Historical Manuals: Introduction to Electronic Mail under VM/CMS

HISTORICAL MANUALS

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
COMPUTING CENTER

Introduction to Electronic Mail under VM/CMS

Edition 5.0, Revised August 1995

This publication describes the
use of the MailBook package
(formerly RiceMail) for
electronic mail at the UKCC.

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Fifth Edition, Revision 0 (September 1995)

University of Kentucky
Computing Center
128 McVey Hall
Lexington, KY 40506-0045
Phone: 606/257-2900

Processed September 13, 1995-Waterloo SCRIPT - Version 90.1 (90OCT04)

Prepared by the UCS Academic Computing Services Group

Introduction to Electronic Mail
under VM/CMS

PART I: Starting Out on E-mail

MailBook (formerly RiceMail) is the electronic mail (e-mail) facility
available under the VM/CMS (Virtual Machine/Conversational Monitor
System) operating system, which is currently running on the IBM 3090
computer in the basement of McVey Hall. The MailBook program involves
two commands, MAIL and MAILBOOK, supplemented by the NAMES command, that
you enter at the CMS Ready prompt. Each command gives you access to a
variety of subcommands. In the guidelines that follow, these
subcommands will often be referred to simply as "commands."
bulletthe MAIL command, you can send, receive, answer, forward, save,
and print mail messages.
bulletAMES command enables you to build and update a time-saving address
list.
bulletAILBOOK command allows you to keep and manage your mail messages
in as many
different notebook files as you like.
You can very quickly begin sending and receiving messages by e-mail,
both on campus and off, in this country and around the world. All you
need to learn at first are a few of the subcommands under the MAIL
command, as explained here in PART I. As you get familiar with basic
sending and receiving, you may wish to explore other features of e-mail,
as outlined in PART II and PART III below. Some users dealing with
complicated addresses or voluminous mail may wish to consult PART III
before going to PART II. You may also want to consult A User's Guide to
Electronic Mail, written by Richard Schafer, who also authored MAIL and
MAILBOOK. This 50-page manual covers these and other commands in
greater detail, with many illustrations of the various screens you will
encounter. It's available online under the CMS MANUAL command. You may
also find online HELP useful, under the Help MAIL MENU command.
Consultants are available to help if you have questions. Contact the
Information Systems Help Desk in 107 McVey Hall (e-mail:
helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu or phone: 257-2249).

ACCESSING E-MAIL The University of Kentucky offers several different
computer systems with e-mail, including POP, which depends on having an
Ethernet type of network connection, and VM/CMS, which is currently
running on the IBM 3090. UKnet, the campus computer network, connects
these systems as well as workstations and personal computers scattered
throughout colleges and departments on campus; UKnet allows UK users to
communicate electronically within and among these systems. Users of
these systems also have access to BITNET and the Internet, national and
international networks of educational and research institutions, which
allow nearly instantaneous communication worldwide.
Assuming you have secured a userid and a password to access VM/CMS, you
are ready to go. Contact Larry Johnson (257-2217) or Janet Hyatt
(257-2212) in 130 McVey Hall if you need to establish a userid and
password. You may then access e-mail on the IBM 3090 mainframe in any
of three ways:
bullet personal computer or workstation with TN3270 software. This can

be on campus via an Ethernet connection (such as the machines in the
many Microlabs around campus) or off campus via a modem using PPP or
SLIP software (which emulates an Ethernet connection via your phone
line.)
bulletan async terminal or a personal computer with an asynchronous
connection. This can be on campus or off campus via a modem and a phone
line. To connect to UKnet, you will need appropriate communications
software such as Procomm, Kermit, or Brown Term. Procomm and other
similar packages are available commercially. Kermit for DOS machines,
as well as Brown Term for Macintosh machines, is available free of
charge to UK students, staff, and faculty through the numerous public
microlabs around campus. Bring a formatted diskette so you can get a
copy of Kermit or Brown Term.
bullet 3270-type terminal, which is hardwired to VM/CMS at UKCC. Such
terminals are being phased out, and very few are available on campus.
DOS-based computer users may request an Introduction to Kermit at the
Help Desk in 107 McVey Hall. This Kermit write-up includes information
on suggested procedures to use if you get stuck in one screen or one
cursor position; it also offers a helpful list of keyboard functions.
To get a list of keyboard equivalents appropriate to your type of
keyboard, contact the Information Systems Help Desk in 107 McVey Hall
(e-mail: helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu or phone: 257-2249). Users with an
async (7171) connection, after they get logged on, can enter the command
HELP 7171 to get relevant information.
TIP: Find the Clear (or PA2) function on your keyboard. If your
keyboard does not have a Clear key, determine before you go any further
what key or keys will clear your screen. Try it after logging on, to be
sure you know how to clear your screen through your particular
communications software.
Using the commands available in your communications software package,
connect to VM/CMS via UKnet by choosing the UKCC option. When you
establish the connection to UKCC, the UK logo will appear on your
screen.

