## Compose: sending mail

- Writing messages
- Including attachments
- Sending, canceling, and saving drafts
- Resuming drafts
- Headers
- Automatic saves

The Compose screen is where you write and send messages. The Compose screen is divided into two sections:

- The header section is at the top. You use the header section to address the mail and control the text format.
- The message section is below the header. The message section is where you enter and format the message text.

## Writing messages

1. On the menu bar, click Compose (or Reply or Forward).
2. In the header section, enter the addressing information. By default, the headers displayed are the To, Cc, and Subject fields. For information on displaying more header fields, see Headers.
3. To enter rich-text click on Rich Text to the right of the Subject header. Click Plain Text to toggle this back to plain text.
4. In the message section, enter your message text. If you are entering Rich Text, a formatting toolbar at the top of the message section allows you to apply rich-text formatting to message text. You can also insert links and graphics using the formatting toolbar.
5. If desired, you can mark your message with a priority level. On the menu bar, point to Priority, and then select the level that you want for this message.

## Including attachments

1. On the menu bar, click Attach File.
2. Enter the path and file name for the file that you want to attach, or click Browse to browse for the file and select it.

## Sending, canceling, and saving drafts

To send mail

- On the menu bar, click Send.

To cancel an editing session

1. On the menu bar, click Cancel, or click any item in the left pane, such as your Inbox.
2. Click Discard to confirm. The Compose screen closes and your Inbox appears.

To save a draft of a message

- On the menu bar, click Save Draft. A copy of the message is saved to the Drafts folder. The Compose screen closes and you are returned to the screen that was displayed before the editing session began.

#### Note:

If you open a previously saved draft, make more changes, and then cancel the editing session and discard changes, the entire draft is deleted, not just the most recent changes.

## Resuming drafts

To resume editing a draft message that you previously saved go to the Drafts folder by clicking on Drafts in the left pane. Find the message you want to resume in the list and click on its Subject to resume composing.

## Headers

The header section is where you enter addressing information. By default, the header displays the To, Cc, and Subject fields.

To display all headers

- To the right of the To field, click More Headers.

To display only the default headers

- To the right of the To field, click Fewer Headers.

### Header fields

The following header fields are available:

- To. Use this field to specify email recipients:
  - Type the full email address of the recipient. Separate multiple addresses with commas.
  - Type a name or nickname specified in your contact list and click. Alpine expands the name or nickname to the full address. Separate multiple addresses with commas.
  - Click To to display to your contact list and select an address or to select an address from the directory server.
- Attachments. Lists any files that have been attached to the message.
- Subject. Enter a brief phrase describing the topic of the message.
- Cc (Carbon copy). Similar to the To field. Enter one or more addresses to receive a copy of the message. These addresses are seen by all message recipients.
- Bcc (Blind carbon copy). Similar to the To and Cc fields. Enter one or more addresses to receive a copy of the message. The Bcc header does not show up in the sent mail so these addresses are hidden from other recipients.
- Fcc (File carbon copy). Specifies a folder to which a copy of your outgoing message is saved. You can control whether messages are saved with or without attachments. For more information, see Settings.

## Automatic saves

Alpine saves a draft every 5 minutes, overwriting the draft each time, so that only the most recent saved version is preserved.