Writing.Com 101

"Options" Tab

The Options tab contains all the customizable features you need to help you organize your email and personalize the way your email appears when you're on Writing.Com.

Manage Message Highlighting and Filtering
At the very top of the Options tab is a link to Manage Message Highlighting and Filtering. Clicking on the link will take you to a new page that contains a list of all the highlighting and filtering rules that have already been set up, with the option to Add Highlight / Filter if you'd like to create a new one.

When creating a new Highlight / Filter, you'll be asked to provide a name for it and select a color (you can choose None, if you'd like them to be the same color as any other email messages), to visually differentiate these emails from others.

After customizing these options, there's a Field Matching section, where you can specify that all emails with a particular subject, from a certain sender, or going to, Cc'ing, or replying to a certain individual will be flagged by this rule. Filters use OR logic: if you specify more than one option, the filter will flag a message if any one of the specified conditions are met.

Below the Field Matching section, you have the option to Move Message into Folder. By default, the option is "Do NOT move message" (which would only highlight the messages in a different color, if selected), but you can select any folder in your email account, including Spam, Trash, or any personal folders you've created. Thus, you could set up something as simple as moving all emails from a user you no longer wish to communicate with directly into your Trash folder, to something more complex like automatically coloring all emails pertaining to a specific group a certain color, and automatically moving them into that group's folder in your email.

Beneath the Move Messages into Folder drop-down box, you have the option to choose which folders the filter will scan. Each of your email folders is listed with a check box. Checking a box will filter the results from that folder, as well as any new emails that arrive. This is a particularly useful tool if you want to go in and highlight or filter emails after you've already received them. When you create a filter, by default all the check boxes are checked. Clicking a check box will uncheck it.

Offsite Mail Service
Writing.Com offers members with Premium Memberships and above the ability to access their WdC email account from offsite services such as iPhones, Gmail, Hotmail, and more. For more information on setting up your Offsite Mail Service, please check out: "Setting Up Offsite Mail Service" .

Customize Email Settings
There are three main areas in your email account that you can customize:

General Email Setting Options

Line Wrap Length: Defines the number of characters per line in an email reply before adding the ">" before each line.

Image Limiting: Defines the number of unique images shown in each of your email messages (increments between 1 and 25).

Emails Per Page: Defines the number of email messages that appear on each page of your Inbox or email folder (increments between 25 and 500).

Show Attachments Inline: Shows images and attachments and other attachments directly in the email, rather than requiring them to be downloaded or opened to view. For example, if someone sends you a signature image, you'll be able to see a preview of that signature image without opening the attachment.

Show HTML Mail In An Inline Frame: Strongly recommended! This option, when deselected, creates HTML email messages in a frame within a webpage. Deselecting this option will create the message not in its own frame, but in the coding of the webpage itself, which can potentially cause display problems and conflicts with the page's coding.

Address Book Options

Grab "To" Email Address When Sending: Checking this box will automatically grab the email address of anyone you send an email to, and add them to your Addresses.

Grab "From" Email Address from Emails: Checking this box will automatically grab the email address of anyone you receive an email from, and add them to your Addresses.

SentMail Options

Store SentMail: Checking this box will save a copy of all messages you send from your email account.

SentMail folder name: Allows you to customize which folder your sent emails are saved to. By default, they are saved in the automatically-created SentMail folder.1

Recommended Reading

1. Email
2. "Folders" Tab

Footnotes
1  Updated by northernwrites; written by Jeff