To access the E-mail Center click on the e-mail icon in the upper right corner of the MyFAU window. If you have the e-mail channel displayed on your main MyFAU tab, you can also get into e-mail by clicking on the “more …” near the bottom of that channel.
Note that if you have pop-up windows blocked, then nothing will happen when you click the mail icon. You will need to set your web browser to allow pop-ups from MyFAU or press the Control key when you click on the icon.
The default mailbox contains the following folders.
- Inbox: all messages that have been sent to your account.
- Drafts: all messages you composed, didn’t send, and saved as drafts.
- Sent: copies of all messages you have sent (if you selected the option to keep copies of all messages you send)
- Deleted: messages you have deleted (if you selected option for deleted messages to go to folder instead of being immediately deleted)
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To begin to send a message, make sure you’re on the E-mail tab and then click the compose icon. A new window will open for composing your message.
Enter the recipient’s e-mail address in the To: field. If the recipient”s e-mail address is an FAU account you can type just the account name (what precedes the “@fau.edu”). If you are sending to multiple e-mail addresses, separate each with a comma only, no spaces. In the following example notice the FAU e-mail account jsmith is not followed by @fau.edu.
EXAMPLE: janedoe@att.net,johndoe@aol.com,jsmith
Enter the text of your message in the Enter message field.
To check the spelling of your message, click the Spell Check button at the bottom of the window.
If you want to quit working on the message but save it for later, click the Save a Draft button. The message will be saved, as is, in the Drafts folder. Clicking Cancel does not save a draft or prompt you to save one; it simply cancels the message and whatever you entered will be lost.
When you are done with the message, click Send and the message will be on its way.
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MyFAU has an internal address book of everyone who has an e-mail account at MyFAU. If you would prefer that people not be able to look you up in that directory, you can set the systemn to exclude your information from the search capability. To opt out of the MyFAU directory,
- Log into MyFAU and click the e-mail icon.
- Select the Options tab, which will show you the numerous types of options.
- Select Address Book Preferences which allows you to set the number of contacts displayed at one time in your address book and also, at the bottom of the window, to select if you want to be included or excluded from the global address book.
- Click the checkbox next to Exclude me in Directory Search.
Once you've checked that box people will not be able to find you in the address book. If you later want to be in the directory, just remove the checkmark by clicking the box again.
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To find the e-mail address of someone at FAU, follow these steps:
- Log into MyFAU and click the e-mail icon.
- Click the Compose E-mail icon.
- At the top of the window is the "TO" field, and to the right of that is a button labeled Address. Click the Address button.
- The Address window will open. Click on the dropdown box labeled "Address Source" and select "MyFAU E-Mail Directory."
- Enter the name you are searching for in the Search text box, and then click the Search button. All the names and e-mail addresses that match your criteria will be displayed.
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In MyFAU you can attach up to 7 files to a message and then total attachment size can be no larger than 10 MB.
Attaching a file to a MyFAU e-mail is a simple 2-step process – you indicate what file you want to attach and then you attach it:
- Click the Attach button in the bottom left corner of the Compose window.
- To enter the file name in the first field, browse for the file by clicking the Browse button. Once you’ve found the file and clicked OK, the file name will be entered in the field.
- Click the Attach button to attach the file.
- If you made a mistake and want to remove an attachment select the file name on the right side of your screen and click on the Remove button beneath.
- When you have finished attaching files click on OK to return to the Compose window or click on Cancel if you have decided not to attach any files.
- The names of the files you’ve attached will be displayed below your message’s text.
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You can create a signature that can be appended to all your outgoing messages automatically or that can be manually added to messages as you wish. To use a signature, you first need to create a signature file and then set how and when you want it to be used.
- Select the Options tab.
- From the list of options, click on Signature which is the last option in the right column. The Signature window will open so you can create or edit your signature information.
- Type your signature. It is best to keep it short and simple, entering only the basic information so your recipients will know who you are and how to reach you.
- Do you want the signature added to all your outgoing messages? If yes, then check the box before “Add signature to all messages by default.” Note that signature is added when the message is being sent, so you won’t see it in your message as you compose. If you prefer to add the signature only to individual messages, leave the box blank.
- To add a signature to individual messages, compose the message as described above, but click the Add signature checkbox below the message entry box.
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Reading your e-mail in MyFAU is probably the easiest thing to do with e-mail. The subject line will be highlighted like a hyperlink. Click once on it and the message text will display in the section below the list of messages.
You can resize the window to make reading messages easier just as you would resize any window in other applications: placing your cursor on an outside corner allows you to stretch the window horizontally and vertically at the same time; placing the cursor on the upper or lower edge of the window lets you stretch the window vertically; and placing the cursor on the right or left outside edge of the window lets you stretch the window horizontally.
