Sonic's Webmail interface is located at https://webmail.sonic.net

Contacts

You will need a vCard format file with one or more contacts or CSV files.

• Click Contacts
• Click Import
• Choose File of vCard or CSV format
• If you want to replace your webmail address book with the one you are importing, check Replace the entire address book otherwise imported contacts will be added to your existing address book.
• Click the Import button at the bottom of the form

When importing contacts from CSV, the first line should contain a header listing the fields in the file. A number of (case-insensitive) fields are supported including:

• Name
• Email
• Prefix
• First Name
• Middle Name
• Last Name
• Suffix
• Display Name
• Nickname
• Notes
• Organization
• Job Title
• Work Email
• Home Email
• Work Phone
• Home Phone
• Gender
• Birthday

When importing contacts from CSV, all fields are optional.

Automatic Address Book

Webmail can automatically create contacts for people you send emails to. To enable this, go to Settings and under Preferences click Address Book. In the section titled Automatically Collected, check the box labelled Use automatic address book.

With this option enabled, if a contact does not exist for an email address when replying to a message or composing a new message, the email address will be automatically added to the Address Book once the message is sent.

Managing Contacts

To create, edit, or delete contacts, click the Contacts link at the top of the screen next to settings.

To create a new contact, click the + icon at the bottom of the screen under the Contacts pane.

To edit an existing contact, select the contact name from the Contacts pane and click Edit contact on the right of the screen where the details are displayed.

To delete an existing contact, select the contact name from the Contacts pane and click the Trash Can icon at the bottom of the screen below the contact list.

Identities

Identities help you to control the information associated with email you send. You are prompted to create your default identity at your first sign in.

• Display Name is the name a recipient will see next to your email address
• Email is the email address your recipient will see
• Reply-To is the email address to which replies will be sent
• Signature is a short message included at the end of all your email messages

Creating a new Identity

• Click Settings
• Click Identities
• Click the + symbol at the bottom
• Fill in the information on the right-hand pane

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are available to help you work faster. You can access a list of keyboard shortcuts by pressing ? or refer to the list here.

Mailbox View

? Help

a Select all visible messages

A Mark all visible messages as read

m Mark selected message(s) as read or unread

c Compose

d or [Delete] key Delete message

f Forward the message

j Show previous page

k Show next page

p Print this message

r Reply to sender

R Reply to list or to sender and all recipients

s Quick search

u Check for new messages

Threads

E Expand All

C Collapse All

U Expand Unread

Displaying Messages

d Delete message

c Compose

f Forward the message

j Show previous message

k Show next message

p Print this message

r Reply to sender

R Reply to list or to sender and all recipients

Interface Notes

Compose Messages

By default, new messages and replies/forwards are composed in styled HTML text, and are not subject to spell-checking by the mail interface.

All modern email clients (e.g. Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird) and webmail providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) support composition and display of HTML emails. HTML messages allow for special formatting such as bold and italic text, custom fonts, colored text, larger and smaller text, links, and images embedded in the message body. HTML emails are sent in multipart MIME format, which include a plain text copy of the message so text-only mail clients can still display the message properly.

HTML Composition

One change with HTML email is that pressing "Enter" inserts a new paragraph (double spaced) instead of a single line. To move to the next line, press Ctrl+Enter to insert a single spaced line, or switch to plain-text emails.

To compose all new messages in HTML, open the Webmail settings by clicking the icon that looks like a gear. Under Preferences, select Composing Messages. Set the Compose HTML messages pull-down menu to always.

To compose all new message in plain text, set the Compose HTML messages pull-down menu to never, or on forward or reply to HTML message.

When composing individual messages, the message type can be switched between HTML and plain text as necessary by changing the Editor type from HTML to Plain text or vice-versa.

Spellchecking

To check the spelling on a new message while you are composing it, click the "Check spelling" button above the composition frame. You may change the language library used through the pull-down menu immediately to the right spellcheck button.

