Reading Email Messages

Reading email is the thing you'll do most in SmarterMail, so it's worth knowing everything the message view can do for you. Beyond simply displaying a message's contents, the message view gives you a full toolbar of actions, security indicators that help you judge whether a sender is legitimate, privacy protections like image and tracker blocking, and convenient handling for attachments, calendar invitations, and mailing list subscriptions. This topic walks through each of these features.

Knowing You Have Unread Mail

SmarterMail displays whether you have unread email in your Inbox, or in any folder — even shared folders — in a number of different ways:

An unread count displays in the Email menu in the navigation pane.
An unread count displays next to each folder that contains unread mail. (E.g., Inbox (12))
A total unread count appears in the browser tab, surrounded by parentheses. This means you can see new mail arrive even when you're working in another tab.
Unread messages display in bold in the messages list, making them easy to spot at a glance.
A notification will temporarily display in your browser when new mail arrives, as long as browser notifications are turned on.

Opening a Message

To view the contents of a message, simply click the desired message and it will open in the Preview Pane. You can also double-click the message and it will open in a separate pop-up window — handy when you want to keep a message visible while you work elsewhere in webmail, or when comparing two messages side by side. If you do NOT have a Preview Pane showing for your messages, double-clicking the message is the only way to open it and read its contents.

When viewing a message in the Preview Pane (as opposed to it being popped out in its own window), a few extra controls appear on the right side of the toolbar:

View Next / View Previous - These up and down "arrows" (or carets) move you through the messages list without having to click each message individually. This is a fast way to triage a full inbox.
Popout - This will pop the message out into its own window.

Single Message Actions

In general, the following options are available when viewing a message, either within the webmail interface or when it's been popped out into a separate window:

Reply to a message - There are three (3) options when replying to a message:

Reply - Selecting Reply means you will reply to the sender only. (Keyboard shortcut: R) For example, if a coworker emails you and five others asking a question, Reply sends your answer to the coworker alone.
Reply All - Selecting Reply All addresses a response to the sender and everyone else who received the message. This includes all email addresses listed in the To and Cc fields, except your own email address. (Keyboard shortcut: A) Using the same example, Reply All would send your answer to the coworker AND the five other recipients.
Forward - Selecting Forward allows you to send the message to someone who was not included in the To or Cc fields. (Keyboard shortcut: F) Any attachments on the original message are included when forwarding.

Note: It is also possible to add email addresses to the To and Cc fields when you Reply or Reply All to a message.

Delete - Selecting the Delete button will move the message to the Deleted Items folder. When viewing a message that has already been deleted, this button changes to Undelete, allowing you to recover it.

Note: Moving the message to the Deleted Items folder is the default action taken when a message is deleted. Depending on your settings, the delete action may be different. For more information, see Deleting Email Messages.

Move to Junk - Using Move to Junk moves the email to your Junk Email folder, and also helps the system recognize the sender and message contents as possible spam. This information is used to help train the HAM/SPAM settings that are available to system administrators, so using Move to Junk — rather than simply deleting unwanted mail — actually improves spam filtering for you over time. (Keyboard shortcut: J) When you're viewing a message that's already in your Junk Email folder, this button becomes Move to Inbox, which rescues a legitimate message that was incorrectly junked.
Mark - Just as with Reply, there are several options available for marking messages:

Flag / Unflag - Flags a message for follow-up or, if already flagged, removes that flag. Flagged messages are easy to retrieve later by filtering the messages list by "Flagged". For example, you might flag an invoice that needs to be paid at the end of the week.
Mark Read / Mark Unread - If not automatically marked, marking a message as "read" removes its bold highlight in the messages list. If you've already read a message but want to be reminded to return to it, mark it as "unread" and the bold highlighting is restored. (Unread messages also display in the indicators mentioned above. E.g., message counts in webmail and on any synced email clients.)
Categories - It's also possible to add one or more categories to a message. Simply check the categories you want applied; they display as colored labels on the message and allow you to retrieve those messages using filters in the messages list. For example, you might categorize messages as "Projects" or "Personal" to keep work streams separated. Selecting Manage Categories lets you create, rename, recolor, or remove the categories available to you.

Actions (⋮) - The Actions menu allows you to do just that: perform some action on a message. These include:

Move - Allows you to move the message to a folder. When you select Move, you are prompted to select the folder where you want the message to be placed. (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+M)

Note: You can also drag-and-drop messages from the messages list to an available folder.

Invite All to Appointment - This initiates the creation of a new appointment, and automatically adds the addresses in the To: and CC: fields as attendees. (Bcc: addresses are excluded.) This is a great time saver when an email thread ends with "let's set up a meeting" — the attendee list is built for you. (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+I)
Add Task - Allows you to add a Task that is associated with that message. This is a good way to keep task details aligned with the message that initiated the task in the first place. When a message has related tasks, a notice displays at the top of the message showing how many tasks are tied to it. (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+T)
Print - Brings up the print menu for the message. (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+P)
Trust Sender - Adds the address to your Trusted Senders list, meaning any future emails from this address will bypass most antispam options enabled for the server. Use this for legitimate senders whose mail keeps landing in Junk — a newsletter you actually signed up for, for instance. If the sender is already trusted, this option becomes Untrust Sender.

