3. Staying in Touch Using Email and Instant Messages
In This Chapter
Setting up an iPad to work with your existing email accounts
Using the Mail app to compose, send, and manage emails
Communicating with instant messages via the Messages app
As long as your iPad has access to the Internet via a Wi-Fi or cellular (3G/4G LTE) connection, it has the capability to securely access virtually any type of email account. In fact, using the tablet’s preinstalled Mail app, you can manage multiple email accounts simultaneously without having to open and close accounts to switch between them.
Meanwhile, if you want to use real-time instant messages to communicate with coworkers, your employer, customers, clients, friends, or family, this too is possible using the Messages app in conjunction with Apple’s iMessage service.
For business professionals on the go, the Mail and Messages apps can become indispensible communication tools, plus help make down time more productive.
Using the Mail App to Manage Your Email Accounts on Your iPad
The newly revamped Mail app that comes preinstalled with iOS 7 offers a more streamlined interface for reading, composing, sending, and managing one or more email accounts from your tablet. If you’re already familiar with the Mail app from iOS 6, all of the same features are intact, but the user interface of the app is new, and some of the command icons and menu options look different and are in a different location within the app.
Setting Up Your iPad to Work with Existing Email Accounts
The email account setup process described here works with virtually all email accounts. If you have an email account through your employer that doesn’t initially work using the setup procedure outlined in this chapter, contact your company’s IT department or Apple’s technical support for assistance.
Note
For certain types of email accounts, such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, instead of using the Mail app, you can download a third-party app that works specifically with that email service. The drawback is that these apps only work with one email account, while the Mail app allows you to manage multiple email accounts of any type at once.
Note
The process for setting up an existing email account to use with your iPad and the Mail app only needs to be done once per account.
Follow these steps to set up your iPad to work with your existing email account(s):
1. From the Home screen, launch Settings.
2. Tap on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option on the left side of the screen.
3. When the Mail, Contacts, Calendars submenu is displayed (see Figure 3.1), tap the Add Account option that’s displayed near the top of the screen, below the Accounts heading. If you’ve already set up iCloud on your iPad when you initially set up the tablet, your free iCloud-related email account is already listed under the Accounts heading, just above the Add Account option.
FIGURE 3.1 Tap on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option within Settings, and then tap on the Add Account option to set up a preexisting email account to work with the Mail app.
4. From the Add Account screen, select the type of email account you have: iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Google Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL Mail, Outlook.com, or Other (see Figure 3.2). If you have a POP3- or IMAP-compatible email account, tap the Other option and follow the onscreen prompts.
If you have an existing Yahoo! Mail account, for example, tap the Yahoo! option. When the Yahoo! submenu appears (shown in Figure 3.3), use the iPad’s virtual keyboard to enter your full name, existing Yahoo! email address, account password, and a description for the account (such as My Yahoo! Account).
FIGURE 3.3 Using the iPad’s virtual keyboard, enter the details pertaining to your existing email account.
5. Tap the Next button that’s located in the upper-right corner of the window. Your iPad connects to the email account’s server and confirms the account details you entered.
6. After the account has been verified, a new window with multiple options, such as Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Notes, is displayed. The options listed vary based on the type of email account you’re setting up. These options relate to what account-related data syncs with your iPad.
7. Tap the Save option that’s located near the upper-right corner of this window. Details about the email account you just set up are added to your iPad and accessible from the Mail app.
8. If you have another existing email account to set up, from the Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen within Settings, tap the Add Account option and repeat the preceding steps.
Tip
If you’re trying to set up a POP3, IMAP, or Microsoft Exchange account, you are prompted for additional information, such as your incoming mail server hostname, incoming mail server port number, outgoing mail server, and outgoing server authentication type. If you do not have this information, contact your Internet service provider or the company that provides your email account. If you already have this email account configured on a different computer or device, you can often obtain the information you need from that account setup.
Depending on the type of email account you’re setting up, the information you are prompted for varies slightly.
Tip
When you purchase an iPad, it comes with free technical support from AppleCare+ for 90 days. This includes the ability to make an in-person appointment with an Apple Genius at any Apple Store to get help setting up your email accounts on your tablet. To schedule a free appointment, visit www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar. Or call Apple’s toll-free technical support phone number and have someone talk you through the email setup process. Call (800) APL-CARE.
Customizing Your Email Account Settings
Once you have set up your email account(s), you can turn to a variety of customizable options pertaining to the Mail app available from the Mail, Contacts, Calendars submenu in Settings (refer to Figure 3.1). Tap each of the options that are displayed under the Mail heading, one at a time, to personalize the settings based on your preferences and needs.
Fetching New Data
Set up your iPad to automatically access the Internet and retrieve new email messages by tapping the Fetch New Data option and adjusting its settings. You also can turn on the Push option, listed at the top of the Fetch New Data screen (see Figure 3.4). This enables the iPad to automatically retrieve new emails from the server on an ongoing basis.
FIGURE 3.4 Turn on the Push option to enable your email provider to automatically send emails to your iPad, without the tablet needing to retrieve them.
