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# Mail & Newsgroups Preferences

The sections listed below describe the Mail & Newsgroups preferences that apply to all your mail and newsgroup accounts. To see these preferences:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.

In this section:

- Mail & Newsgroups
- Message Display
- Notifications
- Composition
- Send Format
- Addressing
- Junk & Suspect Mail
- Tags
- Return Receipts
- Text Encoding
- Network & Storage Preferences

## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Mail & Newsgroups

This section describes the main Mail & Newsgroups preferences. If you are not already viewing the Mail & Newsgroups main preferences, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences. You see the Preferences dialog box.
2. Click the Mail & Newsgroups category.

- Confirm when moving folders to the Trash: Choose to allow Mail & Newsgroups to prompt you before deleting folders.
- Remember the last selected message: Choose this option if you want &brandShortName; to select the message you had selected last before leaving a folder when you reenter a folder.
- Preserve threading when sorting messages: Select this option if you want &brandShortName; to preserve the threaded message grouping when sorting messages. If it is not selected, &brandShortName; automatically displays the messages unthreaded when you sort them by clicking on the column headers.
- Only check for new mail after opening Mail & Newsgroups: By default, &brandShortName; checks for new messages even if only a browser window is open. Choose this option if you want to delay checking for new messages until after the Mail & Newsgroups window has been opened at least once (be it automatically on startup or manually).
- Make &brandShortName; the default application for: Select &brandShortName; as the default mail, news or feeds application for Windows and from within other applications such as Microsoft Word.

  Note: Setting &brandShortName; as the default mail, news or feeds application may remove the connection that other applications had with these tasks. Refer to the documentation of the respective applications in order to find how to restore the defaults.

- Use &brandShortName; Mail & News when opening browser links for: By default, any links to email addresses or newsgroups opened from browser pages or other messages are handled by &brandShortName; itself. Uncheck the Mail and/or News boxes if you want an external application to handle such links instead. In this case, a dialog will open to select the application to be used.

  Note: Don't uncheck either of these boxes and then select &brandShortName; in the dialog unless it is also registered as the system's respective default mail or news application. Doing so may cause &brandShortName; to continuously prompt for the program to use when opening a link.

- When Mail launches, show the Start Page in the message area: Select this to enable the Start Page. The Start Page appears in the message area when you first open &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups. This page is the default page, but you can enter a different web page or URL of your choice. To disable the Start Page, deselect this option. Click Restore Default to return to the original page provided by &brandShortName;.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Message Display

Message Display preferences allow you to choose how messages are displayed in all accounts. If you are not already viewing the Message Display settings, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences. You see the Preferences dialog box.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, click Message Display. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

- When opening messages, display them in: These options control the behavior when opening messages in a separate window, e.g., by double-clicking on it in the message list of a folder:
  - A new message window: Choose this if you want to open each message in a new window.
  - An existing message window: Choose this if you want to reuse an already opened message window for the next mail.
  - Close message window when deleting a message: Check this if you want the message window to be closed automatically when the message you are viewing in it is deleted.
- Block images and other content from remote sources: Select this checkbox if you do not want to display remote images and other content in received messages, except from senders in your address books whom you have allowed. (This checkbox is selected by default.)
- Show only display name for people in my address book: Check this if you want to save some space in the message headers where email addresses are shown. If selected, known senders and recipients are only listed with their display names, their email addresses are hidden. You can see the full email addresses when hovering over such entries with the mouse.
- Automatically mark messages as read: Check this option to mark messages as read once they are opened. (This checkbox is selected by default.)
  - Only after displaying for [__] seconds: Check this option if you do not want a message to be marked as read when you are only taking a brief look at it. Enter the number of seconds you want a message to be displayed before it gets marked as read automatically. If this box is not checked, messages are marked as read as soon as they are opened.
- Plain Text Messages: These settings control how plain-text messages are displayed. These options do not have any effect when viewing HTML (rich-text) messages, or when writing new messages.
  - Font: Select the font you prefer for viewing plain-text messages: fixed width or variable width.
  - Wrap text to fit window width: Select this so that incoming messages are word-wrapped to fit the width of your Mail window.
  - Display emoticons as graphics: Select this so that when you receive messages that contain emoticons (also called smiley faces) Mail & Newsgroups can convert them to graphics, for example:

    This: | Converts to:
    :-) |
    :) |
    :-( |
    :( |
    ;-) |
    ;-p |

    This option also controls some common plain-text formatting conventions:

    This: | Displays as:
    mm^2 | mm2
    +/-1 | ±1

  - Settings for quoted messages: Choose a different font style, size, and/or color for quoted plain-text messages to more easily distinguish quoted text (usually the content of a message for which the sender replied to you, or quoted parts of a message you replied to).

