Managing IMAP Mailboxes with Outlook Express

Outlook Express opens with the following screen:

The window is divided into three panes. The left pane shows a list of email accounts and associated folders. The top right hand pane will display lists of messages in a highlighted folder, whilst the bottom right pane will display the content of a highlighted message.

Your new IMAP profile will probably be labelled imap.qmul.ac.uk. You can create new folders here by right-clicking on imap.qmul.ac.uk and selecting New Folder...and typing in a name for the folder. All incoming messages will appear in the imap Inbox. You may choose where outgoing mail and draft messages are stored by changing options under Tools > Accounts > Properties > IMAP

You will also see an entry called Local folders which is for incoming POP messages (if any) with mailboxes/folders beneath it. If you used Outlook for your old POP mail account and have any saved messages, you will need to upload them to the server if you want to make them available for an off-campus connection. To do that, you can open the local folders and drag the messages from the list in the top-right window to the Inbox folder under Dominant. Once this has been done you will be able to work with all of your mail files from any Internet-connected computer, at home or at college. Adding that functionality is the reason for the change to an IMAP based mail system.

IMAP Mail Storage and Quotas

The IMAP service stores mail on the server and this obviously has implications about disk usage. The service uses a quota system that gives each user a limited amount of disk space.  The quota should be more than adequate for most users, but warnings will be sent via email when the amount of mail stored exceeds a percentage of the quota. You can check your usage via the Quota Tool utility web page.

It's important to clean up the mail that you have already read and/or responded to on the IMAP server, otherwise you could exceed your disk quota and then no mail will be able to be delivered to your account (it will be held in a queue up to several days before the sender is told it couldn't be delivered).

Once you have read, responded to (or forwarded, etc.) mail that arrives at your IMAP account you are likely to do one of several things:

1. Delete the mail
2. Save the mail to another folder either locally or on the server

Deleting a message is actually a two step process in which you first mark the message(s) for deletion then remove all messages thus marked.

To delete message(s) in OE,

• Click on the message in the message list  
• In the Toolbar, click the Delete button (or press the Del key on your keyboard).
• From the Edit menu, select Purge Deleted Messages

Online/Offline Viewing

When using IMAP, your mail is stored on the server and you will most likely remain connected to that server while you are reading/composing e-mail. However, it is possible to work in offline mode, in which case you will work on a local copy of selected (subscribed) folders. When you reconnect to the network, Outlook automatically synchronizes any changes you made when offline. You can also synchronize your mailbox manually at any time.

Working offline is different from being disconnected. When you are disconnected, Outlook Express takes action to reconnect you. When working offline, Outlook Express knows that you want to remain offline until you choose to work online, when it will initiate all actions taken while offline.

To work offline, you first need to specify what you want to download. You can make all messages, only headers, or only new messages available for offline viewing by changing the synchronisation settings.

• From the Folders list, click on your IMAP account.
• In the main window, select one or more folders.
• Click the Settings button, and then click to change the setting to one of the following:
  • All Messages
  • New Messages Only
  • Headers Only
• If you do not want messages from a particular folder to be downloaded, click Don't Synchronize.

Displaying and Hiding IMAP Folders

By default, when you first synchronize your IMAP account, all the messages in all your folders will be downloaded unless you hide some of them or change their synchronization settings, for example, from All Messages to Headers Only.

While you are online, click on the IMAP server in the Folders list. Your mail folders will be displayed in the main window.

• Click the IMAP Folders button.
• In the Show/Hide IMAP Folders dialogue box, select a folder, and click Hide to prevent downloading its contents.
• Click Show to view the folder its contents.

Only the displayed folders will be downloaded when you synchronize the account.

To read messages while you are away from your Internet connection:

• On the Tools menu, select Options.
• On the General tab, find the field labelled 'If my computer is not connected at this time', and then select 'Connect only when not working offline'.
• Click the server name in the folder list, make sure that the items you want to view offline are checked, and then click Synchronize Account.
• On the File menu, click Work Offline.

To synchronize folders at any time, from the Tools menu:

• Choose Synchronize All or Synchronize Folder

Troubleshooting Outlook Express

If you have trouble downloading your mail or connecting to the IMAP server, go to the Outlook Express help menu, select Contents and Index, click on Troubleshooting, then on "If you have trouble using Outlook Express."  This will start the Outlook Express Troubleshooter.  Try the suggestions there before seeking additional help.