Tip
The Fetch New Data option is listed between the Accounts and Mail headings on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars submenu screen. Tap on it, and then for each separate email account, determine how often the Mail app should automatically check for new incoming emails (using the Fetch option). Alternatively, it’s possible to turn on the Push option for all accounts (or for specific accounts) and have the Mail app continuously check for new incoming emails. The Push option utilizes more of your monthly cellular data allocation if your tablet is utilizing a 3G or 4G (LTE) Internet connection, plus the additional Internet connectivity drains your tablet’s battery faster.
To conserve cellular data usage and conserve the tablet’s battery, turn off the Push option and set up the Fetch option for each account, and then select the Manual option. This allows you to manually refresh your Inbox only when you access the Mail app and at your discretion. To do this, launch Settings; tap on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option; and then tap on the Fetch New Data option. From the Fetch New Data menu, tap on each email account listing separately and select the Fetch or Manual option.
Keep in mind, not all email accounts support the Push option. Some only work with the Fetch option.
If you turn off the Push option, it’s possible to set the Fetch option to check for new emails every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly, or manually.
Customizing Mail Options
Under the Mail heading of the Mail, Contacts, Calendars menu (within Settings) are a handful of additional customizable features pertaining to how your iPad handles your email accounts. These options include the following:
Preview: As you look at your Inbox using the Mail app, determine how much of each email message’s body text is visible from the Inbox summary screen, in addition to the From, Date/Time, and Subject lines. Options include between zero and five lines of the message.
Show To/Cc Label: To save space on your screen as you’re reading emails, you can turn off the To and CC label within each email message by tapping the virtual switch associated with this option.
Flag Style: Choose between using an orange flag graphic icon (Shape) or a colored dot (Color) to showcase email messages that you manually flag as important within the Mail app.
Ask Before Deleting: This option serves as a safety net to ensure you don’t accidently delete an important email message. When this feature is turned on, you are asked to confirm your message deletion request before an email message is actually deleted. Keep in mind that for most email accounts, by default, you cannot delete email messages stored on your email account’s server. When you delete a message, it is only deleted from your iPad. Your iCloud-related email account works differently. When you delete a message on your tablet, it does get deleted from your account altogether. Check with your email account provider to determine how it handles messages deleted from your iPad.
Load Remote Images: When an email message has a photo or graphic embedded with it, this option determines whether that photo or graphic is automatically downloaded and displayed with the email message. You can opt to have your iPad refrain from automatically loading graphics with email messages. This reduces the amount of data transferred to your tablet, and it can help to protect against spammers who use image tracking to verify valid email addresses. You always have the option to tap an icon in the email message to download the graphic content of that message, including photos.
Organize By Thread: This feature enables you to review messages grouped by subject if a single message turns into a back-and-forth email conversation, where multiple parties keep hitting Reply to respond to messages with the same topic. When turned on, this makes keeping track of email conversations much easier, especially if you’re managing several email accounts on your iPad. If turned off, messages in your Inbox are displayed in reverse chronological order as they’re received and are not grouped together by subject or sender.
Always Bcc Myself: To ensure you keep a copy of every outgoing email you send, turn on this feature. A copy of every outgoing email is sent to your Inbox if this feature is turned on. When you send emails from your iPad, this feature ensures those messages also appear within the Sent folder of the mail app you use on your primary computer.
Increase Quote Level: This feature can be turned On (the default selection) or Off. When turned On, any time you forward or reply to an email message, the original message will be displayed but be indented, which makes it easier to visually separate the original message content from your reply.
Signature: For every outgoing email that you compose, you can automatically add an email signature that’s displayed at the bottom of your email messages. The default signature is “Sent from my iPad.” By tapping this option, it’s possible to compose customized signatures for each email account. A signature might include your name, mailing address, email address, phone number(s), website address, Twitter username, and/or or your company’s marketing slogan.
Default Account: If you’re managing multiple email accounts, when you reply to an email message, by default it will be sent from the email account to which the original email was sent. However, if you’re composing an email from scratch, this feature enables you to choose a default email account from which the new email will be sent. As you’re composing the email, you can always change the From account by tapping on the From field, and then select one of your other email accounts.
After you make whatever adjustments you want to the Mail app-related options, exit Settings by pressing the Home button on your iPad to return to the Home screen. You’re now ready to begin using the Mail app to access and manage your email account(s).
Managing Your Email Accounts with the Mail App
The Mail app that is preinstalled on your iPad is loaded with features to make managing one or more email accounts a straightforward process.
Note
If you need to manage multiple email accounts with your iPad, it’s important to understand that although the Mail app enables you to view email messages in all of your accounts simultaneously (when the All Inboxes option is selected), the app actually keeps messages from your different accounts separate.
As you view your incoming email messages, by default, the app groups emails together by message thread, enabling you to follow an email-based conversation that extends through multiple messages and replies. When turned on, this feature displays emails within the same thread in reverse chronological order, with the newest message first.
After you’ve initially set up your existing email accounts to work with the Mail app, use this app to manage your email accounts from anywhere. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen.
To alert you of incoming messages, without having the Mail app running, have the iPad display a badge on the Mail app icon that’s displayed on the Home screen as new emails arrive. By default, this feature is turned on. To modify this, launch Settings, tap on the Notification Center option, and then under the Include heading tap on the Mail option. Next, tap on each email account listing and turn on the virtual switch that’s associated with Badge App Icon for each (shown in Figure 3.5).
