Composing messages
The process of composing new messages will vary depending on your webmail client of choice:
Roundcube
You can compose a new message in Roundcube by opening the Compose task from the main menu.
Enter at least one recipient address (or select them from your address book), add a subject and the text for your message, and click on the Send button from the top toolbar when you are ready to send the message.
If the message is not yet complete, and you would like to finish and send it at a later time, you can save it to your Drafts folder via the Save button from the top toolbar.
Note: While composing a message, copies are periodically (every 5 minutes by default) saved to the Drafts folder to avoid unintentional loss. In case the session terminates unexpectedly or your device or browser crashes, a copy of your message will be available in the Drafts folder. You can learn more on how to configure the automatic saving interval in the User Preferences article from Roundcube's official documentation.
Additional details on how to compose a new message in Roundcube are available in the Sending Email Messages article from its official documentation.
Webmail Classic
To compose a new message via Webmail Classic, click on the Compose tab from the menu. A new Compose New Mail Message page will open where you will be presented with the following fields:
- From allows you to specify your display name and e-mail address which the recipient will see in their mail program.
- Address Book allows you to select a single or a whole group contacts from your address book as recipients. If you wish to send the message to multiple address book contacts, you should click on the Multiple link next to the Address Book field. A new page will open where you can select your address book contacts and add them to the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: fields.
- To allows you to manually enter the e-mail address of the recipient. You can add multiple recipients by separating their e-mail addresses with the comma (,) or semicolon (;) symbols.
- Cc allows you to manually enter an additional recipient that will receive a copy of the message. You can add multiple recipients by separating their e-mail addresses with the comma (,) or semicolon (;) symbols. This field is optional.
- Bcc allows you to manually enter an additional recipient that will receive a copy of the message without disclosing their e-mail address to the other recipients. You can add multiple recipients by separating their addresses with the comma (,) or semicolon (;) symbols. This filed is optional.
- Subject allows you to specify the subject of the message. This field is optional, but we would advise that the messages you send always include a subject.
- Message allows you to enter the text (body) of the message. This filed is optional, but we would advise that the messages you send always include message text.
The Message field has two (Plain text and HTML) modes. You can switch between these modes via the Switch to HTML mode and Switch to Plain text mode buttons from the Options list above the Message field. When composing messages, plain text mode is used by default.
When composing messages in plain text mode, there would be no automatic filtering applied, so the recipient will see exactly the same (plain) text that you see. Two additional options will appear in the Options list when composing messages in plain text mode - Wrap Textbox and Force HTML tags. The Wrap Textbox option allows you to wrap the message text in the Message field. The Force HTML tags option allows you to get a plain text message parsed as HTML code, thus sending an HTML message without switching to HTML mode.
When composing messages in HTML mode, a rich text (WYSIWYG) editor will appear in the Message field that will allow you to format the message with various HTML elements. If the recipient's e-mail software application supports HTML formatting (almost all modern e-mail software applications support it), they will see the message as it appeared in the rich text editor. However, if the e-mail software application of the recipient does not support HTML formatting, the message will be displayed as plain text, and the HTML variant of the message will be attached as an HTML file.
Once you specify the recipient(s), subject, and body of the message, click on the Send button to send the message. If you would like to save the message for later use, you should click on the Save Draft button, and the message will be saved in the Drafts folder of your mailbox.
By default, sent messages will be saved in the Sent folder of your mailbox. If you do not wish to keep a copy of a message in the Sent folder after sending it, you can deselect the Save Message to Sent Folder checkbox from the Options list when composing the message.
You can attach files to a message via the Add/Edit Attachments button. More details on the process are available in our Attaching files to messages article.