1. Basics

 1.1 Logging In
 1.2 Viewing Messages
 1.3 Printing Messages
 1.4 Deleting Messages
 1.5 Composing Messages
 1.6 Address Book
 1.7 Creating Folders
 1.8 Moving Messages to Folders
 1.9 Forwarding Messages

2.0 Personalizing

 2.1 Name
 2.2 Reply-To
 2.3 Signature
 2.4 Timezone
 2.5 Replying

3.0 Customizing Display

 3.1 Themes
 3.2 Language

4.0 Advanced Features

 4.1 Message Highlighting
 4.2 Folder Preferences
 4.3 Index Order
 4.4 Spam Reporting
 4.5 Message Filters
 4.6 Spam Filtering
 4.7 SpellChecker Options

Once you have logged in, you will be presented with your inbox. Here you can view the headers of messages in your inbox. To read a message simple click on it's subject line.

To print a message, first open the message and then click the View Printable Version in the upper right corner of the window for this to work your browser must have JavaScript enabled.) A new window will pop up and you can click the Print button at the top of this window.

While in the folder that the message is in (probably the inbox) click the check box to the left of the from field so that is displays a check mark. Then click the Delete button in the upper right corner of the window. This does not delete the message, this simply places it in the Trash folder. There are two ways of removing the message completely: First after selecting the message and pressing the Delete button there should be a Purge link on the left beside Trash (if you do not see it click the refresh folder link in the upper left corner of the window.) If you click this Purge link it will permanently delete ALL messages in your Trash folder. The second way is to enter the Trash folder by clicking on the Trash link on the left. Select the message by placing a check mark beside it on the left and click the Delete button in the upper right corner of the window. This will permanently delete all marked messages.

To compose a message click the Compose link in the upper left are of the window. In the To field enter the email address or nickname from the address book of your intended recipient. Alternatively you can click the Address button and choose from any of the address book entries you have setup. In the CC field you can enter an email address, or address book nickname, that you want to receive a copy of the message (CC stands for Carbon Copy.)

Note: The person in the To field will be able to see the email address you have entered in the CC field, and they will know a copy of the message has been sent to it. The BCC field is the same as the CC field except the recipients do not see the addresses in the BCC field and are therefore unaware a copy has been sent, or the addresses the copies have been sent to (BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy.) The Subject field is where you will want to enter a brief description of the message. Next you can assign the message a priority, low, normal, or high. This is only useful if the recipients mail client supports priorities and the recipient actually pays more attention to a high priority message. If you wish to receive a notification when the recipient reads your message you can check off the box beside On Read.

If you wish to receive a notification when your message reaches your recipients mail server you can check off the box beside On Delivery. Note: not all mail servers support delivery notification. Not all mail clients support read receipts, and most clients that do support read receipts give the recipient the option of not sending one. If you want to save the message you are working on without sending it click the Save Drafts button. This will save your message and move it to the Drafts folder, without sending it. If you want to spell check at any time you can click the Check Spelling button. If you wish to attach a file to your message click the Browse button on the bottom of the window and find the file. Then click the Add button. When you are done writing your message and wish to send it, click the Send button.

The address book allows you to store email addresses. To create an entry click the Addresses link at the top of the window. Then you will need to select a Nickname for this address book entry. This is a word or name that you can use in the To, CC, or BCC fields when composing a message instead of having to use the full email address. The Nickname must be unique across all your address book entries. The next thing you must fill in is the E-mail address. Without the email address the entry won't work. The last three options, First name, Last name, and Additional info are optional and useful for organizing and searching your address book. When you are done filling in the fields as you wish them to be, click the Add address button.

Folders allow you to sort and organize your messages. They can be used to store both messages you have received as well as messages you have sent. To create a folder click the Folder link at the top of the window. Enter the name of the folder you wish to create and choose which folder you want it under from the drop down menu. Note: folders can only be created under the inbox folder, or folders in the inbox folder. User created folders appear at the bottom of the list on the left.

To manually move a message to a folder select the message by placing a check mark in the box beside it and then choose the folder you want to move it to in the drop down menu in the upper left area of the screen. Then click the Move button.

To forward a message to another email address select the message by placing a check mark in the box beside it and then choose the folder you want to move it to in the drop down menu in the upper left area of the screen. Then click the Move button.

You can personalize AlentusMail by clicking on the Options Link at the top of the window, and then clicking on Personal Information at the top of the left column. Note: after making change on this page you must click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

You can put you full name or a nickname in the Full Name field. This is what people see in the from field when they receive email from you. If you leave this, sendmail will put your email address in the from field.

If you would like people to reply to a different email address than the one you are sending from, you would enter the address in the Reply-To field.

Here is where you enter a custom signature that will appear at the bottom of each email you send from AlentusMail. To active the signature you have entered you have to scroll to the bottom of the page and click Yes beside Use Signature.

Our mail server, like most in the world, runs on GMT (Greenwich Mean Time.) If you would like to view your mail with times and dates relative to where you are you will want to choose your time zone from this pulldown menu.

It is usual to want to denote the original message when you send a message in reply. The next three fields allow you to choose a standard method, or create a custom method.

You can change the way that AlentusMail looks and displays information to you, such as the colors, the language, and other settings. To access these settings click Options at the top of the screen and then Display Preferences from the top of the right column. Note: To finalize any changes you must click the submit button on the bottom of the page.

One of the most dramatic visual changes to AlentusMail you can make is to change the color scheme. From the Themes drop down menu you can choose from over 30 color schemes. You may have to refresh the screen after you submit the changes to see them.

If your native language is not English you should be able to find it in the Language drop down menu. This will change the language of AlentusMail's interface.

These are all available by clicking on Options at the top of the page.

Search based upon given criteria, incoming messages can have different background colors in the message list. This helps to easily distinguish who the messages are from, especially for mailing lists. To set it up click Message Highlighting from the options page. Click New to create a new highlighting rule. Give the rule a name, choose the color you want to change the background to when that rule is applied, then create the rule. To create the rule choose which email field it should apply to from the pulldown menu, and them enter the word, or words you want to match in the Matches field. Click submit and the rule is created.

These settings change the way your folders are displayed and manipulated. From this area you can change setting such as, how often the folder list is refreshed, which folders display a count of unread messages, etc.

The order of the message index can be rearranged and changed to contain the headers in any order you want. From here you can move the columns on the folder pages to the left or right. To move a column to the right click the down link beside it, to move it to the left click the up link beside it.

You can help fight the battle against unsolicited email. AlentusMail offers built in support for SpamCop. SpamCop reads the spam email and determines the correct addresses to send complaints to. Quite fast, really smart, and easy to use. This feature requires a free registration with SpamCop.

Filtering enables messages with different criteria to be automatically filtered into different folders for easier organization. To set it up you need to select where the rule applies to all message or only unread messages from the pull down menu. Then click new. Choose which email field you want to apply the rule to, and the text you want to find, then select the folder you want the message moved to and click Submit.

SPAM filters allow you to select from various DNS based blacklists to detect junk email in your INBOX and move it to another folder (like Trash). To enable, click the edit link at the top of the page and choose which lists you want to use. It suggested you do a little research into any lists you are considering to see if they fit your needs/wants.

Here you may set up how your personal dictionary is stored, edit it, or choose which languages should be available to you when spell-checking.