LOGGING ON TO VM/CMS With the UK logo in front of you, the first step
is to log on, entering your userid and password as requested on the
screen. A new screen with the Ready prompt will appear, indicating that
the system is ready for your next command. Note the message RUNNING
UKCC in the lower right-hand corner of your screen. The cursor will
appear in the lower left-hand corner, where you will enter the basic
MAIL, NAMES, and MAILBOOK commands mentioned above.
This opening screen is your "home base" for whatever you choose to do in
CMS. You start here immediately after logging on, and you may return to
this CMS Ready prompt before logging off at the end of your computer
session. In CMS, you can generally enter commands in either upper case
(CAPITALS) or lower case. These instructions for using e-mail will
follow the convention for CMS manuals of capitalizing the first letter
or letters of a command to indicate the minimum abbreviation the system
will recognize; for example, the command transcribed here LOGoff may be
entered at the keyboard as LOGOFF, logoff, LOG, or log.
TIP: You may occasionally find in CMS that you are "stuck" and cannot
enter any commands. Whenever a screen comes up that says MORE... or
HOLDING instead of RUNNING in the lower right, you can clear your screen

by pressing the Clear key (or the equivalent for your keyboard). Note
that MORE... will clear automatically after 60 seconds if you don't
otherwise clear your screen. If you encounter a screen that says CP
READ in the lower right, enter the command Begin to get back to an
active screen. If you get a screen message that says INPUT INHIBITED
(or if you hear a beep from your PC), your cursor may be outside active
parts of your screen. Reset your screen by pressing the Reset key, if
you have one, or, if you are using VT100 terminal emulation, by pressing
<Ctrl>-g (while holding down the Ctrl key, press g). Then press the Tab
key to get back to an active part of the screen.

READING INCOMING MAIL When mail arrives for you, it goes into your
reader, which is a shared disk connected to your userid where files may
reside on a short-term basis. Unlike long-term files stored on your
A-disk, incoming mail items in your reader are only temporary files.
TIP: It is important to check your reader frequently, since files left
in your reader will be erased periodically by the system. If you have
no time to read your mail, you can just enter the MAIL command, and
immediately QUIT (PF3), as described below. This simple procedure will
suffice to transfer your incoming mail onto your own A-disk, where the
MAIL command will allow you to read it later at your leisure.
Enter the command MAIL to review your incoming mail. Remember, you may
type this word in either uppercase or lowercase letters; then press the
Enter key. At this point you will be prompted to enter your name as the
first entry in your NAMES (electronic address list) file. If you do not
do so now, you will be prompted similarly every time you use the MAIL or
MAILBOOK commands. The name you supply (which could be just two blank
spaces) will be included automatically in your outgoing mail messages.
For information on preparing NAMES entries for your correspondents, see
Part III.
If mail is waiting for you, entering the MAIL command will make a mail
menu appear, listing one or more mail items. Notice the screen title
just under the line running across the top of your screen: as long as
you are looking at this mail menu, the screen title will be Mail
Inbasket. To the right of the screen title you will see information on
how many lines are currently in your mail menu and where you are in this
list; for example, Lines 1 to 15 of 35 would indicate that you have 35
items in your Inbasket and that the current screen is displaying items 1
to 15 of this list. In the center of your screen, you will see
information about the sender, the date sent, the subject, and the size
for each mail item. Items you have not yet read will be marked by a >
symbol to the left of the date; items which are a reply to previous mail
will be designated by an asterisk (*) to the right of the date.
If your mail menu (Inbasket) is longer than one screen, use the PF8
(Forward) key to move down one screen at a time, and PF7 (Backward) to
move back up again. Using the down arrow or the Tab key, move the
cursor to the item of mail which you wish to read and press the Program
Function Key 2 (the PF2 key) or its equivalent for your keyboard.
Pressing PF2 will display the item of mail you have just indicated with
your cursor. You will notice that the screen title changes to the name
of the person who sent you this mail item. Also, to facilitate entering
commands, the cursor will move down to the bottom of the screen to the
CMS command line. Here at the command prompt (====>), you may enter

MAIL subcommands (as well as Xedit commands and CMS commands, if you are
familiar with them). Immediately below the command line are two lines
of helpful hints for using the PF keys. If your message is longer than
one screen, use the PF8 (Forward) key to move down one screen at a time,
and PF7 (Backward) to move back up again. If you have more than one
message in your Inbasket, you have the option of pressing PF2 to clear
your screen and bring up the next message.

QUITTING MAIL When you have read your incoming mail to your
satisfaction, exit by pressing the PF3 key once to Quit the current item
and once again to Quit the mail menu. (Before Quitting this item, you
have the option of discarding it altogether or saving (logging) it to a
notebook file. For details, see "Discarding Mail or Logging It to a
Notebook" in PART III below.)
Just Quitting, without discarding or logging, leaves the item you have
just read in a file called UNREAD NOTEBOOK on your A-disk. All items in
your UNREAD NOTEBOOK (whether you have actually read them or not) will
reappear on your mail menu whenever you enter the MAIL command to check
your incoming mail.
After Quitting, you will be returned to a Ready prompt and the screen
where you started. You are now free to proceed with other tasks in CMS
or to end your session by logging off (type LOGoff and press the Enter
key).