FIGURE 3.5 Within Settings, turn on the Badge App Icon option for each of your email accounts (shown here for a Yahoo! account), plus have new incoming emails listed within the Notification Center.
Note
A badge is a small number that appears in the upper-right corner of the Mail app’s icon on the Home screen. In this case, it indicates how many new emails your iPad has received.
At the same time you set up the Badge App Icon feature, set up the Notification Center to list incoming emails. Then, when the Notification Center window displays a new incoming message alert (shown in Figure 3.6), tap the message listing in order to automatically open the Mail app and display that new message. From the Notification Center window, tap on the All tab to view new Mail message notifications.
FIGURE 3.6 This is what the Notification Center window looks like when incoming email message alerts are displayed. Tap on the All tab near the top-center of the screen.
After you launch the Mail app, you can access the Inbox folder for one or more of your existing email accounts, compose new emails, or manage your email accounts. Just like the Inbox folder on your main computer’s email software, the Inbox folder of the Mail app (see Figure 3.7) displays your incoming emails.
FIGURE 3.7 The Mail app’s inbox screen. In this example, just one email account is set up to work with the app.
Working with the Inbox
On the left side of the Mail app’s screen is a list of the individual emails in your Inbox folder.
Tip
A blue dot associated with an email listing within your Inbox (refer to Figure 3.7) indicates that a message is new and unread. An orange flag icon (or multicolored dot) indicates the message is urgent. A curved, left-pointing arrow icon indicates you have already sent a reply to that message. A curved, right-pointing arrow indicates you have forwarded the message to one or more recipients. A star icon means the sender of the incoming email message is on your VIP List, while a paperclip icon shows that there’s an attachment associated with the email.
Based on the customizations that you made from within Settings, the Sender, Subject, Date/Time, and up to five lines of the message’s body text are displayed for each incoming message.
The email message that’s highlighted in blue on the left side of the screen is the one that’s currently being displayed in its entirety on the right side of the screen.
Tip
To refresh your Inbox and manually check for new incoming emails, swipe your finger downward within the Inbox listing on the left side of the Mail app’s screen. The Updated message displayed at the bottom of the Inbox folder listing is accompanied by the Just Now message or the date and time of the last time your Inbox was refreshed.
Note
If you’re managing multiple email accounts from your iPad, you can view the Inbox folder for any single email account or choose to view a comprehensive listing of all inboxes by selecting the All Inboxes option. It’s also possible to select just your VIP inbox folder by tapping on the VIP option from the Mailboxes selection menu, as explained later in this chapter.
At the top of the Inbox message listing are two buttons labeled Mailboxes (or the name of the email account whose Inbox folder you’re viewing) and Edit. Between these two icons is the Inbox heading.
Just below the Inbox heading is a Search field. Tap this Search field to enter a search phrase and quickly find a particular email message. You can search the content of the Mail app using any keyword, a sender’s name, or email subject, for example.
Tip
The Search field within the Mail app only allows you to search for content within the app. To search your entire iPad for specific content, access the Spotlight Search feature from the Home screen.
Organizing Mailbox Actions with the Mailboxes Option
When looking at your Inbox, the Mailboxes button is displayed near the upper-left corner of the screen. If you’re managing just one email account with the Mail app, when you tap on this button, you can immediately access your Drafts folder, Sent Message folder, Trash folder, Bulk Mail folder, or other folders associated with your email account.
However, if you’re managing multiple email accounts, when you tap the Mailboxes button, the Mailboxes selection menu is displayed. This includes a listing for each email account’s Inbox folder, as well as each email account, displayed on the left side of the screen. You also see a listing for your VIP inbox and flagged messages inbox (if you’ve previously flagged one or more messages).
At the top of this listing, tap on All Inboxes to view a listing of all of your incoming emails, from all your accounts, on a single screen. These messages are displayed together but are actually kept separate by the Mail app.
Tip
When you’re managing multiple accounts, you can tap the Mailboxes option to switch between individual email account inboxes. Under the Accounts heading, you can also access the Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Trash, Bulk Mail, or other folders for each account separately.
Depending on the email account, you might be able to add new folders for storing and organizing email messages on your iPad. As you’re looking at the current list of folders associated with one email account, tap the Edit button that’s displayed at the top of the screen next to the Mailboxes heading. At the bottom of the screen, near the lower-right corner of the left mailbox folder column, you may see a new option labeled New Mailbox (shown in Figure 3.8).
FIGURE 3.8 For most types of email accounts, you can create an unlimited number of mailbox folders (each with a custom name) for organizing email messages.
Tap the New Mailbox button to manually enter the name of a new folder, and decide under which email account (Mailbox Location) the folder should be displayed. When you create a new folder on your iPad for an email account, that folder (and its contents) syncs with the other computers and/or mobile devices you access this email account from.
Selecting Messages for Managing with the Edit Option
Located on top of the Inbox folder message listing (to the right of the Inbox heading) is an Edit button. When you tap this button, you can quickly select multiple messages from your Inbox to delete or move to another folder (see Figure 3.9).
FIGURE 3.9 After tapping the Edit button, you can quickly delete or move multiple email messages currently stored in your Inbox.