Increasing the size of the window does not allow you to increase the amount of the subject line. Unfortunately the subject line is truncated by the system for display in small windows.
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Once you are reading a message (its text is displayed in the bottom half of the window), you can elect to reply to it or forward it.
Replying
Clicking on Reply while you are reading a message will bring up the compose window with the text of the message already in it. The subject line will be the same as the original, but will have RE: at the beginning. The message will be addressed to the person who sent the original message.
You can then continue with the message as you would any other message that you are sending. You can also add other recipients by entering their e-mail address in the to, cc, or bcc fields.
Reply All
Clicking on Reply All while you’re reading a message also brings up the compose window as described above, but there’s an important difference: all recipients of the original message will receive your reply. The sender of the original message will be in the to field, and the recipients of the message will be in the cc field.
Use Reply All very carefully. Consider first if everyone needs to see the reply or if it’s appropriate for them to see it.
Forwarding
Clicking on Forward while you are reading a message will bring up the compose window with the text of the message already in it. The subject line will be the same as the original, but will have FWD at the beginning. You can then add your own message either before or after the forwarded text.
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Setting Delete Options
You have two options for how messages are handled when you select them and click the Delete button:
- Message is moved to a deleted folder and stays there until you empty the folder, at which time the messages are actually deleted (removed from the server).
- Messages are deleted (removed from the server) as soon as you click Delete.
You set this behavior via the Options tab in the Display Settings option. Click the radio button to the left of Send to ‘Deleted’ folder if you do not want your messages immediately deleted. Click the button to the left of Delete from system if you want your messages immediately deleted when you click Delete.
The advantage to sending deleted messages to the Deleted folder is that you have a chance to change your mind about deleting messages. The disadvantage is that messages in the Deleted folder still count against your quota.
Deleting One Message
- To delete a message, select it by clicking in the box to the left of the message, and then click the Delete icon.
Deleting Several Messages
- To delete more than one message, click in the box to the left of each message you want deleted and then click the Delete icon.
Deleting All Displayed Messages
- To delete all the messages in that view (all the messages listed in the pane), first click the box for Select all Displayed Messages which will enter a checkbox for each message. Then click Delete to delete them all.
Emptying the Deleted Folder
You can use any of the options listed above (delete one, several, or all) to select the messages to delete. Then click the Delete icon. At that point the messages are removed from the server.
Note to Outlook Users: If you usually use Outlook to read your mail, if you delete messages from MyFAU that haven’t been delivered to your Outlook Inbox yet, the messages are removed from the server and will not be delivered to your Outlook.
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If you get and keep a lot of mail, it’s a good idea to create some folders so you can sort the messages and find them more easily. In the MyFAU mail center window, the left column is labeled Folders. By default you will have the following folders:
- INBOX
- Deleted
- Drafts
- Search Results
- Sent
To organize your mail you’ll first need to add new folders, and then move your messages to the appropriate folder.
Adding E-Mail Folders
- In the Folders section of the mail center, click the Add link. A new window will open for adding e-mail folders. You’ll need to indicate a name for the folder and where you want the folder placed (such as a subfolder to another folder).
- Enter a name for the new folder in the text box provided. (When you name the folder, you might want to keep in mind that folders are sorted alphabetically.)
- Select the new folder’s location by clicking on the name of the folder where you want the new folder to be. If you want the new folder to appear when you log into the e-mail center, click on Florida Atlantic University Mail.
- Once you have entered a name and indicated a location for the new folder, click the OK button. The new folder should now be listed in the folder list. Click the Done button if you don’t want to create any more new folders.
Moving Messages to a Folder
- Select the message you want to move to a folder by clicking in the box to the left of it. You can move more than one message at a time, to the same folder, by selecting multiple messages.
- Click the Move icon (near the top of the window, below the row of tabs). A new window will open for selecting the destination.
- Select the destination folder by clicking on it and then clicking the OK button and the message will be moved to the destination folder.
Deleting E-Mail Folders
- In the Folders section of the mail center, click the Delete link. A new window will open for deleting e-mail folders.
- Indicate the folder you want to delete by clicking on its name. Note that you cannot delete any of the default folders (INBOX, Deleted, etc.).
- Once you’ve selected the folder to delete, click the OK button. If you try to delete a folder that has messages in it, you will receive a prompt asking if you want to continue with the delete. The messages in the folder will be deleted along with the folder.
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When you log into MyFAU and access e-mail, the system will automatically retrieve any new messages sent to your account since your last login. To retrieve messages that have been sent while you are logged in, click the Get Mail icon in the upper left corner of the e-mail window.