ADDRESSING MAIL YOU WANT TO SEND Anyone you wish to send e-mail to
must have an account locally or at some other computer system accessible
through BITNET or the Internet. Your correspondent's e-mail address
will consist of a user's logon id (userid) and a computer system address
(nodename). The nodename for VM/CMS at the University of Kentucky
Computing Center (UKCC) is ukcc.uky.edu. (Your own full address will be
your local userid coupled with the UK nodename, probably something like
olhami01@ukcc.uky.edu, for example).
TIP: Between the userid and nodename, you must include the AT sign (@),
with no spaces before or after. Also, be sure not to confuse letters
and numbers by typing o's for zeros or l's for ones, or vice versa.
Notice the differences in these characters in the userid olhami01. If
your mail does not go through, check that the address that you entered
does not contain inadvertent errors of this kind.
To address e-mail to another user at ukcc.uky.edu, or at pop.uky.edu,
you will need the userid of the person you are sending to; this will
probably be a combination of letters and numbers such as olhami01 or
apc108. Get this information from your correspondent, consult listings
in the campus phone directory, or use the PH command to check the online
directory, which has information on all people at UK. For example,
enter PH tom jones at the Ready prompt. Or you could enter jones tom or
jones, tom and you will get similar results. (The PH directory is
programmed to recognize common nicknames such as Peggy or Tom.)
To address mail outside of UK, you will need to know your
correspondent's full address, including the userid and nodename. Write
or phone your correspondent to get this information. Although some
operating systems at other nodes are case sensitive, you may generally
enter the userid and nodename in either uppercase or lowercase letters,
or a mixture of both. Note that with the handy NAMES command, you can

keep an electronic address book listing all the userids and nodenames
you want to use again (see NAMES below). See below in PART II for more
about addressing e-mail.
TIP: You can often abbreviate local addresses by just entering the
userid with the MAIL command and skipping the domain name, @ukcc.uky.edu
or @pop.uky.edu. In those cases where the PH directory recognizes a
userid, it will supply the domain name as needed. However, this will
not work for all local userids; check your message header to make sure
the address appears in its complete form.

SENDING MAIL Log on to your userid if you have not already done so.
To send mail, you must first enter the MAIL command followed by the
nickname or full e-mail address of your correspondent, for example, MAIL
bjtaylor (for a user at node ukcc.uky.edu,) MAIL bjtaylor (for a user at
node ukcc.uky.edu) or MAIL jqwatson@andrew.cmu.edu (for a user not at
ukcc.uky.edu).
TIP: You must specify a correspondent when you want to create mail to
send out; if you don't, MAIL will display your incoming mail. (If the
nodename is ukcc.uky.edu, specifying it is optional.)
If you want your message to go simultaneously to more than one person,
you may specify after the MAIL command two or more addresses (or
corresponding nicknames), as well as list names. For example, the
command MAIL bjtaylor jqwatson@andrew.cmu.edu sue john t club will set
up a memo to go to five individual users (including three with
nicknames) as well as a list nicknamed CLUB. (For more on setting up
nicknames and group mailing lists, see NAMES below.) The name(s) you
use with the MAIL command can be one or more nicknames from your NAMES
file (see PART III), userids of users at UKCC or POP, and/or addresses
of users on other computer systems at UK or linked to UKCC through
BITNET or the Internet.
When you press the Enter key, a new screen will prompt you to enter your
name and/or subject; type in your subject (or nothing at all) and press
Enter. A mail memo screen will appear, with the cursor in the first
line of the blank message area. Type in whatever text you wish to send.
As you work, you may enter commands on the command line at the bottom of
the screen. Press PF1 (Help) to bring up a list of available MAIL
subcommands. To facilitate your work, you may also enter CMS commands
or Xedit subcommands if you are familiar with them. SPELLFIX can be
particularly useful to catch typos and spelling errors. If you are
preparing a long or subtly worded message, you may wish to save it one
or more times as you work. Enter the SAVE command at the command line
to avoid losing your message and having to re-enter all of it (should
the mainframe or the network crash).
If for any reason you want to abandon this message and start over, press
PF3 and then choose Discard or else move your cursor down to the command
line and enter QQuit, being sure to enter two Qs. If you need to
suspend work on the message you are creating, move your cursor down to
the command line and enter SUspend. Minutes, hours, or days later, when
you wish to resume work on this message (to ZZZ101, for example), enter
MAIL zzz101 (Resume at the Ready prompt. The QQUIT (or DISCARD) command
and the SUSPEND command are also available by pressing the PF12 (Cancel)
key; move your cursor to the command box you wish to activate and press
Enter. If you have previously SAVEd or SUSPENDed this message, you will

be prompted to enter the command REPLACE at the command line; the
earlier version of your message will then be replaced by the latest
version.
When you are satisfied with your message, send it by pressing PF5.
Confirm your desire to send this mail to the addressee you have
specified by pressing PF5 a second time; you will then be returned to
the Ready prompt screen, where you will see messages confirming that
your mail was sent and reporting that a copy was logged (saved) to your
ALL NOTEBOOK. (A copy of all your outgoing mail is logged to your ALL
NOTEBOOK by default. You may specify other notebooks through the NAMES
command described below or elect to not have outgoing mail logged at
all.)
Ideally, mail messages go through quickly, although delays are not
uncommon if a link in the system is malfunctioning. You may or may not
get a message that your mail has been received, depending on the
software your correspondent is using. You are now free to proceed with
other tasks in CMS or to exit your account by logging off (type LOGoff
and press Enter).

