10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes 4.0

Lesson 7

Creating and Sending Mail

In this lesson, you learn to create mail, address mail, and send your mail messages.

Creating Mail

The most common type of mail message is the memo. Even though the message looks like a memo (it includes To, CC, and Subject lines), you are not limited in terms of the length o f the mail message or the items you can include in a mail message. (For more information on mail, (see Lessons 5 and 6.)

Open your mailbox, and then follow these steps to create a mail message.

In your mailbox database, choose the New Memo tool button. A blank memo like the one in Figure 7.1 appears. Notes automatically fills in your name, the date, and the time.

Quick Memo

You can quickly create a memo from your workspace by choosing the Create, Me mo menu command. Create the memo and click Send, and Notes returns to the workspace.

Click in the To brackets and enter the name(s) of the person(s) to whom you want to send the memo. As you type a name, Notes searches your company’s address book and your personal address book for the letters you’ve typed. If it finds a matc h, Notes fills in the name for you.

Figure 7.1 You start out with a blank memo.

(Optional) Click in the cc (carbon copy) brackets or press the Tab key, and then enter the name(s) of the person(s) to whom you want to send a copy o f the message. Again, Notes fills in names for you if it finds the first letters you enter in either address book.

(Optional) Click in the bcc brackets and enter the name(s) of the person(s) to whom you want to send a blind carbon copy.

In the Subject brackets, enter a word or phrase to use as a title for your message.

In the brackets below the Subject line, enter the message you want to send. When entering the message, follow these guidelines:

Press Enter only when you want to start a new paragraph.

Use the Delete and Backspace keys to edit text as you type.

Address Book

Notes provides address books you can use when sending mail. Your company’s address book is stored on the Notes server and contains the names of all those people attached to the network to whom you can send messages. See the section “Using the Address Book” later in this lesson for details.

When creating a message, you can use the mailbox’s SmartIcons or menu commands to add emphasis to and change the format of text in your memo. (To brush up on using SmartIcons, flip back to Lesson 3.) For example, try som e of these ideas using the appropriate menu commands:

You can cut and paste text within the memo as you would in any word processing document. Simply select the text, choose Edit, Cut, position the insertion point in the desired location, and choose Edit, Paste.
Select any text you want to emphasize and click the Bold SmartIcon or the Italic SmartIcon. (You’ll learn more about formatting text in Lesson 18.)
Print the memo by choosing File, Print and selecting the appropriate options in the File Print dialog box (see Lesson 6 for more information).
Check the spelling by choosing Edit, Check Spelling. (Lesson 21 covers the details of using the Spell Checker.)
Align selected text by clicking one of the Text Align SmartIcons. (If you’re not sure which SmartIcon is which, use the Help description bubbles that you learned abo ut in Lesson 3.)
Indent selected text by clicking one of the Text Indent SmartIcons. (Again, if you’re not sure which SmartIcon is which, use the Help description bubbles.)
Change a list into a bulleted list or a numbered list (respectively) by selecting the text and clicking the appropriate SmartIcon.

Selecting Text

Before you can delete, format, or otherwise manipulate text, you must select it. To do so, place the insertion point to the left of the text you want to select. Then click and drag the mouse over the text to be included, and the text becomes highlighted.

Sending Mail

When you finish creating your mail message and are ready to send it, you can simply click the Send tool button. Notes sends the mail to the recipient’s mailbox. By de fault, Notes saves a copy of your message in the Sent view.

To send mail and file a copy, follow these steps:

Choose the Send And File tool button, and the Folders dialog box appears (see Figure 7.2). From here, you can file the message in an existing folder (proceed to step 2), or you can create a new fol der (skip down to step 3). However, you cannot store the message in the Folders and Views entry.

Figure 7.2 Save your messages in a folder for future reference.

To store the message in an existing folder, select the folder from the list and click OK. Notes saves the message to that folder, and you’re done.
To create a folder, click the Create new folder button. The Create Folder dialog box shown in Figure 7.3 appears.

Figure 7.3 Select a location and enter a name for the new folder.

In the Folder name text box, enter a name for the new folder.
In the Select a location for the new folder list, choose the folder in which you want to place the new folder.
Click OK. Notes creates the folder and adds it to the Folders list in the Folders dialog box.
Select the newly created folder and click OK to store the mail message. Notes returns to the mailbox or workspace.

Two Folders Selected?

If you accidentally select two or more folders in the Folders dialog box, click on any selected folder to deselect it. If Notes prompts you for a password , enter your password to complete the procedure. (If you do not know the appropriate password, see your Notes administrator.)

Using the Address Book

Your Notes administrator most likely keeps up a company address book that you can use to quickly and easily find and address your mail. You may also have your own personal address book you can use. Address books usually appear on the first workspace page. Like your mailbox, the address book is a button with an icon, but its icon has a picture of an open book. The following steps teach you how to use the address book.

Open a new memo by clicking the New Memo tool button. Notes displays a blank memo with your personal heading.
Click the Address tool button, and the Mail Address dialog box appears (see Figure 7.4).

Figure 7.4 Use the address book to see who’s available in your company or domain.

Open the drop-down list in the upper-left corner and choose the address book you want to look through (your company’s address book, your personal book, or another domain’s book, for example). Which books appear in the list depends on how you r Notes administrator configured your mailbox.
In the list of addresses, select one recipient by clicking on his or her name. To select multiple recipients, click to the left of the desired names to display a check mark.
After selecting the recipient(s), choose one of the following buttons:

To Addresses the message to the selected recipients.

cc Sends a carbon copy to each selected recipient.

bcc Sends a blind carbon copy to each selected recipient.

Click OK to close the dialog box. Notes lists the selected names in the memo. Complete the memo, and then send it or send and file it.

More Information?

To find out more information about a selected name in the address list, click the Open button. Notes displays a list of information about the person, s uch as his or her work title, department, and office phone number (and perhaps even the person’s home address and phone number). The Notes administrator determines which additional information is included. Click Close to < /I>return to the Mail Address dialog box.

In this lesson, you learned to send mail, file your mail for future reference, and use the address book. In the next lesson, you’ll learn to change mail options.