How To Switch To Tucows Webmail - Part 1 of 2

Switch To Tucows Webmail - Part 1 of 2

by Michael E. Callahan aka Dr. File Finder

Recently I've been focused on making changes to the way I do things. I went back to trying Windows Vista, I went for two weeks without any desktop applications, and I switched all my email to Gmail by Google. I actually wrote a two-part article on that process which you can read. Here's a link to Part 1 and here's a link to Part 2 Ahh, but then it dawned on me, with the help of some emails from you folks, that not everyone might want to use Gmail. So, I decided I'd tell you about another great alternative and that's Tucows Webmail.

A Little Background

All of us who work at Tucows can access our Tucows email right from the Web. This is really handy if you're traveling or visiting someone and don't have a laptop. In the past whenever I was having trouble with my email client I would get my Tucows email by using Tucows Webmail. If you sign up for email at NetIdentity the email you'll be using is also the Tucows Webmail. NetIdentity is a cool concept because you share a domain with other people with the same name. So, for example, other people with a last name of Callahan could sign up and it would look like we were from the same domain. If all you want is Webmail you can get that from NetIdentity for only $20.00 a year. Quite a deal.

In addition, if you purchase an email or Web hosting account at Domain Direct you'll also be using Tucows Webmail. It's really a cost-effective way to work with email. So, in this first of two articles I'll fill you in on some of the cool features found in Tucows Webmail!

Webmail Interface

The interface for Tucows Webmail is clean and uncluttered. It's also very easy-to-use. Even better the interface is available in multiple languages including English, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese. There are actually two interfaces available, Standard and Basic. The Standard interface offers all of the features while the Basic interface does not for compatibility issues. You can easily select your default language and choose between the Basic and Standard interfaces in the General Settings. Here you can also establish what your time zone is and how many items you want to see per page. Like many email programs Webmail is divided into three (3) panes. The left hand pane is the area for email folders, address book, and settings. The top pane is where your emails come in and the lower pane is where you can view the contents of individual emails. Tucows Webmail gives you a solid, easy-to-use interface for working with all your email.

Working With Webmail

Before you begin sending out emails you'll probably want to take care of a few items like creating folders. Tucows Webmail makes it easy to create both first level folders and sub-folders. This makes it easier to manage your email as it comes in. The interface also supports drag and drop so you can easily move emails from the Inbox to other folders or sub-folders. Folders are also easy to work with. Each folder you create has quick access icons for renaming it, emptying it, or deleting it, as seen in the screen shot. This makes it easy for you to manage 10 folders or 100. Once you get your folders setup you'll probably want to tend to your Address Book. The Address Book can be used for much more than just email addresses. You can include phone numbers for home, work, and mobile. You can put in home and work addresses, put in notes, and even give each user a "nickname." To populate your Address Book, Tucows Webmail also supports importing CSV format files. These are comma-delimited files that are supported by most email programs.

The Address Book also supports Groups which is a very handy option. For example, I have a group for the board of the SIAF. When I need to send all of them an email I can just select the group and not have to put in each email address individually. Once your email addresses and groups are in the Address Book you should be ready to roll.

Creating email with Tucows Webmail is a relatively straightforward process. You can elect to do your emails in plain text or you can also use Rich Text Format. Using RTF lets you add some spice to your emails by letting you use bold, italic, underline, and more. When you're ready to address an email just start typing and the correct name comes to the surface for you. Slick. You can also have attachments as large as 25 megabytes. Speaking of attachments, when you have pictures come in you can actually see all of them in a type of slideshow format. Really a cool way to view attachments and make your life easier.

That's all for this week. Join me next week when I do part 2 of this two-part series. I'll look at SPAM control, using multiple email accounts and much more with Tucows Webmail. I hope you'll join me.

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