Monday, November 27, 2000		Article

You have got mail

THE world of e-mail is much wider and offers a host of services and features, which a majority of persons are not aware of. Netscape mail is one such e-mail client, which offers a lot of features that a person would normally find in e-mail clients, like Outlook Express. Moreover it is also relatively safer and has not been much targeted by hackers. Thus the security, which could be a major concern for other e-mail clients, is actually a bonus for a Netscape mail user. Going beyond security, Netscape mail is a powerful and also a quite fast and efficient e-mail client. You can set it as a default e-mail client and thus whenever you need to send a mail, it automatically opens the Netscape mail. However there are some major features, which are still not known to a majority of people, some of them are as under.

Multiple e-mail accounts: It’s a normal belief that in the Netscape mail client, only one e-mail account can be configured. However, it is not true, as you can configure and manage as many e-mail accounts in Netscape mails as you want and can also have separate address books for each and every account. The best part of this arrangement is that you can maintain separate address books for each and every profile and the same could also remain password protected, if you have not configured e-mail account to the "save password" mode. For opening multiple e-mail accounts, click on Start> Programs> Netscape Communicator. This will open an adjoining drop down window. Now click on utilities. In the adjoining drop-down window, click on user profile manager. This will open a profile manager window on your computer screen. Click on the New button and this will open "create a new profile Window". On clicking next you will be asked to fill in necessary informations like your name and e-mail address. Click next and fill in the necessary details like the profile name (could be anything even a nickname) and user settings. In the subsequent windows, enter the POP and SMTP mail address and names. This will configure the e-mail settings. Now whenever you will open Netscape communicator, it will ask for your option of opening the specific profile. If you want to check your business-related e-mail then, choose the profile in which you have configured the client, which you normally use for business pu rposes. There is a great advantage of this feature, as your profile is being managed for not just e-mail but also for the browser, so you can also maintain bookmarks for the specific need like business/ professional/ personal under different profiles. You can even add the Yahoo account in Netscape mail and surprisingly, Yahoo e-mail works relatively faster in Netscape mail.

Mail filters: Mail filters are important and essential features of an e-mail client. Not all the e-mail clients have this feature. However, Netscape mail has this feature, which gives the liberty of filtering out the messages and also directing them to the specific folders as per instructions. Thus, for example, if you want all news-related items to go directly to a specific folder, which could even be a new folder, then on setting such filters, all messages meeting your conditions will automatically be transferred to the specific folder. Similarly, you can also create a folder by the name of the office and can set the filter to direct all mails from the office to that particular folder. Thus, filters can save a person from a lot of botheration and also from the agony of receiving junk mails. Thus, for setting up e-mail filters, open Netscape Messenger and click on Edit menu. In the drop down menu, click on message filters. This will open message filters window on the computer screen. Here you can set the filters for any folder like Inbox or trash. You can also open new folders and can set filters for the same. Thus, if you wish to open a folder for personal mails, or any mail, which you get based on the criteria mentioned by you, that could either be e-mail address, names, subject or any string of text, it will be transferred to the particular folder automatically.

Spell check: Especially in the case of business communication, professional mail or employment mail, it is very important that the mails should be error free. The Netscape mail provides the spell check feature, which prompts you for any incorrect spellings and tells some correct options. This feature can be enabled by clicking on Edit Menu> Preference. In the preference window, open click on mail and newsgroup and then click on messages. On clicking at the messages, you will find the option "spell check before sending" — check mark it for using spell checking.

Return receipt: Normally persons prefer to receive an acknowledgement for the receipt of their message at the receiver’s end so that they can be assured that their message has reached the desired destination. This feature is supported by only a few e-mails clients and Netscape mail is one of them. By using Netscape mail, you can set e-mail client to respond automatically when a person gets mail. This can be configured in the preference Window. For enabling this service, you need to click on mail and newsgroups, in the expanded list. Click on the return receipt. Now look at the options on the right side. The first section deals with the mail notifications for message delivered and also the message sent. If you wish to be informed on the delivery of the message in the receiver’s server, then you should choose the first option. But if you wish to be informed, when the reader reads your e-mail, then you should choose the second option. However, you can choose both options also. The other option in this window deals with other features of return receipt.

Personal settings: It’s easy to maintain personal settings in the Netscape mail. For example you can make your Internet business card using the Netscape preference and can have the card filled up with information like your name, e-mail, telephone, fax, mobile, numbers, organisation name, address and also the personal greetings or message or even a note. When you send you mail to someone using Netscape mail, then your Internet visiting card will be sent automatically. This card will also have the link for the e-mail address, using which a user can open a message window for replying by simply clicking on.

Using the Netscape mail, you can also maintain the address book, which is fully compatible with other e-mail clients like the Outlook or Eudora. Moreover, you can also import the address book from any e-mail client and save it in Netscape messenger. The use of the address book is relatively safer in the Netscape mail as compared to other e-mail clients like Outlook Express.

You can also customise the colour, design and layout of the messenger window as per taste. You can also send multicoloured e-mails from Netscape and select the font colours as also the size of the font as per the requirement of e-mail.

— Roli