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You can set all your FAU mail to go to another account, although there are some caveats:
- A growing number of Internet service providers (ISPs) scan incoming mail to their users to see if any one source is sending many messages to their users, because that is a classic sign of spam. When they see that happening, they block the incoming mail. Many universities, including FAU, now have their e-mail blocked from AOL and Hotmail, possibly Yahoo. That means if you forward your mail to such an account, you most likely will either never get the mail or it will be seriously delayed. Since the University is now relying on e-mail to communicate with its students, faculty, and staff, it’s important that you get and read your FAU mail.
- If you have a problem with receipt of a message that was forwarded to another account, IRM can’t do much in troubleshooting since once the message leaves its servers toward the outside account, we can’t track it.
- It can be very useful to keep personal mail separate from work, school, or research mail since it is easier to search.
If despite all the above you want to forward your mail, just follow these simple steps:
- Start the e-mail client in MyFAU.
- Select the Options tab.
- Click on Auto Forward.
- A new window will open with a text entry box labeled Auto Forward to: where you can enter the e-mail address to which you want to forward your mail.
- Once you’re entered the forwarding address click the OK button. Any mail sent to your FAU e-mail account will be forwarded to the other account and you will not see any new mail in your MyFAU e-mail inbox
Note that you can forward mail to only one mail account.
To stop the mail forwarding, follow the same process for setting up forwarding but remove the e-mail address from the text entry box.
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Auto Reply is usually used when a person will be out of the office or away from e-mail for an extended period of time. Once auto reply is on, when a message comes in a reply message, which the individual user creates, will be sent to the sender. The system keeps track of who has already received the auto reply, so that a sender will get only one auto reply (rather than one in reply to each message sent).
To set up auto reply, follow these steps:
- From the MyFAU e-mail window, select the Options tab.
- Select the Auto Reply option.
- Enter the date and time when you want auto reply to take effect. Note that the time you enter must be at least one hour beyond the current time.
- Enter the date and time when you want auto reply to stop.
- Enter the text of your message.
- If you have a signature already set up and you want it added to the auto reply, click the Attach Signature button (unlike when sending a message, after you click the button you will see the signature in the text box).
- Once you have entered all the fields, click the check box labeled Enable Auto Reply above the message text box. Auto reply will not be turned on until this checkbox is filled.
- Click the OK button to put all the auto reply options into effect.
You can at any time change any of these auto reply settings (change the time, the text of the message, etc.), even if auto reply is enabled.
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Mail filters in MyFAU give you a way of automatically sorting incoming mail into separate folders in your inbox. You can identify message to sort based on who the message is from, who the message is sent to (the To and CC fields), and/or the subject line.
Setting Up Filters
- Within the MyFAU e-mail client select the Options tab.
- Click on the Filters option (top of right column). The filters window will open. If you already have any filters they will be displayed.
- Click the Create Filter button. The Create/Edit Filter window will open. Use this window to enter the criteria for identifying messages to be moved to a folder. Enter the text you want matched in the From, To/CC, and/or Subject fields. You can use all the fields or only one or two. In addition to identifying which fields you want matched, you also need to indicate if the text you are searching on is at the beginning of the field, anywhere within the field, at the end of the field, or not in the field. If you want the matches to match text and case, click in the Match Case check box.
- Now indicate to which folder you want to move the matched messages: click the Choose Folder button. A window will open listing all your folders.
- Click on the folder to which you want to filter the matched messages; the selected folder will be highlighted. To change the folder that is selected, just click on another folder.
- Once you’re satisfied with the folder you have selected, click the OK button. You’ll be returned to the Create/Edit Filter window.
- If you’re satisfied with the options you’ve selected, click the OK button to accept them. You’ll be returned to the filters list, and the newly created filter will be at the bottom.
- Make sure that the Enabled check box is enabled.
- Click the Apply Filters Now button to apply the filters. The system should then go through your e-mail inbox and filter to the selected folder the messages that match the criteria you set. If you have many messages, you will get a status window telling you how many messages have been filtered so far. When filtering is complete, you’ll once again see the filters list.
- Click the OK button to exit the window.
Changing or Deleting Filters
If a filter isn’t working, you can go back to it and revise the match conditions.
- Within the MyFAU e-mail client select the Options tab.
- Click on the Filters option (top of right column). The filters window will open. If you already have any filters they will be displayed.
- Find the filter that you want to revise or delete.
- To delete the filter, click the Delete link at the far right of the filter’s name. You’ll be prompted to confirm you want to delete the filter. If you do, click OK and if you don’t, click Cancel.
- To edit a filter, click the Edit link at the far right of the filter’s name in the filter list. You’ll be presented with the window for setting match criteria and folder for the filter. Make whatever changes are necessary.
- When you have made all the necessary changes, click the OK button.
