Logging into My Account

To login to your account, type in your full email address and Password on the login screen. If everything matches up, you will be presented with the welcome page and a view of all folders in your mailbox. The full original email address (not an alias address) must be used to log into the corresponding mailbox.

One thing to notice on the Login page is the "Remember Me" checkbox. By checking this box SmarterMail encrypts your login and password, then you can close the browser window and not have to re-log in when you return. This function works as long as you do not "log out" of SmarterMail prior to closing your browser window. If you do log out, you will have to log back in upon your return, regardless of whether the "Remember Me" box was checked or not. You will need cookies enabled on your browser for this feature to work.

A standard User is able to view all email folders (inbox, sent, and Custom) for their designated account. Users with end users with admin permissions for the domain privileges are usually the owner of a domain who can add/remove users and change domain settings.

The first time you log in to SmarterMail, you will be presented with several options. These options can be modified at any time through the My Settings page once you are logged in, but are required to be set in order to provide you with a better email experience.

Time Zone - Setting your time zone will make it so that all emails show the correct time they came in. It will automatically adjust for Daylight Saving time. By default, this should be set to the time zone that your domain administrator has chosen.

AJAX Message Listing -  Two methods of viewing your Inbox and other email folders are offered. With AJAX Message Listing disabled, it will act in a fashion similar to what you are used to with previous versions of SmarterMail. Enabling AJAX will result in a more responsive message list with easy sorting and paging, but may not work as well on older computers, or certain browsers like Opera, Safari, or IE for Macs.

Message Preview - If this option is turned on, a small magnifying glass icon will appear next to each message in your Inbox and other mail folders. Hovering over that icon will pop up a preview of the message, similar to a tool tip. This is very useful if you get a lot of email and typically just scan it, but can add a bit of load time to the page. Frequently, it is worth the trade-off.

Composing a Message

There are several ways to begin composing a new message in SmarterMail. The most common method is to click on New Message in the sidebar. The only fields that are absolutely required to send an email are the To address and the Subject.

Action Buttons
Send - Sends you message out to recipients

Save as Draft - Saves the message in its current state to the Drafts folder. If you do not have a Drafts folder, one will be created the first time you choose this option. You will then be able to go back to your Drafts folder and continue composing this email.

Spell Check - Pops up a spell-check that will help identify spelling errors in your email. Note that you can choose the dictionary to use from the My Settings page.

Add Files - Click on this button to add attachments to your email. Please bear in mind that there are limits to the size of attachments imposed by many email systems on the internet today.

Remove All Files - Removes all attachments from the current email. This button will only appear if you have added attachments to the email.

Cancel - Cancels the new message and returns you to where you came from

Message Envelope Items
To - Enter a recipient's email address, or click on the "To:" link to select a recipient from your contact list. Separate multiple contacts with a semicolon (;)

Cc - The Cc field should contain recipients that should receive "carbon copies" of the message, but are not the primary intended recipients of the message.

Bcc - Bcc represents people who should receive copies of the email, but nobody else should know they received it.

Subject - Enter the primary subject of the message

Attachments - If you have added any attachments to the message, they appear below the subject line for your reference.

Compose Area
Depending on your browser and your configuration settings, you may see an HTML editor or a text-only editor. Enter the content of your email in the box.

Reading a Message

The Read Message page allows you to view the contents of an email message and perform various actions with the message. To read a message, click on it from the list of messages in a folder.

Along the top, there are several buttons, like Reply, Reply All, Forward, etc. Each of these buttons are actions that can be performed on the message you are currently viewing. Below that, you will see the header of the email. This contains information about the email message like the sender, subject, and the date the message was sent. Lower still, and you'll find the body of the message. Each of these sections will be explained below.

Action Buttons
Prev / Next - Allows quick navigation between messages. These buttons may or may not appear depending on where you are in your list of messages.

Reply - Opens up the compose page that lets you respond to the sender of this message. In addition, the text of this message will be filled in to the new message as well.

Reply All - Operates similarly to the Reply button, but it also adds any email addresses in the To or CC fields to the response as well.

Forward - Takes you to the compose page and allow you to forward this message to someone else. The method that this email is put into the response can be customized by several settings in the My Settings page.

Mark as Spam - Moves this message to the Junk E-Mail folder and adds it to the list of Spam messages that are processed for statistical filtering. The more spam messages you identify using "Mark as Spam," the better the filter will get over time. This button will not appear while viewing the Junk E-Mail folder.

Unmark as Spam - Adds the message to an approved email list, adds the sender to your trusted sender list, and moves the message to the Inbox. This button only appears in the Junk E-Mail folder.

Delete - Deletes a message from your mailbox. After deleting it, the next message in your folder will show up instead. Note that there are several methods of deleting a message in SmarterMail. Please refer to the My Settings topic for more information.

Print - Prints the contents of the email without all of the extra navigation controls on the page.

Back - Takes you back to the folder you were in prior to reading the message.

Email Header
From - Email address from which the message says it was sent

Date - Time and date when the message was sent

To - The email address(es) of the primary recipients of the message

Subject - The subject of the message

Attachments - If any attachments are included in the email, they will show up as links here. Be very careful when opening attachments in emails. Ensure that you know the sender and do not open any attachments you are not expecting.

HTML link - Displays the message in HTML format, which allows for colors and fonts

Plain Text link - Displays the message in plain text, which only allows text content with no special formatting or graphics

Header link - Displays the header of the message, which indicates the path the email took to get to your email account, along with several other pieces of information

Raw Content link - Displays the content of the email exactly as the server received it. This is helpful if you cannot view the message in any other display mode.

Email Body
This section shows the content of the message. The default method of viewing messages is HTML, but it can be changed from the My Settings page.