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Notifications

Notification preferences allow you to select different methods for informing you on arrival of a new message. So you don't have to always look in the folders.

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, click Notifications. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

- Show an alert for [__] seconds: Select this if you want &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to display an alert on your desktop when new messages arrive. This alert is usually located above your system tray in the lower right corner of your screen. The alert only appears once when new messages arrive, stays for the specified amount of time, and won't appear again until you have visited one of your folders with new mail, read one of the new messages, or checked for new messages manually.

  | New mail desktop alert

  The following options determine which message-specific items are shown in the alert for each new message:
  - Show a preview of the message text: Check this to show the first few words of the message received in the alert.
  - Show the subject: Check this to show the subject line of the message in the alert.
  - Show the sender: Check this to show the sender's name or email address in the alert.
  - Use the operating system's desktop notifications: Select this to use the operating system's notification system (e.g., libnotify), if available. Note that some configuration options for the alert message may not be supported.
  - Use &brandShortName;'s own notification windows: Select this to use the built-in XUL-based notification system for new-mail alerts. All configuration options are supported.

  When the alert appears, clicking an entry for a message will take you to the respective folder and opens that message. You can close the alert using the x button.

  The new message alert will continue to work even after you close the Mail window (as long as another &brandShortName; window is open).

- Show a tray icon: Select this if you want &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to display an icon in your system tray (which is usually found in the lower right corner of your screen) when new messages arrive. This icon will stay in the system tray until you have visited one of your folders with new mail, read one of the new messages, or checked for new messages manually.

  New mail tray icon

  When the icon appears, double-clicking it will open the &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups main window.

  Note: On Windows 7 and above, the Notification Area Icons settings for &brandShortName; must read Show icon and notifications for the icon to stay visible. Otherwise, it may be hidden after a short period of time.

  - Show a balloon alert: As an alternative to the desktop alert described above, you can use the operating system's balloon notification. When new mail arrives, this will show the icon along with a balloon indicating the number of new messages available for the account.

    Balloon alert

    When the balloon appears, clicking into it will open the Main & Newsgroup main window. The duration of the balloon alert depends on the respective setting in your operating system. You can close the balloon using the x button.

    The new message alert will continue to work even after you close the Mail window (as long as another &brandShortName; window is open).

    Note: Show an alert for [__] seconds and Show a balloon alert cannot be selected at the same time. Checking one option will uncheck the other.

- Animate the Dock icon: Select this if you want Mail & Newsgroups to bounce the &brandShortName; Dock icon when new messages arrive.
- Play a sound: Select this if you want &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups to play a sound when new messages arrive. You can choose between the default system sound and a custom sound in WAV format. If you choose the latter, use the Browse button to select the sound file in the file locator. Click on the Play button to listen to the chosen sound file.

  Once &brandShortName; Mail has been started, the new messages sound will continue to work even after you close the Mail window (as long as another &brandShortName; window is open).

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Composition

Composition preferences affect how you create messages (for example, forwarding options and address autocompletion) in all accounts. If you are not already viewing the Composition settings, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, click Composition. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

- Forward Messages: Choose how you want forwarded message text to appear: as an attachment or inline (in the body of your message).
- Quote attachments viewed inline in replies: If this option is checked, then attachments (such as images, text, or messages) viewed inline are included in the quote when replying to an email.
- Automatically save the message every [__] minutes: Choose this option if you want Mail & Newsgroups to save the message you are currently composing automatically at the given interval. After a computer crash or program failure you can find the latest saved version of the message in your Drafts folder.
- Confirm when using keyboard shortcut to send message: Check this option if want to be asked if you're sure to be ready to send the message when you're pressing Ctrl+Enter in message editor. This may help you avoid accidentally sending the message if you enter the keyboard shortcut by mistake when composing a message.
- Select reply header type: Select the type of reply header you wish to use. There are four choices available:
  1. No Reply Header
  2. [Author] wrote:
     This setting is based on the mailnews.reply_header_authorwrotesingle preference.
  3. On [date], [Author] wrote:
     This setting is based on the mailnews.reply_header_ondateauthorwrote preference.
  4. [Author] wrote on [date]:
     This setting is based on the mailnews.reply_header_authorwroteondate preference.
- Wrap plain text messages at [__] characters: Enter a number to set the right margin for text in the message area.
- Defaults for HTML Messages: Here you can define what the defaults are for font, size, text and background color if you choose to send mails in HTML format.
- Default composition format: Select the initial style for composing messages. With Body Text format, the Enter key always inserts just a new line, while with Paragraph format, the Enter key opens a new paragraph with additional line spacing. Use Shift+Enter to insert just a plain line break regardless of this setting.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Send Format

Send Format preferences allow you to specify how you want to format your outgoing messages. If you are not already viewing the Send Format settings, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences. You see the Preferences dialog box.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, click Send Format. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

Formatted messages (composed in HTML) can be sent as HTML, plain text, or both (those composed in plain text will always be sent as plain text only).

