This document describes the basic functions of the CAMAIL SMMS Web Mail interface, 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.
1. Open your browser, usually either Internet Explorer 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 link.
4. Enter your e-mail login name. 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.
By default, the WebMail client will not send out mail with your name, using your e-mail alias, or your signature. Use the following steps to change that behaviour.
1. Click on Preferences button in the upper right-hand side of the WebMail window. A new Preferences window will appear
2. Click on the Compose button at the top of the new window. You should now see the Composition Options window.
3. Click into the Full Name to use on outgoing mail field and enter the name that you would like to display on the mail that you send.
4. Click into the Reply-To address to use on outgoing mail field if you have an e-mail alias (e.g. john_harvard@harvard.edu) to which you would like e-mail replies directed.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and type in a personalized signature for your mail in the Signature field if you would like to have that information appended to all your outbound mail from this system.
6. You can also set whether or not to display the Cc: and Bcc: line in messages you compose, and how many attachments to allow in outgoing mail (up to 10).
7. Click on the Save Changes button (at the bottom of the window) to make these changes take effect.
NOTE: When reading your mail with the WebMail 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 WebMail client, click on the Read Mail tab near the top of the browser window. This button will bring up the contents of your mailbox at any time. New mail to you will have a light blue highlight around the message with the text in bold. Messages that you have already read or downloaded (if using POP) will be gray.
By default, the system will only display your mailbox in groups of 30 messages. If your mailbox contains more than 30 messages, you may need to click on Display 30 more messages link toward the top of the browser window to show more than 30 messages at a time. You may need to use the scroll bar on the right-hand side of your browser window after clicking this link to see those newly loaded messages.
To read a message, click on the Subject line, which is a link to the message; a new window will appears where you can read the full text of the message. You may open as many message windows as you wish. After reading the message, you may close the window, or use the Next or Previous buttons on the top right of the window to scroll through your mail in the same window (see Composing a Message below for more information on replying or sending.
To delete mail, 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 both above and below the listing of your messages. This action does not actually yet remove the mail from your mailbox, but will flag those messages for deletion. Mail flagged for deletion will have a red line through the envelope icon. To permanently remove those messages from your mailbox, click on the Purge Deletions button.
NOTE: Do not resize your browser window while composing a message. Some browsers may not be able to handle a resize and will require you to click the Reload button, causing the browser to throw away 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 must set “Display Cc: line” and “Display Bcc: line” options to yes in Preferences/Compose in order to see these lines). Please note that the system will not automatically qualify address by adding @harvard.edu to the end of e-mail aliases, so typing in the full address is required. You may also select addresses from you contact list by using the Address Book list to the right of the recipient lists; specify where you want the address to appear (To:, Cc:, or Bcc: ) before selecting the address (see Using the Address Book below).
The WebMail client is also capable of sending an attachment to your message. The number of attachments you can include, up to 10, is set in the Number of attachments field in Preferences/Compose. 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.
There are two ways to reply to a message you have received, either from the Read Mail window or the Read Message window. From the Read Mail screen check the box of the message you wish to reply to and then use the drop down list which says “Reply Option:” at the top or bottom of the message screen. There are four options: Reply, Reply To All, Reply with History, Reply To All with History. The Reply To All options will send mail to everyone who received the original message; Reply with History options will also include the text of the original message. From the Read Message screen, you will also see the same Reply Option: list box. Once you select the reply option, the Compose Message window will appear.
You may also choose to forward a message by using the Forward button in both the Read Mail and Read Message windows.
The Web Mail client has the ability to search through all of your mail which is stored on the server to find messages which match criteria you specify. You may search messages based upon information in the From:, To:, Cc:, or Subject lines; text in the body of the message; the date the message was sent; and the size of the message. Text field searches are case insensitive and will find partial matches to your search criteria. If you specify multiple fields, you can choose whether the search will match on all criteria or any criteria which is matched. After pressing the Search for Messages button, a list of all match messages will appear, which you can select and read. Use the New Search link to return to the search page.
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 Preferences button in the upper right, 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 main Read Mail window, and then use the Move To: drop down list at the top of the page to select the folder into which you wish to move the marked messages. You may also use the Move To: drop down list in the Read Message window to move an individual message.
To view the contents of a folder, select the name of the folder from the frame on the left side of the Read Mail window.
You can use the web mail client’s address book to store commonly used or needed e-mail addresses. Furthermore, 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.
The address book is accessed by clicking on the My Contacts tab. From here you can add, delete, or edit your contacts. To add a contact, enter the contact information in the box at the bottom of the window and press the Add Address button. You may also add an address by using the Save Addresses button in the Read Message window. To edit an address, select the check box next to the address, press the Edit Address button, update the information, and then press the Make Changes button. To delete, select the check box of the addresses you wish to remove and press the Delete button. You can use these addresses when composing or replying to messages
The directory feature is accessed from the Public Directory tab. This feature allows you to search the Harvard Public LDAP database, which contains information for most University staff, students, faculty and affiliates. When searching, do not modify or change the search base, and leave the “Perform Search Base Sub-Search” checked. You can search on Common (first) name, Surname, or e-mail address, which is specified using the drop-down list. Type what you wish to search for in the search box (case does not matter) and use the radio box to search for items with Begin with your text or Contain your text (e.g. a Begins with search on “hann” would find the names “Hanna” and “Hannibal”, while a Contains search would find “Johanna” in addition.). You may use the additional search box to help qualify your query further, with either an “And” (both terms must be present) or “Or” (only one of the two terms is needed) search.
With any search results which are found, it is easy to add to your Contacts List or send an e-mail to the person. To add to your Address Book, select the checkbox next to the addresses you wish to add and then press the Add to Address Book button. To send the person e-mail, click on the e-mail address which is listed for their name—the Compose Message window will open. You may also look at additional information for a user by selecting the checkbox and clicking the Show Details button. To perform another search, click the Clear Search Results window and enter your new search terms.