If you have a Complete account you can communicate via electronic mail (email) with other members of The WELL and users of other email systems connected to the Internet. This kind of private communication, carried on between you and those people you decide to send mail to, is one of the most powerful features of the new electronic world.

1. Your WELL email address
2. Finding the login of a WELL member
3. Creating and sending new mail
4. To cancel or postpone mail
5. To send mail to more than one person
6. To compose offline and send online
7. Reading mail
8. To reply to an email message
9. To forward mail
10. Saving and deleting mail
11. Attaching a file to a message
12. Viewing or saving a file attached to a message
13. Downloading email
14. Changing your email settings
15. To get help

When you signed up for a Complete account at The WELL, we established an Internet address and electronic mailbox for you. Your email address is:

	login@well.com

Anyone using the Internet can send you mail.

When you use email, you can send mail to a number of people at the same time, reply to a mail message directly, and forward mail to other people. It happens almost instantaneously. People who use email regularly call the mail service provided by the US Postal Service "snail mail."

Your Complete membership on The WELL offers a number of ways to access your email. Choose the access method that is most convenient for you at Using Email.

In a PicoSpan session, you can manage your email with the Email menu. To open the Email menu, choose 6 Email from the Main menu.

EMAIL                                           .  Menu name : mail
                                                .  Conference: wellcome
 1  Read/answer email                           . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                .
 2  Send email                                  .  HELPFUL INFORMATION
                                                .
 3  Download email                              .   40  Definitions
                                                .   41  Notes
 4  Search the WELL member directory            .   42  Quick Commands
                                                .
 5  Email settings...                           .   43  Explain a specific term
                                                .   44  Help from a real person
 6  Set up a POP mail program                   .
                                                .  GETTING AROUND
 7  Sign up for an ExtraMail account            .
    (see #13 or #14)                            .   66  Go back one menu
                                                .   77  Go to the Main menu
                                                .   88  Go to a menu by
                                                        name
                                                .   99  Turn off these
                                                        menus
                                                .
                                                .  100  Exit from the WELL
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OK (type a number or command):

The Email menu allows you to send, read, or download mail messages, to search for the login of a WELL member, and to change your email settings.

The program used to handle email on The WELL is called "Pine," developed at the University of Washington. This page introduces the basics you need to know to get and send mail with Pine on The WELL.

You can use other email programs on The WELL, including POP (Post Office Protocol) Mail clients such as Eudora, Netscape Mail, and Outlook Express as well as WELL Webmail. For other ways to read your WELL mail, see Using Email.

When you want to send email to a WELL member, you need to know the login of the person you want to contact.

The WELL provides a search facility that can show you the login and name of WELL members. As long as you know some part of what you want to see - part of a name or part of a login - you can see a list of matching names and logins.

1. From the Main menu choose 6 Email.
2. From the Mail menu choose 4 Search the WELL member directory. The WELL will prompt you for a search string.
3. Enter the characters you know are in the person's name or login.
4. The WELL displays a list of all the names and logins that match what you enter.
   For example, if you enter "arno" as the text to search for, The WELL displays a list like the following:

        name or part of name (no quotes): arno

        Ok: Type a number or command> name "arno"
                    ovrrtt   Mary Arnold
                     eawwy   Jansen Arnold
                      abce   Hillary Arnot
                  romantic   Michael S. Arnot
                  baranydd   Major Berens
                    moeeee   Sandra Karnoff
                      rtak   Arnold Krastner
                     dauit   Arnold Lawrenceson
                    arnodd   Harry A. Truckin

Notice that The WELL finds all the entries that have the particular sequence of characters anywhere in any of the names.

Tip: Narrow your search for Jansen or Jerry Arnold by entering j arnold.

WELL members who have logins that are longer than 8 characters have off-site email addresses. Type bio login to find their email addresses.

You can send email to anyone with an email address. If the person has a WELL email address, you need to know only that person's login. If the person's email address is elsewhere on the Internet, you need to know the entire address. An Internet email address takes the following form:

	username@site.domain

Most commercial services use the domain designation of "net" or "com." Organizations end in "org," educational institutions end in "edu," and government departments end in "gov."

Note: There is no period at the end of the email address.

Your email address is login@well.com. For example, if your login is "wish37" your email address is:

	wish37@well.com

When you send a message, the entry screen you write in looks like this:

TITLE-BAR PINE      COMPOSE MESSAGE               Folder: INBOX No Messages


HEADER    To      : username@site.domain
AREA      Cc      :
          Attchmnt:
          Subject :
          ----- Message Text -----

MESSAGE
AREA

AVAILABLE ^G Get Help ^X Send     ^R Rich Hdr ^Y PrvPg/Top  ^K Cut Line   ^O Postpone
COMMANDS  ^C Cancel   ^D Del Char ^J Attach   ^V NxtPg/End  ^U UnDel Line ^T To AddrBk

The email entry screen has two areas, the header area and the message area. The available commands appear at the bottom of the screen. The list of commands changes depending on whether the cursor is in the header area or in the message area.

