Good message management begins with the proper use of folders. While working with folders was inconvenient in the previous interface, it is a snap with Web access 2003. New folders, along with new messages, appointments, contacts, distribution lists, and tasks, are created using the New button on the toolbar as illustrated in Figure 2a. Creating a new folder is as easy as choosing a name and clicking a button.

Once you have created your individualized folders, you will find that the new Web access provides a frequently requested feature that was missing from the previous interface—the ability to move, copy, or delete multiple messages at once. You can use the multi-select Windows technique of depressing the Control Key while selecting several messages at once, and then clicking and dragging them into any folder. Similarly, multiple messages can be deleted at the same time. These features make managing your mailbox a snap.

As a reminder, all of the default and any individual folders, along with new, saved, and sent e-mails, are stored on the Chicopee mail server, not on your local computer. Since your mailbox has a size limit, deleting unneeded e-mails is a beneficial habit to form. Frequent emptying of the Deleted Items folder and deletion/organization of the messages in your Sent Items folder—especially those with large attachments—will greatly reduce mailbox size and avoid mailbox storage limit issues. If you normally use Outlook from your work PC on the Chicopee network, when you access e-mail from the Chicopee web client you will not be able to see the personal folders that you created at work. These folders are stored on your local computer, not on the mail server.

The Chicopee e-mail message interface follows the traditional Outlook layout scheme and provides a host of familiar options such as the Address Book, Attachment, Help, and Search tools, and the ability to format your e-mails.

Another feature included in Web access 2003 is the ability to view and search the Address Book. The Web access 2003 interface can match partial names typed into the recipient boxes; you can also get names directly from the address book or perform a search for specific names.