After you tap the Edit button, an empty circle displays to the left of each email message summary. To move or delete one or more messages from this Inbox listing, tap the message listing. A blue-and-white check mark fills the empty circle when you do this, and the Mark, Move, and Trash options are displayed near the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Note
Also, after you tap the Edit button, a Mark All option now appears in the lower-left corner of the screen. This allows you to select all of the messages in the displayed Inbox and either Flag them all at once or mark all of them as read.
After you’ve selected one or more messages, tap the Trash option to quickly delete the messages from your Inbox (which sends them to the Trash folder). Tap the Move option, and then select the folder to which you want to move the selected email messages. Tap on the Mark option to flag the message(s) as important, mark the message(s) as read/unread, or move the messages to your email account’s Junk (spam) folder. A pop-up menu offering these three options appears.
Deleting Individual Incoming Messages
As you’re looking at the listing of messages in an Inbox folder, it’s possible to delete individual messages, one at a time, in several ways. Swipe your finger from right to left over a message listing on the left side of the screen. Keep in mind, in iOS 6 (and earlier versions of the iOS), this action required a left-to-right swipe, so the finger motion is now reversed. A red-and-white Trash option and a gray-and-white More option display on the right side of that email message listing. Tap the Trash option to delete the message. Tap on the More option to access a pop-up menu that offers the following options: Reply, Forward, Flag/Unflag, Mark As Read/Unread, Move To Junk, and Move Message.... These options allow you to manage just the selected email.
Another way to delete a single message from your Inbox (or any folder) is to tap the message listing that’s displayed on the left side of the screen, which highlights the message in blue. At the same time, the entire message is displayed on the right side of the screen. Tap the Trash icon displayed near the upper-right corner of the screen to delete the message.
Viewing Your Email
When a single email message is highlighted on the left side of the Inbox screen (when the iPad is in landscape mode), that message is displayed, in its entirety, on the right side of the screen. At the top of the message, you see the From, To, Cc, Bcc, Subject, and Date/Time lines. When held in portrait mode, only the selected email message is displayed. To view the Inbox mailboxes, swipe your finger from left to right, starting at the left edge of the screen.
Tip
As you then look at your Inbox listing, messages that have been flagged are accompanied by an orange flag icon or colored dot. From the Mailboxes listing on the left side of the screen, if you tap on the Flagged Inbox, only flagged messages from your various email accounts are displayed.
Displayed near the top-right corner of the mail screen are five command icons that allow you to manage the email message you’re currently viewing. From left to right, here’s a rundown of what these icons are used for:
Flag: Tap on this flag-shaped icon to access a menu that allows you to Flag/Unflag the message, mark the message as Read/Unread, or move the message to the email account’s Junk (spam) folder.
Move: When you tap on this folder-shaped icon, a listing of all folders associated with the email account is displayed along the left margin of the screen. Tap on the folder to which you want to move the selected message.
Trash: Delete the message you’re currently viewing and erase it from your iPad (but not necessarily from the online-based email server).
Reply: Tap on this curved, left-pointing arrow icon to access a menu that allows you to Reply to, Forward, or Print the email message you’re viewing.
Compose: Tap on the compose icon to create a new email from scratch. A blank New Message window appears. The message you were currently viewing remains intact.
Accessing Incoming Email Attachments
The Mail app enables you to access certain types of attachment files that accompany an incoming email message. Some of the file formats that are viewable and can be accessed include photos (in the .JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, and .TIFF formats); audio files (in the .MP3, .AAC, .WAV, and .AIFF formats), PDF files; and Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint files.
Note
Depending on which optional apps you have installed on your tablet, additional email attachment file formats become accessible when you place your finger on the attachment file’s icon and hold it there for 1 to 3 seconds.
If an incoming email message contains an attachment that is not compatible or accessible from your iPad, you see that an attachment is present but you aren’t able to open or access it. In this case, you must access this content from your primary computer.
To open a compatible attached file within an incoming email message, tap and hold down the attachment icon for 1 to 3 seconds. If the attachment is compatible with an app that’s installed on your iPad, you are given the option to transfer the file to that app and directly open the file using that app. Or, you can open a compatible attachment in the Mail app’s own viewer.
Transferring Messages to Other Folders
As you’re viewing an email message on the right side of the screen, you can move it from your Inbox to another folder in one of two ways. First, you can tap the Edit button, or you can tap the file folder–shaped icon that’s displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen. When you tap this icon, the various folders available for that email account are displayed on the left side of the screen. Tap the folder to which you want to move the message. The folders available vary for different types of email accounts.
Forwarding, Replying to, and Printing Emails
From within the Mail app, you can reply to the message, forward any incoming message to someone else, or print the email by tapping the curved, left-pointing arrow icon that’s displayed in the upper-right corner of the main Inbox screen (next to the Trash icon). A menu is then displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen (see Figure 3.10).
FIGURE 3.10 As you’re reading any email message, tap the curved left-pointing arrow icon to reply, forward, or print that message.
To reply to the message you’re reading, tap the Reply button. An email message template appears on the screen. See the “Composing Messages” section later in this chapter for details on how to write and send an email message from the Mail app.
