Writing an email

New messages are written in a separate window above the workspace. While you write, the Inbox and the reading pane remain usable; several compose windows can be open at the same time. This article describes the window in full. Replying, forwarding and drafts are described in Replying, forwarding and drafts.

1. At the top of the navigation column, choose Neue E-Mail (New email). When the navigation column is collapsed, it is the round button with the pen.
2. The Neue Nachricht (New message) window opens at the bottom right of the workspace.
3. The cursor is in the An (To) field. If An is already filled in (for example from the person menu), the cursor is in Betreff (Subject).

Other ways to open a new window:

• E-Mail schreiben (Write email) in the person menu (right-click a sender picture), see Reading messages.
• Abbestellen (Unsubscribe) above a newsletter, if unsubscribing works by email.
• From the Contacts and Calendar areas, for example to a contact.
• The compose icon on the INGOS desktop opens the Inbox with a new window.

Window size and position, minimizing and arranging are described in Messages in separate windows.

• Von (From): the address of your own mailbox, fixed. You cannot choose a different sender; messages are always sent from your own mailbox.
• An (To): the recipients. At least one recipient under An is required to send. For how to use it, see “Entering recipients”.
• Cc (placeholder “Kopie”, copy): copy recipients, visible to all recipients. Only visible after Optionen (Options) › Cc.
• Bcc (placeholder “Blindkopie”, blind copy): blind copy recipients, not visible to the other recipients. Only visible after Optionen › Bcc.
• Betreff (Subject): at most 998 characters.
• Writing area (placeholder “Nachricht schreiben …”, write a message) with the formatting bar below it. The writing area follows the theme and is dark in the dark theme.
• Anhänge (Attachments): appears only once a file is attached.

1. Click in An (To) and type the name or part of the address.
2. Matching suggestions from all address books appear below the field: your own contacts, shared address books and the company directory. The search covers name and address, including the middle of a word (“lei” finds Leia Organza and Joda Klein). At most 50 suggestions are shown.
3. Click a suggestion, or select it with Arrow down / Arrow up and accept it with Enter. Esc closes the suggestions.
4. The recipient appears as a chip with the name and × (“Entfernen”, remove).

You can also type an address directly:

• Formats: the address only, for example “leia.organza@millennium-falter.example”, or the name followed by the address in angle brackets (between the “less than” and “greater than” characters), for example “Leia Organza” with “leia.organza@millennium-falter.example” in angle brackets. Square brackets around the address make it invalid.
• Enter, comma, semicolon or Tab accept the typed address. Leaving the field also accepts it.
• Backspace in the empty field removes the most recently entered recipient.
• An invalid address appears in red, with the tooltip “Keine gültige E-Mail-Adresse” (not a valid email address). You can remove it with × and enter it again.

Cc and Bcc work the same way. Each field allows at most 50 recipients.

Suggestions come only from the address books, not from recently used addresses. To create new contacts, see the Contacts area.

1. Click in the writing area and type your text.
2. To format, select text and choose a button in the bar below the writing area.

• Fett (Bold), Kursiv (Italic), Unterstrichen (Underline), Durchgestrichen (Strikethrough): text styling for the selected text.
• Aufzählung (Bulleted list): a list with bullets.
• Nummerierung (Numbered list): a numbered list.
• Zitat (Quote): turns the paragraph into an indented quote block.
• Link (Link): asks for the address (“Link-URL (https://…)”) and links the selected text.

There is no font, font size, font color, alignment, tables or switch to plain text. There is no undo button.

The app does not insert a signature; there is no signature feature. Write a closing and contact details below the text yourself if needed.

The text can be at most 1,500,000 characters long, and the whole message without attachments at most 2 MB. Beyond that it is not sent, and “Ungültige Anfrage.” (invalid request) appears.

1. In the action bar, choose Datei anhängen (Attach file, paper clip).
2. In the file dialog, choose one or more files.
3. Each file is uploaded immediately. Its card in the Anhänge (Attachments) area shows “Wird hochgeladen …” (uploading) during the upload, then the size.
4. To remove a file again: choose Entfernen (Remove, ×) on its card. It is left out when sending.

