TOC
BACK
FORWARD
HOME

10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5

- 9 -
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.

TOCBACKFORWARDHOME


©Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.