To forward the email you’re reading to another recipient, tap the Forward button. If an attachment is associated with this email, you are asked whether you want to include the attachments from the original email. You see two options, labeled Include and Don’t Include. Choose the appropriate response.
Start the message forwarding process by filling in the To field. You can also modify the Subject field (or leave the message’s original Subject) and then add to the body of the email message with your own text. The newly added text displays above the forwarded message’s content.
Note
To forward an email to multiple recipients, enter each person’s email address in the To field of the outgoing message, but separate each address with a comma. You also can tap the plus icon (+) that appears to the right of the To field to add more recipients. This also works when composing a new message to several recipients.
If you’re sending an email to a contact that’s stored in your Contact app’s database, instead of manually typing the personal’s email address, you can begin typing the person’s name. The Mail app offers suggestions based on the information stored in the Contacts app.
When you’re ready to forward the message to one or more recipients, tap the Send option that appears in the upper-right corner of the email message window. Or tap the Cancel button (located in the upper-left corner of the message window) to abort the message forwarding process.
If you have an AirPrint-compatible printer set up to work with your iPad (see Chapter 11, “Wireless Printing and Scanning via Your iPad”), you can print incoming or outgoing emails directly from your tablet using the Print command.
Creating a VIP List in the Mail App
Although you can flag individual emails as being important, if you often receive emails from specific senders, such as important clients or your boss, that are extremely important to you, it’s possible to designate those people as VIPs within the Mail app. Then, any messages you receive from those senders are displayed with a blue star in your Inbox folder, plus you can view the separate VIP Inbox to quickly view only incoming emails from people on your VIP lists that have been received in all of your email accounts.
To do this, as you’re reading an incoming email from someone you want to add to your VIP list, tap on the From field of the message. Details about the sender are displayed in a pop-up window (shown in Figure 3.11). Tap on the Add To VIP option to add this person to your VIP list. A blue star appears next to their name in the From field.
FIGURE 3.11 Add people who are important to you to your VIP list so you can easily identify incoming emails from them.
Tip
To remove someone from your VIP list, view an incoming email from that individual and tap on the From field. When the Sender pop-up window is displayed, tap on the Remove From VIP button.
As you’re viewing the main Mailboxes listing on the left side of the Mail app’s screen, tap on the VIP listing (shown in Figure 3.12), to view all the incoming emails from people on your VIP list in a centralized listing for easy reference. As you’re looking at your All Inboxes listing or the Inbox for an individual email account, messages received from people on your VIP list have a blue star displayed to the left of them rather than a blue dot.
FIGURE 3.12 Tap on the VIP listing under Inbox to display only incoming emails from people on your VIP list. This is a comprehensive listing from all your email accounts that the Mail app is managing.
Composing Email Messages
From within the Mail app, you can easily compose an email from scratch and send it to one or more recipients. To compose a new email, tap the Compose icon that’s displayed near the upper-right corner of the main Inbox screen. The Compose icon looks like a square with a pencil on it.
When you tap the Compose icon, a blank New Message window (shown in Figure 3.13) displays. Using the virtual keyboard, fill in the To, Cc, Bcc, and Subject fields. At the very least, you must fill in the To field with a valid email address for at least one recipient. The other fields are optional.
FIGURE 3.13 After tapping the Compose icon, you can create an email from scratch and send it from your iPad.
You can send the same email to multiple recipients by either adding multiple email addresses to the To field or adding additional email addresses to the Cc or Bcc fields.
Tip
If you’re managing just one email address from your iPad, the From field automatically fills with your email address and is not displayed. However, if you’re managing multiple email addresses from the tablet, tap the From field to select the email address from which you want to send the message.
Tap the Subject field and use the virtual keyboard to enter the subject for your message. As you do this, the Subject displays in the title bar of the Compose window, replacing the New Message heading.
To begin creating the main body of the outgoing email message, tap in the main body area of the message template and use the virtual keyboard (or the external keyboard you’re using with your iPad) to compose your message.
Instead of manually typing an email message, you can use the Dictate feature. Refer to Chapter 1, “Activating and Personalizing Your Tablet,” for information about using this feature.
The signature you set up within Settings is displayed automatically at the bottom of the newly composed message. You can return to Settings to turn off the Signature feature, or you can modify or delete the signature that appears directly within the compose message window.
When your email is fully written and ready to be sent, tap the Send option that’s found near the upper-right corner of the Compose window. In a few seconds, the message is sent from your iPad, assuming the tablet is connected to the Internet. A copy of the message goes to your Sent or Outbox folder.
Saving Unsent Drafts of an Email Message
If you want to save a draft of an email without sending it, tap the Cancel button that appears in the upper-left corner of the compose message window. The Delete Draft and Save Draft buttons display. Tap Save Draft to save it in your Drafts folder until you either send it or delete it.
Sending an Email with an Attachment
To send an email message that contains an attachment, such as a Pages document, those attachments must be sent from within a specific app (such as Pages), not from the Mail app. However, from within the Mail app, you can attach photos or video clips that are stored in your iPad.
Note
It’s also possible to send photos via email directly from the Photos app. To do this, select up to five images from within Photos, tap on the Share icon, and then select the Mail option.
