Using M2

Introduction to M2

M2 is Opera's news and e-mail client, designed for speed, elegance, and user friendliness. It has many unique features:

M2 is immensely responsive even with thousands of messages
Use the "Quick reply" field for fast and chat-like e-mail messaging
Folders (access points) to mailing lists and attachments are generated automatically
E-mail searches update dynamically when you get new messages
Click on a contact to see all messages from that contact
IMAP and news are integrated

With M2, creating folders and sorting messages manually becomes superfluous. To see a group of messages instantly, for example all messages from a certain person or all messages with image attachments, simply click the corresponding access point.

All messages in M2 are kept in a database and can therefore appear several places. If a friend has posted a message on a mailing list, the message will appear both under your mailing-list access point and the access point for your friend.

The Received folder contains all your incoming messages. You do not have to move any messages from this folder. Instead, you can make a message appear in as many additional folders as you like.

If you delete an access point, the messages it referred to are not deleted because an access point only contains pointers to messages. You can only delete messages in the list of messages (message view).

To save disk space, M2 will automatically compress mail boxes if needed.

Importing e-mail

Follow this procedure to import messages, contact information, and settings:

Select New account on the Mail menu
Select "Import e-mail"
Select which e-mail client to import from
Click to select folder to import from, unless already correct
Select which old account to import from
Select whether to import settings, contact, messages, or a combination
Click to start importing
When the import process is done, click

Messages are imported like this:

Your old folder tree is put under "My folders" in the Hotlist
Messages in your old Outbox, Sent, Drafts, and Trash folders are put in the corresponding M2 folders
All old incoming messages (Inbox and folder tree) will appear in M2's Received folder

New account

Follow this procedure to set up a new account without importing old messages:

Select New account on the Mail menu
Select type of e-mail account (POP if you are unsure)
Enter your name, e-mail address, and optionally an organization you belong to
Enter your user (log-in) name and password (given to you bey your service provider)
Enter mail-server information from your service provider
Click to create the account

After your account has been set up, M2 will transfer, from the mail server, messages that are not already on your computer. This may take some time, but you can use M2 and Opera in the meantime.

Tip: See Opera's on-line article for information about using M2 with your Premium OperaMail account.

Writing messages

Start
1. Click Compose or press Ctrl + E to compose a new message
2. Double-click a message in the Drafts folder to continue editing a draft
3. Double-click a message in the Sent folder to resend an old message, with changes if you like
Enter recipients' e-mail addresses in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields (auto-completion will be offered for Contacts)
Enter your message's subject
Write your message
If you wish to add files to the message, click Attach
Finish
1. Save the message as a draft by pressing Save if you wish to continue later
2. Send the message by pressing Send in the Compose view

Tip: To change the plain-text font in the compose window, go to Fonts and colors in Preferences and choose a new font for multi-line text fields in forms.

Tip: Click the View menu to show or hide elements in the Compose view.

Reading messages

M2 transfers new messages to your computer on a regular basis, so you do not have to check your messages manually.

To go through your new messages, enable the Hotlist with F4, click the Mail tab, and double-click Unread to see all unread messages.

Message view explained

The message view is divided into four parts:

Toolbar with buttons for common actions
Field that lists (unread) messages
Field that displays the contents of the currently selected message
Field used to "quick reply" to a message

You can click on the columns to sort listed messages:

The left-most column displays a symbol for each message:

Symbol	Meaning
Star	New messages are marked as unread
Checkmark	You have marked the message as read
Arrow pointing up	The message has been sent (outgoing messages)
Arrow pointing left	You have replied to the message
Arrow pointing right	You have forwarded the message
Twisted triangle	You have redirected the message

The Subject column displays a triangle if the message belongs to a thread (click to expand), and an envelope to indicate that the message is an e-mail
The paper-clip column displays an icon for messages that contain file attachments

Messages in red have not been seen yet (selected by cursor). Messages in bold have not been marked as read yet.

