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Email for students using Sussex Webmail

NOTE: This Webmail guide is only for Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate students.

If you are Staff or a PhD student, your email should be hosted on the University's Exchange system, and you need to use Outlook Web App (OWA) for webmail - see the separate Guide to OWA (there is also an excellent series of guides at the help.outlook.com website).

The Sussex student Webmail service is based on a web application called RoundCube. In this Guide, however, we'll just refer to the service as 'Sussex Webmail'.

Contents of this Guide

(click on an item to jump to that section in this Guide)

Opening Webmail
Closing Webmail
A note about your password
Your first Sussex Webmail session
A quick tour of the Sussex Webmail window
Things you can do in the Webmail window
Your Mail Folders
Reading email
An important note about attachments
Deleting emails
Sending email
Attaching files to emails
Special Folders
Further details

Opening Webmail

To enter Sussex Webmail, click the Email link visible on most main Sussex web pages:

Email link for Webmail

Or, you can entire the web address directly in your browser's address box (or click the link below):

https://webmail.sussex.ac.uk/

A new screen will appear (see the image below):

In the Username box type your username, for example ano23
In the Password box type your password. As a security measure, a line of dots replaces the characters of your password as you type.
Click on the login button and your mailbox should open (as shown below in the Webmail window section):

Closing Webmail

To close Sussex Webmail, click the (logout-icon image) icon.

NOTE: It's important that you use the Logout function to close your Webmail session. If you just go to another web page or close your browser, the webmail application will not follow its correct closedown procedure and will behave just as if the connection was lost.

A note about your password

You should change your password regularly to help protect the security of your account, including your email, your files, your printing credit and your personal details.

NEVER disclose your password to ANYONE, even if requested. See FAQ 1446 to find out why.

To change your password, visit the My IT Account web page. See Passwords for guidelines on creating a secure password.

If you forget your password, please follow the instructions at FAQ 382.

Your first Sussex Webmail session

The very first time you use Sussex Webmail, please click on Personal Settings. When the User Preferences page appears, click on the Save button (at bottom left of the screen) immediately. This ensures that the settings shown are actually adopted for you. Now click the Identities tab. Click on your name under the Display name title bar. This will open a dialogue box in which to enter or change details. We recommend you use the following settings:

Display name: Type in your name, for example Ann Other. This name will appear in the From line on messages you send to other sussex.ac.uk addresses using Webmail.
E-mail: This contains your basic Sussex email address and cannot be changed, even though it may not show your 'friendly'-style address if you have one (this doesn't matter because your friendly address will still appear on outgoing emails).
Leave the Organisation, Reply-To: and Bcc boxes empty.
Signature: You can leave this empty if you prefer, but you might like to copy your signature from another email application you might have used (such as Thunderbird) for the sake of consistency.
Leave the HTML Signature box unticked.
Ensure the Set default box is ticked.

Click on Save to save your new settings.

A quick tour of the Sussex Webmail window

When you first start Sussex Webmail, you will see a view similar to the image below. The view comprises three panes - one on the left listing your subscribed folders, another to the right showing an index of messages, and below that, a message preview pane. Your message list will normally open at your oldest unread message.

The tabs at the top right provide links to other Sussex online services. Note however that if you click any of these, they will take you out of Sussex Webmail without it closing down correctly.

Webmail main window

A toolbar of icons to do things with messages can be seen near the top left. These are described in the section on Reading email. Labelled icons for other functions (Address Book, Settings and Logout) can be seen near the top right. The icon is used to return to your Inbox.

At the bottom left of the window is a series of labelled items for folder tasks. Next to Folder: you will see an icon, which means Compact. Clicking this will remove all deleted messages from the currently-open folder. The Empty icon next to it is reserved for your nominated Deleted Items folder (if any), and is used to empty it of all messages. The folder would have to be open at the time, and the Empty icon will not work with any other folder.

Against the Select: label are four icons for selecting groups of messages. This is described in the Selecting Messages section.

The Disk usage meter shows, as a percentage, how much of your allocated mailstore space is currently being used collectively by your Inbox and all your mail folders.

At the bottom right corner is an indicator showing how many emails there are in the folder on display, together with controls to navigate through the folder. See the Paging through the message index section, below.

Things you can do in the Webmail window

Changing the size of the message index pane

If the message index pane seems too small, you can stretch it downwards to show more messages, by positioning your mouse at the admittedly tiny pointer symbol in the centre below the list of messages - this is arrowed in the image below. The mouse pointer will change to the windows resize pointer ( (resize pointer image) ) when you do this. Then hold the mouse button down and drag it up or down as required:

Webmail window stretcher tool

This will of course also change the size of the message preview pane.

Paging through the message index

Note the message navigator control (navigator image) (the numbers will vary) at the bottom right-hand corner. This shows you how many messages there are in the folder you are viewing, and which of those messages are on display now (in groups of up to 200). The navigator also has controls you can click to page through your email:

to display the next group of up to 200 messages
to display the previous group of up to 200 messages
to go to the last message in the whole list
to go to the first message in the whole list

The number of messages shown per group is 40 as standard, but can be changed in Personal Settings:
In the Preferences window (in the User Interface section) you will see a List Options panel. In the Rows per page box you can enter a number up to 200. Once you have saved this option, the number of messages shown per page in your message index will be up to that number.

