Visual Mail V3 - Reading Messages

Getting new mail

If you have new mail waiting, the New Mail button will turn red. If you have additional incoming mailboxes set up, there will be a button for each of them. You can optionally set Visual Mail to pop open and beep when new mail is detected.

To pull in new mail, press the New Mail button. All incoming messages will be added to your +Inbox folder and the messages in the folder will be listed automatically. The first listed unread message will automatically be selected and displayed.


+Inbox folder

Your main mailbox folder that you will be using most often is named +Inbox. All incoming mail messages will go into this folder when you press the New Mail button. The name has been chosen such that it will appear close to the top of your folder menus and it is not possible to change the name of this folder.


Viewing messages with the pointer

Message headers for the current folder (or newsgroup) are listed in the Header List Area. Each message is represented by a single line containing such information as the subject, who sent the message, size of the message, and the date/time of the message.

Button Modifiers Description
1 none open the selected message (drag selects additional messages)
1 Shift extend selection from the current message
1 Control toggle selection of message (drag toggles additional messages)
2 none dragging provides rapid scanning of entire listing area (4 directions)

Button 1 selects the indicated message as the current one and displays it. Holding it down and dragging will extend the selection until you release the button. If you drag the mouse outside the header area, it will automatically scroll.

Using the Shift key and Button 1 will extend the selection from the current message to the indicated message without changing the current message. Holding it down and dragging will extend the selection until you release the button.

Using the Control key and Button 1 will toggle the selection for the indicated message (including the current message). Holding it down and dragging will toggle additional messages from the point where the button was pressed.


Viewing messages with the keyboard

Messages can be viewed as well by using keyboard shortcuts :

Key Description
Up Arrow Show the previous message
Down Arrow Show the next message
Left Arrow Shift the header display to the Left
Right Arrow Shift the header display to the Right
PgDn Show the next page in the current message
PgUp Show the previous page in the current message
Space Show next page of the current message
If at the end, show the next message
If no more and reading a Newsgroup, show next newsgroup listing


Viewing attachments

When a message has attachments, these will be shown at the bottom of the message as icons. Click on the icon and select the View option to launch an external viewer for the attachment. The attachment should be automatically loaded into the external viewer.


Saving attachments

To save an attachment, click on the icon and select the Save option. This will save the attachment in your default directory with the name shown below the icon. If you use the Save as... option, it will prompt you for a new file name, defaulting to the one shown beneath the icon.