The ^ symbol in the list of commands stands for the Control key. In the list shown above, for example, ^G means "hold down the Control key while you hit the G key." We call this Control-G in this manual.

To send mail, you need to know the email address of the person to whom you are sending mail.

1. From the Main menu choose 6 Email.
2. From the Mail menu choose 2 Send email.
3. The WELL will prompt you to enter the login of the person to whom you want to send a mail message. Enter the email address or The WELL login. If you are sending an email message to someone elsewhere on the Internet, enter the entire email address. For a WELL member, you need only the login.
4. The email entry screen appears. The email address of the person to whom you are sending the message is entered automatically in the "To" field. If you entered a WELL login, the recipient's whole name is already displayed, as well as his or her login.
   
   Tip: Use the Tab key or the Arrow keys to move to the next field you want to fill in, or to the Message Text area.
   
   
5. If you want to send a copy of this message to another person, move to the "Cc" field and enter the login of the person to receive the copy.
6. In the Subject field, enter a few words that identify the subject of the message. Indicating the subject is a convenience to your recipient, since most email programs show the subject when they list messages.
7. Type and edit your message. Use the Arrow keys to move the cursor. You can insert new text at the cursor position.
8. When you are ready to send the letter, press Control-X.
9. The WELL will prompt you to confirm that it is OK to send this message. Type Y to confirm or type N if you change your mind at the last minute.
10. If you confirm the message, it is sent and the OK prompt appears.

Perhaps you become self-critical in the middle of writing. Or perhaps you decide you need to look up a fact before continuing. If you decide to stop writing a mail message for any reason, you can either cancel the process or you can postpone writing the message until a later time.

To cancel a mail message, press Control-C. The program prompts you to confirm the cancellation:

     Cancel message (answering "Yes" will abandon your mail message)?
                      Y Yes
     ^C Cancel        N [No]

To postpone writing a mail message, press Control-O. The program prompts you to confirm postponing. To continue working on a postponed mail message, press C, the command to compose a message. If there's a postponed message, Pine always asks if you want to continue the old one.

If you press C to compose a new message, you get this prompt:

     Continue postponed composition (answering "No" won't erase it)?
                  Y [Yes]
     ^C Cancel    N No

Type Y to see the message you postponed.

If you have postponed more than one message, you see a list of postponed messages. Use your arrow keys to move among the messages to one you want to send or cancel.

Suppose you want to send the same mail message to more than one person. You can enter more than one user name by separating the names with commas. If you did not enter the logins at the OK prompt, you can add them to the header of the message.

In the "To:" field, move the cursor to the right of the first login (which for WELL members has already been expanded to include the whole name), type a comma and then type the second login: login2,login3.

When you press Return, the logins of WELL members are expanded. For example:

	       To :   User1 Wholename,
	              User2 Wholename,
	              User3 Wholename

You can send copies of a message to several people. In the "Cc:" field, move the cursor to the right of the first login, type a comma, and then type the second login. Type additional logins, separated by commas. The operation works as it does in the "To:" field.

You may want to compose your message before you log in to The WELL. If your system uses a clipboard (Mac, Windows, or one of several Unix graphical interfaces), you can do the following:

1. Compose your mail message using a standard word processor.
2. Copy the text of the message to the clipboard.
3. Log in to The WELL as usual.
4. Use the menus to open the email entry screen.
5. Move the cursor to the Message Text area and Paste the text.
6. Send the mail message in the normal way.

You can also upload a file to your WELL home directory and attach it to an email message. For instructions about attaching a file to a mail message, see Attaching a file to a message.

Note: The appearance of sentences in Pine may change from the way you compose them offline. You can get good results by using a 70-character line in your original offline composition.

So you've been active on The WELL, or you've mentioned your email address to several close friends, or perhaps your business card now sports your email address. You begin to receive mail. When someone sends you mail, you see a special notice when you log in to The WELL:

	You have new mail.

It's easy to read your email messages. From the Main menu choose 6 Email. Then from the Email menu choose 1 Read/answer email. The WELL displays the Main Menu of the Pine email editor:

  PINE        MAIN MENU                          Folder: INBOX  4 Messages


       ?     HELP               -  Get help using Pine

       C     COMPOSE MESSAGE    -  Compose and send a message

       I     MESSAGE INDEX      -  View messages in current folder

       L     FOLDER LIST        -  Select a folder to view

       A     ADDRESS BOOK       -  Update address book

       S     SETUP              -  Configure or update Pine

       Q     QUIT               -  Exit the Pine program



   Copyright 1989-2003.  PINE is a trademark of the University of
   Washington.

