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Starting the Software in the CIRCA Labs

From the Public Menu choose the Windows option. You will need to choose a resolution to run Windows under. Once Windows is loaded, open the Program Manager window if it isn't already open. Find the Internet Tools group and open it. Within this group you should be able to find an Icon for Netscape Navigator similar to that shown to the right. Double click this icon to start the Navigator.

You will be presented with the Navigator's Browser window with the active document being the CIRCA homepage. In order to use e-mail, you will need to open the mail window by clicking on the little envelope icon in the lower right corner or by choosing Netscape Mail from the Window pull-down menu. You will now be presented with the mail window (figure N-1).

The only problem with using Netscape's Navigator in the CIRCA labs is that it is configured for a fictitious user named "CIRCA user" with an address of "nobody@localhost.ufl.edu". You can send e-mail to someone, but they will likely wonder who "CIRCA user" is. Make sure to identify yourself in the body of the message. Also, you will not be able to check for your e-mail messages with that user name. If you want to configure Netscape's Navigator in the CIRCA lab for your account, ask one of the lab assistants for help.

Starting the Software From a Remote Site (home PC)

The process is the same as starting it in the CIRCA labs, except that the installation normally places the Navigator icon in a group called Netscape.

However, before actually using Netscape Navigator to send and receive e-mail, you will need to configure it with your account information. From the browser window choose Mail and News Preferences from the Options pull-down menu. In the dialog that comes up, choose the Servers tab. You will need to specify your SMTP and POP server domain names. They are frequently the same, but can be different. SMTP is used for sending mail and POP is used to receive. You must enter your POP server username also. It is usually the same as your account username. For example, if I usually log in to grove as "johndoe" then I would put "johndoe" in the POP User Name field. All the other options on this tab can be left alone for now.

You should also jump to the Identity tab and fill in your name and e-mail address. If my username at CIS is "janedoe" then I would enter "Jane M. Doe" in the Your Name field and "janedoe@cis.ufl.edu" in the Your E-mail and Reply-to Address fields.

Now jump to the Organization tab and place a check mark in the Remember Mail Password checkbox. This option will allow you to check your POP server for e-mail without having to enter your password each time.

Now you should be able to open the mail window (figure N-1) by either clicking on the little envelope in the lower right corner or by choosing Netscape Mail from the Window pull-down menu.

The Netscape Navigator Mail Interface

The Navigator mail window (figure N-1) is divided into three sections: one for different mailboxes (upper left), one to display the messages in a mailbox (upper right), and one to read a mail message (bottom).

The names of each of the default mailboxes indicates their purpose. Incoming messages will go into the Inbox, etc. The Trash mailbox holds messges deleted from other mailboxes as a safeguard to avoid deleting something you might need later. Beside each mailbox name are numbers indicating how many messages are in each and how many of those messages are unread.

On the messages side of the window is a list of messages in the mailbox which is currently highlighted to the left. Normally they are sorted by Date/Time. You can sort them by any of the other headings simply by clicking on the heading. Each column can be resized either wider or narrower by placing the cursor on the line between headings and dragging the column to the size you want. This can allow more space to read the subject for example. Messages which have been read are displayed in a normal weight font while unread messages are displayed in a bold font. Unread messages are also marked with a green diamond in front of the subject column. To read a message just click on one.

The message display portion of the window just displays the currently selected message highlighted to the upper right. The header information will be displayed including the subject, date sent, who it's from, and who it was sent to, etc. You can use normal Windows scroll bars to view the document if necessary.

At the top of the window you will find pull-down menus and a button bar. The buttons allow you to perform the most common tasks quickly. Many more options are available from the pull-downs. Also, don't forget the little envelop at the bottom right of the window. You can check for new mail by clicking on it.

Setting and Changing Your Userid and/or Password

If you need to change your username or password, then choose Mail and News Preferences from the Options pull-down menu. In the dialog that comes up, choose the Servers tab. You will need to specify your POP server username. It is usually the same as your account username. For example, if I usually log in to grove as "johndoe" then I would put "johndoe" in the POP User Name field. Now jump to the Organization tab and place a check mark in the Remember Mail Password checkbox. This option will allow you to check your POP server for e-mail without having to enter you password each time.

