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Contents
General Information
As of Thursday 9/14/06 CCIL changed to SquirrelMail
I highly recommend that you immediately improve the drab appearance by selecting a more
pleasing display font.
- click on Options
- click on Display Preferences
- find the subheading Custom Stylesheet
- select "comic-sans-12">
- click on the Submit button
(While in Display Preferences you'll see Themes also - you may want to try some of them.)
Composing an email
SquirrelMail comes to us set up so that you must save the email that you are composing before going anywhere else
in SquirrelMail. That is, you must remember to click on the Save Draft button. If you should forget to do
that your new email is GONE. If you do save your email as a draft, when you want to continue writing that
email you have to find it in INBOX.Drafts, reopen it, etc
Instead I highly recommend that you select the option to compose new emails in a new
window. This way you can go look something up in another email, such as the date of the Chili Cookoff, without
losing everything that you've written so far.
I don't know why this is an option and not the standard compose method.
- click on Options
- click on Display Preferences
- find the subheading Message Display and Composition
- find the option Compose Messaages in a New Window
- click on Yes
- click on the Submit button
Consolidating Folders
Depending on which IMP Wenmail folders you were using and whether or not you had created your own email storage
folders system, you probably have at least one and possibly many folders to consolidate.
For example, most users had some emails saved in an IMP Webmail folder named "sent_mail'
SquirrelMail saves email in a folder named "Inbox.Sent"
To move the email in "sent_mail" to Inbox.Sent, one at a time,
- put a checkmark in the checkbox next to the email
- go to the top of the screen and select "Inbox.Sent" from the drop-down selection box
- click the Move button.
(It's somewhat confusing that the Forward button is right there also, but that has nothing to do with
moving the email)
- Look in Inbox.Sent to confirm that it's now there.
To move emails in "sent_mail" to Inbox.Sent, all at once
(I recommend moving only one email first to see how it works)
- click "Show All" at either the top or bottom of your screen
- click "Toggle All" to checkmark all of them
- go to the top of the screen and select "Inbox.Sent" from the drop down selection box
- click the Move button.
- Look in Inbox.Sent to confirm that they are all now there.
Now you can remove the old "sent_mail" folder
- click on Folders at the top of the screen
- use Delete Folder (it's the third task down).
Deleting and Purging Email
When you click on Delete to put an email into the trash the Inbox.Trash folder changes to Inbox.Trash(Purge)
Click on Purge to empty the trash. Seems simple enough, however:
1) The Folders column displays the status of the folders the last time Squirrelmail checked the mail server.
You have to click on Check Mail so that SquirrelMail can see that there is now some trash in the Trash folder.
Check Mail is at he top of the Folders column.
2) You might not notice that Inbox.Trash has changed to Inbox.Trash(Purge) because the Folders column is too
narrow to show it. Move the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the column so you can see all of Inbox.Trash(Purge)
New users often say 'It didn't work - the trash is still there'. For some reason the developers didn't expect you to be looking at the INBOX.Trash screen so no, the screen doesn't refresh (change to show that it's now empty). If you go elsewhere,
like to your INBOX, and come back again you'll see that INBOX.Trash actually IS empty.
If you have a lot of emails to delete it will go faster if you either
a) delete a page at a time (15) by clicking
"Toggle All" to select (checkmark) all of them then click "Delete" or
b) delete all of them at once by clicking "Show All" then "Toggle All" then "Delete"
Folders and Subfolders
Squirrelmail has four folders that always appear: INBOX, INBOX.Drafts, INBOX.Sent, and INBOX.Trash
(Actually you can individually change or turn off any of the last three)
For more storage flexibility you can create your own set of folders or create your own set of what SquirrelMail
calls folders and subfolders.
(I don't believe IMP Webmail offered the option of creating subfolders at least in the version CCIL was using but I can't recall for sure and I could wrong)
- To make your own set of folders
This is easy to do, very useful, and quite likely to be all you'll need.
- Click on Folders at the top of the screen
- Under Create Folder enter the names of as many folders as you want, clicking the Create button
after each name.
