SmarterMail Help
Community Knowledge Base

Reading Email Messages

SmarterMail displays whether you have unread email in your inbox, or in any folders -- even shared folders -- a number of different ways.

  • The number displays in the Email menu.
  • The number displays next to its folder. (E.g., Inbox)
  • A number appears in the browser tab, surrounded by parentheses.
  • Unread messages display as bold in the All Messages view.
  • A notification will temporarily display in your browser, as long as browser notifications are turned on.

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. 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.

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.
    • 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.
    • Forward - Selecting Forward allows you to send the message to someone other that someone in the To and Cc fields. 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. Note: This 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 new HAM/SPAM settings that are available to system administrators.
  • Mark a message - 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.
    • Mark Read / Mark Unread - If not automatically marked, marking a message as "read" removes its highlight in the all messages view. If you've already read a message but want to keep it for review later, it can be marked as "unread" and highlighting is added. (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. This allows you to retrieve those messages using filters in the all messages view.
  • 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 a Folder where you want the Message to be placed. Alternatively, you can select the message from the All Messages view and drag it to the folder of your choice.
    • Invite All to Appointment - This initiates the creating of a new appointment, and automatically adds the addresses in the To: and CC: fields as attendees. (Bcc: addresses are excluded.)
    • 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.
    • Print - Brings up the print menu for the message.
    • 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. (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.
    • Create Content Filter - This options 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • View HTML - Changes the message to display all of its HTML formatting.
    • View Text - Removes any HTML formatting and displays the message as "text only."
    • View Raw Content - Allows you to view the message in its raw, unformatted state and includes the header of the message. Viewing the raw content, and especially the message's header, can assist with diagnosing potential issues with viewing the message, with message delivery, etc.

When viewing messages in the content pane (as opposed to them being popped out in their own window), other options are available:

  • View Next / View Previous - These up and down "arrows" (or carets) will move you up and down the all messages area.
  • Pop out - This will pop the message out into its own window.

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 user is authenticated on the server, 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 the sender or not, and what checks were performed and their status.

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

  • Green - The email passed DMARC, DKIM, and SPF, and is either an existing contact (in your Contacts) or is part of your domain.
  • Gray - The email was sent from an address that failed one or more of the checks, or passed them but is NOT an existing contact or part of your domain.
  • Red - The email may not have been sent from an authentic account.

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.

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. 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.

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" button in the message's header.

Clicking this button 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. Once clicked, a green 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 for convenience. If a message does include an email tracker, text is displayed at the top of the message letting the user know. Users can click on that message and see who the tracker is from (e.g., Salesforce) and, if they so desire, accept the tracker for that message.

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 download all attachments in one convenient ZIP file.

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.

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