Since you've changed the username, Navigator will ask you for your password the next time you try to access the POP server. You will see a dialog as shown in figure N-2.

Writing a Message

Now that you know about the mail window interface, you can create a message. Just click on the To: Mail button, or choose New Mail Message from the File pull-down menu, or press [Ctrl - M]. You will be presented with a new dialog box for editing messages as shown in figure N-3.

Click inside the large edit box in the lower portion of the window to place the cursor there. You can type your message within this box. You can use normal Windows editing including Cut, Copy, and Paste. Only include standard ASCII text characters though. If you have something special to send, you will need to send it as an attachment which we'll cover later.

If you change your mind and decide not to complete and send the message, just close the Message Composition window (figure N-3) by double clicking the upper left corner of the window or by choosing Close from the File pull-down menu. If you have entered anything in any of the fields, you will be presented with a dialog that says, "Mail has not been sent yet. Are you sure you want to discard changes?" Just click on Yes to cancel the message.

Sending Your Message

Make sure you have entered a valid internet e-mail address or nickname in the Mail To: field. You can do this by typing it in or by using the Mail To: button or the Address button. You will be presented with a list of addresses that you've placed in your Address Book previously as shown in figure N-4.

You can select a name and address from the list by clicking on it. Then click the To: button to place that entry in the Mail To: field. The Cc: and Bcc: buttons place the address in the fields to send copies and blind copies respectively. Clicking OK does not enter an address in the Mail To: field. All it does is close this dialog box. The nicknames and other features of the Address Book are discussed in the section entitled "Using Nicknames and an Address Book" below.

Once you have everything as you want it, click on the Send button, or choose Send Now from the File pull-down menu, or press [Ctrl - Enter].

Receiving a Message

To receive mail you can simply click on the little envelope in the lower right hand corner of the window, or click on the Get Mail button, or choose the Get New Mail option from the File pull-down menu, or press [Ctrl - T]. Your POP server account will be checked for any new mail. If you do have any new messages, they will be placed in the Inbox. The first new message will be opened and displayed in the bottom half of the window. Any more unread messages will be listed in bold in the upper right portion of the window. You can select another message to read by clicking on one, or by using your cursor keys to move up or down, or even by pressing the [Delete] key to delete the current message from the Inbox which will then select the next message to display. See figure N-1 for an example of the Inbox open with some files read and others unread.

Each mail message will have the header information displayed at the beginning of the message. There may be any different number of header fields displayed depending on whether the sender included the information and/or whether their e-mail software writes all the fields to the header. Typical fields include the Subject, Date, and From fields.

Replying to a Message

Sometimes you may want to reply to a question or comment in a message someone has sent to you. You could do this by writing a new message and entering the person's address, the subject, and maybe even some of their original message for reference. Rather than do all this manually, it can be done automatically just by clicking on the Re: Mail button, or by choosing Reply from the Message pull-down menu, or by pressing [Ctrl-R]. You will see the Message Composition window (figure N-3) with the Subject and Mail To: fields already filled in. If you've configured Navigator to automatically quote the original message, you will see it in the body of your new message with a ">" (greater than) character preceding each line. To check if this is enabled choose Mail and News Preferences from the Options pull-down menu and click on the Composition tab. At the bottom of that page you will see the checkbox. Make sure it's checked to enable automatic quoting.

If you prefer not to automatically quote, but would like to do it once in a while, you can leave automatic quoting disabled and use the Quote button, or choose Include Original Text from the File pull-down menu of the Message Composition window (figure N-3). This way you're in control of when you quote the original.

Otherwise, replying is exactly the same process as writing your own original message. You send it the same way.

Reviewing and Deleting E-mail Messages

As you may have noticed, messages you have received do not automatically get deleted after you read them. They stay in your Inbox until you want to take them out. Also, the messages you send will have a copy in the Sent box. This may seem like a waste of disk space, but it is very convenient to be able to review old messages. Sometimes you may find that you want to reply to or forward one of them.