To add a photo or video clip attachment, press and hold your finger on the screen where you want the image to be inserted for about 2 seconds. A command bar appears. Tap on the Insert Photo or Video option that’s displayed (shown in Figure 3.14).
FIGURE 3.14 Tap on the Insert Photo or Video tab to select and insert an image or video clip into your outgoing email.
When the Photos window appears, tap on the album that contains the image or video clip you want to include in the email, and then tap on the thumbnail for the actual image. From the Choose Photo window, tap on the Use button to select the image and embed it into the outgoing email. The image is now displayed in the outgoing email message you’re composing (shown in Figure 3.15). Pay attention to the file size to ensure the message is not larger than what your email account provider (or the recipient’s email account provider) allows. If it is, you need to decrease the photo’s image size.
FIGURE 3.15 You can embed one or more images (or video clips) into an outgoing email message from within the Mail app.
Tip
Anytime you add a photo as an attachment to an outgoing email in the Mail app, the app keeps the photo at its current file size. To change the image file size, look to the right of the From field for a message that says Images, and tap on it.
An Image Size tab bar (shown in Figure 3.16) is displayed that includes four buttons, Small, Medium, Large, and Actual Size. Tap on the image file size you want. Remember that most email accounts do not allow extremely large files to be sent or received, so if you’re sending multiple high-resolution images in a single email, you may need to decrease the image sizes. Doing this also speeds up the sending and receiving process significantly, especially if you’re using a 3G or 4G cellular data connection.
FIGURE 3.16 You can change the file size of images being embedded into your outgoing emails when using the Mail app.
Keep in mind that you can send a Pages, Word, or PDF document from the Pages app, or a Numbers or Excel (spreadsheet) file from the Numbers app. It’s also possible to send photos or video clips from the Photos app.
Other apps also enable you to attach app-specific files to outgoing emails that are composed and sent from within that app. To do this, tap the Share icon that’s displayed within the app and choose the Email option.
Additional Mail App Features
The Mail app offers much of the same functionality as the email program you use on your primary computer or on the Web. In addition to utilizing a built-in spell checker, for example, Mail is compatible with the Select, Copy, Cut, and Paste features built in to the iOS operating system. This enables you to move text and email message content between messages or into other apps with ease.
Plus, the Mail app automatically links with the Contacts app to pull email addresses from your Contacts database. So instead of entering someone’s email address into the To field of a message you’re composing, you can begin typing the recipient’s name, and the app automatically pulls email addresses from your Contacts database and gives you a list of potential recipients.
Using the Web or Other Apps to Access Email
In addition to using the Mail app to access your email, for some types of email accounts, you can also use the Safari web browser to access your email account directly from the server.
When you visit the App Store, you can also find third-party iPad apps that can replace the Mail app and help you better manage one or more email accounts. To find these apps, launch the App Store app, and enter the keyword “email” into the Search field.
Accessing Your iCloud-Related Email Account from iCloud.com
All content related to your iCloud-related email account automatically syncs with iCloud. To manage your iCloud-related email account from any or computer that’s connected to the Internet, point your web browser to www.icloud.com, sign in using your Apple ID and password (or iCloud log-in information), and then click on the Mail app icon. This launches the online version of the Mail app, which is automatically populated with your iCloud-related email account content.
Communicating via Instant Messages via the Messages App
Using short, text-based messages and a special “language” composed of abbreviated terminology, such as “LOL” (meaning “laugh out loud”) or “BRB” (meaning “be right back”), people have begun to rely on text messaging and instant messaging as a convenient way to communicate. On your iPad, this type of communication is possible using the Messages app.
The Messages app works with Apple’s own iMessage service, which allows Mac, iPhone, and iPad users to communicate for free and on an unlimited basis with one another via the Internet. SMS text messaging, however, is typically done using a smartphone and a cellular data network. You can find other text/instant messaging apps that are compatible with other services available from the App Store.
Note
If the person you’re communicating with via the Messages app has an entry in your Contacts app database and that entry contains his photo, it is displayed within the Messages app. Otherwise, the person’s initials are displayed by default where the photo would otherwise be seen. If you receive a message from someone who is not in your Contacts database, a generic head silhouette appears.
It’s possible to use Siri in order to dictate and send text messages using your voice. To do this, activate Siri and say something like, “Send text message to Rusty Rich.” When Siri says, “What would you like it to say?,” speak your message, and then confirm it. When prompted, tell Siri to send the text message you dictated. This feature works best if details about the person to which you’re sending a text message are already stored in your Contacts database.
Siri can also be used to read your newly received text messages without having to look at or touch the tablet’s screen.
Quick Start: Apple’s iMessage Service
The Messages app taps into your iPad’s other functions and allows for the easy sharing of photos, videos, locations, and contacts; plus, it works seamlessly with Notification Center.
Tip
When the iMessage service is used with the Messages app, it enables you to send the same text message to multiple recipients. It uses a feature referred to as group messaging that enables everyone in that group to participate in the same text-message–based conversation.
iMessage enables you to participate in text-based but real-time conversations. You can see when someone is typing a message to you, and then you can view and respond to the message a fraction of a second after it is sent.
Setting Up a Free iMessage Account
The first time you launch the Messages app to use it with the iMessage service, you’re instructed to set up a free account using your existing Apple ID. Or, instead of using your Apple ID, tap on the Create New Account option to create an account that’s linked to another existing email address.
