Reading Mail

Click a message in the list and it opens in the preview column (or below the list, or in its own screen, depending on your layout). Double-click, or press Enter, to open it full-screen. Open in new window under the More menu does what it says, and there is a preference to make that the default.

The top of the message shows the subject, the sender, the date, and the recipients. Click Details to see every addressed recipient and the Reply-To, Summary to fold them away again, and Headers to open the complete raw header block in a dialog. Show source (More menu) opens the entire message exactly as it arrived.

A message is marked read when you open it. The Mark messages as read preference lets you delay that by a few seconds, so skimming through a list with the arrow keys does not mark everything read, or turn it off so nothing is marked read until you do it yourself.

An HTML message usually does not contain its pictures. It contains links to pictures on the sender's server, and a mail reader fetches them when the message is displayed. That fetch is the tracking mechanism described above. CodaMail does not make it until you say so, and it can make it on your behalf so the sender never sees you.

The banner

When you view an HTML message that references remote images, the pictures are left blank and a banner appears above the message: To protect your privacy remote resources have been blocked. It offers two choices, and a third when Allow remote resources (see below) is set to from my contacts or from trusted senders:

Choose Allow Proxied whenever you simply want to see the pictures. Choose Allow Direct only when the proxy cannot reach the images, for example pictures hosted on a company intranet, on a server that blocks data-center addresses, or SVG graphics, which the proxy never passes through. When some images fail through the proxy, a notice tells you how many and offers Allow Direct for that message.

Once you allow images in a message, CodaMail remembers that for the rest of your session, so reopening the same message does not ask again.

The two settings behind it

Both live under Settings → Preferences → Displaying Messages.

Allow remote resources (images, styles) decides when remote content loads without asking: never (the default: always show the banner), from my contacts, from trusted senders, or always. Leave it on never unless you have a strong reason; "always" turns tracking back on for every message.

Remote images decides how images load once allowed:

• Load directly: your browser fetches everything. The Allow button on the banner behaves like Allow Direct.
• Proxy images from unknown senders (the default): images from senders in your contacts, your collected recipients or your trusted senders load directly; everyone else goes through the proxy.
• Proxy all images: every image goes through the proxy, including those from people you know.

The proxy only relays images, refuses anything on a private network, caps the size, and strips every header the remote server sends back except the image itself. It keeps no record of which address was fetched.

These are on the toolbar, on the right-click menu of a list row, and on a long press on a touch screen. Most work on several selected messages at once.

• Reply answers the sender. Reply all answers everyone on the message; the arrow beside it offers Reply to list when the message came from a mailing list. The default for the Reply all button is a preference.
• Forward sends the message on, either inline (quoted in your text) or as an attachment (the original preserved exactly, headers and all). Resend (bounce) re-sends the message unchanged to a new address, as if from the original sender.
• Delete moves the message to Trash. In Trash, delete removes it permanently. The Server Settings preferences can change this to flagging for deletion instead.
• Snooze takes the message out of your inbox and brings it back later: later today, this evening, tomorrow morning, this weekend, next week, or a date and time you pick. It waits in the Snoozed folder and can optionally come back marked unread. Wake now returns it immediately.
• Archive moves the message to your Archive folder. Divide archive by (Special Folders preferences) can file it into a year, month, sender or original-folder subfolder automatically. There is also a preference to mark it read on the way.
• Kill Alias (Kill To Address) looks at the address the message was sent to and stops all further mail to it by adding it to Manage Catch-alls: the sender's server is told "User Unknown" at the SMTP level and the mail never enters your account. This is the one-click way to retire a masked or random alias that has started receiving junk. See using aliases.
• Block rejects future mail at the SMTP level with a "User Unknown" error while the sending server is still delivering, so it is never accepted into your account and the sender has reason to drop your address; most providers accept such mail and filter it afterwards. Block from this address, from its domain or parent domain, from its top-level domain, from the sending server, or from every server at the sender's provider. Each choice asks you to confirm. See Blocking Mail.
• Junk moves the message to the Junk folder and teaches the learning filter that it is spam; Not junk moves it back to the Inbox and teaches the opposite. Mail the server itself rates as spam goes to the separate Spam folder instead (see Folders); that rating is configurable under Settings → Antispam Tools.
• Labels adds or removes colored labels. A message can carry several at once and keeps them when moved between folders; the menu shows a checkmark on each label the message has, entry 0 clears them all, and keys 1 to 9 toggle your first nine labels. Labels are standard IMAP keywords, so they appear as tags in Thunderbird and other clients, with your first five matching Thunderbird's built-in tags. See Labels.
• Mark as read, unread, starred (flagged) or unstarred.
• More: Print, Import (messages from .eml, .mbox or .zip files into the folder you are viewing), Export (this message as .eml, or selected messages as a zip in mbox or maildir format), Edit as new (reopen a sent message in the composer), Show source, Move to, Copy to, Open in new window, Create filter (start a delivery filter pre-filled from this message), Save as event, Save as task.

Drag and drop works too: drag messages onto a folder to move them, onto Starred to star them, or onto a label in the Labels panel to label them.