USING SHORTCUTS MailBook offers two mnemonic devices to help you
remember a variety of subcommands and to give you easy access to them.
One is the list of function keys across the bottom of your screen. The
other is the Menu Bar at the top of your screen.
Some of the most commonly used commands have been keyed to the Program
Function (PF) keys, as listed at the bottom of your screen on the two
lines just above the command line. Several of these PF keys can provide
helpful shortcuts as you write your message: use PF4 to add a page (a
blank screen) at the end of your message, PF2 to add a blank line
wherever your cursor is positioned, PF9 to delete a line where your
cursor is positioned, PF11 to split or join a line at the cursor, and
PF7 and PF8 to scroll up or down a screen at a time. Pressing PF12
(Cancel) will bring up an action box with three further options,
including Discard and SUspend (described above) as well as Cancel, which
allows you to back out of the most recent step you took. (For more
information on these commands, see A User's Guide to Electronic Mail
referred to on the first page above.)
The Menu Bar at the top of the screen offers drop-down menus under each
of five headings. These menus can be handy since they save you from
having to remember a lot of different subcommands. Press PF10 to move
your cursor from the message area to the Menu Bar. Then press the right
arrow key or the Tab key to move the cursor across the Menu Bar to the
heading you want. When the cursor is positioned, press the Enter key to
reveal the drop-down menu. Each menu offers several commonly used
subcommands to facilitate your work in preparing and sending e-mail
messages. Use the down arrow key or the Tab key to move the cursor down
to the command you need and press Enter.
This introduction to e-mail will not cover in detail the commands
available in these drop-down menus. After you have gained some
familiarity with the various subcommands available under the MAIL,
MAILBOOK, and NAMES commands, the drop-down menus will make more sense,
even though the command names may be somewhat changed. For more
information on the Menu Bar, see A User's Guide to Electronic Mail
referred to on page 1 above.

As you become more experienced with e-mail, you will find that these two
helps, along with the command line, give you three different avenues for
entering a subcommand. For example, to get out of what you are doing,
you can 1) enter QUIT on the command line, 2) press PF3, or 3) choose
Exit from the Menu Bar. Different users will develop different
preferences.

SUMMARIZING E-MAIL COMMANDS The following two examples illustrate
command sequences which you might use in a typical session. The first
shows how to read your incoming mail. The second shows how to create
and send mail to another user.

When the screen displays enter the command in order to
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UK logo & logon prompt (your userid) (Tab if needed) identify yourself
UK logo & logon prompt (your password) get clearance to activate account
Ready prompt mail see a list of incoming mail items
mail menu PF2 read item where cursor was
mail message PF8 or PF7 scroll one screen down or back up
mail message PF3 quit message to view mail menu
mail menu PF3 quit and return to Ready prompt
Ready prompt LOGoff quit your computer session
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UK logo & logon prompt (your userid) (Tab if needed) identify yourself
UK logo & logon prompt (your password) get clearance to activate account
Ready prompt mail bjtaylor set up memo to bjtaylor at UKCC
Your name? (your name) (or Enter) fill in memo form (optional)
Subject? (your subject) (or Enter) fill in memo form (optional)
(At this point, you may need to press whatever keys will clear your screen.)
memo form (type your message) prepare the message to be sent
memo form PF5 (twice) send your message out
Ready prompt LOGoff quit your computer session
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PART II: Exploring More Features of E-mail

After you are comfortable with the basics of sending and receiving
e-mail, you may want to explore options for addressing your mail,
replying to it, forwarding it, or printing it. These features of e-mail
are available through subcommands under the MAIL command, as described
here in PART II, and under the MAILBOOK command, as described in PART
III.

MORE ON ADDRESSING MAIL Once you have learned the basics of addressing
mail, you may find it useful to 1) send complimentary and/or blind
copies; 2) add or delete recipients; and 3) pursue an online search for
addresses of users on other computer systems linked to UKCC through
BITNET or the Internet.
You can set up the MAIL command so it will send a complimentary copy to
one or more addresses by specifying CC: before the addresses or
nicknames of people (or nicknames of lists) that should receive these
copies. Or specify BCC: to send blind complimentary copies. For

example, the command MAIL john cc: bob club bcc: joe will address your
mail message to be sent to John, with complimentary copies to Bob and
everyone on your CLUB list and with a blind copy to Joe; though your
header will show Joe's name, his name will not appear in the headers
that your correspondents receive and they will not know that you have
sent him a copy. Be sure to use a colon (:) after these commands, or
the system will think you are trying to send mail to users nicknamed cc
or bcc.
Before you send your message, it may occur to you that you want to send
it to more people than you first specified. There are several ways to
change the header of your message before you send it out. To add a new
recipient, move your cursor down to the command line and enter INClude
name where name can be one or more nicknames from your NAMES file (see
PART III), userids of users at UKCC, and/or addresses of users on other
computer systems linked to UKCC through BITNET or the Internet. On the
other hand, to delete a recipient from your mail header, enter the
command EXClude name, where name is some name as printed in the header.
Of course, you may include or exclude recipients for complimentary
copies or blind complimentary copies by so specifying; for example, the
command INClude brenda cc: apc108@pop.uky.edu will add names and
addresses to the header of your message for one new recipient as a
primary addressee and one person to receive a complimentary copy. You
may find it easier to use the equivalent commands Add Recipient and
Delete Recipient available on the Menu Bar.
TIP: You may also modify the subject line in your mail header. Move
your cursor down to the command line and enter SUBject new subject.
If your message is likely to generate a reply from your correspondent,
and if you want this reply to go to someone other than yourself, you
have the option of specifying this with the one-word command REPLYTO.
For example, if you want any reply to your message to go to userid
apc108 and not to you, move your cursor down to the command line and
enter REPLYTO apc108 and an appropriate line will appear in the header
of your message.
You may also request an automatic acknowledgement of any one message or
of all messages you send out. For information on the ACK command, see A
User's Guide to Electronic Mail or enter the command Help MAIL at the
Ready prompt.

