Messenger Express FAQ (Part 1)
This week's topic is WOU's web email system, Messenger Express. There's a lot to cover; this week's FAQ is just part one. Advanced users, please bear with me; you probably already know this stuff, but you may find some useful tidbits in here anyway.
Note: Messenger Express has been renamed "Communications Express", but the instructions in this FAQ still apply.
What is Messenger Express?
Messenger Express is a web-based email client. This means that it is a website that is connected to the WOU email system in such a way that you can use it to log in and work with your mail. In general terms, it is similar to large commercial web-based email services like Hotmail and Yahoo Mail; however, the specifics are quite different.
Messenger Express is the only email client that UCS supports. Due to our limited time and resources, we simply cannot train help desk personnel and techs in the wide variety of email programs that exist. You can use another email program if you want, but you assume the full responsibility if anything goes wrong.
What do I need in order to use it?
You need a wou.edu email account; if you have set your official contact email address to be an off-campus account, Messenger Express will not work for you. Also, you need to use Internet Explorer as your web browser. Other browsers work partially, but anything more advanced than simple reading of email may fail in unexpected ways with any browser besides Internet Explorer. In particular, AOL's browser should be avoided completely. Also, you need to make sure your browser is up-to-date.
If you are on a Mac, IE might not be the best browser choice; if you have at least OS X 10.3, you should use the Safari browser. If your MacOS is older than that, you should use the latest version of IE available for your OS version. For OS 9 and under, that is 5.1.7; for OS X, it is 5.2.3. Note that on OS 9 Macs, some features of Messenger Express will not work properly no matter what browser you use.
Unlike conventional email programs, the speed of your machine can seriously affect the performance of Messenger Express. This may seem odd, considering that Messenger Express is really just a fancy set of web pages; however, those pages rely heavily on the Javascript programming language, which runs on your own computer instead of on the server from which the page was downloaded. If your Internet connection is slow, this will also adversely affect your use of Messenger Express.
This may seem like a lot of drawbacks, but remember that Messenger Express is free and can be used anywhere the Internet reaches.
How do I start using it?
Go to "http://mail.wou.edu/". Log in with your normal on-campus username and password, and after a few seconds you should see the main Messenger Express page. I'll start off with a quick tour of this page; please bear with it even if you are familiar with the system, because I'll be defining some terms that will be used later in these instructions.
At the top of the page should the title "iPlanet Messenger Express", a welcome message, and (to the far right) the help and logout buttons.
Below this is a series of tabs, labeled Folders, Inbox, Sent, Trash, Drafts, Addresses, and Options. The Inbox tab should be a slightly different color to indicate that you are currently on that page. These tabs are important; when these instructions tell you to go to a tab, that means you should click on that tab. This will take you to a different page within Messenger Express, and that tab will be highlighted to indicate which page you are on.
Below the tabs is a line of text indicating your email address and the current folder you are viewing; it will be "Inbox" at first. Below that is a toolbar containing several menus and buttons; we will get to those later, just remember that this is what I mean when I tell you to go to the toolbar.
Next is a list of messages. Each message has a checkbox to its left; these checkboxes are important. When these instructions say to "select a message" you should click the checkbox next to that message. Below the messages are three buttons: Select All (which marks the checkbox next to every message currently on the page), Deselect All (which clears all the checkboxes), and Get External Mail (which will be covered later.)
Finally at the very bottom of the page is a status bar. Starting at the left, you will see a back button, a menu that lets you jump to different groups of messages, a forward button, and a line of text describing how many messages are in this folder, how much total space your mail is taking up, and how many total messages you have.
Hopefully that all made sense. There's one important point I should mention: when you are in Messenger Express, only use the buttons and controls within the Messenger Express web pages to move around. Don't use the browser's back button or try to bookmark any page except the login page; that can quickly get the system messed up, so you will have to log out and back in again before it will work correctly.
How do I read a message?
In the list of messages, find the message you want to read and click on its subject line; that message will appear so you can read it. If the message has any attachments, they will appear as links just above the main body of the message. Remember, don't click on attachments unless you were expecting them; some viruses still occasionally slip past PureMessage, and they can pretend to be from people you know even if they come from somewhere else entirely!
I have so many messages in my Inbox that they don't all show up. How do I get to a message that isn't showing?
Go down to the status bar as the bottom of the page. You can use the previous and next buttons to move from one screenful of messages to another; the menu between them is also useful, especially if you have several screenfuls of messages. You can make things a bit easier on yourself by setting up some folders instead of leaving everything in your Inbox.
All right, how do I set up folders?
Click the Folders tab; now instead of a list of messages, you will see a list of folders. Next to each folder, instead of a checkbox, you will see a radio button; the only difference between the checkboxes and radio buttons is that only one radio button can be selected at a time. Make sure the topmost radio button (next to "Personal Folders") is clicked. In these instructions, when I say to "select a folder" you should click its radio button.
If you are a new user, you will only see a few folders underneath Personal Folders: Inbox, Drafts, Sent and Trash. To create a new folder, click the New button in the toolbar (notice that the toolbar changed when you changed to the Folder tab.)
A box will pop up asking you the folder name; type one in and hit OK. Note that you are not allowed to put any slashes into the folder name. Now you should see that folder in the list of folders. If you want to rename a folder, select it, then hit the Rename button. Likewise, to delete a folder, select it and hit the Delete button.
You can create folders within other folders; just select a folder and then hit New, and the new folder will be created inside the selected folder. It will appear below it and slightly indented, to indicate that it is inside it. You can move a folder into a different folder by selecting it and then choosing a destination from the "Move selected folder to:" menu.
So now I have some folders created; what do I do with them?
Click the Inbox tab to go back to your Inbox. Now select (remember, that means "click the checkbox next to") a message. Actually, go ahead and select several messages; since these are checkboxes, you can click several of them. Now that you have some messages selected, choose one of your newly created folders in the "Move messages to folder:" menu; the messages will vanish from the Inbox. Use the "Select Folder:" menu on the left side of the toolbar to change to that folder and verify that your messages are there.
Note that when you are viewing a message, there is a "Move message to:" menu that will move that particular message to a different folder.
How do I delete a message?
Select it and click Delete in the toolbar. The message will be moved to the trash folder; every so often, you should go to the Folders tab and click the "Empty Trash" button next to the Trash folder. If you don't see the button there, it means there are no messages to delete. You can set up Messenger Express to automatically empty the trash when you log out; this and many other options will be covered in the next installment of this FAQ
How do I send a message?
In the toolbar, click the Compose button. If you don't see that button, or don't see the toolbar, you're probably in a different tab; click the Inbox tab to get the toolbar back. The Compose button will open up a separate window with its own toolbar. Below that toolbar is a To: text box; here you type in the address you wish to send mail to. If you want to send to multiple addresses, type them all into that same text box, separated by commas. There are also text boxes for addresses to CC and BCC the message to.
Below that is a text box for the subject line, and of course a place to type in the body of the message. Below that is a checkbox to tell Messenger Express to check the spelling of your message when you send it. Note that on some computers, you may have to drag the Compose window higher up on your screen, or even resize it, to see the options below the body section.
Below the spelling check line are options for message priority and return receipts, and below that are buttons to send the message, cancel composition, and get help.
How do I use the address book?
That will have to wait until Part 2 of this FAQ. Next week's FAQ will cover use of the address book, attaching files, using formatted text and links, and more!
If you have anything about Messenger Express you would particularly like to see covered in the next part, please email me at faq@wou.edu!