Note: SPF and DKIM still run against any address in the Trusted Senders list to prevent phishing.

Block Sender - Prevents the sender of the selected message(s) from sending any more messages to the account. If the sender is already blocked, this option becomes Unblock Sender.
Create Content Filter - This option opens the Content Filtering area. Here, you can use information contained within the email message, such as the From Address, Subject, etc. and create a new Content Filter based off that information. For example, from a monthly report email you could create a filter that moves all future messages with that subject directly into a "Reports" folder.
Add Sender to Content Filter - This option opens a modal window that lists all of your existing Content Filters. You simply select the filter you want this sender added to, and they're immediately added. This avoids rebuilding a filter from scratch every time a new sender should be included in it.
Modify Classification - When Email Classification is enabled, and you're viewing a message within a specific class, this allows you to change the classification the message was given by SpamFoo, SmarterMail's AI-driven message classification engine. Messages are automatically sorted into one of four classifications: Primary (important personal emails that require your attention), Transactions (purchase receipts, shipping notifications, and delivery confirmations), Updates (news headlines, newsletters, and social media alerts), and Promotions (coupons, sales announcements, and promotional offers). The current classification of the message will be greyed out in the list and, therefore, cannot be selected. Selecting Automatic removes any manual override and lets SpamFoo classify the message on its own.

Note: Changing a message's classification initiates SpamFoo's context engine, so, moving forward, any message with a similar "context" will also be classified the same way. In addition, this menu item only appears when classifications are enabled for your account.

Download EML - This allows you to download a copy of the message as an EML file (the default file type for email messages) and save it to your desktop or other location using File Explorer. Multiple files can be downloaded, and they're saved as a .ZIP file. There is a 1GB limit per download. EML files are useful for archiving important messages outside of the mail server, or for sending a complete copy of a message — headers and all — to an administrator for troubleshooting.
View HTML - Changes the message to display all of its HTML formatting. (This option is unavailable when a message was sent as plain text only.)
View Text - Removes any HTML formatting and displays the message as "text only." This can be useful when you're suspicious of a message and want to see its content without any formatting tricks.
View Header - Allows you to view the message in its unformatted state and includes the header of the message. Viewing the header content can assist with diagnosing potential issues with viewing the message, with message delivery, etc. For example, an administrator may ask you for a message's header to trace which servers the message passed through or to review its SPF/DKIM results. When viewing the header, a Copy content to clipboard link appears so you can easily paste it into a support ticket or email.

Sender Verification Shield

Next to the sender's name and/or address is the Sender Verification Shield. By default, SmarterMail checks a number of things to attempt to validate that the sender is who they say they are. Things like DMARC, DKIM, SPF, trusted sender status, whether the sender is authenticated on the server, whether their IP is whitelisted, and whether they're listed in your Contacts are all used to verify that Tom@Business-A.org, for example, IS actually Tom from Business-A.org. Moving your mouse over the shield opens a window that tells you whether the sender is likely legitimate or not, and lists each check that was performed and its status — Passed, Failed, or Not Available.

The shield is color coded based on the sender's validity:

Green - The email passed DMARC, DKIM, and SPF, and is either an existing contact (in your Contacts), a Trusted Sender, or an authenticated user — for example, a coworker on your own domain.
Gray - The sender could not be fully verified. Either the email failed one or more of the checks, or it passed them but the sender is NOT an existing contact or part of your domain. Most legitimate mail from senders you don't know — order confirmations, newsletters, first-time correspondents — will show a gray shield.
Red - The email is probably not from who it says it is, and may not have been sent from an authentic account. Treat these messages with caution.

Now, this simply attempts to validate the sender. It's no indication that the person sending the message is doing so with bad intent or that the message itself is okay. It is an indication of the status of the sending server and the sender's address. Things like improperly configured or missing DKIM and/or SPF records can lead to a red shield. In addition, even if a sender displays a green shield, it doesn't mean the message is NOT spam.

The Sender Verification Shield is just another tool at a user's disposal, hopefully letting them know to take extra care when clicking links or downloading an attachment from an email from a suspect sender.