REPLYING TO MAIL If you want to reply to mail you have received, it's
as easy as pressing the PF5 (REPLY) key while the item you want to
answer is displayed on your screen (or while the cursor is next to it in
your mail menu).
TIP: You will notice that the command attached to the PF5 key, as
highlighted at the bottom of your screen, has changed according to your
environment. As long as you are reading incoming mail, PF5 issues a
Reply command, but when you initiate a message or reply, PF5 is defined
to issue a SEND command. Certain other PF key commands will change as
well, according to the mode or "window" you are working in.
This REPLY command will, for the message you send back, automatically
reverse the sender and receiver names in the header, provide today's
date, and put your cursor in a new, empty message space. As you write
your reply, you may wish to refer back to the mail item you received; to
Switch from send mode to read mode, just press the PF6 key, and the

original message will appear. Each time you press the PF6 key, which is
a toggle (on/off) switch, it will switch from Send Mode to Read Mode, or
vice versa. When your reply message is written to your satisfaction,
SEND it by pressing PF5, and then to confirm your desire to send this
mail to the correspondent named on your screen, press PF5 again.
When you reply to mail that was sent to several others (indicated by
multiple addresses in the header) as well as yourself, you may wish all
the recipients to see your reply, not just the original sender. In this
case, move your cursor down to the command line and enter the command
REPLY ALL.
TIP: Even experienced users of e-mail sometimes fail to notice that a
message they received was sent to a group list (represented by one line
in the header) as opposed to several individuals (represented by
multiple lines in the header). If they try to reply to the originator
of such a message using simply the PF5 key, their answer will
inadvertently go to everyone on the list, perhaps even hundreds of
people. In some situations, this can be most embarrassing! Do not use
the PF5 key to reply to an individual who has sent out a group mailing
unless you want your reply to go to the whole list. To address your
reply to the one individual who initiated the group mailing, move your
cursor down to the command line and enter Reply FROM.
Your correspondent may be able to infer from the Subject entry, if any,
what the original message was that you are now replying to. To
eliminate any doubt, you have the option of sending back the original
message, or an excerpt, along with your reply. While the original
message is on screen, enter REPLY TEXT at the command line and then
proceed as outlined above. Be sure to edit out unneeded text by using
the Delete key (F9); don't send back pages of text just to make a brief
comment! You may also edit the original message by adding comments at
the beginning, between paragraphs, or wherever you like. Press the PF2
key to add a blank line.

FORWARDING MAIL While reading an item of incoming mail, you may decide
to forward it to one or more people. Move your cursor down to the
command line and type the command FOrward, followed by as many addresses
as you wish to forward this mail item to. Press Enter to bring up your
original incoming mail with a new blank space above it, where you may
add your own comment to explain why you are forwarding this item.
Before sending/forwarding this item with the PF5 (SEND) key, you may
also edit the original message by adding comments at the beginning,
between paragraphs, or wherever you like. Be sure to delete irrelevant
material before sending.
TIP: Do not confuse the two different FORWARD subcommands. One FORWARD,
an Xedit subcommand, is assigned to the PF8 key (see the bottom of your
screen) and moves you down one screen at a time. The other, an e-mail
subcommand, may be entered at the command line with a nickname or
address, in order to forward mail to another userid.
Experienced users of the MailBook program may note that this FORWARD
command now incorporates the entire message (with its header) in a new
message with a new header. If for any reason you wish to forward mail
with the older-style Resent headers, you may use the RESEND command
instead of FORWARD.

PRINTING MAIL You can easily print either incoming or outgoing mail.
If you have received a message you wish to print, press PF4 for Print.
A File Print screen will appear, and the cursor will move to the printer
selection at the center of the screen. Enter the name of the printer to
which you want to direct this print job and then press Enter. The file
will be sent immediately to the printer you have chosen. If you are at
home on a PC and connecting with Kermit, make sure your attached printer
is turned on and enter terminal as your printer choice; terminal
emulation at the bottom of the screen should be set to VT100.
If you have problems with printing or questions about other types of
connections, contact the Information Systems Help Desk in 107 McVey Hall
(e-mail: helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu or phone: 257-2249).

PART III: Taking Full Advantage of E-Mail Features

PART I and PART II described subcommands available under the MAIL
command. PART III explains how similar subcommands under the MAILBOOK
command work, as well as what the NAMES command can do to make your use
of e-mail easier.