Reading messages

Below is a suggested procedure for going through your incoming (unread) messages:

Recognize it!
1. If a message is spam (advertising, propaganda, etc.) press Delete to put it in your Trash folder
2. If a message is from a friend, and the icon in the From column is ghosted, press A to add your friend to your Contacts
Handle it!
1. To reply instantly to a message, enter your reply in the field to the left of the "Quick reply" button and click the button
2. If you wish to edit a message before replying, press R
3. To forward a message to a third party, press F
4. If you wish to handle a message later, click Label to set a label (e.g. Important or Meeting); the message will appear under the Labels access point
Move on!
1. When you have handled a message, press G to mark it as read and move to the next unread message

When you have gone through your unread messages, go to the Hotlist, open your mailing lists, and repeat the procedure.

Once in a while, take the trouble to check your Spam folder. If a message from a friend has been mistakenly marked as spam, click the "Not spam" button to make it appear as an ordinary message in your Unread folder.

Message-view features

Here are some things you can do in the message view:

Sort the message list by clicking the column headers (From, Subject, etc.)
Find particular messages by entering text in the "Quick find" field (which searches message headers like To, From, and Subject)
Click "Display all headers" to view the e-mail headers (more information) of a selected message

Right-click a message for multiple choices:


Mark as read	Hide selected messages from Unread folder
Mark as unread	Make selected messages reappear in Unread folder
Mark all as read	Hide all messages from Unread folder

Cut	Hide selected messages (move to clipboard) from active folder
Copy	Mark selected messages (copy to clipboard), enabling pasting to other folders
Paste	Show copied (clipboard) messages in active folder
Delete	Send selected messages to Trash folder

Reply	Answer selected message
Reply all	Answer selected message and include all recipients
Forward	Pass selected message on to a third party
Redirect	Send selected message to a third party, keeping original sender in From field

Edit	Continue editing selected outgoing message

Label as »	Mark selected messages as Important, Funny, etc.
Copy to »	Make selected messages available in other folders
Go to »	Navigate e-mails in several ways
Next unread	Go to next unread e-mail in current access point
Previous unread	Go to previous unread e-mail in current access point

Contact	See all messages associated with sender of selected message

Add contact	Recognize senders of selected messages as contacts

Click the View button in the message view for multiple choices on how to display messages:


From	Show only messages a certain contact has sent to you
To	Show only messages you have sent to a certain contact
To and from	Show all messages you have sent to and received from a contact
Flat	Show related messages sorted normally
Threaded	Show related messages sorted in threads

Today	Show messages from today
Week	Show messages that are less than a week old
Month	Show messages that are less than a month old
Three months	Show messages that are less than three months old
Year	Show messages that are less than a year old
Forever	Show messages regardless of date

Show read	Show read messages in addition to unread messages
Show trash	Show messages that have been sent to trash
Show spam	Show messages that are considered spam
Show mailing lists	Show messages to and from mailing lists
Show newsgroups	Show news messages to and from newsgroups

Show quick reply	Enable the "quick reply" function

If you use Quick reply to answer an e-mail message, Opera will remove text that has been quoted more than twice.

Advanced tip: You can specify quote levels to strip in "accounts.ini". The replacement text can be edited in "english.lng".

Organizing messages

Message tree explained

The table below explains the message tree found under the Mail tab.


Unread (3)	Messages you have not read yet
My messages	Standard access points
Received	All messages you have ever received
Outbox	Messages ready for sending (queued), but not sent yet
Sent	Messages uploaded to mail server
Drafts	Half-finished messages saved for later
Spam	Messages identified as advertising, propaganda, etc.
Trash	Safety net for messages you delete

My folders	Your manually generated folders
Grieg
Ibsen
Munch
NBA
Dallas Cowboys
Indiana Pacers

Active contacts	Auto-generated access points for people you are communicating with
Nicole
Tom

Active threads	Auto-generated access point for discussions you are participating in
Small-screen rendering
SUK
Bork Bork Bork

Labels	Messages you have marked
Important	Messages you have marked as particularly important
Todo	Tasks you have to perform
Mail back	Messages you want to reply to later
Call back	People you want to make a phone call to
Meeting	Job meetings, dates, social events, etc.
Funny	Things that just make you laugh
Valuable	Love letters, birthday cards, and other heart-warming messages