Note
iPhone users can associate their cellphone number with their iMessage account to send and receive text messages using this service. However, an Apple ID or existing email address can be used as well if you’re an iPhone and iPad user.
If you’ve upgraded your iPad to iOS 7, when you first launch Messages, you might discover the app automatically uses your existing Apple ID to establish your free iMessage account. You can modify this by selecting the Messages option from the Settings app and then tapping Send & Receive if you want to create or use a different existing Apple ID account for use with these services.
Just as when you’re using FaceTime, the unique Apple ID, email address, or iPhone phone number you use to set up your iMessage account is how people find you and are able to communicate with you via instant messages. So if you want someone to be able to send you messages via iMessage, that person needs to know the iPhone phone number, Apple ID, or email address you used to set up the account. Likewise, to send someone a message via iMessage, you need to know the iPhone phone number, Apple ID, or email address the recipient used to set up her iMessage account.
If you attempt to send a message to someone’s email address that is not registered with iMessage as an active account, the message is sent as a traditional email and appears in the recipient’s email inbox.
Pros and Cons of Using iMessage
The biggest benefits to using iMessage over other text-messaging services are that it’s free and you can send/receive an unlimited number of messages. And because iMessage utilizes the Messages app, the app itself nicely integrates with other features, functions, and apps on your iPhone or iPad.
Using the Camera app, for example, you can easily snap a photo or shoot a video clip using your iOS mobile device and then use Messages to send that image or video clip to one or more friends via iMessage. Or if you’re enjoying a cup of coffee at a local cafe, you can quickly share your exact location with a handful of friends and use iMessage to send out an invite for other people to join you.
If you’re away from your iPad when an incoming message arrives, don’t worry. The Notification Center app can continuously monitor the Messages app and inform you of any missed messages in the Notification Center window.
Another convenient feature of iMessage is that you can begin a message-based conversation using your iPhone, for example, and then at any time switch to using your iPad or Mac and continue that conversation using the iMessage service.
All messages that are sent and received are saved and categorized by the person you communicated with. Until you manually delete the conversation, you always have a record of what was said, accompanied by the time and date messages were sent/received.
Strategies for Using the Messages App
The main Messages app screen is divided into two main sections (shown in Figure 3.17). On the left is a listing of previous text-based conversations you’ve participated in.
When Messages is running, the right side of the screen is the active conversation window. From here, you can initiate a new conversation or respond to incoming messages, one at a time.
Note
When you need to type messages, the iPad’s virtual keyboard appears. To give you more onscreen real estate to reread a long conversation, tap on the Hide Keyboard key that always appears near the lower-right corner of the virtual keyboard.
Creating and Sending a Text Message
The first time you launch Messages on the iPad, the New Message screen is visible, with the cursor flashing on the To field and the virtual keyboard displayed. If you have contact information stored in the Contacts app, as soon as you start typing in the To field, Messages attempts to match up existing contacts with the name, cellphone number, or email address you’re currently typing. When the intended recipient’s name appears (because it’s already stored in Contacts), tap on it.
To enter a recipient’s name, cellphone number, Apple ID, or email address from scratch, simply type it into the To field using the iPhone or iPad’s virtual keyboard.
Tip
After you’ve sent and received text messages using the Messages app, to initiate a new text-message conversation with someone, tap on the New Message icon that appears to the right of the Messages heading in the left column.
To quickly search your Contacts database to find one or more recipients for your messages, you can also tap on the plus sign icon in the To field as you’re composing a new message. A scrollable list of all contacts stored in Contacts displays, along with a Search field you can use to search your contacts database from within the Messages app.
After filling in the To field with one or more recipients, tap on the optional Subject field to create a subject for your text message, and then tap on the blank field located to the left of the Send icon to begin typing your text message. If you’re only sending text within your message, enter the text and then tap on the Send option. Or to attach a photo or video clip to your outgoing text message, tap on the camera icon that’s displayed to the left of the field where you’re typing the text message.
Tip
When you tap on the camera icon as you’re composing a text message, two command options are displayed: Take Photo or Video and Choose Existing. Tap on the Take Photo or Video option to launch the Camera app from within Messages, and quickly snap a photo or shoot a video clip using your iPad’s built-in camera.
If you already have the photo or video clip stored on your tablet that you want to share, tap on the Choose Existing option to launch the Photos app from within Messages, and then tap on the thumbnail for the photo or video clip you want to attach to the message.
When the photo or video clip has been attached to the outgoing text message, and you’ve typed any text that you want to accompany it, tap on the Send key to send the message.
It’s also possible to send a photo via iMessage from within the Photos app. To do this, select the image you want to share, tap the Share icon, and then select Message. Fill in the To field and then tap on the Send option.
Participating in a Text-Message Conversation
As soon as you tap Send to initiate a new text-message conversation and send an initial message, the New Message window transforms into a conversation window, with the recipient’s name displayed at the top center. Displayed on the right side of the conversation window are the messages you’ve sent. The responses from the person you’re conversing with are left-justified and displayed in a different color on the screen with text bubbles.
