10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5
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Sending Mail Messages
In this lesson, you learn how to apply mail delivery options. You also learn
how to set Send options.
Using Delivery Options
You can set several delivery options before you send your mail. Those delivery
options can:
- Let recipients know your message is important.
- Place a digital signature on your message.
- Encrypt your message.
- Set delivery priorities.
- Request confirmation that the message was received.
- Request confirmation that the message was read.
- Prevent addressees from copying the message.
Plain English: Encrypt Sounds like you need to
put on your magic decoder ring! When you choose to encrypt a message, Lotus Notes
scrambles the message and only the recipient has the key to unscramble it. Since
your message travels from your PC to the Lotus Notes server, and then to the PC of
the recipient, encrypting the message will prevent anyone who may be working at the
Lotus Notes server from reading your message.
To set delivery options, click the Delivery Options
button on the action bar. The Delivery Options dialog box appears (see Figure 9.1).
Figure 9.1
The Delivery Options dialog box.
Setting Importance lets the recipient know how important your message is. Choose
Normal, High, or Low in the Importance drop-down list. If you choose High, the recipient
will see a red exclamation mark ! next to your mail message in their Inbox (see Figure
9.2). Choosing Normal or Low does not affect how your mail message appears in the
recipients Inbox at all.
Figure 9.2
The High importance indicator.
To add a digital signature, which lets the recipient know you are the person who
created the message, choose Sign in the Delivery Options
dialog box.
To encrypt your mail, select Encrypt in the Delivery
Options dialog box. In order to encrypt the mail, the person you are mailing to must
exist in the Public Address Book, as encryption is accomplished by using a number
called the Public Key that is stored in each Person document in the Public Address
Book.
The Delivery priority determines how the Lotus Notes
server will handle your mail when it receives your message on the way to the recipient.
Delivery priority only affects mail that crosses
servers, such as mail that is sent to a recipient via the Internet or other Lotus
Notes servers. It can override the regularly scheduled time that servers call to
exchange mail. If your mail is urgent, setting the Delivery priority to High forces your server to immediately call another server
and deliver your mail. This is very useful if you have an urgent message. If you
set the Delivery priority to Normal (the default
value), your mail travels across servers at the predetermined time(s) set by your
Lotus Notes administrator. If you set the Delivery priority to Low,
your mail will be sent between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., the default time for
low priority, unless your Notes administrator has changed that time. This is a good
option if you're sending large attachments (as discussed in Lesson 13). Using a Low priority sends this mail during off peak hours.
The Delivery report (see Figure 9.3) provides different information about the
delivery of your message to the recipient:
Only on failure (the default value) Returns a delivery
failure report to you if your mail can't be delivered.
Confirm delivery Returns a confirmation notice indicating
that your mail delivery was successful. If you asked for a confirm delivery report
for each mail message you sent, you'll have an Inbox full of notices! Use this choice
sparingly.
Trace entire path Returns a report telling you the
path your mail took to get to its recipient. If you are having problems with your
mail, your Lotus Notes administrator might ask you to use this option to determine
the source of the problem.
None Mutes the delivery report. You'll get no delivery
reports at all--even if your mail could not be delivered to the recipient.
Figure 9.3
A Delivery failure report.
Simply because a person has received your mail doesn't mean that she has read
it. Selecting Return receipt in the Delivery Options
dialog box notifies you that the recipient has read your message. This works only
for other Lotus Notes Mail users, not across the Internet.
The Prevent copying option in the Delivery Options
dialog box restricts what happens to your message once it is received by other Notes
users. You can prevent the recipient from copying the message to the Windows Clipboard,
forwarding the message to another person, creating a reply with history (as described
in Lesson 11), or printing your message. Again, this only applies to other Notes
Mail users.
Once you have chosen your delivery options, click OK to
apply them to your message.
Creating Mood Stamps
Pay special attention to the Mood Stamps option on the Delivery Options
dialog box. You can use Mood Stamps to tell your recipients what type of mood your
message holds. When they view their Inbox, they'll see icons to the left of your
mail message indicating your mail message "mood" (see Figure 9.4). Notes
creates these icons for all moods except Normal.
Figure 9.4
Mood Stamp displays in the Inbox.
To attach a mood stamp to your mail message, click the Delivery
Options button on the Action bar. In the Delivery Options dialog box, select
a message type from the Mood Stamp drop-down list: Normal,
Personal, Confidential, Private, Thank You, Flame, Good Job!, Joke, FYI, Question,
or Reminder. Then click OK.
Setting Send Options
You can find less frequently used mail options by choosing Actions,
Special Options from the menu. From the Special Options
dialog box, you can set options to automatically delete mail messages from your Mail
database, archive messages, and request a reply by date (see Figure 9.5).
Figure 9.5
The Special Options dialog box.
If you want to automatically delete or archive your memo, type a date in the Expiration date field of the
Special Options dialog box. Archiving is discussed in Lesson 12.
To request a response to your mail message by a certain date, you can enter a
date in the Stamp message with a "Please reply by"
date box. That request will be sent as part of the mail message.
If you'd like the response to your mail to be sent to someone else (not you),
you can indicate that information by filling out the Replies
to this memo should be addressed to box. For example, if you type Mary
Jane Kane in this box, you see a note at the top of your memo that says
Please respond to Mary Jane Kane.
Your Lotus Notes mail message appears as plain text when received by someone on
the Internet. That's just the way it works; formatting options don't always interpret
well. But if you send mail to another Lotus Notes Mail user through the Internet,
he can see your text formatting if you select the I am sending
this Notes document to other Notes Mail user(s) through the Internet option.
Making this selection doesn't guarantee the transfer of formatting options, since
your message may travel through many different servers. But failing to select this
option guarantees that the Lotus Notes Mail formatting options will be lost--regardless
of the product used by the recipient.
To close the Special Options dialog box, click OK.
Saving Copies
To send and file your mail at the same time, click on the Send and File
button on the Action bar. With this option, Notes will file your sent copy in the
folder you specify, as opposed to your Sent folder. When you choose Send and File,
the Move to Folder dialog box appears which lists your available folders. Select
the folder you wish to use.
To remove a document from a folder without deleting it from the database, choose
Actions, Remove from Folder.
Some companies restrict the sizes of mail databases. If your company is concerned
with space, you might want to disable the "Always keep a copy" option of
user preferences and have Notes prompt you with an option to save a copy every time
you send a new message.
In this lesson, you learned how to use delivery options and how to set send options
for mail. You also learned how to file a copy of your mail message at the time you
send it. In the next lesson, you learn about reading mail you receive.
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