Getting started with SquirrelMail webmail
Introduction
SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP. SquirrelMail has all the functionality you would want from an email client, including strong MIME support, address books, and folder manipulation.
Login
- Enter your username in the name field (if in doubt: <username>@<your.domain>).
- Enter your password in the password field. Your password will show up as asterisks.
- Press the "Login" button.
Setting preferences
From any SquirrelMail window, you can select "Options" at the top of the screen, to review or edit your user preferences.
Options available are:
- Personal information
- Message highlighting
- Index order
- Display preferences
- Folder preferences
Personal information
Name and Address Options (all fields are optional)
Full Name
Enter your name. This will be used to identify you in outgoing email.
Email Address
Enter your email address. Email you send will show this address in the FROM: line.
Reply To
Enter the email address you would like people to reply to. Most email clients will use this email address instead of the "From" address when replying to mail you send.
Signature
If you would like to include a short message or "signature" at the bottom of your emails, you can type it here.
Multiple Identities
If you like to have multiple email addresses, signatures or names, you can enter them here, or select an already created identity.
Your Current Timezone
Email usually includes a timestamp that tells the receiver when you sent it. If you select your timezone here, the timestamp will be more accurate. If not, the server's time zone is used.
Display Preferences
General Display Options
Theme
Different color schemes are available. Themes with "(Changes)" after their name may have a different color each time you log in.
Custom Stylesheet
Select a stylesheet to use a different size font. The administrator may install special style sheets that further modify appearance.
Language
Select a different language to allow the reading and writing of emails in that language. For example, to have Japanese emails display properly, one must set this to Japanese.
Use JavaScript
Autodetect
Detect if the web browser supports JavaScript.
Always
Assume that JavaScript is supported.
Never
Use plain HTML.
Mailbox Display Options
Number of Messages to Index
The number of messages to show per page.
Enable Alternating Row Colors
Show every other message with a different color.
Enable Page Selector
Show page numbers that let you go straight to a specific page.
Maximum Number of Pages to Show
How many page numbers to show? If there are too many pages, then they will be split like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 17 18 19 20.
Message highlighting
From almost any window, select "Options" from the menu at top. From the resulting page, select "Message Highlighting". (Windows style: Select Options -> Message Highlighting)
From this window, you can do these things:
Create a new highlight
Choose a scheme for highlighting messages that match a particular pattern (see below).
- Choose: Options -> Message Highlighting
- Choose: New
- Assign a name to your new highlight style
- Select a color for your highlight style
- Select a criterion for the highlighted message. The criterion matches if the string is contained within the specified field, e.g. highlighting all messages coming from domain "foo.bar" would be done by selecting "from" within the combobox and then typing "@foo.bar" into the pattern field. The match is case-insensitive, and will match a header containing the search string anywhere within it.
Edit an existing highlight
Make changes to a given highlight style.
Delete an existing hightlight
Remove an existing highlight style from the set.
Reading Email
Click on a folder on the folder bar to display a list of messages in that folder.
Unread messages cause the folder name to be bold. Once the folder is clicked on, those unread messages are bold in the folder view. Click on the subject to read the message.
A bar containing three fields (From, Date, and Subject) is next. These headings separate the message table into logical parts. From tells you who sent you the message, or at least what email address it came from. Date shows the day which the email was sent. Subject displays what the sender entered as the subject. Note: Between the Date and Subject columns is a small column that is unlabeled. There could be a "+", "!" or an "A" in there. If you see the "+", that means that the message has attachments; if you see the "A", that means that you have answered the message, and if you see the "!", then the message was marked as urgent!
Reading attachments
If an email contains an attachment, it will be listed at the bottom of the email when you are reading a message.
Depending on how your web browser is set up, it may know how to open various types of attachments.
In order to view attachments, you must have a program that can open that type of file.
Sending Emails
To send a new message, click on the compose link on the top of the screen. To reply, click on reply or reply All on the top right of the message.
The address link will allow you to add addresses to the To: CC: or BCC: fields from your address book.
A drop-down box exists for selecting the priority of the message, and Rcpt check boxes are there for openning and receiving of the email confirmations.
Depending on your option configuration, Sent messages may be stored in the sent message folder, or they may be cc'ed to an address you specify.
Attaching documents
To send an attachment, you must be composing a message.
At the bottom of the compose window, there should be a form field labeled Attach with a Browse and an Add button next to it.
Click the Browse button. Locate the file on your computer that you want to attach. Select it (single click) and click OK or Open.
The should now contain the location of the file, as well as the file's name. Click Add to transfer the file to the SquirrelMail server.
The file's name should now be listed at the bottom of the compose screen, with a checkbox next to it. The other information listed is the MIME type and the file size in parenthesis.
You can add as many attachments to a message as you want. However, the files should have different names. SquirrelMail will allow you to send a message containing multiple attachments with the same name, but when the recipient saves them, they may accidentally overwrite one with another.
If you want to remove one or more attachments from your message, check the checkbox next to the attachment(s) you wish to delete and press the 'Delete select attachments' button.
Attachment compatibility and size
SquirrelMail sends your attachments in the industry standard MIME format. However, this does nothing to ensure that the person you are sending the file to can read the type of file you are sending. For example, if the file you are sending is a Micorosoft Word 2000 document, and the recipient does not have a program that can open Microsoft Word 2000 documents, the receipient will not be able to view your attachment.
We recommend sending word processing documents in Rich Text Format, spreadsheets in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format, and images in either JPEG or PNG unless you are absolutely sure that the person on the other end has the appropriate software to handle your files.
You should also be mindful of the size in Kilobytes of your attachments. Images, and word processing documents with images in them can get deceptively large. The size of each of your attachments is listed in parenthesis by its name at the bottom of the compose screen.
When the recipient receives your message, their email program will attempt to download the message from the mail server to their computer. If you have a message with attachments totalling 1 megabyte (1,024 kilobytes), then the message will take about 8 minutes to transfer over a 56Kb modem. Since many email programs do not appear to be doing anything when downloading large messages, your receipient may think that their computer has crashed while it is downloading your message! Then they may restart their computer and try all over again with the same results.
Because of this potential situation, you may want to warn the recipient ahead of time, either via a phone call or a smaller email sent ahead of time, if you intend to send them a large attachment.
Spam training
The supported spam filter for the (gs) Grid-Service is MailProtect. However, SquirrelMail also offers spam software that allows you to train its filter by marking individual messages.
Once you log into SquirrelMail, you can select spam messages, then click the Spam button here:
There is a similar Not Spam button if you are in your Spam folder and want to mark a message as not spam.
If a message is open, you also have a Spam button in the list of Options:
Once you've filtered a decent sample of messages (generally 100 or more for best results), you should see your spam filtering be more tailored to your personal desires.