Opera

Handling Received Messages

When new messages are received, Opera Mail does most of the work for you so you spend less time organizing your messages. This makes Opera Mail different to more traditional e-mail clients.

How is Opera Mail different?

Traditional e-mail client	Opera Mail
Uses folders (filing cabinets)	Uses views and filters
Messages stored in folders	Messages stored in central location
Messages moved to folders	Messages displayed in views and filters
Messages sent to Inbox	Messages automatically sorted into views and filters
Messages remain in Inbox until moved	Messages in Unread view until read
Slow searches	Fast searches due to indexed storage

What this means is that, instead of being delivered into the one "inbox", messages are kept in a single database and automatically indexed without fuss. It doesn't organise by folders but by searches and by tags (views and filters). Opera Mail also filters out junk mail (spam), and you can train it based on your preferences.

As messages are kept in a single database they can therefore appear in multiple views without you needing to copy or move them.

As a summary:

• E-mails automatically display in the Unread view.
• Mailing list messages display under the Mailing lists view header.
• Newsgroup messages display in newsgroup views under a main news server header.

Use the Mail window

Before we look at reading individual messages, let's take a closer look at the Mail window, which is a split-pane that contains the:

• active view name
• Mail toolbar
• message list
• selected message content
• Quick Reply field

Active view name

The name of the currently active view displays at the top of the Mail window. For example, if you are in the Unread view, the name displayed is Unread. The name shows in a drop-down button, which displays a menu of available views, which are the same as those in the Mail panel. Views with unread messages appear in bold with the number of unread messages next to them.

Mail Toolbar

The Mail toolbar sits above the message list. It contains some of the most important functions for messages so you can compose or reply to messages, mark as spam, delete, label or change the display options.

View menu

The View drop-down menu on the Mail toolbar contains some useful settings that apply to all views.

View menu setting	Allows you to...
Flat or Threaded	choose the type of message display. These settings are mutually exclusive. Flat view shows messages in a flat, unthreaded list (default for mail views). Threaded view groups messages that belong to the same discussion (default for newsgroup and mailing list views). For more on threads, go to View and manage threads. In the Contacts view, flat view is not available and there are options to display all messages to, from or both to and from someone (default is to and from).
Show	select the type of messages to display in the current view, e.g., if you want to see only unread messages for one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to, not the ones you have already seen.
Period	display messages from a specified time period (default is forever).
Display	change display settings, to: change the layout to show message list only, message body only, or both message list and message body (default setting). choose how Opera Mail interprets messages - some messages can contain both plaintext and rich text parts and the setting determines which part will be displayed (default setting is to prefer HTML). block external elements to suppress external embeds (HTML that references Web sites for items such as images and stylesheets), often used in spam to detect valid e-mail addresses. toggle graphical smileys.
Mark as Read	select a specified time after which messages are marked as read automatically. This can be used for all views except Unread.
Show Quick Reply	toggle the display of the Quick Reply field (enabled by default). See Reply to or forward a message for more details.

Message status formats

In the message list, coloured text indicates status:

• Bold text in blue indicates unseen messages; have not been selected or viewed in Opera Mail.
• Bold text in black indicates unread messages; previously viewed but not marked as read.
• Plain text indicates messages marked read.

The message list is divided into default columns, outlined in the table below.

Column header	Shows the...
Status (star)	current status of the message. Status icons are: unread replied sent forwarded redirected
From (sender) or To (recipient in Sent view)	name of the sender or recipient, including icons to indicate that: contact is known . contact is unknown . If in the default Contacts view, To in this column indicates a sent message.
Subject	subject header of the e-mail. An envelope icon denotes an e-mail message type. A triangle at the left of this shows that the message belongs to a thread. Click to expand the thread.
Sent	date the e-mail was sent.
Size	size of the e-mail in kB (including attachments).
Attachment (paperclip)	icon denoting type of attachment - see icons in Default views that display when needed.
Label	label, if applied - see icons in Default views that display when needed.

View messages

To view messages:

1. Select the relevant view to display the message list.
2. Select a message and either:
   • scroll through the content in the message content pane below, or
   • double-click the message to display it in a new browser tab.

View IMAP messages

Opera Mail downloads only headers (the subject line and some information about the message) when checking for new IMAP messages, by default. When you select a message header, Opera Mail retrieves the message body, including any attachments. If you use the default configuration, you must be online to read your messages. To read your messages offline:

1. Go to Tools > Mail and Chat Accounts.
2. Select your IMAP account and click Edit.
3. Click Incoming and tick Download message body when checking.
4. Click OK. When the system checks for messages, bodies as well as headers are retrieved.