Message Notices

Depending on the message, one or more notices may display in the message header, just below the sender and recipient information. These include indicators showing that a message was sent with High priority, that you've already Replied to or Forwarded the message (and when), that a message is Scheduled to be sent, or that one or more Tasks are related to the message. In addition, a few notices deserve special attention:

Phishing and spoofing warnings - When SmarterMail detects signs that a message may be a phishing attempt, a warning displays explaining why the message was flagged. Similarly, a message whose From address doesn't match its actual origin will display "This email has a mismatched email address. This can indicate spam."
Unsafe scripts - If a message contains potentially dangerous scripts, SmarterMail removes them and displays "Potentially dangerous scripts were removed from this message." The message content is still readable; only the dangerous code is stripped.
Read receipts - When a sender has requested a read receipt, a notice appears with a Send read receipt link. The receipt is only sent if you click the link, so you always remain in control of whether the sender knows you've opened their message.

Viewing External Content

External content is considered to be any image, video, animated gif, etc. that has an external source and is contained in an email. When remote content is included in an email, that content is hidden by default and must be manually displayed. This is a privacy protection: loading remote images can reveal to the sender that you opened the message, when, and from where. The good news is, you can either view the content in that one message, or you can allow content from the sender so future emails won't show any warning.

To view external content, click on the Show images or always show images from this sender text that appears at the top of the email message. Once you do this, the remote content will be displayed on that email going forward. Clicking on "always show images from this sender" will add an exception for that email address to the "Allow Inline Images From" list, which is found on the Webmail card in your Account settings. When an exception has been made for an email address, emails from that sender will display all remote content automatically.

Note: Emails from Trusted Domains and Trusted Senders will always display remote content automatically. In addition, the "always show images from this sender" option is only offered when the sender passes basic authentication checks, so you won't be prompted to permanently allow content from a suspicious source.

To bypass this step, and allow remote content to be automatically displayed from all senders and sources, simply enable the Show images from external websites setting that appears as a toggle on the Webmail card in your Account settings.

Unsubscribe

Messages that are from outside senders, especially messages that are potentially unsolicited, are advertisements, are newsletters, or are of a kind where the footer of the message offers recipients a way to unsubscribe from them will include a more obvious "Unsubscribe" link in the message's header.

Clicking this link essentially automates the unsubscribe process for the recipient. This saves them from having to hunt down the unsubscribe link(s), clicking them, navigating through the various questions asked, confirmation of the unsubscribe request, etc. and simply ensures that the unsubscribe request is sent. Depending on how the sender set up their mailing list, SmarterMail either sends the unsubscribe request automatically in the background — including support for "one-click" unsubscribe — or opens the sender's unsubscribe page in a small window for you to complete. When the request is handled automatically, a toast notification appears confirming that the unsubscribe request was sent.

Email Trackers

Email trackers are generally small, transparent images that are embedded into a message for the sole purpose of knowing when a message is opened by a recipient. The idea is that, if there is a "hit" on that image, it was downloaded by the user when the email was opened. However, not everyone wants to be "tracked" like this. By default, SmarterMail will block all trackers automatically — it recognizes trackers from dozens of common marketing and sales platforms. If a message does include one or more email trackers, text is displayed at the top of the message letting you know how many trackers were blocked to protect your privacy. Clicking on that notice opens a window listing each tracker and who it's from (e.g., Salesforce or Mailchimp), with a switch to allow any individual tracker if you so desire. To always allow tracking from a particular sender, add them to the "Allow Email Tracking From" list on the Webmail card in your Account settings.

Calendar Invitations

When a message is a calendar invitation, SmarterMail displays the meeting details directly in the message along with response buttons: Accept, Tentative, and Decline. You can also select Propose New Time to suggest an alternative to the organizer, or Check Availability to compare the meeting against your own calendar before responding. If you've already responded to an invitation, the message shows your response and the date you made it. Invitations that have been superseded by a newer version display "This invite is out of date," and cancelled meetings are clearly noted as well — so you're never acting on stale information.

Downloading Email Attachments

If a message has any attachments, a paperclip will display in the Messages List for that message. In addition, the message itself will show a small icon in the message header with text that tells you how many attachments there are. For example, "2 Attachments are included with this email." Clicking on the linked text will open a modal window that displays the file name(s) of the attachment(s) as well as the file size of each. It also displays, where possible, a preview of the attachment as an icon. Generally, this will only happen when an attachment is an image file. Other file types will display a more generic icon. Attachments are downloaded individually by simply clicking on the attachment. However, it is also possible to use the Download All button to download all attachments in one convenient ZIP file.

Note: If your administrator has connected a document collaboration platform such as Collabora Online or ONLYOFFICE, an Actions (⋮) menu appears next to each attachment, allowing you to preview documents directly in your browser without downloading them first.

It's worth noting that there may be instances where there is no paperclip displayed for a message in the message list, but text on a message itself noting that attachments are present. Generally, this happens with messages that have embedded images, such as images that are pasted into a message, logos and/or icons that are part of a sender's signature, etc. These are NOT displayed in the messages list as these are so common that virtually every message in a user's inbox would have an attachment icon on it, thereby diminishing its effectiveness. In addition, when filtering messages in a folder by "attachment", these types of messages are not included.