Contacts Live Mail Tutorial
Table Of Contents
Contacts
Live Mail at a Glance
Creating
E-Mail Messages
Adding
Images and Attachments
Sending E-Mail
Messages
Date
and Time Scheduling For Outgoing Messages
Sending
Bulk E-Mail
Using Message
Templates
Composing
From a Template
Creating
a New Template
Personalizing E-Mail Messages
Customizing E-Mail Sender
Organizing Your Mailbox
Mail
Folders
Message
Status
Copying/Moving/Deleting
Messages
Message
Summary and Sending Report
Customizing
Message View List
Sharing
Messages with Other Users
Contacts Live Mail at a Glance
Here is your Contacts Live Mail main window:
- Contacts Live Mail toolbar includes the
following function buttons:
- Folder – lets you
manage Contacts Live Mail folders. Click to access pull-down menu to
add/delete/copy/move a folder and set folder access rights for other
users
- Message – lets you
manage one or several messages. Click to access pull-down menu to
compose a new message from scratch or base it on a template, move to
and delete messages from a folder, send test and actual messages,
and create message templates
- View – lets you
specify which message properties should be displayed when listing
messages in Message pane. Lets you also specify number of messages
to be listed on one page
- Tools – click to
customize name and e-mail of a sender used in outgoing messages
- Search box. Enter keyword or a phrase
(e.g. "meeting announcement") and click Go to see the list of messages
where the search word is found.
- Clicking on "Available Folders" will
display all Contacts Live Mail folders. For every folder you can see its
access rights for a user who is currently logged in, number of messages,
and “Shared” checkbox indicating whether this folder is shared with
other users.
- Subfolder indicator. Click “+” to expand.
- Click to hide folder list pane. Messages
pane will expand to occupy the whole browser window, as shown in the
sample below:
- Click to select all messages.
- Sorting indicator. Click to reverse
sorting order. Click on a column name to sort (e.g. click “Created” to
sort messages by creation date).
- Selected message checkmark.
- High priority message indicator.
- File attachment indicator.
- Message status. Contacts Live Mail allows
four possible statuses for mail messages:
- Draft. Messages with
this status were composed but neither sent nor scheduled for
sending. They can be modified, scheduled for sending, copied, moved,
deleted, and saved as a template
- Pending. Messages
with this status were composed and scheduled for sending, but not
sent out yet. They can be viewed, copied, moved, deleted, and saved
as a template. However, they cannot be modified. You can also cancel
scheduled outgoing time, in which case the message will obtain
Draft status
- Sent. Messages with
this status were already sent out. They can be copied, moved,
deleted, and saved as a template. Messages cannot be modified or
sent out
- Template. Messages
with this status are used as templates to create new messages. They
can be viewed, copied, modified, deleted, saved as a new template or
as a message with status Draft. They cannot be sent
out
- Click on a message to view its content in
HTML and Text formats, see attachments, summary. Depending on message
status, you can also copy it, create a template, modify, delete, cancel
outgoing scheduled time, view sending report, etc.
- Displays total number of messages in the
current folder.
- Indicates current folder access rights for
the logged in user.
- Click “Shared” to see the list of users
who have access to the current folder.
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Creating E-Mail Messages
To compose a new e-mail message, click
Message -> Compose from Contacts Live Mail toolbar. “Compose
Message” page opens up where you can add subject and text of your message
using either standard text (click Text tab) or HTML editor (click HTML tab).
Contacts Live Mail built-in HTML editor does not require any prior HTML
experience and allows you to create messages in WYSIWYG
mode (What You See
Is What You Get):
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Adding Images and Attachments
Adding Images
In order to insert an image inside your message body, you need to first save
its draft. Click Add underneath the Image pane on the right
of “Compose Message” page. Once you have added your image, its thumbnail
should be displayed in the Image pane. Click inside your text and then click
an image to place it inside your message body.
Adding File Attachments
To add file attachment to you message, click Attachments tab in “Compose
Message” page. Browse and attach one or more files to your message.
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Sending E-Mail Messages
If your “Compose Message” form is already, just
can click Send -> Send Test to send a test message or
Send -> Send inside the page to send your message.
