Opera Mail Tutorial

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/

Welcome to Opera Mail

Last updated for Opera 12.00
This is an introductory tutorial to help you use Opera Mail; the built-in email client and newsreader in
the Opera desktop browser.
This tutorial explains how Opera Mail is different from most other email clients and shows you how to
use it efficiently to manage your messages automatically, leaving you time for more important things.
It's designed to expand on the basic information in Opera Help - Email and News.

Topics
In this tutorial, we cover the following topics:

Get started with Opera Mail

How to set up Opera Mail and import messages so you can start using it.

The Opera Mail layout

A walkthrough of the Opera Mail layout to help you find your way around and understand
the terminology.

Handle received messages

How to view messages, mark them as read, save attachments, manage threads and
spam, and delete messages.

Sort messages with labels

How to apply labels, and use them to automatically sort your messages, including how to
add label rules and settings.

Write and send messages

How to write and send message; includes the Compose context menu, drafts, and Quick
Reply.

Newsfeeds and newsgroups

How to subscribe to newsfeeds and newsgroups, and how to read newsgroup messages.

Manage contacts
How to create contacts, use them for messaging and sorting, and manage them.
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Customize Opera Mail

How to change default settings, edit your account details, or customize the Mail panel,
windows, message fields, and label icons.

Advanced tips and solutions

Advanced tips for using Opera Mail and information to help you solve any problems.

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Get started with Opera Mail

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/setup/

Opera Mail Tutorial

This topic shows you how to create an account and import messages and settings so that you can start
using Opera Mail.
In this topic:

What you need to get started

To use Opera Mail, you need the following:
1. The Opera desktop browser installed on your PC.
2. An email address and service provider that offers IMAP or POP access to your inbox. Whether you
can use Opera Mail with your existing account depends on the services offered by your provider, and
sometimes the type of account. For example, some providers only offer a web interface, while some
may only offer access to POP or IMAP for an extra fee, or if you upgrade your account. Some providers
will only let you use their own software. The table below lists some examples of some leading webmail
sites and indicates whether you can use them with Opera Mail.
Webmail Service

IMAP

POP

AOL Mail

Yes

Yes

FastMail

Yes

Yes

Gmail

Yes

Yes

MobileMe

Yes

Yes

Windows Live Hotmail

No

Yes

Yahoo! Mail

No

Yes

Providers that offer neither POP nor IMAP access are generally not supported, although there are a
number of third-party utilities that you could try, listed below. Note that we don't offer support for these.
YPOPs! for Yahoo! Mail
IzyMail for Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail, Lycos Mail, AIM Mail and others
FreePOPs which supports all of the above and many more through custom modules

Create or add an account

Opera Mail is built into the Opera browser; all you need to get started is an email address. You can use
Opera Mail with FastMail.FM, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or any service that supports IMAP or POP protocols.
For more information on providers, see Using Opera Mail with your webmail account below.
To create or add an Opera account, follow the steps below:
1. From the menu, select .

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2. If you do not have an Opera account, you are prompted to create one. If you have an Opera
account, select Add.
3. Select the kind of account you want to create, for example, email or newsgroup. If you want to
import messages and settings, see the Import messages and settings topic.
4. In the resulting dialog, complete the following fields:
Real name: Type the name that you want to display in the From field of your emails.
Email address: Type your email address.
Organization: Type the name of your organization (optional).
5. Click Next.
6. Type the login name provided by your ISP provider. For example, your Fastmail.FM or Gmail
username, Yahoo! ID name, or AOL login name.
7. Type your password.
8. Depending on the service enabled for your email account, select either IMAP or POP. For
example, for Yahoo! Mail, select POP and for AOL Mail, select IMA. For an explanation of these
terms, see What is POP and IMAP? below.
9. If your server details are automatically recorded, go to step 9. Otherwise, complete incoming
and outgoing server details. Ask your ISP for the specific details. See also: Non-standard server
ports
10. To enable TLS encryption for incoming and/or outgoing servers, check Use secure connection
(TLS). For details, see the Secure connection (TLS) topic.
11. If you use POP and want to access email from other computers, tick Leave messages on server.
12. Select Finish. The Mail and Contacts options are added to the menu and the Mail panel
appears. You use these to access your messages or newsfeeds, and your contact address
book.
13. Notes: For IMAP accounts, also see IMAP sent folder.

IMAP sent folder

To ensure that your sent IMAP messages are stored on the server and not stored locally, define your
sent folder. To do this follow the steps below.
1. From the menu in Opera, select Mail and Chat Accounts.
2. Select your IMAP account, then Edit.
3. Select the Outgoing tab.
4. In the IMAP sent folder field, select the folder to store your sent messages.
5. Click OK.

