Printing and Saving E-mail

Printing and Saving E-mail Messages

This can be a piece of cake or cause considerable headache depending on what approach you use to manage your e-mail. I strongly recommend the use of a "POP mail client" (like Eudora or Netscape Messenger) while Hunter's "Office for Instructional Computing and Information Technology (OICIT)" still favors an obsolete and cumbersome approach. If you want a bit of more background, and just "how to" recipes, check this overview.

Using Eudora or Netscape Messenger (directly on your PC) -- recommended

Printing. With the message open, select "Print" from the "File" menu -- like with any other Windows application.
Saving. With the message open, select "Save as ..." from the "File" menu. Select a drive and specify a file name. Make sure that you select a non-network drive (like c: or a:).

Using PINE (via telnet connection to shiva/hejira) -- not recommended

More detailed instructions can be found in the "ICS Guide" available in the Hunter bookstore and from the lab manager on duty at the ICS lab (HN1001) for $7. E-mail is covered on p.145-156. Note that the current "1998" edition has not changed much in substance over previous versions. So, if you find an old copy somewhere, that will do just fine.

Printing. With the message open, press Y (for prYnt) and then confirm by typing Y (for yes). The Y command does not show immediately on the command bar at the bottom of your screen. To make it visible, press O (for Other commands first).
Saving. There is the strong possibility for confusion when working on Pine. "Saving" in Pine means to put a message into a mail folder -- moving it from your Inbox. After you have done this, you can no longer automatically download the message using a POP mailer like Eudora. If you want to save a message in the sense of being able to copy it to a diskette and later use the contents of the message for input into e.g. a word processing program (WP), you need to "export" the mail message to a file residing in your directory on shiva/hejira. The corresponding command is E; then you need to provide a file name. Then, you download the file to your PC and copy it to a diskette. Of course, now you need instructions on downloading (via FTP). These you can find on p. 126-131 of the "ICS Guide".

Details of the installation vary between the labs. The labs in the three major locations (as far as our class is concerned), Social Science lab (HW606/7), ICS labs (HN1001), and the library, have different lab managers with different preferences. Efforts to make things uniform (and thus easy for students) have had limited success. So, you will not necessarily find the same software (programs) or the same version of a particular program at all location. Also, the configuration may differ; what you can do in one lab, so you may not be able to do in another. E.g., in HN1001 (ICS) you cannot (easily) write to the c: drive under Win95. Your best bet is to use the Social Science lab (where we meet for class), but this lab may not be available for individual use at a time that fits your schedule.