THE NAMES COMMAND: BUILDING YOUR ADDRESS BOOK After using e-mail for a
while, you may find you have more userids and nodenames for your
correspondents than you are able to keep track of. You can store them
in an electronic address book available through the NAMES command and
invoke them through real nicknames or shorthand names of your own
devising.
In addition to keeping a ready list of your correspondents' userids and
nodenames, NAMES offers three important time-savers: 1) you will no
longer be prompted to enter your correspondent's userid and nodename; 2)
you can create short nicknames to use in place of longer
userid/nodenames when you send out mail; and 3) you can set up a list of
addresses for a simultaneous group mailing. Consider preparing an entry
of basic information for each of your regular correspondents.
At the Ready prompt, enter NAMES to bring up a screen representing one
blank entry in your address book, or list of names. The field Nickname:
may be filled in with a regular userid, with a person's nickname (such
as Sue or Bob) or even your own shorthand (such as S or B). Using the
Tab key to move from one field of the NAMES entry to the next, fill in
other fields with whatever information you wish to include. At the very
least, three or four fields should be filled in for each entry:
nickname, userid, nodename (if other than ukcc.uky.edu), and name.
If you wish to log mail to and from this person (or group list) to a
special notebook instead of always to your ALL NOTEBOOK, use the
Notebook: field to name a notebook where this incoming mail should be
stored. For example, for userid MARY you could set up a notebook also
called MARY; or for the people in your club, you could specify their
notebook as CLUB. Depending on what filing system is most helpful for
the files you want to organize, you can set up a different notebook for
each userid or for a group of userids that have something in common.
To Save an entry (a screen with some or all fields filled) to your Names
file, press PF4. Then press PF2 to clear all fields if you wish to fill
in another entry. When you are finished entering and saving for each of
your correspondents, press PF3 to Quit.

If you wish to send out the same message to multiple individuals, you
may develop a group mailing list by putting a list name in the nickname
field on the Names screen. Fill this field with any name for a group of
people (CLUB, for example) to whom you will want to send identical and
simultaneous mail messages. Then fill the LIST field at the bottom of
the screen with all the addresses or nicknames in the group, putting a
space after each, but no commas. A list may also include one or more
other lists, if you wish.
For a fuller explanation of these commands with visual illustrations of
different screens you will encounter, see A User's Guide to Electronic
Mail, as described on page 1. When you need to update someone's address
or phone number, consult this User's Guide for information on finding,
changing, and deleting entries (PF5, PF6, and PF9) or enter the command
Help NAMES at the Ready prompt.

THE MAILBOOK COMMAND: DEALING WITH MAIL LOGGED TO NOTEBOOKS You may
discover after sending and receiving a number of messages that the
e-mail facility has been logging (saving) copies of all your incoming
and outgoing mail items in special NOTEBOOK files on your A-disk. These
mail items are transferred by default, unless you specifically log them
elsewhere or discard then. As you QUIT the mail menu, after bringing it
up with the MAIL command, new mail items are transferred by the system
out of your reader and into your UNREAD NOTEBOOK. Similarly, when you
issue the SEND command, copies of each outgoing mail item, including
mail you have replied to and forwarded, are logged by default to your
ALL NOTEBOOK.
These two notebooks provided by the e-mail facility will soon be too
large to be handled efficiently by the system. Your mail menu, which
lists not only incoming mail items, but also everything in your UNREAD
NOTEBOOK, will get longer and longer. The MailBook program cannot deal
with any single notebook longer than about 10,000 lines. You may find
that your ALL NOTEBOOK reaches this level in just a few months.
At this point--or well before--you will want to learn how to set up a
variety of notebooks according to your own filing needs. Experienced
mail users often find that after a year or two they have created 50 or
more different notebooks to file their messages and keep them organized
for ready accessibility. There are two easy ways to set up a new
notebook. One is through the NAMES command, as described above. The
other is by LOGging a mail item while specifying a new notebook name as
part of the command. For example, with a mail message displayed on the
screen, move your cursor down to the command line and enter the command
LOG LATEST to create a notebook called LATEST. You will see a message
at the bottom of your screen confirming that this new notebook has been
created.
You can log incoming mail items to these notebooks, eliminate duplicated
items that have probably accumulated (as a result of receiving, replying
to, or forwarding the same mail item), and discard unwanted items. All
these operations may be handled by subcommands available under the
MAILBOOK command, many of which are the same as MAIL subcommands: READ,
QUIT, PRINT, REPLY, FORWARD, and DISCARD. The main difference, simply
put, is that MAILBOOK provides access to old (i.e., all logged) mail,
whereas MAIL provides access to new mail. More specifically, MAILBOOK
brings up mail items that have been logged to some notebook. MAIL, on