If any of the recipients isn't explicitly listed to receive HTML, based on his or her address-book entry or on a domain-based setting as explained below, the following options apply:

- Ask me what to do: This option requires Mail & Newsgroups to prompt you to choose a format before you send the message.
- Convert the message to plain text: This option sends the message as plain text only, thus it will cause your message to lose formatting such as custom colors or bold text. It will also remove all images which are within the message itself (but not attachments).
- Send the message as HTML only: If you select this option, keep in mind that some mail programs may have trouble displaying the message as no separate plain-text representation is sent.
- Send the message as both plain text and HTML: This option is the best trade-off between compatibility and retaining applied formatting and embedded images, but increases the message size.

Settings for entire domains:

- HTML and Plain Text Domains: These options explicitly set HTML or plain-text preference for all users in the given domains (i.e., the part of an e-mail address after the @). Use the Add button to add the domain names that you typically send mail to, if you know which domains can display HTML-formatted mail messages, and which domains can only display plain text.

Settings depending on the message content:

- Automatically send the message as plain text if no significant formatting is present: Use this option to convert messages which were composed in HTML to plain text to reduce the size of the message if no or non-significant formatting has been applied. Significant in this case includes bold or italic fonts, underlining, custom colors, etc. This test is performed before the address book or domain settings are consulted to determine the send format.

For example, if you typically send mail to multiple recipients that have the same domain name (for example, your colleagues all have email addresses that end in netscape.net), and you know that this domain name is capable of displaying HTML messages, then you can add the netscape.net domain to the list of HTML Domains so that Mail & Newsgroups will automatically send messages in HTML format to these recipients (note that no plain-text part is sent in this case).

Similarly, if you typically send mail to recipients at a domain that you know can only receive Plain Text messages, you can add that domain name to the list of Plain Text domains, so that Mail & Newsgroups automatically sends messages to that domain in plain-text format (no HTML part is sent).

Whenever you add a person or address card to your address book, you can specify whether that addressee can receive HTML-formatted messages. However, when this information is unknown, you can set Send Format preferences for how Mail & Newsgroups formats these messages.

You can always override these preferences for an individual message by using the Options menu in the Mail Compose window.

Note: If you regularly compose HTML (formatted) mail messages, keep in mind that sometimes not all recipients use mail programs that can display HTML formatting properly. Send Format preferences allow you to specify how you want to format messages that go to recipients who cannot display HTML-formatted mail. You can convert messages to plain text, format them only as HTML, or format them as both HTML and plain text. These preferences apply to all your mail accounts, but only to mail messages and not to newsgroup messages.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Addressing

Addressing preferences allow you to control the settings for &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups address books (for example, email address collection and address autocompletion). If you are not already viewing the Addressing settings, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences. You see the Preferences dialog box.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, select Addressing. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

- Email Address Collection: Select this if you want Mail & Newsgroups to automatically collect recipients' email addresses. Use the drop-down list to choose between having the addresses added to your Collected Addresses or your Personal Address Book.
- Address Autocompletion: Address autocompletion allows you to quickly address mail without having to search for names or type names completely. Select from which location Mail & Newsgroups will search for matching addresses: Local Address Books (Personal Address Book, Collected Addresses, or any other local address book) or Directory Server (an available LDAP directory server) or both. If you want Mail & Newsgroups to highlight addresses that do not autocomplete, then select that option.

  Note: If while addressing mail, multiple email address matches are found, Mail & Newsgroups displays a list of all possible choices.

  If you select Directory Server, choose a directory server from the list. A directory server lets you look up addresses that are not stored in one of your local address books. The directory you select will also be searched for matching certificates when you attempt to send an encrypted message to one or more recipients for whom you don't have certificates on file.

  See Adding and Removing LDAP Directories for information on setting LDAP directory server settings.

  Note: Directory server settings you enter from the Preferences dialog box apply to all your mail accounts. You can override these settings for individual accounts by specifying different LDAP directory servers or server settings using the Addressing settings for an account in the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog box. To set different addressing options for a specific account, open the Edit menu and choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Junk & Suspect Mail

This section describes how to use the Junk & Suspect Mail preferences panel. If you are not currently viewing the Junk & Suspect Mail panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, select Junk & Suspect Mail. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