Sorting the message list

Clicking on the grey header bar of any of the columns in the message list will sort the message list using that column as the sort key. Click the header bar again to sort in the reverse direction. Note that Webmail will remember the current sorting order and that will used again next time you login to Webmail, and remain that way until you change it. Clicking on the Date header gives a quick way to see your oldest or newest messages:

Webmail column headers

The column being used for sorting is highlighted.

Limiting your message display with the filter

The Filter facility can be seen near the top right of the Webmail window. If you click it, a range of options is shown:
(filter tool image)
Click on one of the options shown so as to limit the message display to the types shown. Note that selections only affect the message list currently in view. In other words, any selection you have made will be cancelled if you use the navigator bar to page backwards or forwards through your messages.

Limiting your message display with the search facility

The Search tool is just to the right of the Filter tool:
(search box image)
To search for messages with a key word in their Subject, just type a key word or name into the box, then press Enter, then the list of messages will be re-drawn to show only the messages containing that word or name in their Subject column.
You can also search for messages by Sender, Recipient, Copy (Cc), Bcc or a word in the Entire Message, by clicking on the little triangle in the Search box, which brings up a menu:
(search menu image)
Select any of the boxes, then type your key word in the box (then press Enter) as before.
Click the small (search cancel image) symbol to cancel the search criteria and show all messages again.

Selecting messages in the display

Against the Select: label at the bottom of the Webmail window are four icons you can click to select messages in the current folder:

Click on...	...to select:
	(All) - all messages in the current folder.
	(Unread) - only the unread messages in the current folder.
	(Invert) - the inverse of the current selection; for example if you had earlier selected all unread messages, this function selects all read messages instead.
	(None) - undoes any other select function, and deselects all messages in the current folder.

Message status

The messages on display are marked with different symbols that indicate their status. The symbols are shown just to the left of the Subject. The symbols are:

this indicates a new, unread message.
a message that you have read.
a message that you have replied to.
a message that you have marked to be deleted.
a message that you have forwarded to another address.
a message that you have both replied to and forwarded elsewhere.

On the right hand side of the message you may also see a paperclip symbol (paperclip image) which indicates that that message carries one or more attachments.

Choosing your own preference settings

Click the icon to enter the section where you can set your own preferences. The standard settings are shown in FAQ 1627. If you make a change to any setting, don't forget to click the Save button in that section.

Clicking on the icon on the top row will return you to your Inbox.

Your Mail Folders

You will need to subscribe your mail folders in order to see and use them with Sussex Webmail. The first time you use Sussex Webmail, most of your folders will not be visible unless they had been subscribed in another email application.

How to subscribe folders

In the Personal Settings section, click on the Folders tab. This will display a list of your mail folders.
Please note that if you are using Internet Explorer 6 as your web browser, and you have a lot of mail folders, IE6 may take quite a long time to compile your folder list. This problem does not occur with later versions of Internet Explorer, or - to the best of our knowledge - with other browsers.

Your Inbox is listed first, followed by any mail folders you had previously created in another email application, or some that had been created automatically when your account was first set up.

Only the folders which are selected in the Subscribed column can be used in Sussex Webmail, so you must tick the boxes against any you wish to view or use with Sussex Webmail. Note that there's no OK or Save button to click; just ticking the box is enough to subscribe the folder.

Please note that subscribing mail folders in Sussex Webmail will cause them to be 'subscribed' with any other email application you use with your Sussex email (such as Thunderbird). This does no harm other than perhaps being mildly irritating, but unfortunately is unavoidable.

Clicking on the icon on the top row of the Sussex Webmail page will return you to your Inbox if you had another folder open.

How to open a folder

To open any folder, including your Inbox, just click on its name in your folder list on the left. Note that with Webmail you can only have one folder open at any time. Remember also that a folder needs to be subscribed before you'll be able to open it.

How to create a new folder

In the Personal Settings section, click on the Folders tab. This will display a list of your mail folders.

To create a new folder on the same level as your INBOX, enter a name for the new folder in the text box in the Create new folder section near the bottom of the screen, then click the Create button.

To create a folder within another folder (in other words, a sub-folder), first click on the folder name (in the displayed list) so as to highlight it in red, then enter a name for the new folder in the text box in the Create new folder section near the bottom of the screen, then click the Create button.
Please note however that it is not possible to create sub-folders within your Inbox: this is because on this mail system, there is actually no such folder called Inbox: it's only shown as a symbolic name to refer to the topmost layer of your mailstore.

Note that newly-created folders are automatically subscribed.

How to delete a folder

Click on Personal Settings and then click the Folders tab to display the list of your folders.

Click on the folder you want to delete, then click the red symbol at the end of the row. The example below shows a folder called myfolder1 about to be deleted:

Roundcube delete folder

You will be asked Do you really want to delete this folder? Click OK to confirm, or Cancel if you do not want to delete it.