You can click on any of the mailboxes to list its contents and read the messages. If you have any messages in the Inbox or Sent box that you want to delete, just highlight the one(s) to delete using normal Windows selection methods, then either press the [Delete] key, or click on the Delete button, or choose Delete Message from the Edit pull-down menu, or "drag" them to the Trash box. Your message(s) will be "deleted" from the box it was in before and be placed in the Trash box. This is one more safeguard to protect you from deleting important messages.

If you really want to delete those old messages, just open the Trash box and use the same methods to delete them. This time they will actually be deleted. You will not be able to recover them after deleting them from the Trash box.

Beyond the Basics

Sending Copies to Multiple Receivers

Sometimes you want to send a message to someone and also send copies to others for reference. In the Mail Composition window (figure N-3) is a button and field called Cc:. This field lets you specify who to send copies to. You can enter multiple nicknames or addresses separated by commas. You can do this by typing them in or by using the Cc: button or the Address button. You will be presented with a list of addresses that you've placed in your Address Book previously as shown in figure N-4. If you're choosing names from the Address Book, you can highlight more than one by holding down the [Ctrl] key while clicking on the addresses. After highlighting the addresses click on the Cc: button to insert the addresses in the Cc: field.

Working with nicknames and the Address Book is discussed in the section entitled "Using Nicknames and an Address Book" below.

Sending Blind Copies

When you send a copy to multiple receivers, each receiver can see who other copies have been sent to. A blind copy does not include a list of all receivers. This allows you to keep the list of receivers private from each other.

Sending blind copies works just like regular copies except that you must first display the Bcc: field in order to place nicknames or addresses in it. Choose Mail Bcc from the View pull-down menu in the Message Composition window (figure N-3). A check mark will be placed next to it and the Bcc: button and field will be displayed under the Cc: field. Use the Bcc: field in the same manner as the Cc: field.

You can even send blind copies to some people and regular copies to others.

Forwarding Messages

Sometimes you may receive a message that you know a friend would like to read. If the sender didn't already send a copy to your friend, you can forward a copy. To do this, just click on the Forward button, or choose Forward from the Message pull-down menu, or press [Ctrl - L]. You will be presented with the Message Composition window (figure N-3) with the Subject: field already filled in. All you need to do is fill in the Mail To: field and maybe even the Cc: and Bcc: fields. The original message will be sent as an attachment.

If you want to add your own comments, just put them in the edit box as you would normally do to write a message. The receiver will see the content you typed first followed by the headers and body of the forwarded message.

Using Nicknames and an Address Book

Before you can use nicknames or the Address Book, you will need to put some names and addresses in it. Open the Address Book for editing by choosing Address Book from the Window pull-down menu. You will see an empty dialog similar to the one shown in figure N-5. If you click on the Address Book entry it will "open" the book.

To add an address to your book, choose Add User from the Item pull-down menu of the Address Book window. You will be presented with a dialog shown in figure N-6 which will allow you to specify a nickname, the person's actual name, their e-mail address, and even additional comments.

The Nick Name: field must be filled in with all lower case letters. Ideally it should be short so that it's easier to enter than the address when sending a message. The E-Mail Address: field should contain a valid internet e-mail address. If it's not correct, your message will never reach the receiver!

Once you have it filled in as you want it, click OK to add it to your Address Book. It will show with a figure icon next to it. If you want to change it for some reason, just right-click it and select Properties from the pop-up menu. You can delete an entry by highlighting it and pressing [Delete], or by choosing Delete from the Edit menu of the Address Book window (figure N-5).

You can also send a new message to someone by double-clicking on the entry in the Address Book.

Sending Attachments

Sometimes you may want to send something besides a simple message, like a graphics file or a spreadsheet file. Rather than try to convert it to ASCII text in the edit box of the Message Composition window (figure N-3), you can simply attach it as a separate file. Normally, since e-mail must be only ASCII text, a graphics file could not be sent to someone by e-mail. It would arrive in a corrupted and unusable form. Netscape Navigator will automatically encode any binary files (like a graphic file) in an ASCII format which can be decoded by the receiving e-mail software. The default encoding method used by Navigator is a base64 MIME format. This is one of the most common and useful encoding formats, and most e-mail packages can read and decode it.