To have all messages checked for spelling errors before sending, open the Webmail settings by clicking the icon that looks like a gear. Under Preferences, select "Composing Messages." Mark the checkbox labeled "Check spelling before sending a message."

First Entry

• You will be prompted to provide a little information upon first accessing the new webmail interface. This is to set up an initial, default identity in the mail interface. Since many of our customers use multiple email addresses and may wish to be referred to in different ways depending on context, additional identities can be later configured in the webmail settings (Settings->Identities).

Folders

• IMAP folders, including the inbox, saved drafts, Graymail, and trash are all listed on the left-most pane. You may manage folders by clicking on the gear button at the bottom-left.
  • Compacting folders will cause any messages that have been marked for deletion or moved to other folders to be actually purged on the server. This can help reconcile your mail between multiple devices that are all using it.
  • Manage Folders will send you to the same interface as if your click Settings and then select Folders. From here you can subscribe or unsubscribe from folders. A subscribed folder will appear in your folder listings. An unsubscribed folder will not. Unsubscribing a folder does not affect its contents. Selecting a folder in this interface will allow you to change various of its properties. Please note that some folders, such as the Inbox, cannot be renamed. You can also add new folders by clicking the plus symbol (+) at the bottom of the folder listing.

Viewing Messages

Message List

List mode / Thread mode buttons

• To group messages in a folder by conversation (also called threads), click the button that looks like two cartoon dialog bubbles. Message threads will appear with triangles next to them indicating whether the thread is currently collapsed or expanded. Clicking the triangle will toggle this for that specific thread. You can expand or contract multiple conversations at the same time using the "Threads" button located at the bottom of the message listing.
• To change the order of the message list columns (Subject, From, Date, Size, etc), click-and-hold on the column header, drag your mouse to the position you want that column to occupy, and release. Webmail should remember your preferences from session to session and across different devices.
• To list messages individually, regardless of threading, click the button that looks like three horizontal bars.
• To show only unread messages, click the pull-down menu to the left of the search bar. Select "Unread."

Individual messages

• To open a message by itself, as opposed to in the preview pane, double-click it in the message listing. You can also click the button atop the preview pane that looks like two rectangles, only laying atop the other; this will cause the message to open in a new tab.

Click to collapse preview pane

• To get rid of the preview pane, click the button located between the preview pane and message listing that looks like a downward-facing triangle. The space previously occupied by the preview pane will be used to show more items in the message listing.

Click to expand preview pane

• To re-enable the preview pane, click the button on the lower-right that looks like an upward-facing triangle.

Selecting Messages

• The webmail interface is modeled after desktop GUI mail interfaces, not previous incarnations of webmail. Your browser's right-click and control-click behaviors will be different in the webmail interface than in normal web pages.
• To select a single message, single-click on it in the message listings.

Shift-click

• To select multiple messages, either shift-click or control-click more than one message.
• Shift-click to select all messages between the previously-selected message and the next-selected message.

Control-click

• Control-click to select exactly the messages you click on, skipping the intervening messages.
• To select all messages in the folder you are currently viewing, click the "Select" button. You will be presented with a pull-down menu. Select "All."

Attachments

• Download image by right-clicking it
• When composing a new message, attach a file by clicking the paperclip icon labeled "Attach" or the "Attach a file" button. You will be prompted to select a file, then again to upload that file before returning to the composition scren. You may also attach files by dragging and dropping to the "Drag Files Here" area. When using the drag-and-drop method, uploading will commence automatically in the composition screen.

Mobile Interface

• there is no separate version of webmail for mobile devices.
• double-tapping has a different behavior than double-clicking with a mouse; to open a message by itself, tap-and-hold it in the message listing until your browser gives you a menu to select from.
• Interface screenshots are available at Webmail_Mobile

Troubleshooting

• The webmail interface relies heavily on javascript. If you have javascript disabled or are running plug-ins that affect the behavior of javascript on web pages, this can change the behaviors and procedures described in this document.