1. In Mail, select Settings to open the Settings pane.
2. Select Options to open the Options pane.
3. In the Signature section, tap the Use an Email Signature switch to Off if you don’t want to use a signature and skip to step 5.
4. Use the large text box to type the signature you want to use.
5. Tap outside the Options pane to close it and put the new settings into effect.
Maintaining Mail
For the most part, Mail is a set-it-and-forget-it application. After the program and your accounts have been set up, you can go about your email business without worrying about Mail itself. However, to ensure trouble- and worry-free operation, here are two maintenance chores you should perform from time to time:
Remove clutter from your inbox—Few things in business life are more daunting and frustrating than an inbox bursting at the seams with a huge list of new or unprocessed messages. To prevent this from happening, you should regard the Inbox folder as a temporary holding area for all your incoming messages. Periodically, you should perform the following routine to keep your Inbox clean:
If a message doesn’t require a response, file it or delete it. By “file it,” we mean move the message to another folder. You should have folders set up for all major recipients, projects, customers, and categories that you deal with.
Tip
Before moving the message to whatever you’ve designated as your “action items” folder, be sure to mark the message as unread. That way you’ll be able to see at a glance whether you have items in that folder and how many there are.
If a message requires a response and you can answer it without further research or without taking a lot of time, answer it immediately and then either delete or file the message.
If a message requires a response but you can’t send a reply right away, move the message to a folder designated for messages that require further action. You can then handle those messages later in the day when you have some time.
Clean out your Trash folder—This folder is a good safeguard to help you recover accidentally deleted messages. However, after a while, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll need to recover a message from this folder. Therefore, you should regularly delete messages from the Trash folder. We recommend leaving the last month’s worth of deleted messages and deleting everything older.