Using the IMP Web Mail Client

This document describes the basic functions of the IMP Web Mail interface for CAMAIL, a method for accessing your mail outside of the Harvard network. If you have questions that are not covered in this document or have other questions about the CAMAIL system, please call the UIS Help Desk at 617-496-2001 during normal business hours.  HLS users, please contact your respective Help Desks: faculty & Staff (617) 495-0722, students (617) 495-9576.

 

NOTE:  Internet Explorer is the recommended browser for IMP.

Table of Contents

  1. How to Log In
  2. Changing Your Personal Settings
  3. Reading Your Mail
  4. Composing a Message
  5. Replying to and Forwarding Mail
  6. Searching Your Mail
  7. Using Folders
  8. Using the Address Book and Directory
  9. Using Filters
  10. WebMail Tips

How to Log In

  1. Open your browser, usually either Internet Explorer (Recommended) or Netscape.
  2. Go to http://www.camail.harvard.edu. Please bookmark this page and not the URL to the WebMail login as it may change in future releases.
  3. Click the Connect to Web Mail (IMP) link.
  4. Next to username, type in your email address (e.g.jharvard@law.harvard.edu). Your login name will usually be your first initial plus up to seven letters of your last name. (e.g. jharvard for John Harvard)
  5. Click in the password field and type in your CAMAIL password.
  6. Click the Log In button.
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Changing Your Personal Settings

The first step when starting to use the IMP client is to set up your "Personal Identity". Setting your personal identity will allow you to: create a signature, select how you would like your name to appear in the recipient's inbox, and choose where you would like to save sent mail. To change your personal options, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on Options button in the upper left-hand side of the IMP window. A new Preferences window will appear.
  2. Click on Personal Information under Your Information.
  3. Select Edit your identities.  You then should see the Identities screen.

  4. In Your Identities, select Default Identity.
  5.  In the Your Full Name field, enter the name that you would like to display on the mail that you send.
  6. Click in the Your From: address: field if you have an e-mail alias (e.g. john_harvard@harvard.edu) to which you would like e-mail to appear in the From: field.
  7. (OPTIONAL) Click into the Reply-To address:  field if you have an e-mail alias (e.g. john_harvard@harvard.edu) to which you would like e-mail replies directed.
  8. Click into the Your Signature: field and type in a personalized signature if you would like to have that information appended to all your outbound mail from this system.
  9. Place a check next to "Save Sent Mail" and then choose a folder for sent mail.
  10. Click on the Change button (at the bottom of the window) to make these changes take effect.
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Reading Your Mail

NOTE: When reading your mail with the IMP client, you are accessing your mail through the IMAP protocol. Mail deleted through this system will delete the mail from the server, making it inaccessible for other computers.

 

To read your mail with the IMP client, click on the INBOX button near the top of the browser window.

This button will bring up the contents of your mailbox at any time. New mail will have an envelope icon with the text in bold.

 

 

The system displays one page at a time.  To change pages, click on the small arrow pointing right to go to the next page or the small arrow pointing left to go to preceding page.  The larger arrows will take you to the first/last page of emails.

 

To read a message, click on the Subject of the email. Then, a new window will appear where you can read the full text of the message.  After reading the message, you may click on INBOX to return to inbox, or use the Next or Previous buttons on the bottom right of the window to scroll through your mail.

 

 

 

To delete mail from within the message, click Delete located at the top or the bottom of the message.  To delete mail from the INBOX click on the checkbox beside the mail that you want removed from your mailbox. You may click on the checkboxes beside multiple messages to delete a set of messages. After you have selected the messages for deletion, click on the Delete button that is above the check box column.  This does not actually remove the mail from your mailbox, but will flag those messages for deletion. Mail flagged for deletion will have a line through the envelope icon. To permanently remove those messages from your mailbox, click on Purge Deleted.

 

Please note that the head next to the check box means that the To: field from the sender’s email matches what you have in the From: address in you Personal Settings.

 

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Composing a Message

NOTE: Do not resize your browser window while composing a message. Some browsers may not be able to handle a resize and will erase your message.

 

To write a new message, click on the Compose button at the top of the message window. This will open up a new window where you can write your message. Click into the To: field and type in the e-mail addresses of the intended recipients of your messages. If you have multiple recipients, separate those addresses with commas. Repeat, if needed, in the cc: and  bcc: fields.  You may also select addresses from your contact list by using the Address Book (see Using the Address Book below).