the other hand, brings up incoming items in your reader, plus any items
that may be in your UNREAD NOTEBOOK.
TIP: Do not confuse the terms MAILBOOK (a command) and NOTEBOOK (a
file).
Enter the command MAILBOOK to bring up a list of your notebooks. (If
you know which notebook you want without consulting your mailbook list,
you may bypass the list by specifying the notebook name along with the
Mailbook command, entering MAILBOOK ALL, MAILBOOK MARY, or MAILBOOK
CLUB, for example.)
Your mailbook list may include both UNREAD NOTEBOOK, containing any mail
files still on your mail menu (accessible with the MAIL command), and
ALL NOTEBOOK, containing incoming mail files you have logged and copies
of all mail you have sent out, forwarded, or replied to. If there are
mail items in notebooks you have created, these notebooks will be
displayed in this mailbook list as well. Select one of these notebooks
by moving the cursor to the appropriate line and pressing PF10; a list
of items logged in that notebook will appear, and you may proceed to
read, discard, and perform other similar operations, just as if you were
using MAIL subcommands with new mail items.
TIP: As an item of curiosity, you may wish to note that the MAILBOOK
command will allow you another way to access read or unread mail already
in your UNREAD NOTEBOOK, by entering the command MAILBOOK UNREAD at the
Ready prompt. Normally, as described above in PART I, you will access
these items in your UNREAD NOTEBOOK (along with any new mail) just by
using the MAIL command.

DISCARDING MAIL OR LOGGING IT TO A NOTEBOOK The MAIL and MAILBOOK
commands both offer a DISCARD subcommand which allows you to throw out
mail items you do not want to keep. In both cases, you may issue the
DISCARD command either from the menu (move the cursor to the unwanted
item and press PF9) or from a screen displaying the mail item (press PF9
to DISCARD before pressing PF3 to QUIT).
Assume, for example, that you have only one new item of mail in your
reader. After reading it, you may not want to leave it where it will
come up again in your mail menu the next time you enter the MAIL
command; in this case, you can simply throw it out. Instead of
immediately pressing PF3 to QUIT while the mail item is on your screen,
first press PF9 to DISCARD and then PF3 to QUIT. You will be returned
to your mail menu, where you will notice that the date of the item to be
discarded is now preceded by a minus sign (-), meaning that it has been
marked for deletion when you finally quit Mail. Press PF3 again to QUIT
this screen; before you are returned to the Ready prompt, a screen
message will ask you to confirm your intention to discard this item.
(If you have several mail items you want to discard, you may mark them
all for deletion before you QUIT the mail menu.)
Continuing the example above, you also have the option of logging a copy
of this mail to your A-disk before discarding it; if you wish to log it
to disk, press PF11 (LOG) before pressing PF9 (DISCARD). This mail will
then be logged to your ALL NOTEBOOK file (or whatever the default
notebook is, if you have used the NAMES command to set up another
notebook for this correspondent) and discarded from your UNREAD NOTEBOOK
(where it would otherwise remain). A variant on this procedure is the
command LOGD, where D stands for DISCARD. Enter LOGD on the command

line, and the mail item you are currently viewing, under either the MAIL
or the MAILBOOK command, will be both logged and discarded at the same
time.
Note that you can override any default notebook setting by avoiding the
PF11 key and entering instead a LOG command. For example, to LOG mail
into notebooks named BILL and JOHN, you could enter LOG bill or LOGD
john at the command line.
DISCARDing a mail item from the incoming mail screen does not affect the
contents of your notebooks. If you have logged a mail item into a
notebook, you will retain that copy even after you discard the mail item
from the incoming mail screen. If you change your mind and want to keep
a mail item that is marked for deletion, move your cursor to this item
in the mail menu and press PF9 a second time to UNdiscard; the minus
sign next to the date will disappear, and the item will not be
discarded.

CUSTOMIZING YOUR MAIL ENVIRONMENT The MAIL and MAILBOOK commands are
programmed with many basic settings which may or may not suit your
taste. If you want to change what the PF keys are programmed to do,
suppress the confirmation question about discarding mail items when you
log off, disable the automatic logging of your outgoing messages, or
otherwise alter the default settings, you may do so by creating your own
file MAILUSER XEDIT. You can also set up a signature file, with your
postal address, phone number, and other information, which can be
automatically appended to your outgoing mail messages. To find out more
about the many options you can specify, enter Help MAIL PROFILE at the
Ready prompt. Another easy way to modify some of the default settings
is through the Menu Bar, under the Options heading. If you have
questions about customizing your mail environment, contact the
Information Systems Help Desk in 107 McVey Hall (e-mail:
helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu or phone: 257-2249).

PART IV: Using Features Related to E-mail

CMS offers features that are not truly part of e-mail, but that
nonetheless will tap whatever information on userids, nicknames, and
nodenames you may have set up in your NAMES file. (See NAMES above.)

SENDING FILES AND INTERACTIVE MESSAGES CMS provides two helpful
commands for sending files and brief messages to other users.
bulletthe SHIP command, you can send a file to a user on BITNET or even
other networks. At the Ready prompt, enter a SHIP command, SHIP
filename filetype filemode TO userid@nodename, as illustrated below.
Filemode a in the first two examples refers to files stored on your
A-disk:
SHIP report script a TO tkjones@med.unc.edu
SHIP memo script a susan
SHIP document script TO t
TIP: The filemode and the word TO are usually optional, unless you SHIP
a file to a correspondent using a one-letter nickname, in which case
either the filemode or the TO may be dropped, but not both.

