Links
Brand new to BTL.NET? No problem. Here's a quick run-through of what you'll need to get comfortable.
First, you may want to take a minute to familiarize yourself with the navigation links:
Compose Mail opens a new message.
Inbox shows your conversations (the number in parentheses indicates how many unread conversations you have).
Starred shows you only messages you've marked with a star (use stars to mean whatever you'd like).
Chats lists your archived Chat conversations. Sent Mail shows messages you've sent.
Drafts houses messages you've started and saved to work on later. Customized labels show labels you've created (e.g. 'Coupons' or 'Travel')
All Mail shows you almost all of your mail; you'll see content from your Inbox, Starred, Chats, Sent, Drafts, and all your archived messages; you won't see Spam or Trash.
Spam is where we send the messages we think are suspicious.
Trash is where messages you delete end up; you can empty the trash whenever you feel like it.
Contacts lists the email addresses of people you've corresponded with; you can add more details as you see fit.
Tasks lets you enter and track to-do lists.
One other thing that might help get you feeling comfortable: BTL.NET threads related messages into conversations. This means if you send a message to your mom and she hits 'reply,' you'll receive her message, threaded to the original message you sent her. If she replies again, the same conversation will bold; in other words, you won't see two separate places to click in your inbox. All these messages will be kept in one place
You can create labels and apply them -- manually or automatically -- in order to group related messages together. Let's say you want to keep messages from your mom all in one place.
If you have a message from her already, just check the box next to the message in your Inbox.
Create a label for her messages:
1. Select Create new from the Labels drop-down menu (or type 'l' if you have keyboard shortcuts enabled). 2. Enter a name for your label.
3. Click OK.
The name of your label will appear just
before the subject line.
You can find all your messages that have this label attached by clicking the label's name on the left of any BTL.NET page; if you have a lot of labels, you may have some hidden by default. In that case, just click the down-arrow at the bottom of your labels list to see a full list of all your labels, or click Manage labels if you'd like to make sure that label isn't hidden.
At this point, you can click Archive; the message will disappear from your Inbox, but will remain listed when you click the 'Mom' label, or All Mail. You can also still search for your archived messages. All you're doing when you archive a message is helping to keep the Inbox clutter down. You can also label and archive messages in one fell swoop by using the Move to drop-down menu.
Filters
If you don't want to mark all your messages from Mom one-by-one, you can set up a filter. The filter will detect when your mom emails you, and automatically applies the 'Mom' label (and if you'd like, you can send the message straight to the Mom section and skip the Inbox). To do so, just follow these steps:
1. Open a message from your mom.
2. From the More Actions drop-down menu, select Filter messages like these. 3. In the 'From:' field, enter your mom's email address.
4. Click Next Step >.
5. Check the Appy the label: box and select Mom from your Choose label... drop-down menu (you might also want to apply some of the other options, like Skip the Inbox, which will send her messages straight to the Mom section and keep your Inbox clean). 6. If you'd like to add the label to existing messages as well as future ones, select the Also
apply filter to x conversations below checkbox. 7. Click Create Filter.
You don't have to limit your use of filters or labels to any single person or email address,
though; that's just the beginning. You can create filters to detect messages with certain words in the subject line, the body of the email, or messages sent to a specific person, and automatically perform any of the actions shown in the image above. This means you can automatically apply a star to messages from your mom that contain the word 'cookies.' Get creative. You can always go back and perfect your filters; just click Settings and select the Filters tab.
Search
You can use BTL.NET search by entering a word (or multiple words) that appears anywhere within the message you want to locate. If you're looking for a message that contains the word
shopping, simply type shopping in the search field and press Search Mail. Your results will be
displayed with your search terms highlighted in yellow.
BTL.NET doesn't recognize special search characters like square brackets, parentheses, currency symbols, the ampersand, the pound sign, and asterisks. It also doesn't recognize partial or similar matches, so a search for travel will find travel, but not travels, traveler, or travle.
If you're having trouble finding the result you want, you can refine your query by clicking Show search options next to the search box, and entering your criteria in the appropriate fields or use our Advanced Search Operators.
Advanced search operators are query words or symbols that perform special actions in BTL.NET search. These operators allow you to find what you're looking for quickly and accurately. They can also be used to set up filters so you can organize your inbox automatically. Some of the most useful operators are listed below.
You can also use advanced search operators by clicking on Show search options beneath the BTL.NET search box.
