CITES Express Email Web Interface: How to Compose a Message

This web page is part of an online tutorial series about the CITES Express Email web interface and explains how to compose a new email message.

1. Log in to the CITES Express Email web interface if you have not already done so.

2. Click on the Compose button at the top of the web page.

3. Enter the email address(es) of the recipient(s) into the To: field or click on the Address Book button to select correspondents' addresses from the address book. Use the same methods for the Cc: (carbon copy) or Bcc: (blind carbon copy) fields, if necessary.

4. Type the subject of your email into Subject: and your message into the large text box, which is called the Compose text box.

5. Select from the additional compose options described below.

Request a delivery receipt: If you would like to be notified by email that your message has been delivered to its recipient, then check the box next to Request a delivery receipt. Note: Your recipient might use an email client that does not send receipts or allows this feature to be disabled, therefore, you might not always receive a receipt upon the delivery of your message.

Request a read receipt: If you would like to be notified by email that your recipient has opened your message, then check the box next to Request a read receipt. Note: Your recipient might use an email client that does not send receipts or allows this feature to be disabled, therefore, you might not always receive a receipt upon the opening of your message.

Include signature: A signature is text that is automatically added to your emails. Signatures often contain an office or home address, quotes, or other personalizations. If you have already created a signature in your Web Preferences, then checking the Include signature box will append your Signature to your message. If you have not yet created a signature, then you can do so by clicking on Web Preferences in the left navigational menu and then entering your text into the Signature box.

Save copy of sent message: Leave this box checked if you would like a copy of your outgoing message to be saved to your Sent folder. If you uncheck the box, then you will not retain a copy of the message.

Message charset: Select the appropriate message character set if you are sending this message in another language.

Priority: Select a priority if you would like your message to appear with a higher or lower priority in your recipient's mailbox. Some people use this option to denote an important or time-critical message. Note: Your recipient might use an email client that does not display a message's priority information.

Attachments: If you need to send an attachment, click on the Browse button to select your file. Then click Add.

6. Click the Send button to send the email to the recipients.

Preferences for the Compose Window

You can change the default settings for the width and height of the Compose text box by clicking on Web Preferences in the left navigational menu.

Enter the desired width and height into the Compose Width: and Compose Height: text boxes and click OK. For this example, the width was changed to 72 characters and the height was changed to 30 rows.

Increasing the height will simply make the text box for the body of your email messages longer, so that you can see more of the message you are composing. However, changing the width of the Compose text box will make the words wrap differently, and the text might appear broken or scattered to your recipients.

To restore the default values of 62 characters in width and 15 rows in height, delete the numbers in the Compose Width: and Compose Height: text boxes.

Related: How to Add an Individual Contact to the Address Book

Return to the CITES Express Email Web Interface Tutorials main page.