Attachments	Messages with files attached to them
Documents	All files except those listed below
Images	Messages containing pictures
Music	Messages containing sound clips
Video	Messages containing video clips
Archives	Messages containing compressed file archives
Mailing lists	Auto-generated access points to all your mailing lists
Sky watchers
Daily comic
Opera newsletter
Mail for you@example.org	Access points to your IMAP folders
INBOX
Sent
Snowboarding
News at news.example.net	Access points to newsgroups at news.example.net
alt.comics.peanuts
rec.fishing

Note the following details about the message tree:

Click the root elements (e.g. My messages and My folders) to show underlying access points
Double-click an access point to show the messages it contains
Access points in bold have unread messages
Locate an access point by entering text in the "Quick find" field in the Hotlist
You can navigate the tree with the cursor keys

Right-click an access point for multiple choices:


Read mail	View messages in selected access point
Check mail	Download new messages to your computer
Compose	Write a message to a friend

Mark all as read	Hide all messages (in selected access point) from Unread folder
Empty trash	Permanently remove deleted messages from Trash folder

New folder	Create new folder
Delete	Delete selected folder and all sub-folders

Properties	View or edit folder properties

Technical note: Mailing lists are identified by looking for standard mailing list headers. See IETF RFC 2919 for specifications.

Building your own folder tree

If you wish to organize your messages beyond what M2 does automatically, you can create traditional message folders with filters.

To create a top-level folder, right-click "My folders" and select New folder. You can build a folder tree by creating folders within folders.

You can make messages appear in your folders:

Manually, by right-clicking a message in the message view, and selecting a folder under "Copy to"
Automatically, by creating message filters

Tip: You can make a message appear in as many folders as you like.

Message filters

Select Filters on the Mail menu
Select folder for which to make a filter
- Spam folder and folders under "My folders" only
Click to create a new filter
Select which part of the message to scan
Select how to evaluate the text
Enter text to look for
Select whether to mark a message as read if it matches the filter
Select whether to let the filter apply to all messages, or only messages you receive from now on
Repeat the procedure if you need multiple filter rules
- When using And and Or, And is processed before Or
Activate the filter by clicking

Spam filter

The Spam folder separates advertisement and unwanted messages from messages in other folders. Spam can be handled in two ways:

Manually, by creating a message filter for the Spam folder
Automatically, using the built-in M2 spam filter

As an experiment, try to make a message filter for the Spam folder that looks for the phrase "SPAM LETTER". Then send a message to yourself containing this text and see if the spam filter catches it.

The internal spam filter examines messages for suspicious content, missing sender address, etc. If too many questionable matters are found, the message is considered spam. You can set the internal filter to be agressive, mild, or turn it off completely if you want to handle spam manually.

Finding messages

As the number of messages on your computer grows, it becomes necessary to quickly find just that one particular message you are looking for:

Select Search on the Mail menu
In the dialog that opens, enter the text to look for
Select which parts of a message you want to search
- Select "Entire message" for a full search
Select time period to stay within
Select whether to look for the entire phrase or random occurences of individual words
Select which folder to look in
Select whether to also look in sub-folders
Start your search by clicking

Tip: To do a quick search, enter text in the "Start search" field in the Hotlist and press Enter.

Fine-tuning M2

Using multiple accounts

If you have multiple e-mail accounts, for example home@example.net, hobby@example.org, and work@example.com, you can add them all by selecting New account on the Mail menu.

When you click the Check button, new messages from all your accounts will be downloaded to your computer. To check messages for a single account only, click the triangle on the Check button and select which account to check.

Fine-tuning your accounts

You can set options for each of your accounts.

Select Manage accounts on the Mail menu
Double-click the account you want to configure
Click the tabs in the dialog to change the different options

General

The account name is only used in the user interface, not in messages
Your name and e-mail address appear in outgoing messages, for example Nice Person <someone@example.org>
Outgoing messages can indicate an organization you belong to (optional)
Outgoing messages can indicate an alternate address people should send replies to (optional)

Servers

Enter the e-mail/news-account information you received from your service provider (ISP). Contact your service provider if you are missing information.