Import messages or settings

You can import email, different account settings, folders and contacts at any time. This applies for the
following versions and email clients:
Opera versions 5 to 11
Outlook Express
Eudora
Thunderbird
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Netscape Mail and related email clients such as the Mozilla suite
Any mailbox stored in the generic mbox format, usually *.mbx or *.mbs files
If your previous mailer is not listed above, you may only be able to use it if it includes the capability to
export to the mbox format.
To import messages or settings:
1. Either:
Create or add an account using steps 1 - 3 above and select Import email as the account
type, or
select .
2. Select the email client from which you are importing your old messages, or select Choose to find
the folder with your messages.
3. In the Import item field, select the relevant account. If it is not listed, select Browse to find the
account from the directory.
4. Check what you want to import: settings, contacts, messages or a combination.
5. Select the account to which you want your messages to be imported.
6. Select Import.
Result: When you successfully import messages and folders:
Your imported account's folder structure displays under the Labels header in the Mail panel.
Old incoming messages are shown in the Received view. Messages that are not already on
your computer will be downloaded from the mail server.
Messages in your old Outbox, Sent, Drafts and Trash folders are shown in the corresponding
views.
Although you can continue using your imported folder structure by manually dragging messages
into these folders, we suggest you give Opera Mail's organization methods a try. They will
revolutionize the way you handle your messages.

Detailed explanations
What is POP and IMAP?
These are standard Internet protocols for email retrieval.
POP leaves messages on the server, downloads them to your computer, and manages them in
Opera Mail.
IMAP allows you to manage your email directly on the server. Since emails are still on the
server, they are accessible from other online connections, or offline if you have downloaded the
message bodies.
Opera Mail uses the following protocols:
POP3
IMAP
(E)SMTP
RSS (RDF Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication)
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Atom, and
NNTP.

Non-standard server ports

The default ports used are 143 for IMAP, 110 for POP, and 119 for NNTP. If your ISP uses a nonstandard server port, you can enter it after the server name in the form "servername:port", i.e.
"pop.example.com:111".

Secure connection (TLS)

TLS enables high-security, encrypted communications between a mail client, like Opera Mail, and a
server. Encrypted communications allow your password and other sensitive data to be sent across the
Internet without others being able to spy on it. Opera Mail supports TLS, however your ISP server must
support secure connection TLS for you to use this feature.

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The Opera Mail layout

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/navigate/

Opera Mail Tutorial

This topic introduces you to the Opera Mail layout and explains how to navigate it and how to use Mail
views.

Opera Mail layout

When you open Opera Mail, you'll see a layout something like this:

1. Mail panel and views

The Mail panel is the key to using Opera Mail. It gives you easy access to all your mail and news, and
allows you to quickly read and send messages. The panel displays automatically when you are using
Opera Mail and closes when you go to a different tab not related to email. At the bottom of the panel, a
notifcation flashes when Opera Mail is checking for messages.
The Mail panel displays a set of default views to help you access your messages more efficiently. It's
important to understand how Opera Mail uses views, as opposed to the more traditional folders you
may have seen in other mail clients. Opera Mail stores all your emails in one central location but
automatically organizes how they are displayed using a range of views. These are like tags, filters, or
search results based on certain search criteria. Opera Mail's default views automatically display emails
of a similar type, such as those:
that have not been read yet (unread)
with attachments
from mailing lists
Often this means that one email is displayed in a number of views without being copied or moved, if it
matches different criteria. For example, a message that has not been read yet that also has a
document attached to it appears under the Unread, Received, and Attachments views.

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Default views
Default views are organized into groups under view headers and are listed in the table below with
descriptions.
If a view has unread messages, the header appears in bold with the number of unread
messages shown in brackets next to it.
Some headers or views may not display, depending on the types of messages you have sent or
received. For more details, see Default views that display when needed below.
You can re-order headers and decide what headers to show or hide. See more: Customize the
Mail panel
Category

View

All
messages

Labels

Description
Category header for available views

Unread

Shows new, unread messages until they are marked as read, except
newsgroup messages, which are under a separate category

Received

Shows all received messages and is the central location for storing all
received messages

Pinned

Shows messages that you have pinned (flagged) for action or as a

reminder

Outbox

Shows queued messages waiting to be sent, temporarily, until they are

sent

Sent

Shows sent messages; you can resend messages and cancel newsgroup
postings from here too

Drafts

Stores drafts automatically while your write and moves it to Sent once you
send it

Spam

Shows messages identified as junk mail according to the spam filter, which
learns from the messages you add and remove from here

Trash
(Deleted)

Shows messages you deleted from views or labels

Individual
Shows messages marked by labels, including default labels, custom
label views labels, or a saved search query

These only display when there are active messages of the corresponding type:
Category

Description

Notes

Mailing lists

Messages from mailing lists,

under individual views

Mailing lists you are subscribed to are automatically

recognized by Opera Mail, as long as the subject
header contains an one of the following: X-MailingList, List-ID, List-Post, or Mailing-list in combination
with Delivered-to. See IETF RFC 2919 for
specifications.