Otherwise select your message from the message list and click
Message -> Send or Message -> Send Test to open
“Send Message” form. Indicate a priority (Low, Normal, High), choose an
email sender and email recipients. Your recipients must be selected from the
available lists and folders of Contacts Live users and contacts. Indicate
whether you want your email to be sent out immediately or on a later date
and click Send to finish.
Note: only messages with
Draft status can be sent out.
Did you know? You can
customize name and e-mail of a sender used for outgoing messages.
You can also add new senders and choose them from the list when
sending messages.
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Date and Time Scheduling For Outgoing
Messages
In Contacts Live Mail you have an option of
scheduling date and time in future when you want your e-mail to go out. In
“Send Mail” form select “Send Later” radio button (instead of the default on
“Send Now”) and indicate sending date and time in future:
Your message receives
Pending status
and stays in your mailbox until it is sent out at indicated time.
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Sending Bulk E-Mail
Bulk E-Mail communication (sending E-Mail to
multiple recipients list) is used widely in e-marketing campaign, newsletter
distribution, company internal communication, etc.
To send out bulk e-mail open your standard
“Send Mail” and fill out all necessary fields. Create and give a name to
your recipients list or select already existing one and add it to the “To”
field of your “Send Mail” form. Your message is now ready to go out.
Note: It is recommended to
use “Send Later” option for bulk e-mail with large recipients list (over
100 e-mails) to avoid server mailing job interfering with your work in
Contacts Live Mail.
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Using Message Templates
Contacts Live Mail includes a collection of
message templates – email messages with preloaded message body and a
Template status.
Message templates can assist you in creating mail messages. If you are
Contacts Live Mail service subscriber, you will fine holiday greetings,
announcements, acknowledgements, notices and many more templates included in
Templates folder. Open Templates folder to see the list of all available
Contacts Live Mail templates:
Messages with Template status
cannot be sent out directly. First you need to create and save your message
based on a template. It then receives Draft status.
Messages with Draft status can be sent out to its recipients.
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Composing From a Template
There are two ways to compose your message from
a template:
- Click Message -> Compose from
Template and select a template. A standard “Compose Message”
form opens up with the template name in the subject line and the
template content as the message body, possibly with
personalization variables. You can modify or add message content,
subject, and include your recipients list. Save your new message to give
it Draft status and send it to its recipients list.
- Open a template, click Template ->
Create Message, and select message folder. You can now modify
and save "Compose Message" form which includes template message body.
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Creating a New Template
You can create new templates and use them to
compose mail messages. You can choose one of the two following ways to
create a new template:
- Modify and save an existing template.
- Save your message as a template. Create a
new message or open any message from your message list and click
Message -> Save as Template.
You can add image to your new template and
attach a file. Your newly created template receives Template status and is
ready to be used for composing emails
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Personalizing E-Mail Messages
Contacts Live Mail lets you personalize your
outgoing e-mails by inserting recipients’ individual information (names,
titles and other details) in messages addressed specifically to them. This
is accomplished with the use of personalization variables;
i.e. placeholders that are added to a message and are dynamically replaced
by the actual values stored in your recipients database. This feature is
especially useful in
bulk e-mailing
– you just need to compose one message and send it out to any number of
recipients as if it were written only to every one of them individual.
To add personalize you message, open “Compose
Message” form and open lists of contact variables (Recipient Contact
Variables, My Contact Variables, and Company Variables). Click inside your
message body and then a variable from the list (e.g. {C_FIRSTNAME}
{C_LASTNAME}). When the message is sent out, {C_FIRSTNAME} {C_LASTNAME} will
be substituted with first and last names of every recipient from the list
(e.g. Ann Smith, Jeff Brown). The picture below illustrates the feature:
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Customizing E-Mail Sender
When sending out e-mail your default name and
address are used as an e-mail “sender”. Contacts Live Mail lets you
customize this information and add more senders to the list.
Click Tools -> Customize Email Sender.
Click on a sender from the list to modify current sender’s information. To
add a new sender click Add Sender.