? Help                     P PrevCmd                  R RelNotes
O OTHER CMDS > [ListFldrs] N NextCmd                  K KBLock

This menu gives you the opportunity to perform several different operations, including composing a mail message. FOLDER LIST is highlighted. This is the menu choice you use to read mail. Press Return to select FOLDER LIST and see the folder list screen:

  PINE      FOLDER LIST                          Folder: INBOX 3 Messages

  INBOX     sent-mail          saved-messages      specialwork-messages

• All messages are automatically sent to your INBOX folder.
• The "sent-mail" and "saved-messages" folders store mail that has been sent or saved.
• The "specialwork-messages" file shown above has been created to store a certain group of messages. This feature is described in Saving and deleting mail.

The INBOX is already highlighted. Press Return to see the list of mail messages in your INBOX:

  PINE        FOLDER INDEX            Folder: INBOX  Message 1 of 1

	  +   1   Nov 15 To: Your Wholename

Use the Arrow keys to move the highlight to the message you want to read and press Return. The message appears. Use the spacebar to display additional pages of mail messages.

1. Press R at any time the email message is displayed on the screen. The "To:" and "Cc:" email addresses from the original message are automatically inserted in the reply.
2. When the program asks you whether to include the original message, indicate yes or no. If you include the original message, you can delete extraneous portions as you write the reply.
3. When the program asks you whether to send the message to the entire list of recipients, indicate yes or no. You can modify the recipient list later if you want.
4. Compose your reply in the Message Text area. This works just like creating an original mail message.
5. Press Control-X to send the mail message.

Note: When a message is highlighted in the list of messages but is not open, you can type R to specify "reply."

If you receive a mail message that ought to be seen by someone else as well, you can forward the message quickly. You need to know the login of the new recipient.

1. Press F at any time the message is displayed on the screen.
2. Enter the login or email address of the person to whom the mail message should be sent.
3. Press Control-X to send the message.

Note: When the message is highlighted in the list of messages but is not open, you can type F to specify "forward."

Pine always saves email you send, in case you want to look at it again. You can save email you receive, or you can delete it to free up file space in your home directory (space assigned to you on The WELL's computer).

To save mail

You can save email messages in the standard location - a folder called "saved-messages" - or you can create special folders to hold different categories of received mail.

1. Press S at any time the mail message is displayed.
2. The program prompts you for the folder to use. The standard folder is "saved-messages." If you want to save the mail message in the standard folder, simply press Return.
3. If you want to save the mail message in a special folder, type the folder name and then press Return. If the folder already exists, the message is added to the messages already saved in that folder. If the folder is new, the program creates the folder and stores the message there.

You can open and view these folders just as you can open the inbox folder.

To delete email messages

You can delete mail messages you no longer want. Once a mail message is marked for deletion, you have until you exit from the email program to change your mind.

You can delete messages either from the list of messages or when a message is displayed on the screen.

• When the list of messages is displayed, use the Arrow keys to highlight the message you want to delete, and then press D. The program adds a letter D to the left of the message on the message list, indicating that it is to be deleted.

• When the message you want to delete is displayed on the screen, press D. The program displays the next message. You can still display the "deleted" message if you want. The program adds a letter D to the left of the message on the message list, indicating that it is to be deleted.

You have a final chance to change your mind about deleting messages. When you quit from the program, Pine displays this final prompt:

	Expunge the 2 deleted messages from "INBOX"?
        Y [Yes]
        N No

• If you do, indeed, wish to expunge the deleted messages, type Y. To expunge means to absolutely delete, throw out, rub out, cancel, get rid of. When you expunge the deleted messages, they are no longer available to be seen or otherwise handled. The trash has been emptied.

• If you are attacked by sudden doubts about expunging your files marked D, type N. The messages remain unexpunged, but they retain the D mark when you return to the Pine program again.

You can attach a file to an email message. When the recipient gets the mail message, he or she can also obtain the attached file. This feature can be a useful way to exchange project files. No need to retype the information, simply upload the file to The WELL and attach it to a mail message.

Note: Text files attached to an email message can be opened by the recipient using any email program. Text files also travel well between different types of computer systems (from Macintosh to PC, for example). And computer viruses cannot travel in text files.

To attach a file, the file you want to attach must be in your directory on The WELL. If it is on your computer, you need to upload it first. For information about uploading files to your home directory, see Managing files on The WELL.

You need to know the name of the file you want to attach.