- To make a set folders and subfolders ( you could also visualize this as making a set of dividers/subheaders and folders )
- Click on Folders at the top of the screen
- Before continuing you need to think about how you're going to set this up
- Under Create Folder enter the name of your first folder (aka divider, subheader)
- checkmark Let this folder contain subfolders
- click the Create button
- Then go through this again entering the names of your subfolders
but this time do select the name of your folder but do not checkmark
"Let this folder contain subfolders"
Repeat this cycle for as many folders with subfolders as you need.
If you're interested ...
Method 1 is actually creating a file in your Debian Linux home directory every time you create a 'folder'.
Method 2 creates a subdirectory in your home directory every time you create "a folder that can contain subfolders"
then creates a file within that subdirectory every time you create a 'subfolder' within that 'folder'.
Forwarding Email
I forwarded an email and it took me awhile to figure out where the original email was. Turns out it was in a file, the file was now an attachment and the attachment was at the bottom of the screen where I couldn't see it without scrolling dowm.
As I recall, IMP Webmail simply displayed the original message when forwarding an email.
SquirrelMail has more than one method which can be confusing.
- You can display a list of emails, such as those in your Inbox, checkmark an email (don't open it), click the Forward button, and get a new, blank email that has the original email as an attachment.
- You can open an individual email then click on either
- Forward (displays the original email as IMP Webmail did) or
- Forward as an attachment
SquirrelMail has an option that hides Forward as an attachment
To change SquirrelMail's "2nd" method of forwarding so that it only forwards email by displaying it (never attaching it),
- click on Options
- click on Display Preferences
- find the subheading Message Display and Composition
- find the option Enable Forward as Attachment
- click on No
- click on the Submit button
At this point you can go to your Inbox, open any individual email, click on Forward, and verify that the original message is now displayed under,
------------------- Original Message -----------------
You would think that ths option would change "both' methods of forwarding but it does not.
Email Size
To display the size of each email:
- Click on Options at the top of the screen.
- Click on the Index Order option.
There's now a list of options in a drop-down box controlling what and where certain information is displayed.
- Select Size and click Add (It's probably the only option left to select)
- btw: The clickable up / down links move an option up or down on this list
What you're really doing is changing the
order that these options will be displayed left to right on the screen during normal operation.
Next time you look at your page of emails you'll see that the individual sizes are now shown.
Email Order
Email can be displayed by Date, by who it's From, or by Subject. Whichever is in use is indicated by a triangle that is pointing either up or down.
- Click on the box to the right of Date to order by date.
- Click until triangle points up for for newest emails shown first.
- Click until triangle points down for for oldest emails shown first.
- Click on the box to the right of From to order by who sent it. It's probably more useful that the emails are now grouped by sender than whether they are ascending or descending but triangle up/down still controls that.
- Click on the box to the right of Subject to order by subject. It's probably more useful that the emails are now grouped by subject than whether they are ascending or descending but triangle up/down still controls that.
Unsubscribe/Subscribe
You have your own account on a Linux server at West Chester University under your username.
Let's say you are 'jsmith' as an example.
Among the many files and directories that were created for 'jsmith' is a home directory where all the files that you might need to use yourself are initially located. You may not recognize some or all of these files but they are yours.
Normally SquirrelMail will only display the folders you are 'subscribed' to and knows which ones those are because you created them using SquirrelMail. However CCIL changed to SquirrelMail from another web-based mail access program which already had files of it's own. In this case SquirrelMail has to be told which files to display.
(The files that SquirrelMail always displays - INBOX.Drafts, INBOX.Sent, INBOX.Trash - are not
shown under Unsubscribe/Subscribe probably because S/M doesn't consider them as optional.)
If you see a folder that you recognize as a mail folder, subscribe to it so you can see what's in it.
I have explain that last sentence further and it's a little tricky.
On the other hand, all it says in the next 13 lines is:
Subscribe to anything that could be or could contain email.
Then unsubscribe anything that turned out not to be email or email related.
So don't let it rattle you.