Mark messages as read

New messages are initially considered unseen and change to unread once selected. Messages do not change from unread until marked as read. There are a few quick ways to mark messages as read, listed in the table below:

If you want to...	Then...
mark a single message as read	right-click the message and select Mark > Read on the toolbar or press K.
mark all messages in a view as read	right-click the view header in the Mail panel and select Mark all as read or press Ctrl+Shift+A.
re-set a read message to unread	right-click the message and select Mark > Mark as unread or press Shift+K.
automatically mark messages in a view to read	select the view, click View on the toolbar and select Mark all as read > After x seconds.

With IMAP, changes such as marking messages as read or moving messages offline are reflected when you next connect to the mail server.

Open or save an attachment

E-mails with attachments display in both the Received and Attachments views. Under the Attachments view header, messages with attachments are sorted into views by type:

• Documents
• Images
• Music
• Video
• Archives

When you open an e-mail with an attachment, click the attachment to display a context menu of options, including Open and different save options.

The Attachments view only displays e-mails with images attached, not those displayed as part of the e-mail (inline images). To save an inline image, right-click the image and select Save image.

Viewing and managing threads

Besides displaying message threads in the Mail window list with other messages using View menu options, you can also view an entire thread separately in the Mail window and choose to follow or ignore threads.

To view all messages of an entire thread in the Mail window:

1. Right-click a message in the thread and select Go to.
2. Select Thread. The entire thread displays the Mail window.
3. To exit this view, click another view in the Mail panel

If you receive a lot of threaded messages, following threads makes it easy to recognise important messages, while ignoring threads makes it easy to dismiss unimportant ones.

To follow a thread:

1. Select a message in the email thread in the Mail window.
2. Right-click and select Follow/Ignore.
3. Select Follow.
4. In the Mail panel, the Followed Threads header displays, with the email thread listed below. When new messages in this thread are received, the header displays in bold with the number of messages received. In a view, followed messages are marked in the Subject column with a 'Mail followed' icon .
5. To stop following a thread, you can either:
   • right-click a message in the thread and select Follow to uncheck this option, or
   • right-click the thread in the Mail panel and select Delete. The messages remain in the Received view but are no longer shown under the Followed Threads view.

To ignore a thread:

1. Select a message in the email thread in the Mail window. Tip: To ensure that you ignore all tangents of a thread, display the entire thread first and select the first message. See: View all messages of an entire thread above.
2. Right-click and select Follow/Ignore.
3. Select Ignore.
4. The message, and any others in the thread, display in gray, marked with a 'Mail ignored' icon .
5. When new messages in this thread are received, they do not display in the Unread view. You can see them in the Received view however they display as already read.
6. To stop ignoring a thread, right-click a message in the thread and select Ignore to uncheck this option.

Handle spam

Opera Mail features a spam filter to help keep spam out of your way.

If a message in the Spam view is not spam, click Not spam. If the message is from someone you know, but not yet a contact, press A to add the sender to your contacts. Messages from your recorded contacts are assumed not to be spam.

The spam filter is set to learn from your actions by default. You can choose how aggressive you want the spam filter to be. To set spam rules:

1. Right-click the Spam view and select Properties.
2. In the Internal filter field, select either Off, Medium or Strong. The default value is Medium.
3. If you don't want the spam filter to learn from your actions, untick the option to Learn from messages added to or removed from filter.
4. You can also set additional rules for spam.

Delete messages

You can remove a message from a view, delete a message, or remove a message permanently from Opera Mail, as outlined in the table below.

Depending on the language you have chosen to use, the folder for deleted messages is called either Trash or Deleted.

If you want to...	Then...
remove a message from a view, so that it remains in other views	right-click it and select Remove from view.
delete a message and move it to Trash (Deleted)	select the message and either: press Delete click Delete on the Mail toolbar, or right-click and select Move to Trash (Deleted).
permanently remove a message from Opera Mail in all views	select the message and either: press Delete, then empty the Trash (Deleted) folder by right-clicking the folder and selecting Empty Trash (Deleted), or press Shift+Delete.

Find messages

Finding your messages is a breeze using Opera Mail's search features, listed in the table below.

Search feature	What does it search?
Quick find (in Mail window)	Message bodies and subject headers of the active view. Each letter you type automatically narrows the results.
Start search in the Mail panel	All message headers and bodies for matches. All searches are listed as new views in the Mail panel under the Searches header. Searches remain until removed. To remove, right-click and press Delete.
Mail > Search	Specified parts of messages and specified views. You can search entire messages, message bodies, subject headers and so on, and/or a specific view or filter.