1. Start a mail message or a reply in the usual way.
2. When the cursor is anywhere in the header area, press Control-J. If you decide to attach a file after you begin entering text in the Message Text area, you must use the Arrow keys to move the cursor into the header area.
3. When the program asks you enter the filename, enter the name of the file you want to attach.
4. When the program asks you enter a comment, enter a word or phrase that describes the file. The program enters the filename and comment in the "Attach:" field.
5. If you want to attach another file, press Control-J again and enter the second filename. You can attach several files to a single message.
6. Complete the message and send it in the usual way.

Note: If the file you want to attach is in a subdirectory of your home directory, be sure to add the subdirectory to the path name before typing the filename. For example, suppose you upload a file named "readthisfirst" and store it in a subdirectory called "2distribute." To attach the file, when prompted for the filename you would enter 2distribute/readthisfirst.

When someone attaches a file to a message, the Pine program indicates that the message has "multiple parts" at the end of the header. For example:

  PINE        MESSAGE TEXT              Folder: INBOX  Message 2 of 6 100%

Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 00:04:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Adoro Flamer
To: Lindorno Urbanistic
Subject: Latest menus
Parts/attachments:
   1 Shown    4 lines  Text
   2   OK   770 lines  Text, ""
----------------------------------------


The most recent version of the menus, posted today, is
attached for viewing or download.


  [Part 2, ""  Text  770 lines]
  [Not Shown. Use the "V" command to view or save this part]


? Help        < Msg Index  P PrevMsg     - PrevPage    D Delete     R Reply
O OTHER CMDS  < ViewAttch  N NextMsg   Spc NextPage    U Undelete   F Forward

Part 1 is always the message text that the file is attached to. Parts 2, 3, and so forth, are the attached files. You can view or save these files.

To view or save an attached file, press V to indicate that you want to view or save the attached file. Use your arrow keys to select the attached file for the list of attachments and hit Enter

The program shows you the file.

To save the file in your home directory, type S. The program prompts you t o enter the location and filename to use.

SAVE: Copy attachment to file in home directory:

[Part 2, 338bytes written to "/home/l/o/login/filename"]

The file remains attached to the email message. If you forward the message to another person, the file will be available to that person as well.

You can download email and read it offline, on your computer. Downloading mail removes the mail from The WELL, so you cannot see it again while you're online.

Note: If binary files (formatted, graphic, or executable files) are attached, do not download your mail until you have saved the attached files and downloaded them separately. Downloading considers all files to be text files, so it won't work properly if any attached files are meant to be downloaded as binary files.

For details about downloading email, see Managing files on The WELL.

You can change some settings that affect how you send and receive mail. You do this on the Email Settings menu. From the Email menu choose 5 Email settings.

 EMAIL SETTINGS                                 .  Menu name : mailset
                                                .  Conference: wellcome
  1  Choose your UNIX email program...          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                .
  2  Forward your email                         .  HELPFUL INFORMATION
  3  Unforward your email                       .
                                                .   40  Definitions
  4  Create an automatic vacation message       .   41  Notes
  5  Turn off the vacation message              .   42  Quick Commands
                                                .
  6  Create or change a standard signature for  .   43  Explain a specific
        email (only in Pine)                            term
                                                .   44  Help from a real
  7  Use both POP *and* UNIX mail programs              person
                                                .
                                                .  GETTING AROUND
                                                .
                                                .   66  Go back one menu
                                                .   77  Go to the Main menu
                                                .   88  Go to a menu by
                                                        name
                                                .   99  Turn off these
                                                        menus
                                                .
                                                .  100  Exit from the WELL
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OK (type a number or command):

The settings on the Email Settings menu allow you to do the following:

• Choose your UNIX email program. You can use either Pine (discussed so far throughout this page) or one of the other programs listed in the email settings menu.

  The WELL also provides WELL Webmail as well as Thunderbird and Eudora and other POP mail programs, which reside on your machine. For more information see Using Email.

• Forward and Unforward your email. If you want mail forwarded to another Internet location, choose 2 Forward your email and enter your email address. The WELL creates a ".forward" file that reroutes all incoming email. Unforwarding deletes the ".forward" file.

• Create and turn off a vacation message. If you will not be looking at your email for some length of time, you may wish to notify people on the Internet of this fact.

• Create or change a standard signature for email. You can create a "signature" that appears on all of your Pine email messages. Some people use this feature to append business telephone numbers, addresses, and other pertinent information to email messages.

If you have a question about what a particular command means, how to perform a task you want to do, or how to solve a particular editing problem, you can get help quickly. To get help, type Control-G.

The first of several help screens appears. Navigate through the help system by following the commands at the bottom of the help screens.

WELL policies and etiquette
Getting connected
Menu basics
Getting and sending email
Starting out in WELL conferences
Working with WELL conferences
People online
Accessing Other Internet Sites
The muse
Managing files on The WELL
Checking and changing settings
Accounting and billing
Troubleshooting
PicoSpan Command Summary