Messenger Window

The top pane of the Messenger window will display a summary list of all the messages that you have received as shown in Figure 4-1. This pane is quite small, therefore it may be necessary to scroll the pane to view the entire list. The bottom pane shows the contents of any message that has been selected in the top pane. Any new messages or messages that you have not read, will appear in bold text in the top pane. If for any reason, you only see one pane, click on the blue arrow in the bottom left corner of the Messenger window.

Message List Pane

You will notice a small icon to the left of each message in the Message List pane. This icon will change depending on the status of the message:
  • When a message is first received and has not been viewed, the icon depicts a vertical envelope with a green arrow next to it. this is the "unopened" icon.
  • Once you have viewed the contents of a message, the icon changes to depict an opened letter next to a horizontal envelope. This is the "opened and read" icon.

You will also notice several information fields in any received messages. The "subject" field shows the subject of the message, as specified by the sender. The "Sender" field will contain the E-mail address or the real name of the sender. The "Date" field will indicate when the message was sent to you. If it shows a time of day, the message was sent the same day that you received it. If the message was sent prior to the current day, the field will contain the date that it was sent. You may also see a "Priority" field. This allows the sender to mark the message as urgent, normal or low priority. There is also a green diamond between the subject and sender fields in the message list pane. If there is a green diamond beside a particular message, it indicates that the message has not been read. After the message is viewed in the in the bottom pane, the green diamond will disappear. The message will also no longer be listed in bold text.

Message Content Pane

The bottom half of the Messenger window is where your message actually appears. To make any message appear, simply select it from the Message List Pane at the top of the Messenger window. As soon as you click any information field for a message at the top, the message will be displayed. You may not be able to see the entire message. It may be necessary to use the scroll bar at the right of the window to move down through the message.

The first thing that you should notice is the headers at the start of the message. These will list the subject of the message, the date, who it is from and who it is intended for. This last one is important if you are using one E-mail account for several people. Take note that the To and From fields are underlined and in blue text, just like links in a Web page. Click on either one of these links and a new card for the Address Book is created. The Address Book was covered in the previous chapter.

Immediately at the top of the Message Content pane at the left side is a small blue arrow identified as "Hide". if the user clicks on this arrow, the content window will disappear leaving only the message list. this may be handy if someone walks by your desk and you do not want them to see your messages. To display the Content pane again, click on the blue arrow in the bottom left corner.


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