Or, if you wish to SHIP while in Flist, you can use a forward slash (/)
in place of filename filetype filemode. Note that, when SHIPping from
Flist, the @ symbol will not work; you must spell out the word at
instead. Move the cursor to the file you wish to send and press PF9 to
clear the rest of the line; then type the command SHIP / userid AT
nodename and press Enter. For more information on these commands,
consult the CMS Introductory Guide available in 107 McVey Hall, or under
the CMS MANUAL command.
bulletELL command, also entered at the Ready prompt, allows you to send
messages of one or two lines to another BITNET user. Short messages
sent with the TELL command go through the network(s) faster than MAIL
messages do.
TELL tkjones@med.unc.edu When will your plane arrive?
TELL bob Got your memo. Can you come up in 10 minutes?
If your correspondent is logged on, the two of you can engage in an
interactive conversation. If your correspondent is not logged on, you
will get a screen message to this effect, and the message you sent will
be discarded.
LOOKING UP ADDRESSES A full online directory of userids at education
and research institutions around the world is not yet available, but you
may wish to check directories at other places by way of the World-Wide
Web (WWW). At the Ready prompt, enter the command WWW. Move your
cursor to Campus Directory and press Enter. Then press PF8 to go down a
screen. With your cursor placed on the line Other Institutions, press
Enter again. A menu of directory options by geographic locale will
appear. Continue selecting items you want until you find the
institution you want. Most universities will have PH directories that
work approximately like ours, though some will provide special
directions for you to follow. Press PF12 to Quit WWW completely or
press PF3 to back out one screen at a time.
If you know the name of the host system where your correspondent has a
mail address, you may be able to connect directly by entering the PH
command followed by the name of the system. For example, if you know
that the University of Notre Dame directory is at host ns.nd.edu, you
can enter the command ph (host ns.nd.edu to bring up the directory of
that institution immediately.

EXCHANGING INFORMATION AND IDEAS THROUGH DISCUSSION GROUPS Through
BITNET and Internet, you can subscribe to a wide variety of discussion
groups. (Conceptually similar electronic communication groups available
to PC users with modems are often called bulletin boards). There are
literally thousands of subject areas for these forums, including many
academic disciplines, social issues, and hobby topics. On BITNET, a
subset of the Internet, the electronic service which makes these
discussion groups or lists available is LISTSERV. LISTSERV groups are
based on e-mail, so you will find it easy to participate using MailBook
commands you have learned in this manual. At the Ready prompt, enter
VIEW UKCC LISTS to see a list of discussion groups you can subscribe to.
Enter the command TELL LISTSERV Help to get online help regarding the
use of these lists. Another electronic service (not based on e-mail but
similar to it in appearance) is NetNews or Usenet. Netnews also
publishes thousands of news groups which you can browse or subscribe to
through any newsreader, including the NetNews Reader (NNR) available to

UKCC users. The advantage of NetNews is that mail messages never
clutter your mailbox; you read a centrally posted copy whenever you
choose to. For more information on NNR, consult the NetNews Reader
User's Guide, available under the CMS MANUAL command. For online help,
enter the command Help NNR at the Ready prompt.

LEARNING MORE ABOUT E-MAIL This introduction has been written to help
you get started on e-mail; after working through it, you should be well
on your way to using e-mail and some related features with ease and
enjoyment. To learn more about what you can do with MailBook, consult
the online manual A User's Guide to Electronic Mail available under the
CMS MANUAL command; if you wish, you may print this manual on the
printer in the basement of McVey Hall. For a different path to online
help with e-mail, return to the Ready prompt, type Help and press Enter;
then move your cursor to Communicating with others and press Enter. Or
enter the command HELP MAIL MENU to get explanations for a long list of
MailBook commands and options.
To facilitate editing the text of your mail memos, you may also wish to
learn a few useful Xedit subcommands. Enter the command SLFTEACH for an
online tutorial on Xedit. To learn a little more about basic commands
in CMS, see the CMS Introductory Guide, available in 107 McVey Hall.
Don't hesitate to ask for help at any point; contact the Information
Systems Help Desk in 107 McVey Hall (e-mail: helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu or
phone: 257-2249).

Your comments on this manual are always welcome. The staff of Academic
Computing Services is striving to make our computer documentation
accurate, informative, and easy to understand. Your suggestions on how
to make it more accurate or helpful will be carefully considered. Send
your ideas, comments, and suggestions via e-mail to
helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu or call 257-2249. We appreciate your feedback!

Revised 8/95

Reader Response on the Introduction to Electronic Mail

Your comments on any UKCC publication or documentation are always
welcome. You are invited to use this form to send us your ideas and
suggestions regarding accuracy, clarity, organization, and appearance.
Use the back of this sheet if you need more space for comments.

Please return this form to Technical Writer, University Computing
Services, 115 McVey Hall, Campus 0045 (for U.S. mail: University of
Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0045). Or send e-mail to
helpdesk@ukcc.uky.edu.

I am a a) student; b) staff member; c)
faculty member
and my department is

Please print your name and campus address (or e-mail address) here if
you would like a response:

I used this manual primarily as (please circle one)
a) an introduction b) a reference manual
c) other (explain: ______________________________________________)

The level of coverage is
a) too much b) about right c) not
enough.

The manual is
a) too long b) about right c) not
long enough.

I find this manual
a) very helpful b) somewhat helpful c) not
very helpful.

The most helpful aspects of this manual are

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If you described problems above, please indicate also what kind of
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