If you see 'mail' plus other names like 'mail/sent_mail' then mail is a folder containing subfolders - subscribe to all
of them.
You may have to look at the whole list because they may not be all grouped together.
If you only see 'mail' then that may be
- the name of a folder or
- the name of a file or
- the name of a folder of folders that is empty or
- none of the above
The good news is - it doesn't matter, subscribe to it and you'll be able to see what it is.
If you see an unhelpful name like 'blue' then there's no telling what it is.
Again, subscribe to it and you'll be able to see what it is.
If it's not emailed related it will probably display "This is not mbox format"
To add folders to your 'subscribed' list:
- Click 'Folders' link, at top of the page.
- Scroll down to the 'Unsubscribe/Subscribe' section.
- From the right-hand list, select the folders you require.
- Click the 'Subscribe' button.
If you don't want a folder anymore because you emptied it, or found that it's already empty,
or whatever, I'd suggest that you unsubscribe it rather than use the 'Delete Folder' operation.
As discussed above, it can be difficult to tell a folder from a folder_of_folders and if you try to delete the wrong one
with SquirrelMail you get a messy error message.
To be safe, only use 'Delete Folder' to remove folders that you created with SquirrelMail.
If SquirrelMail is displaying a folder it shouldn't or a folder that you brought over needs to go back
then unsubscribe it.
To remove folders from your 'subscribed' list:
- From the left-hand list, select the folders you require.
- Click the 'Unsubscribe' button.
Once this is working you can consoliate any duplicated folders. See the "Consolidating Folders" section.
"Take Address" button
At the bottom of every email that you open in SquirrelMail is a button with the odd label "Take Address".
If you would like to add the sender's email address to your address book, click here and the 'add an address'
screen of your address book will pop up with this address already filled in and ready for you to complete.
- put a checkmark in the checkbox next to the email
- go to the top of the screen and select "Inbox.Sent" from the drop-down selection box
- click the Move button.
(It's somewhat confusing that the Forward button is right there also, but that has nothing to do with
moving the email)
- Look in Inbox.Sent to confirm that it's now there.
"This page cannot be displayed" error
This is a common IE error message resulting from various problems.
There is a Squirrelmail bulletin http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/WindowsDynamicDNS saying that if you are getting
a "Page cannot be displayed" error and are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer then you need to change a setting that
controls the way IE does DNS."
(Unfortunately, after adding this information, we've since heard that this change did
not help several users who were getting this error message)
With Windows clients and a Linux server, you need to disable the dynamic DNS that Microsoft uses by doing this:"
For Windows 2000
- Right-click on "My Network Places".
- Choose Properties.
- Right-click on "Local Area Connection" or "Wireless Network Connection" if wireless
- Choose Properties.
- Highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
- Click on the Properties button.
- Click the "Advanced" button.
- Select the DNS tab.
- Uncheck the box "Register this connection's addresses in DNS".
- Close all those boxes and reboot.
For Windows XP
- Click Start
- Hold cursor over "Control Panel"
- when a list pops up hold cursor over "Network Connections"
- when a 'list' pops up click on "Local Area Connection" or "Wireless Network Connection" if wireless
- Choose Properties.
- Highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
- Click on the Properties button.
- Click the "Advanced" button.
- Select the DNS tab.
- Uncheck the box "Register this connection's addresses in DNS".
- Close all those boxes and reboot.
For Windows Vista (for wireless - I'm sure non-wireless is very similar)
- Click Start
- Click "Control Panel"
- Under "Network & Internet" are two links that bypass the full set of choices.
Click on "View Network Status & Tasks"
- There should be a line,
Connection - Wireless Network Connection - View Status
Click on View Status.
- A box titled 'Wireless Connection Status' opens. Click on "Properties" at the bottom (not Wireless Properties).
- A box titled 'WirelessConnection Status' opens. Highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IPv4)
- Click on the Properties button.
- Click the "Advanced" button.
- Select the DNS tab.
- Uncheck the box "Register this connection's addresses in DNS".
- Close all those boxes and reboot.
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