Fill out Add/Edit Sender form: indicate “From”
name and e-mail (as they will appear in recipients mailboxes), “Reply-To”
e-mail (reply address), return path, language from the list (Unsubscribe
notice in recipients e-mail will be displayed in this language), and
language encoding (iso-8859-1 is the default one). Save your information.
The new (or modified) sender will be added to the list.
When sending messages you can now use the new
sender. In the “Send Mail” Form click on the “From” drop-down list to select
the sender:
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Organizing Your Mailbox
Contacts Live Mail messages are stored in
folders. All basic operations are allowed on messages and folders; i.e.
adding, copying, moving, deleting, etc.
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Mail Folders
Your messages are stored in folders and
subfolders. For every folder a user with administrative privileges can set
access
rights. Depending on your access rights you can add new folders to
Contacts Live Mail, set access rights for other users, copy, move, or delete
folders. Click Folders in Contacts Live Mail toolbar to see
the list of folder operations.
Clicking "Available Folders" in folders pane
will list all Contacts Live Mail folders. For every folder you can see its
access rights for a user who is currently logged in, number of messages, and
“Shared” checkbox indicating whether this folder is shared with other users.
Note: Deleting a folder will
permanently delete all its messages.
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Message Status
Every message in Contacts Live Mail folders can
have one of the four following statuses:
- Draft. Messages with this
status were composed but neither sent nor scheduled for sending. They
can be modified, scheduled for sending, copied, moved, deleted, and
saved as a template
- Pending. Messages with
this status were composed and scheduled for sending, but not sent out
yet. They can be viewed, copied, moved, deleted, and saved as a
template. However, they cannot be modified. You can also cancel
scheduled outgoing time, in which case the message will obtain
Draft status
- Sent. Messages with this
status were already sent out. They can be copied, moved, deleted, and
saved as a template. Messages cannot be modified or sent out
- Template. Messages with
this status are used as templates to create new messages. They can be
viewed, copied, modified, deleted, saved as a new template or as a
message with status Draft. They cannot be sent out
The picture below displays message list showing
message status:
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Copying/Moving/Deleting Messages
To copy a message, click on it to open
"Compose/View Message" window and clik Message -> Create Copy.
Your message with
status Draft
will be listed in the selected folder.
To move or delete messages, select them from
the message list and click Message in Contacts Live Mail
toolbar. Click Move to move messages to another folder, or
click Delete to permanently remove messages from the
current folder.
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Message Summary and Sending Report
Click on a message to open “Compose/View
Message” window. Click on Summary tab to access summary on your message: its
folder, id, priority, subject, status, author, creation date, etc.
For messages with Pending and Sent statuses you
can access sending report. Click on a message to open “View Message” window.
Click on Sending Report tab to access sending report: send date, sender,
recipient list, etc.
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Customizing Message View List
You can customize your messages view list by
clicking View -> Columns from Contacts Live Mail toolbar.
Indicate visible and hidden columns for your list and number of messages on
one page.
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Sharing Messages with Other Users
Sharing your mail messages with other Contacts
Live Mail users and user groups is done by setting access rights to a
message folder by a user with administrative privileges. Select a folder and
click Folder -> Modify Folder. Click on Users and Groups
tabs to set/modify access to the folder for users and user groups.
The following are available levels of access to
a folder:
Read (R) – a user (user group)
can list and read messages in this folder
Write (W) – a user (user group) can add/modify messages in
this folder
Folder (F) – a user (user group) can add/modify messages,
folders & permissions
When setting access level to a folder, the
combination of personal and group access rights will be applied, e.g. if
user Ann belongs to a group which has R (Read) access rights, then Ann has
an effective permission as in the table below:
|
Personal
Permission |
Group Permission |
Effective
Permission |
|
- |
R |
R |
|
RW |
RW |
RW |
|
RWF |
R |
RWF |
Note:
- Access rights to a folder do not
automatically apply to its subfolders. They need to be set manually
by the process described above.
- Setting access rights to a folder can
be done by a user who has F (Folder) access level
to this folder or by an account administrator in "Users & Groups"
window.
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