Using Webmail Mail

The Mail tab is the default view of Exact Hosting Webmail and the place where you read, compose, organize, and search your email. This article walks you through everyday inbox tasks, composing messages, and using folders to keep your mailbox tidy.

How Mail fits into Webmail

Webmail combines several tools into one browser interface. Mail is the home base -- it loads first when you sign in and gives you access to every essential email function. Other tabs (Contacts, Calendar, Files, RSS, Settings) plug into Mail: addresses pull from Contacts, attachments can be saved into Files, and Settings controls how Mail behaves.

For an overview of the whole application, see The Complete Exact Hosting Webmail Guide.

The Mail layout

Mail has three main panes:

• Mail folders list on the left, showing system folders (Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Spam, Trash) and any personal folders you create.
• Message list in the middle, showing the messages in the selected folder.
• Message preview on the right, showing the body of the selected message.

Before you begin

• A working Exact Hosting Enhanced Email mailbox. You must be able to sign in to Webmail.
• Familiarity with the sidebar. The Compose button and the Mail tab live in the left sidebar.

Checking for new mail

Webmail refreshes folders automatically, but you can force an update at any time.

1. Open the Mail tab.
2. Click Refresh in the toolbar.

All system and personal folders update immediately.

Selecting multiple messages

Select multiple messages when you want to move, delete, flag, or report them in one action.

1. Open the Mail tab.
2. Click Select at the top of the message list.
3. Use the checkbox next to each message to select or deselect it.
4. Apply an action from the toolbar -- move to a folder, delete, flag, or report as spam.

Note: The preview pane does not show details when you select more than one message.

Marking messages as spam

Marking a message as spam reports the sender, headers, and content to the email server's spam filter. Future messages with similar characteristics are then filtered out automatically.

Tip: Do not mark legitimate marketing emails as spam -- they come from trusted senders and your report will have little effect. Use the marketer's Unsubscribe link instead.

Mark one or more messages as spam

1. Select the messages you want to report.
2. Click Spam in the toolbar.
3. Click Accept in the confirmation pop-up.

Note: If you agree to share data with the spam partner the first time, the consent pop-up stops appearing. If you decline, you are prompted every time you mark a message as spam.

Mark a message as not spam

Legitimate messages can be flagged as spam by mistake. Messages stay in the Spam folder for 30 days before being deleted, so it is a good habit to review it occasionally.

1. Open the Spam folder and select the messages that are not spam.
2. Click Not spam in the toolbar.

The messages move back to your Inbox, and the spam filter learns to recognize similar messages as safe in the future.

Marking messages as read or unread

1. Select the messages you want to update.
2. From the Mark drop-down in the header, choose As read or As unread.

You can also click the circle icon next to a message to toggle its read state.

Flagging messages

Flag messages to find them quickly later. Flagged messages display a flag in the message list.

1. Select the messages you want to flag.
2. From the Mark drop-down, choose As flagged.

To remove flags, select the messages and choose As unflagged from the same menu. You can also hover over a message in the list and click the flag icon when it appears.

Deleting messages

1. Select the messages you want to delete, or click a single message to open it in the preview pane.
2. Click Delete.

Messages deleted from the Inbox, Sent, Drafts, or any personal folder move to Trash. Deleting a message from Trash removes it permanently.

Composing messages

Compose and send a new message

1. Click Compose in the sidebar.
2. Enter the recipient in the To field.
3. Click the plus icon at the end of the To field to add a Cc, Bcc, Reply-to, or Followup-to field.
4. Type a subject in the Subject field.
5. Write your message in the body and add any attachments.
6. Click Send in the bottom-left of the message window.

Note: Reply-to sets a different address for replies. Followup-to is useful for mailing lists so replies go to the list rather than your personal inbox.

Reply, reply all, or forward

1. Select the message in the list.
2. In the toolbar, choose Reply, Reply all, or Forward.
3. Write your response and click Send.

Text editor options

You can send messages as plain text or as formatted HTML. The HTML toolbar includes the following controls.

Use Spellcheck

Spellcheck is available in 44 languages from the toolbar of the compose window.