 

The IMP client is also capable of sending attachments with your message. To add an attachment to your message, click on the Browse... button at the bottom of the frame and select the file to be attached or type in the path on your computer to the file. With some browsers, you may have to click on the Files of type pull-down list and change it to the All files *.* item before you can see the file that you want to attach.  Attach only one file in each Attach File: field.  You must then click on the Attach button.  Repeat these steps for multiple attachments.  You can send as many attachments up to 20MB in total.  An individual attachment cannot be over 10MB.

 

 

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Replying to and Forwarding Mail


To reply to a message, click to open the message from the INBOX.  There are four options:  Reply, Reply To All, Forward, Redirect..  The Reply To All options will send mail to everyone who received the original message. 

 

 

Once you select the reply option, the Compose Message window will appear.

 

You may also choose to forward a message by using the Forward link in the message window.

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Searching Your Mail

The IMP client has the ability to search through all of your mail that is stored on the server to find messages that match criteria you specify.  You may search messages based upon information in the From:, To:, Cc:, or Subject lines. You may also search the text in the body of the message; the date, or date range. Additionally, you can search when the message was sent and the size of the message.  Text field searches are not case sensitive and will find partial matches to your search criteria.  If you specify multiple fields, data must match on all criteria.  After clicking the Search button, a list of all match messages will appear. You can now click which message you want to read.  Click on the Search button to return to the search page.

 

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Using Folders

You can use folders to help manage your mail more efficiently.  PLEASE NOTE:  If you use a POP mail client in addition to the web client, you may not be able to see mail stored in anything other than the INBOX folder.  See the Web Mail tips below for more information.

 

To create folders, press the Folders button, and choose the button for Mail Folders in the preferences window.  From this window you can add or delete mail folders.

 

To save messages in a folder, you can select them using the checkbox in the INBOX, and then use the Move/Copy: drop down list to select the folder into which you wish to move/copy the marked messages. 

 

You may also use the Move/Copy: drop down list in the message window to move the message you have open.

 

To view the contents of a folder, select the name of the folder from the drop down list on the upper right corner.

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Using the Address Book and Directory

You can use the IMP address book called My Addressbook to store personal e-mail addresses.  In addition, the client is connected to the Harvard Public LDAP directory, which allows you to look up address and other contact information for people at Harvard.  This directory is called Harvard Directory.

 

To look up an email address, click on the Address Book button.  From here you can add, search, or browse either the Harvard Directory, or you own person directory (My Addressbook).  Please note that while you can add information to the My Addressbook, the Harvard Directory is Read-only and cannot be altered.  To add a contact to the My Addressbook, click on the Add button, select a directory from the drop down menu, and click on the Add Contact… button. 

Enter the contact information press the Save button. 

To edit/delete an address, search for the name in the address book and select the name.  You can then click on Edit or Delete.

 

The on-line Harvard Directory is accessed by selecting Harvard Directory from the pull down menu.  This feature allows you to search the Harvard Public LDAP database, which contains information for most University staff, students, faculty and affiliates.  You can the use the Search button to find a whole name; or use the Advance Search, to search on multiple fields.  Type what you wish to search for in the search box (case does not matter), select a directory from the drop down list, and click on Search.  You can use an “*” as a wild card.  For example, If John A. Harvard is listed in the Harvard Directory with the middle initial, you can do the search as John*Harvard or j*harvard.  Simply typing John Harvard may not return results.  If you are unsure, always use the “*”.

 

With any search results that are found, it is easy to send an email to the person.  To send the person e-mail, click on name, and then select the email address that is listed for their name—the Compose Message window will open. 

If instead, you wish to return to the INBOX, click on the MAIL icon.

To add names from incoming email automatically to your addressbook, you must first update your settings as follows:

 

After completing these steps, go back to your INBOX and open a message.  An address book icon will now appear next to email addresses in the From:, To:, cc:, bcc:.  To add these addressed to your address book, click on the address book icon. 

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Using Filters

You can create a filter by following these steps.

  1. Click on Options.
  2. Click on Filters under Mail management.
  3. Click the check boxes for the following:
    1. Apply Filter rules upon logging on (for automatic filtering)
    2. Apply filter rules when mail box is refreshed (for automatic filtering)
    3. Display message when filters have been applies
  4. Leave a. and b. unchecked if you prefer to do a manual check.
 

 
  1. Click on Edit your filter rules.
  2. Enter filter criteria into Field, Text, and Action

 
  1. Click on Create button.
  2. Repeat steps for additional filters.
 

If you have selected to filter you emails manually, go to the inbox and click on Filter icon to filter messages.

 

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WebMail Tips

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