As the text-message–based conversation continues and eventually scrolls off the screen, use your finger to swipe upward or downward to view what’s already been said.
Tip
Whenever there’s a pause between the sending of a message and the receipt of a response, the Messages app automatically inserts the date and time in the center of the conversation window so that you can later easily track the time period during which each conversation took place. This is particularly helpful if there are long gaps in the conversation.
To access command icons for deleting individual text messages, deleting entire text-message conversations, or forwarding a single message (or complete conversation) to someone else, while viewing an instant message conversation, hold your finger for 2 seconds or so on any individual message and then tap on the More option. You can then select messages to delete, and tap on the Delete All option (to delete the entire conversation). Once selected, tap on the Trash icon to delete the selected content or tap on the Forward icon to share it with others.
Tip
From the Messages conversation window, tap on the Contact button in the upper-right corner to view the complete Contacts database entry for the person you’re conversing with.
To delete entire conversations, swipe your finger from left to right along the Messages listing for the conversation you want to delete. When the red-and-white Delete icon appears, tap on it to delete that entire conversation (as opposed to individual text messages within a conversation). You can also quickly delete multiple conversations with specific people. To do this, tap on the Edit button at the top-left of the Messages listing and then tap the red-and-white negative sign icon that’s displayed next to the listings.
Responding to an Incoming Text Message
Depending on how you set up the Messages app from within Settings, you can be notified of an incoming message in a number of ways. For example, notification of a new message can be set to appear in the Notification Center. Or if the Messages app is already running, a new message alert sounds and a new message listing appears under the Messages heading on the left side of the iPad screen.
Tip
When a new message arrives, a blue dot appears to the left of the new message’s listing indicating a new, unread message.
To read the incoming text message and enter into the conversation window and respond, tap on the incoming message listing. If you’re looking at the listing in the Notification Center window, for example, and you tap on it, the Messages app launches and the appropriate conversation window automatically opens.
After reading the incoming text message, use the virtual keyboard to type your response in the blank message field, and then tap the Send icon to send your response.
Relaunching or Reviewing Past Conversations
From the left side of the screen when the Messages app is running, you can view a listing of all saved text-message conversations. The Messages app automatically saves all text messages until you manually delete them.
The Messages listing contains all the conversations you’ve participated in to date, displayed in reverse chronological order. Each listing displays the person’s name, the date and time of the last message sent or received, and a summary of the last message sent or received.
Tap on any of the listings to relaunch that conversation in the Conversation window. You can either reread the entire conversation or continue the conversation by responding to the last message that was sent or by sending a new message to that person.
By tapping on one conversation listing at a time, you can quickly switch between conversations and participate in multiple conversations at once.
Tip
To exit a conversation, tap on one of the other listings under the Messages heading on the left side of the screen. However, to exit the Messages app altogether, press the Home button.
Tip
By default, Notification Center will alert you of new incoming text messages in the Notification Center window. You can change this option from within Settings. You can also set it up so that your iPad displays a banner or an alert on the screen, shows a Badge App Icon, and/or displays a message on the Lock Screen when a new incoming text message arrives.
To adjust these option, launch Settings from the Home Screen; tap on the Notification Center option; and then adjust the Notification Center, Show, Alert Style, Badge App Icon, Show Preview, Repeat Alert, and View in Lock Screen options that are displayed under the Messages heading.
Customizing the Messages App
From Settings, you can customize several options related to the Messages app. To do this, launch Settings from the Home screen and then tap on the Messages option.
From the Messages submenu, turn on or off the iMessage service altogether, plus make adjustments that are relevant to sending and receiving text messages from your tablet.
For example, by adjusting the virtual switch associated with the Send Read Receipts option to the on position, the people who send you messages to will be notified immediately when their messages to you have been read.
Caution
Beware of the iPad’s auto-correction feature when using the Mail and Messages apps. When turned on, your iOS device automatically “fixes” misspelled or incorrectly typed words. However, this auto-correction feature is not always accurate, especially if you’re using abbreviations in your email or instant messages, and this could result in an embarrassing situation.
To control the Auto-Correction feature, launch the Settings app and select the General option. Scroll down to the Keyboard option, and tap on it. Tap on the virtual on/off switch associated with the Auto-Correction feature to enable or disable it.
Before sending any email or instant message from your iPad, be sure to proofread it carefully to avoid an embarrassing and potentially unprofessional situation or miscommunication.
Tip
When using the Messages app, you can take advantage of keyboard shortcuts and special keyboard layouts to increase your text entry speed and accuracy, plus give you a greater selection of special characters, symbols, and emoticons. To create keyboard shortcuts, launch Settings, tap on the General option, and then tap on the Keyboard option. To create a new Keyboard Shortcut that can be used from any app, including Messages, tap on the Add New Shortcut... button.
To activate a special keyboard layout, such as the Spanish or French keyboard, launch Settings, tap on the General option, and then tap on the Keyboard option. From the Keyboard submenu, tap on the Keyboards option. Then, from the Keyboards submenu, tap on the Add New Keyboard... option and select the appropriate option by tapping on it. Now, when the virtual keyboard is displayed, a globe-shaped icon appears between the 123 key and the Dictation key (the microphone). Tap on this new key to reveal the alternative keyboard layout(s).