FPEN.Org Internet Training
http:/fpen.org/train

E-Mail and Discussion Group Exercises
(Designed to work with Netscape Communicator 4.6 Mail
on Windows 95/98/NT 4.0)
Revised: September 13th, 1999

Getting Started

If it is not already started, the first thing you will need to do is to start Netscape Messenger. You can start it in one of two ways:

  1. If the Netscape Communicator icon exists on your desktop, double-click it with your mouse. Once Netscape has loaded, find Communicator on the menu bar. Single click on it and then click on Messenger from the menu that appears.
  2. Single-click on the Start menu in the lower left. From the menu that appears, move the mouse pointer so that it is over Programs and a new sub-menu will appear. From that menu move your mouse over Netscape Communicator and from the next menu that appears, move your mouse over Netscape Messenger and click on it.

Before we do anything else we will wish to zoom this window so that it occupies the whole screen. Notice in the upper right hand corner of the Window there are three buttons: one looks like an underscore, one a box and the third an "X". Use your mouse to click on the button that appears like a box and it will enlarge your window to occupy the full screen.

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the menu bar.  Use your mouse to point to the word File on the menu bar and click on it.  A drop-down menu will appear. Use your mouse and move the pointer over each item in the menu.  Some of the menu items have ">" at the right.   These are hierarchical menu items.  Use your pointer to highlight one of these items and see how a submenu appears.  Notice as you move your mouse over each action item on a menu, a short description appears for it at the bottom left of the window.   Without clicking, move your mouse up to a different word on the menu bar and examine the contents of different menus.  Spend some time exploring and read the descriptions at the bottom.  Notice how some of the items appear to be grayed out. These items are not available now but will become available when they are needed.  When you are done looking at the menus, click anywhere in the window to close the menus.

Now notice the icons in the button bar below the menu bar.  These provide easy access to some basic functions such as printing, getting your mail, starting a new message, replying, filing the message into a folder, printing a message, deleting messages and moving from one message to the next, etc. Move your pointer over these items and see how a description appears for these as well.

Below the menu bar and icon bar is the Messenger window which is divided into three frames. The frame on the left contains your mail folders.  These folders contain messages you have received, have sent or are still in draft form and you plan to send later.

Your upper right window will list the "header" for each of messages that are contained within that folder highlighted in the left frame.  This frame has several columns. Listed are the subjects of the messages, the sender and the date it was sent. You can sort your mail according to any of these columns merely by clicking on the column title.

The bottom window will display the content of the message highlighted in the frame above. After you check your mail (below) you will be able to click on one of the messages in the upper right window and browse the contents of the message in the lower-right window.

Try highlighting a few of the messages in your inbox and examining the content of the messages. Notice if you double click the line for a message in the upper-right frame, a new window opens with a message occupying the whole window.

Using Help

From the Help menu item select Help Contents.

A new window appears with two frames. This window will function like a web browser with hot-links that can be clicked and forward and back arrows. Click on Using Email in the left frame.

In the right frame links to different topics in the Email help document have appeared. Click on Opening Your Inbox and notice how the left frame now contains the table of contents for "Getting Started with Mail" and the right frame contains the body of the document. Take a few minutes to browse through help.

In the upper left corner click on the button Index. Notice that the left frame now becomes an index of terms that appear in the help document. You are also given the opportunity to search for terms in the index. Try typing security in the search window and notice how items from the index appear immediately. From the items that appear click on security alone (not "access, security" or "preferences, security" or "settings, security") and spend a few moments exploring your results. This may be one of the most valuable resources for you in getting started with e-mail. The explanations are clear and most "jargon" is either avoided or explained.

You can close the help window by clicking on the "X" in the upper-right corner.

Continue exploring Netscape Messenger on your own. We will pause here for a few minutes until everyone has become comfortable with the basics.

Checking for mail

Reply to a message

Creating a new message.

Managing a discussion list subscription

Each of you will try signing up for a discussion list called Training-List@FPEN.Org.

Creating an Address book entry the hard way:

Creating an Address book entry the easy way:

Creating an Address book entry for a group of people:

Attaching Files 

Paul Kleeberg, M.D.         O   o          paul@fpen.org
Allina Health System       -+---+-    Voice 612-775-1338
1375 Willow Street          |_o_|      Family Practice &
Minneapolis, MN 55403 USA  / \|/ \  Information Services