To attach a file just click on the Attach button or the Attachment: button in the Message Composition window (figure N-3), or choose Attach File from the File pull-down menu. You will be presented with a dialog box for selecting attachments and other options (figure N-7). Initially no files will be listed. Click the Attach File button to use the standard Windows dialog to select a file on your disk. The file will then be added to the list.

You shouldn't normally need to check the option to Convert to Plain Text since Navigator knows what to do with your file. If you want to remove a file from the attachments list, just highlight it and press the [Delete] key or click on the Delete button. The Attach Location (URL) button is discussed in the section titled "Sending and Receiving HTML E-mail".

After pressing OK the listed files will be shown in short form within the Attachment: field separated by semi-colons. You cannot edit the list there, but you can simply click on the Attachment: button again to modify the list.

You should probably include a message within the edit box of the Message Composition window (figure N-3) to tell the receiver how many and what kind of files are attached.

Before sending an attachment to someone else, you might want to try sending a message with attachments to yourself.

Receiving Attachments

Netscape Navigator tries to integrate it's e-mail interface with the functionality of the browser interface. If it recognizes that an attachment received with a message is one that can be displayed by it's browser, it will display it with the message automatically. So the image file sent to you would be visible within the body of the message you receives. You don't need to save it and view it with other software. All the common file formats found on the World Wide Web are supported in this manner, even HTML documents. If you decide you want to copy the image to a file on your disk, just right-click the image and choose Save-As from the pop-up menu.

If Navigator can't determine the file type, it will display a small box in the body of the message with the name of the attached file, the type, and the encoding method used. By clicking on the Attachment # link you will be prompted to save the file to your disk using the standard Windows dialog. You can then view/edit the file using the appropriate application.

HTML and ASCII text attachments are simply included in the body of the message. You will not be able to save them separately, but you can use Windows' Cut, Copy, and Paste functions, or just choose Save As from the File pull-down menu to save the entire e-mail message as an ASCII text file on your disk.

Sending and Receiving HTML E-mail

The ability to send and receive an HTML file and have it display as a Web page when received is unique to Netscape Navigator's e-mail interface. When Navigator displays an e-mail message including an attached HTML file, most of the HTML formatting is displayed as if it were being displayed by the browser window. This allows you to send a Web page to someone directly.

You can send a Web page in two ways: from the browser window, or using the Attachment: button in the Message Composition window. Use the Attach Location (URL) button to specify the URL of the Web page to attach. The URL can be somewhere on the Web or a file on your disk. That's all there is to it. If you do not want the receiver to see it displayed as a Web page (just the HTML code), then check the Convert to Plain Text option.

To send a Web page from the browser window just choose Mail Document from the File pull-down menu while viewing the page to send. You will be presented with the Message Composition window (figure N-3). The Subject: field will be filled in with the title of the Web page, the file will already be specified in the Attachment: field, and the URL of the file will be placed in the body of the message. You can now fill in the other fields as needed and even add to the body of the message.

When you receive a message with a Web page attached, you will see the Web page as if it was displayed in the browser window. All the links are valid and should function as if you were using the browser. If you want to save this Web page to your disk, choose Save As from the File pull-down menu and save it to your disk with an HTM extension. For example, I might save my friend's Web page as C:\JOHNDOE.HTM. Now I can use the browser to load and view the page directly from my disk at any time. However, you should edit the file with a text editor, like notepad, to remove the e-mail headers. Remove everything before the <BASE HREF="http://www.server.site/index.html"> line. (Although you will have a different URL on that line.) Simply save the file and you now have a valid HTML file.

Since only Netscape Navigator can properly view e-mail files this way, you shouldn't normally send a Web page to someone if you don't know that they're using Navigator's e-mail interface. Other e-mail packages will only display the HTML code which the receiver may not find useful.

Getting Help On-line

If you're using the copy of Netscape Navigator which is available free for evaluation and educational use, you will have to be logged in to use the on-line help handbook. Choose Handbook from the Help pull-down menu. The browser window will be used to link to Netscape's site and load the Handbook Web pages.

A few dialogs have help buttons. You can use these to get specific help using these dialogs. The Mail and News Preferences dialog is an example of this.

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