• Each file can be at most 50 MB. For larger files, “Der Anhang ist zu groß (höchstens 50 MB).” (the attachment is too large, at most 50 MB) or “Zu groß.” (too large) appears.
• An empty file is rejected: “Die Datei ist leer.” (the file is empty); an unreadable one: “Die Datei konnte nicht gelesen werden.” (the file could not be read).
• If an error occurs, a notice appears with the file name as its title and the reason (otherwise “Hochladen fehlgeschlagen.”, upload failed); the card disappears.
• Files cannot be dragged and dropped into the window; only Datei anhängen works.
• While a file is uploading, the message cannot be sent (“Ein Anhang wird noch hochgeladen.”, an attachment is still uploading).

From left to right:

• Senden (Send, paper plane): sends the message.
• Optionen (Options, gear): menu with further settings, see below.
• Datei anhängen (Attach file, paper clip): see “Attaching files”.
• Entwurf speichern (Save draft): saves the message in the Entwürfe (Drafts) folder, see Drafts.
• Verwerfen (Discard, red): closes the window without sending, asking for confirmation if there are changes.

“Optionen” menu

A check mark shows which options are turned on.

• Cc: shows or hides the Cc field. For a reply to all with copy recipients, it is already visible.
• Bcc: shows or hides the Bcc field.
• Lesebestätigung anfordern (Request read receipt): asks the recipient for a read receipt. Whether one is sent is decided by the recipient's program.
• Wichtig (Important): asks for the message to be flagged as important for the recipient; how this appears is decided by the recipient's program. There is no “low” level.

1. Choose Senden (Send).
2. The app checks the following in this order and reports problems with the title “Senden”:
   • an invalid address: “„jim.kirchner@“ ist keine gültige E-Mail-Adresse.” (“jim.kirchner@” is not a valid email address)
   • no recipient under An (To): “Mindestens ein Empfänger unter „An“ ist nötig.” (at least one recipient under “An” is required). Cc or Bcc alone is not enough.
   • an attachment is still uploading: “Ein Anhang wird noch hochgeladen.” (an attachment is still uploading)
3. If everything is in order, “Gesendet” (sent) – “Die Nachricht wurde an den Mailserver übergeben.” (the message was handed over to the mail server) appears. The window closes and the list is reloaded.

If the server rejects the message, “Nicht gesendet” (not sent) appears with the reason, and the window stays open with your text. Possible reasons:

• “An: „…“ ist keine gültige E-Mail-Adresse.” (To: “…” is not a valid email address; or “Cc:” or “Bcc:”)
• “Der Mailserver hat den Vorgang nicht angenommen.” (the mail server did not accept the operation)
• “Anhang-Kennung ungültig.” (invalid attachment ID) – remove the attachment and attach it again.

1. Choose Verwerfen (Discard) in the action bar or × (“Verwerfen”) at the top right of the window.
2. If something was changed (text typed, file attached, and for a new message also recipients or subject), the app asks for confirmation. A minimized window is reopened for this.
3. In the Nachricht verwerfen? (Discard message?) dialog – “Der Text geht verloren — außer er wird vorher als Entwurf gespeichert.” (the text will be lost unless it is saved as a draft first) – choose:
   • Abbrechen (Cancel): back to the window, nothing is lost. Esc or a click outside the dialog also cancels.
   • Verwerfen (Discard, red): closes the window, the unsaved text is lost.

Enter does not confirm the dialog, so that nothing is lost by accident. A draft saved earlier remains in the Entwürfe (Drafts) folder.

• An, Cc, Bcc: Enter, comma, semicolon and Tab accept an address; Backspace in the empty field removes the last recipient.
• Suggestions: Arrow down / Arrow up select, Enter accepts, Esc closes.
• “Nachricht verwerfen?” (Discard message?) dialog: Esc cancels.
• The window has no keyboard shortcuts of its own for sending or saving (such as Ctrl + Enter or Ctrl + S). In the writing area, the browser's usual formatting shortcuts work.

All keyboard shortcuts of the app: Keyboard shortcuts.

• Replying, forwarding and drafts
• Messages in separate windows
• Attachments
• Error messages and limits