If you clicked OK, a message should appear for a few seconds at the top of the window confirming that the folder has been deleted:

The page will be refreshed and the deleted folder should no longer appear on the list.

Reading email

Click once on the message you wish to read and it will appear in the preview windowpane below your list of messages. Or, double-click the message to view it in the window on its own. Above the message list are eight icons:

Click on...	...to do this
	Check your mailbox for new messages.
	Write a new message.
	Reply to the sender of the message.
	Reply to the sender and all the other recipients. Please use this function sparingly and with caution.
	Forward the message to another address.
	Mark the selected message for removal. The actual effect depends on your preference settings. The message could be deleted altogether, marked for later removal, or moved to your Deleted Items folder if you have selected one. See also the section below about Special Folders.
	Mark the selected message as either Read, Unread, Flagged or Unflagged (you choose). Messages marked as Flagged will be displayed in red in your message list, and also labelled with a symbol.
	See a menu of other actions: Print - to print the selected message; Save - to save the selected message to a .eml file; Edit as new - to start a draft message using the content of the selected message; Show source - to show the full headers and text of the selected message; Open in new window - to open selected message in its own browser window;

If you had double-clicked a message to read it, the row of tool icons will be slightly different. In place of the Check for new messages icon ( (checknew-icon image) ), you will see an icon which when clicked will return you to the message list. There is also a Move to... selection box, with which you can select a folder to which to move the message you're reading.

Important note about attachments

When you open an attachment in an email, a copy of the file is stored in a reserved area of the computer, and is usually deleted from that area when you close your email session. If the attached file is a document you want to edit, it is very important that you save a copy of your own - immediately - to your preferred documents storage area (for example My Documents) by means of a File - Save As operation or similar. If you don't do this, you will very likely lose the document with any changes you have made to it.

Deleting emails

When you click the Delete icon on a selected message, as standard it will only mark the message for later removal and 'greys it out' in the message list.

To completely remove delete-marked messages, click on the Compact tool button at the bottom left of the Webmail screen:

Compact folder tool

Alternatively, you can use a Deleted Items folder to hold 'deleted' messages temporarily, though you would need to make sure the Deleted Items folder is emptied from time to time or each time you logout. Complete instructions for using this folder can be found in FAQ 2531.

Sending email

Click on the Create a new message icon in the row at the the top. A new window will appear:
Webmail draft window

Click in the Recipient box and enter the email address of the recipient. As you type, Webmail attempts to match what you've typed so far with what's in the central LDAP directory, so you may not need to type the whole address, but instead click on one of the offered choices.
Click in the Subject box and enter the subject of the message.
You can click on Add Cc, Add Bcc and Add Reply-To (above the Subject box) if you wish to use any of these functions.
Click in the large box and type the text of your message.
You can click the Check spelling function at any time while typing your message. This will highlight words that are not in the system's dictionary. If you click on the highlighted word, a list of suggested alternatives will be shown and you can select the one you want, or type your own choice in the box provided.
Click on Resume editing to resume typing and correction of your message.
If you want to keep a copy of the message, select the appropriate folder from the Save sent message in: drop-down list underneath the main text window. You may find that the Sent folder is already offered. If you don't want to save a copy, select Don't save from the drop-down list.
When you are ready to send the message, click on the Send Now icon in the toolbar - - or click the Send now button which is below the main message text window.
A green banner saying Message sent successfully should appear at the top of the screen. Shortly afterwards, the display will switch back to the message index.

Attaching files to emails

If you want to attach a file, such as a document or image to your message, click on the attachment icon - (draft-attach image) - or click on the '+' sign just below the Attachments heading on the left. Either will produce a dialogue box with which to browse for the file you want:

When you have located the file with the browser, click the Upload button. Follow the same procedure if you want to attach more files. Note the following:

There is a limit of 5MB on attachment sizes in Sussex Webmail. If a file is too big, a failure message will appear.
To cancel attaching a file, click the Close button instead of Upload.
To delete an attachment after it has been uploaded, click on the delete icon which will be seen to the left of the attached file's name.

Special Folders

In your Sussex Webmail Personal settings, under the Preferences tab, you will find a section labelled Special Folders. This is a group of folder reference names used by Webmail, but which can be made to refer to different real folders. See the illustration below:

In this example, The Drafts special folder reference actually uses a folder called Drafts, the Sent special folder is not being used at all, the Junk special folder is using an actual folder called Junk, but the Deleted Items special folder is using an actual folder in your mailstore called Trash. So, when deleting emails, when Webmail makes reference to moving the emails to the Deleted Items folder, the deleted emails would in this example actually go into the Trash folder.

The four Special Folders are always constantly displayed in your list of mail folders in Webmail. They do not need to be subscribed. You will also see them shown at the top of the list of folders if you go into the Personal Settings - Folders panel.

Further details

The IT Services Online Help Desk contains a collection of Sussex Webmail FAQs.

created on 2010-02-26 by Andy Clews
last updated on 2013-05-01 by Andy Clews