Module 3 · 3.4

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Drafts, responses and extra options

Module 3: Writing mail · Reading time: 10 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you will know where drafts and standard responses are stored, you can edit a message as new, and you will know what Return receipt, Delivery status notification, Priority and Save sent message in do and do not do.

Key concepts: draft, Drafts folder, automatic saving, Responses, Edit as new, Return receipt, Delivery status notification (DSN), Priority, Save sent message in

Drafts: a half-finished message on the server

A draft is a message that has not been sent yet. If you click Save while writing, the webmail puts your message in the Drafts folder. If you do nothing, the webmail also saves it by itself every few minutes. You set how often under Settings > Composing Messages.

What matters is exactly where that draft is stored. The Drafts folder is an ordinary IMAP folder on the mail server (lesson 1.2). So the draft is not in your browser and not on your laptop, but on the server. That has three consequences:

You can start an email at the office and finish it at home or on your phone. Open the Drafts folder and double-click the message.
If your browser crashes or you close the tab by accident, you lose at most the last few minutes.
A draft counts towards your storage and can be read just like your other mail. Anyone who can get into your mailbox can also get to your drafts.

When you send the draft, the webmail removes it from Drafts and puts the sent version in Sent.

One pitfall: if you use a mail program alongside the webmail, both must use the same folder as Drafts. Otherwise you will not see in one program what you started in the other. Lesson 5.1 covers these special folders. A second pitfall: if you open the same draft in two programs at once and save in both, you end up with two versions.

Drafts are also a good way to avoid sending too quickly. Write a difficult email, save it as a draft and read it again an hour later. You will often see what could be better (lesson 3.2).

Responses: standard texts with one click

Do you often get the same question? Every week Emma receives emails such as "Do you also deliver at the weekend?" and "How long does a bouquet stay fresh?". Instead of typing the same answer every time, she creates a Response: a standard text with a name, which she inserts with one click while writing.

A Response is not an automatic reply. Nothing happens by itself: you choose the text, can adjust it and send it yourself. That is why it is no problem to add a personal sentence. In fact you should always do that: a reply that clearly comes from a template feels cold.

Tips for good responses:

Give them a short, recognisable name, such as "Weekend delivery".
Write them so they stand on their own, without a greeting or sign-off. You write those yourself for each email, so the customer's name is right.
Leave out details that quickly go out of date, such as a price or a date, or check them regularly.

The webmail stores Responses with your settings, not in your mailbox. So you have them in the webmail on every device, but not in a mail program such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Those have their own templates.

Edit as new

Sometimes you want to send a message again, but slightly differently: the same invitation to a new group, or an email you sent earlier that never arrived. With Edit as new (under More in an opened message) the webmail opens a new message with the same recipients, the same subject, the same text and the same attachments. You change what is needed and send it.

The difference from Forward: with Forward you create a new message from you about the old one, with "Fwd:" in the subject and the old message as a quote or attachment. With Edit as new it is simply an original again. Handy, but check the recipients: an old list may include people who should not be on it now.

The extra options when writing

On the right of the Compose screen are options you choose per message. They look alike, but do very different things.

On the right of the Compose screen, the options Return receipt, Delivery status notification, Priority and Save sent message in — (1) Return receipt, (2) Delivery status notification, (3) Priority, (4) Save sent message in

Return receipt. You ask the recipient's mail program to report that the message has been opened. Technically, your webmail adds a header to your message for this (Disposition-Notification-To). The recipient usually sees a prompt and may refuse. Many programs never send a receipt. If you get one, you know the message was opened, not that it was read or understood. If you get none, you know nothing.

Delivery status notification. DSN stands for Delivery Status Notification. Here you are not asking the recipient, but the mail servers along the way, to report that the message was delivered to the recipient's server. So it says nothing about opening or reading, only that the mail has arrived. Not every server supports it, so here too no notification does not mean it failed. By the way, you always get an error message (bounce), even without this option (lesson 8.4).

Priority. You can give a message the priority Highest, High, Normal, Low or Lowest. Many programs show an exclamation mark for high priority. Use it rarely. If you choose Highest for every email, nobody will take you seriously after a week, and some spam filters find it suspicious when an unknown sender marks everything as urgent. Real urgency is better handled with a phone call, or with a clear subject ("Today before 2 pm: delivery confirmation").