Tip: To protect your e-mail and news passwords, enter a security password in Opera's Security preferences.

Incoming

Leaving messages on a server makes it possible to retrieve the messages again from another computer
If you read messages from multiple computers, they can be marked automatically if you have already downloaded (read) them from another computer
Choosing not to download message body will speed up checking your e-mail
- The message body will be downloaded automatically when you read messages
You can check for messages manually by clicking the Check button
- Messages will also be automatically checked at certain time intervals
You can decide which accounts to check when you press the Check button
M2 can play a sound when you get new messages

Outgoing

International users may need to specify a character set for their language
Enable wrapping to make text fit standard width (76 characters)
Enable queueing to have messages sent in batches when you click the Send button
- This is useful if you have a dial-up connection
When sending or replying to a message, you can have all recipients automatically added to your contact list
Specify a signature that will appear at the bottom of all messages you send

Fine-tuning access points

To fine-tune access-point properties, select an access point in the Holist and press Alt + Enter.

In the properties you can edit:

The name of the access point
Filter rules for the access point

Learn more about message filters

IMAP

About IMAP

IMAP organizes your e-mail messages on the mail server. Regardless of where you are when you look at your e-mail, you will see the same messages organized the same way, even if you use different computers. This is much more work than with POP accounts.

Warning: Setting up an e-mail account to use both POP and IMAP simultaneously is likely to cause problems. Therefore, use either POP or IMAP for each account.

Setting up an IMAP account

To set up an IMAP account, follow the procedure for POP and select IMAP instead of POP when asked.

Note: Make sure the e-mail service you want to use supports IMAP.

Using IMAP

When your IMAP folder has been set up, and all messages are downloaded to your computer, your IMAP folder tree appears in the Hotlist under "Mail for...".

The INBOX folder is the default folder for incoming messages and cannot be deleted.

Double-click your INBOX to read your e-mail. Reading and writing messages over IMAP is similar to working with POP.

Maintaining IMAP folders

Select IMAP folders on the Mail menu to customize your IMAP folder tree.

Click the checkboxes to select which IMAP folders you want to access from your computer.

Click to create a new IMAP folder.

Click to delete an IMAP folder on the mail server. (Note that all messages in that folder will be lost.)

Moving messages between folders

To move a message from one IMAP folder to another, drag the message from the message view and drop it to the new folder.

Options

Account options are the same as for POP, with these additions:

You can set the path to your IMAP root folder
- This is only needed if indicated by your service provider
You can choose a folder on the IMAP server in which to store messages sent from your IMAP account

Note: To take full advantage of M2's IMAP capabilities, you should be connected to the Internet.

News

While an e-mail is usually sent to a single person or a few people, posting a news article can be compared to putting notices on a public bulletin board.

Setting up a news account

To set up your news account, do the following:

Select New account on the Mail menu
Select "News" when the account wizard starts
Enter your name, e-mail address, and organization (optional)
Enter the news-server information given to you by your service provider
Click to create your new account

Tip: To participate in newsgroups about the Opera Web browser, enter news.opera.com as news server.

Subscribing to newsgroups

To subscribe to newsgroups on your news server, do the following:

Select Newsgroups on the Mail menu
Subscribe to groups by clicking the respective checkboxes in the list
Click to subscribe

Tip: Enter text in the "Quick find" field to find particular newsgroups without scrolling through the whole list.

Reading news

To read a newsgroup, double-click the group you want to read in your "News at" access point.

Reading and writing news articles is practically the same as working with e-mail messages. Note, however, the following:

Click "Reply" to post a follow-up article, as an answer to the article you are currently reading
Click "Reply all" to both post a follow-up and reply to the author by e-mail
Enter a comma-separated list of groups if you want to post your article in multiple groups (called "cross-posting")
Enter e-mail addresses in the Cc field to send people copies of the article by e-mail
Deleting a news article only deletes your local copy -- a news article is never deleted from the server

Learn more

Learn to use M2 with the keyboard

Learn about the Mail menu

Read the on-line M2 tutorial