- When I mark messages as junk: Choose this to set what you want &brandShortName; to do when you manually mark messages as Junk.
  - Move them to the account's Junk folder: Choose this to move manually-marked Junk messages to the Junk folder.
  - Delete them: Choose this to move manually-marked Junk messages to the trash folder.
- Mark messages as read:
  - When &brandShortName; determines that they are junk: Select this option to mark junk messages as read, so they will not show up as new.
  - When I manually mark them as junk: Select this option to mark messages as read when you manually mark them as junk.
- Enable junk filter logging: Select this option to allow logging the history of Junk mail detections. Click the Show log button to open a dialog showing this log.
- Reset training data: Click this button to clear the training data of the adaptive junk filter. Since this will effectively destroy your personal junk profile, you will be asked for confirmation.
- Tell me if the message I'm reading is a suspected email scam: Choose this to make &brandShortName; analyze messages for suspected email scams by looking for common techniques used to deceive people.
- Allow antivirus clients to scan incoming messages more easily: Choose this to let &brandShortName; make it easier for antivirus software to analyze incoming mail messages for viruses before they are stored locally.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Tags

This section describes how to use the Tags preferences panel. You use the Tags preferences to define the tag text, colors and order for message tags. If you are not currently viewing the panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, select Tags. (If no options are visible, double-click the Mail & Newsgroups category to expand the list.)

- Customize Tags: Specifies the tag text and the color for each tag. You can edit or replace the default tag text with your own text (up to 32 characters). To change the tag color, click the color chip next to that tag and select a new color. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to order your tags by descending importance. Messages with multiple tags will be colored according to their most important tag.
- Restore Defaults: Removes all customized tags and restores just the default tags' text and colors.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Return Receipts

This section describes how to use the Return Receipts preferences panel. If you are not currently viewing the Return Receipts panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, select Return Receipts. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

You use the Return Receipts preferences to define return receipt settings for outgoing messages from all your mail accounts. You also use the Return Receipt preferences to specify how to manage requests you receive for return receipts.

- When sending messages, always request a return receipt: Enables automatic return receipt requests for all outgoing messages in all your mail accounts.
- Leave it in my Inbox: Return receipt confirmation messages are delivered to your Inbox.

  Tip: Choose this option if you want to use a filter that automatically moves return receipt confirmation messages to a folder you specify. For information on creating and using filters, see Creating Message Filters.

- Move it to my Sent Mail folder: Incoming return receipt confirmation messages are moved to your Sent mail folder.
- Never send a return receipt: Choose this option if you do not want to send a return receipt in response to requests for return receipts from others.
- Allow return receipts for some messages: Choose how you want to respond to requests you receive for return receipts.

To override these global preferences for individual accounts, see Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings - Return Receipts.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Text Encoding

Text (character) encoding preferences allow you to choose how messages are encoded when being displayed or created in all accounts. If you are not already viewing the Text Encoding settings, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences. You see the Preferences dialog box.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, click Text Encoding. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

- Fallback Text Encoding: Click this drop-down list to select the text encoding you want Mail & Newsgroups to use as the fallback for incoming mail and newsgroup messages. Senders are supposed to declare the text encoding in which they are to be displayed, but some legacy content (e.g., from mailing lists or in international newsgroups) may not do so. This encoding is used for such messages you've received in which the text encoding (MIME charset parameter) is not specified.

  Note: Individual folders may override this setting in the General Information tab of the Folder Properties. This dialog can be accessed from the Edit menu of a Mail & Newsgroup window when a folder is selected.

  Tip: You can later view or change the text encoding for a specific message. Select a folder, then the message to display. Open the View menu, and choose Text Encoding.

- For messages that contain 8-bit characters, use 'quoted printable' MIME encoding: Choose to have Mail & Newsgroups use quoted printable MIME encoding when sending regular messages that use an 8-bit text encoding (for example, Latin ISO-8859-3). This is usually only necessary when communicating via a legacy server that doesn't process 8-bit encoding correctly.
- Default Text Encoding: Select the text encoding you want Mail & Newsgroups to use as the default for outgoing mail and newsgroup messages.
- When possible, use this default text encoding in replies.: By default, the selected text encoding is not used when replying to a message. Instead, the text encoding of the message being replied to is used. Choose this option to use the default text encoding for outgoing messages even when replying, as long as the quoted characters can be represented in the selected encoding.

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## Mail & Newsgroups Preferences - Network & Storage

This section describes how to use the Network & Storage preferences panel. If you are not currently viewing the panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Mail & Newsgroups category, select Network & Storage. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Mail & Newsgroups to expand the list.)

The Network & Storage preferences allow you to set preferences for working offline, going online, mail connections and disk space.

- Offline: Select how you want Mail & Newsgroups to handle messages when going online or offline.
- Mail Connections: Choose how long you want Mail & Newsgroups to keep trying to contact the server before timing out.
- Disk Space: Select this to conserve disk space by automatically compacting message folders when it will save the amount of disk space you enter.

See Working Offline for information on working offline.

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