- You’ll be returned to the filters list; click the Apply Filters Now button to apply the revised filter, then click the OK button.
Filtering Spam at FAU
At FAU, the mail servers do an initial check for spam, and anything that matches set criteria has SPAM: placed at the beginning of the subject line. You can easily set up a spam filter in MyFAU. First, create a folder called SPAM. Then followi the filter instructions above, and when setting up the match conditions, for the subject field select “Begins with” and enter SPAM: in the subject field’s text box.
Once you’ve applied the filter, all mail labeled by the FAU mail servers as potential spam will be filtered to that SPAM folder. You should check it regularly to make sure that legitimate mail hasn’t been mislabeled as spam.
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If you don’t want to receive mail from a particular person or e-mail address, you can set the system so that it won’t deliver the mail to you. The messages are not returned to the sender, which means that the sender doesn’t know the message was blocked. While blocking addresses is one way to deal with spam, because spammers frequently change addresses (often use an address only once), blocking is not the most effective way to avoid spam.
To block mail from a specific address follow these steps:
- In the e-mail center select the Options tab.
- In the list of options, click on Block Addresses. A new window will open.
- Enter the address you want to block in the text box on the left, labeled Address to be Blocked and then click the Block Address button. The address you just entered will then be displayed on the right side of the screen in the box labeled Blocked Addresses.
- To cancel blocking an address, click on the address in the Blocked Addresses box to select it, and then click the Remove button.
- Click the OK button to exit the screen. Clicking the Cancel button will cancel any changes you had made, either adding addresses to be blocked or removing them.
You can also block addresses while you’re viewing a message, by clicking Block Address to the right of the From address.
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Enetering Addresses into the Address Book
You can have access to your address book by either clicking on the Address Book tab or, when you’re composing a message, clicking on the Address button. But before using the address book, you first need to enter addresses into it.
Copying Addresses from Messages
One of the easiest ways to add an FAU e-mail address to the address book is while you are reading the message. Note that the method below works only with FAU e-mail addresses.
- Open a message from the person whose address you want to add.
- In the header of the message (the top section, in gray, where the sender and recipients of the message are listed), click on the address you want in your address book.
- An address book entry will open and the primary e-mail will be populated. If the address you clicked had a display name (the e-mail address you clicked was similar to "Dr. Jane Doe" <janedoe@fau.edu>, that name (Dr. Jane Doe, in this example) will be entered into the display name field. If there was no display name, the e-mail address will be entered into the field.
- Enter any other information in the fields provided.
- After entering all the information you want to enter, click the OK button at the bottom of the window.
Entering Addresses Directly into the Address Book
- Click the Address Book tab.
- To create an entry for an individual, click the New Contact button.
- In the Personal Information section, enter the first and last name. As you move from the first name field to the last name field, whatever you entered as first name will automatically be entered into the Display Name field. The same will happen with the last name. You can, however, edit the display name field if you want something else to display (for example, if you entered “Jane” in the first name and “Doe” as the last name, “Jane Doe” will appear in the display name. But you can then change that to “Jane” or “Dr. Doe” or whatever you want.
- In the Contact Information section, enter the e-mail address and whatever other information you have.
- After entering the information, click the OK button at the bottom of the window.
Editing Addresses
Once you’ve entered an address, you can always go back and edit it. To edit an address,
- Click the Address Book tab to open the address book./li>
- Find the address you want to edit.
- Click on the display name to open the contact.
- Edit the fields as you need to.
- Click the OK button to save your changes.
Retrieving Addresses from the Address Book
Just as with entering addresses, when you want to retrieve one you can either open the address book or begin composing a message.
Retrieving Addresses Directly from the Address Book
- Click the Address Book tab to open the address book.
- Find the address of the person to whom you are sending a message.
- Click on the e-mail address. A Compose E-mail window will open with the e-mail address in the To field.
- Compose the message as ordinarily would.
Retrieving Addresses While Composing a Message
- From the Compose E-mail window, click the Address Button. The Address Message window will open which you can use to search for addresses.
- You can search from either all FAU e-mail addresses or from your person contact list. Select the address book you want to search. If you have the person’s address in your own address book, in the Address Source dropdown menu select Personal Address Book. If not, and the person has an FAU e-mail account, select MyFAU E-mail Directory from the dropdown menu.
- In the Search for dropdown menu, select what you want to be searching on, such as First Name or Last Name.
- Enter the name, or part of the name, in the that includes field.
- Once you’ve entered all the search criteria, click the Search button. The results will be displayed at the bottom of the window. You can then click the To, CC, BCC button as appropriate, and then the person’s address will be entered into that field.
- You can search for more addresses or click the OK button to return to the compose window.