Save sent message in. Here you choose which folder the sent version goes into. By default that is Sent. You can also have a message placed straight into a project folder, so the whole correspondence with a customer stays together. Note: a sent message that you do not save anywhere cannot be found later.

Keep formatting keeps the formatting of the original message when you forward or reply. Lesson 3.2 covers plain text and formatting.

Example: Tom and the delivery question

Ahmed asks Tom whether the flowers can be delivered on Saturday before 9 am. Tom starts writing, but first has to check with the courier. He clicks Save and carries on with other work. In the afternoon, on his phone, he opens the Drafts folder, adds that it is possible, inserts the Response "Weekend delivery" for the terms and conditions, and sends it. He does not request a Return receipt and sets no priority: all Ahmed sees is an ordinary, clear email.

In practice: how it works in the webmail

Save is at the top of the Compose screen. You create Responses under Settings > Responses, and you insert them with the Responses button at the top while writing. You find Edit as new under More in an opened message. The options Return receipt, Delivery status notification, Priority and Save sent message in are on the right while writing. The Roundcube manual describes the steps. In other webmail these features have similar names, although a Response is sometimes called a template or quick text there.

Summary

Drafts are stored on the server in the Drafts folder, so you can continue on any device.
Responses are standard texts you insert yourself; they are stored in the webmail, not in your mailbox.
Edit as new turns an old message into a new original; check the recipients when you use it.
Return receipt asks the recipient, Delivery status notification asks the servers; no reply proves nothing.
Use Priority rarely; with Save sent message in you choose the folder for your sent version.

Quiz

1. Emma starts an email in the webmail at the office and saves it. Where can she continue writing it at home? Nowhere, the draft is stored in the browser at the office
In the Drafts folder, on any device that opens her mailbox
Only if she forwards the draft to herself
Only in the webmail on the same computer

The Drafts folder is on the mail server. Every device that opens the mailbox sees the same draft.

2. Tom sends an email with Delivery status notification switched on. What does he get if it succeeds? A notification that Ahmed has opened the email
A notification that Ahmed has read and understood the email
A notification that the email was delivered to the recipient's server
A copy of the email in his Inbox

DSN is about delivery by the servers, not about opening or reading.

3. You use the webmail and Thunderbird. Where do you find your Responses from the webmail? Only in the webmail, because they are stored with the webmail settings
In the Drafts folder
In Thunderbird under Templates
In the Sent folder

Responses are a feature of the webmail and are not stored in the mailbox itself.

4. What is the difference between Edit as new and Forward? There is no difference
Edit as new sends the message back to the original sender
Forward does not keep attachments
Edit as new creates a new original with the same content; Forward creates a message about the old one, with Fwd: in the subject

With Edit as new you get a copy that you send as a new message. Check the recipients when you do.

Exercise

Exercise D3.4: Create a standard response. Choose a question you get often (or, if you do not have one: "What are your opening hours?") and create a Response for it under Settings > Responses, with a short name and a text without a greeting or sign-off. Then start a new email to yourself, write a greeting, insert the Response with the Responses button, write a sign-off and first save the message as a draft. Open the Drafts folder, finish it and send it. Then answer: which folder was your draft in, and could you also finish it on your phone? What did you change in the Response for this one email? Which details in your Response do you need to check regularly? And why did you not use a Return receipt or priority (or why did you)?

Exercise D3.4: Create a standard response

You do this exercise yourself; no one checks it. Tick off what you've done and mark the exercise as done.

I created a Response under Settings > Responses.
I inserted the Response into an email to myself.
I first saved the email as a draft, then finished and sent it.

Which folder was your draft in, and can you finish it on your phone as well?

What did you change in the Response for this one email?

Which details in your Response do you need to check regularly?

Why did or didn't you use Return receipt or priority?

Also save my answers in My courses (so you can view and download them on any device). Don't include any passwords or other secrets.

Here's how you could approach this

Drafts are stored in the Drafts folder on the server: with IMAP you can see them on your phone too. A Response is a starting point, not a finished text: adjust names, dates and details. Check fixed details such as opening hours and prices regularly. Use Return receipt and priority sparingly: the recipient can refuse a receipt, and a high priority on ordinary email has the opposite effect.

Your ticks and notes only stay in this browser; we don't send them anywhere. If you're signed in, we only save in My courses that you've done the exercise.

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