Operator Definition Example(s)
from: Used to specify the sender Example: from:amy Meaning: Messages
from Amy
to: Used to specify a recipient
Example: to:david Meaning: All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)
subject: Search for words in the subject line
Example:
subject:dinner
Meaning: Messages that have the word "dinner" in the subject
OR Search for messages matching term A or term B* *OR must be in all caps
Example: from:amy
OR from:david
Meaning: Messages from Amy or from David
-
(hyphen) Used to exclude messages from your search
Example: dinner
-movie
Meaning: Messages that contain the word "dinner" but do not contain the word "movie"
label: *There isn't a search operator for unlabeled messages Search for messages by label*
Example: from:amy
label:friends
Meaning: Messages from Amy that have the label "friends" Example: from:david
label:my-family
Meaning: Messages from David that have the label "My Family"
has:attach
ment Search for messages with an attachment
Example: from:david
has:attachment
Meaning: Messages from David that have an attachment
list: Search for messages on mailing lists
Example:
list:[email protected] m
Meaning: Messages with the words
[email protected] in the headers, sent to or from this list
filename: Search for an attachment by name or type
Example: filename:physicsho mework.txt Meaning: Messages with an attachment named "physicshomework.txt" Example: label:work filename:pdf Meaning: Messages labeled "work" that
an attachment
" "
(quotes) *Capitalization isn't taken into consideration Used to search for an exact phrase*
Example: "i'm feeling
lucky"
Meaning: Messages containing the phrase "i'm feeling lucky" or "I'm feeling lucky" Example:
subject:"dinner and a movie"
Meaning: Messages containing the phrase "dinner and a movie" in the subject
( ) Used to specify terms that shouldn't be excluded Used to group words
Example: from:amy
(dinner OR movie)
Meaning: Messages from Amy that contain either the word
"dinner" or the word "movie"
Example:
subject:(dinner movie)
Meaning: Messages in which the subject contains both the word "dinner" and the word "movie"
in:anywhe re
Search for messages anywhere in Gmail*
*Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default
Example:
in:anywhere movie
Meaning: Messages in
All Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the
word "movie"
in:inbox in:trash in:spam
Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam
Example: in:trash
from:amy
Meaning: Messages from Amy that are in
Trash is:importa
nt
label:impo rtant
Search within messages that Priority Inbox considers important.
Example:
is:important from:janet
Meaning: Messages from Janet that were marked as important by Priority Inbox
is:starred is:unread
is:read Search for messages that are starred, unread or read
Example: is:read
is:starred from:David
Meaning: Messages from David that have
been read and are marked with a star
cc: bcc:
Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields*
*Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied<>
Example: cc:david Meaning: Messages that were cc-ed to David
after:
before: Search for messages sent during a certain period of time* *Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.
Example:
after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18
Meaning: Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.*
*More precisely: Messages sent after 12:00 AM (or 00:00) April 16, 2004 and before April 18, 2004.
is:chat Search for chat messages
Example: is:chat
monkey
Meaning: Any chat message including the word "monkey".
deliveredt o:
Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header
Example:
deliveredto:usernam [email protected]
Meaning: Any message with
To: field of the message header (which can help you find messages forwarded from another account or ones sent to an alias).
Contacts
Your contacts are essential to your email. You can store information (not just email addresses, but phone numbers, notes, pictures, etc.) about the people you send email and access it all through the Contacts link on the left-hand side of any BLT.NET page. Some people are
automatically added to your contacts list based on messages you've sent or received, but you can also manually add people. To create a contact:
1. Click Contacts along the left side of any page.
2. Click the New Contact button in the top-left corner of the Contact Manager. 3. Enter your contact's information in the appropriate fields.
You can enter additional contact info by clicking More Information or by clicking the add link next to the appropriate field. Enter your contact's information in the appropriate fields and click Save.
If you're transitioning to BTL.NET and have a contacts list from other accounts, you can import contacts through a CSV file or by importing them.
Email addresses are automatically added to your Contacts list each time you use the Reply, Reply to all, or Forward functions to send messages to addresses not previously stored in your Contacts list. If these addresses don't appear immediately, try waiting a few minutes or signing out of your account and signing back in. "Also, each time you mark a message as 'Not Spam,' your Contacts list is automatically updated so that future messages from that sender are received in your inbox.
Chat
As you're looking around, you'll probably notice the Chat box in under the links in the left navigation bar.
Chat allows you to talk to your BTL.NET contacts in real-time, directly within BTL.NET.
The status icon to the left of your contacts' names indicates whether they're available (green), idle (yellow), busy (red), or offline (grey). You can also add a note, by clicking the Set status here link, which will show under your name in your friends' BTL.NET account. .
To chat with a friend:
1. Click the name of your friend in the Chat section. A window will open in the lower-right corner of the page.
2. Type into the text field.
3. Press Enter to send your message.
Unless you choose to chat off the record your chat conversations will be archived and stored in your BTL.NET Chats label. This way, you can search content from your chats, or you can browse your previous conversations by clicking the Chats navigation link.