1. From the language drop-down, choose the language you are writing in. Questionable words are highlighted as you type.
2. When the Spellcheck icon is lit, left-click a highlighted word to see suggested replacements. Right-click to use your browser's built-in spellcheck instead.
3. Select the correct replacement.
4. Repeat for any other highlighted words.

Insert an image

Inserted images are referenced by their URL and can be any common format (.jpg, .gif, .png). They can live anywhere on the internet or in your Webmail Files.

1. Click the Insert image icon in the text editor.
2. Paste the image URL into the source field, or select the file picker and choose Add file.
3. Adjust the dimensions as needed.
4. Click Ok.

Attach a file

1. Click Attach in the top toolbar of the compose window.
2. Browse to the file and click Open.
3. The attachment appears in the Options and attachments pane once it finishes uploading.

Email size limit

The maximum size for an outgoing email, including any attachments, is 35 MB. However, MIME encoding inflates attachment sizes during transmission, and some receiving mail servers reject large messages.

Tip: Keep total attachment size under 27 MB to give your message the best chance of being delivered. For larger files, upload them to Webmail Files and share the link instead.

Organizing with Mail folders

System Mail folders

System folders -- Inbox, Drafts, Spam, Sent, and Trash -- are permanent and support the basic email functions. You cannot add, rename, or delete them, but you can add subfolders inside any of them.

Personal Mail folders

Personal folders are folders you create yourself. You can add, rename, empty, or delete them. They can sit at the top level or as subfolders of system or personal folders. Personal folders appear below Trash in the folder list, and subfolders of system folders appear nested under their parent.

Add a new folder

1. At the top of the folders list, click the menu icon (three vertical dots) and then click Manage folders.
2. Click Create.
3. Type a name in the Folder name field.
4. To nest the folder, choose a parent from the Parent folder drop-down.
5. From the List view mode drop-down, choose whether messages display as a list or as threads.
6. Click Save.

Sort messages within a folder

Folders display newest messages first by default. To change the sort order:

1. Click the folder name in the folders list.
2. Select Options in the toolbar above the message list.
3. Choose a sorting column -- Arrival date, Sent date, Subject, From/To, From, To, Cc, or Size -- pick ascending or descending, and choose whether to group conversations by thread.
4. Click Save.

Search within a folder

Webmail can perform a case-insensitive search on any of the following message areas: Subject, From, To, Cc, Bcc, Body, or Entire message.

1. Click the folder you want to search.
2. In the search field, choose the search type from the drop-down.
3. Type your search terms and press Enter.

To clear results, click the X in the search field.

Warning: Avoid the Entire message search as your default -- in large folders it can run long enough for your Webmail session to time out before it finishes.

Rename, empty, or delete a folder

1. At the top of the folders list, click the menu icon (three vertical dots) and then click Manage folders.
2. Click the folder you want to change.

3. Do one of the following:

   • Rename: Enter a new name in the Folder name field and click Save.
   • Empty: Click Empty in the toolbar, then Delete in the confirmation.
   • Delete: Click Delete in the toolbar, then Delete in the confirmation.

Note: Emptying a folder still moves messages to Trash, so they remain recoverable until you empty Trash. Deleting a folder moves its messages to Trash as well.

Move messages to another folder

1. Select the messages you want to move.
2. In the toolbar, click More, then Move to, and choose the destination folder.

You can also drag selected messages onto a folder in the folder list.

Automatically move messages to folders

Use mail filters to sort incoming mail automatically. A filter matches messages against criteria you define and can Forward message to, Move to folder, or Delete email message. See Using the Webmail Settings Menu at Exact Hosting for how to create filters.

Next steps

• Build your address book. See Using Webmail Contacts at Exact Hosting to add and group contacts.
• Personalize how Mail behaves. See Using the Webmail Settings Menu at Exact Hosting for signatures, autoresponders, filters, and spam settings.
• Share files instead of attaching them. See Using Webmail Files at Exact Hosting for storing and sharing large files.
• Tour the whole app. See The Complete Exact Hosting Webmail Guide for an overview of every Webmail component.

Questions? Contact Exact Hosting Support.