Attachments

Messages with attachments

Attachment categories are:

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Category

Description

Notes

Followed
contacts

Contacts you are following

Displays only if you have chosen to follow a

particular contact. Click on a contact to display
messages from them. These messages can be
displayed in threaded view. For more details, see
Follow or ignore messages from contacts.

Followed
threads

Message discussion threads

you are following

Displays only if you have chosen to follow a

particular thread. Select a thread to display all
messages in that thread. For more details, see the
Viewing and managing threads topic.

Newsfeeds

RSS or Atom newsfeeds you

have subscribed to, under
individual views

See Newsfeeds

Newsgroups

Messages from newsgroups,

displayed under separate
categories for each subscribed
news server, for example,
opera newsgroups display
under news.opera.com

Mailing lists you are subscribed to are automatically

recognized by Opera Mail, as long as the subject
header contains an one of the following: X-MailingList, List-ID, List-Post, or Mailing-list in combination
with Delivered-to. See IETF RFC 2919 for
specifications.

IMAP folders
Opera does not automatically honor folder subscriptions. To display IMAP folders:
Choose to open the IMAP folders dialog. Your IMAP folders automatically appear in the Mail
panel under the IMAP header.
To locate a specific folder in the subscription dialog quickly, use the search field.
To change the account for viewing folders, use the account drop-down.
Click New account to create a new account.
To toggle the subscription status, click the folder name.
The folders are added to views under the IMAP account header in the Mail panel, and messages are
retrieved during the next check for new messages. Opera Mail displays a separate header at the
bottom of the Mail panel for your IMAP account. Your IMAP inbox folder is displayed under this header,
and all incoming message headers from your account will be downloaded to this. As with all accounts,
your messages also display in default views, such as Unread, Received, Sent and Spam.

2. Message list
The message list shows the message summaries for the selected view, such as Unread. To change
views, go to the Mail panel and choose another header.

3. Selected message display

This window displays the contents of a selected message from the message list.

4. Mail panel selector

The Mail panel selector toggles the Mail panel. Alternatively, you can press F4.
From the main menu in Opera, options for Opera Mail include:

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Mail This provides a menu of common actions, such as reading or composing mail, viewing
labels, or toggling low bandwidth mode.
Mail and Chat Accounts This is used to change settings for your Opera Mail accounts, and
create new types of accounts.
Search all messages, or just those in a particular view from this field. See more: Search for messages
This icon gives you options to manage threads, such as go to, follow, or ignore. See more: View and
manage threads

8. Settings for This View icon

This icon allows you to manage the message list of each view by changing the display from flat to
threaded, changing how they are sorted, or showing specific types of messages. See more: Change
individual view lists
The Mail toolbar contains buttons for common messaging actions, such as composing a message,
replying, and so on. See more: Respond to a message

10. Default Mail Settings icon

Click this icon to set global mail preferences, such as changing the arrangement of the message list
and view. See more: Default mail settings
Sometimes you might accidentally close a tab displaying a message you were reading or writing. If you
want to retrieve it, click the Closed Tabs icon to the far right of the Tab bar and select the message from
the list.

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Handle received messages

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/receive/

Opera Mail Tutorial

When new messages are received, Opera Mail does most of the work for you, so you spend less time
organizing your messages. This makes Opera Mail different to more traditional email clients.
In this topic:

How is Opera Mail different?

Traditional email client

Opera Mail

Uses folders (filing cabinets)

Uses views and labels

Messages stored in folders

Messages stored in central location

Messages moved to folders

Messages displayed in views and labels

Messages sent to Inbox

Messages automatically sorted into views and labels

Messages remain in Inbox until moved

Messages in Unread view until read

Slow searches

Fast searches due to indexed storage

What this means is that, instead of being delivered into the one inbox, messages are kept in a single
database and automatically indexed without fuss. It doesn't organize by folders but by searches and
tags (views and labels). Opera Mail also filters out junk mail (spam), and you can train it based on your
preferences.
As messages are kept in a single database they can therefore appear in multiple categories or views
without you needing to copy or move them.
As a summary:
Emails automatically display in the Unread view.
Mailing list messages display under the Mailing lists category.
Newsfeeds display in the Feeds category.

Use Mail views

Before we starting looking at reading individual messages, let's take a closer look at how to use Mail
views.
The headers for all categories and views are in the Mail panel to the left. When you click one, the
message list and selected message displays. The name of the active view displays in the tab. For
example, if you are in the Unread view, the name displayed in the tab is Unread with the corresponding
number of messages in brackets, as shown in (1) below.

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1. Active view name

2. Message list
3. Selected message display
4. Toolbar

Message list display

Once you've selected a view, messages for that view are displayed in a split window by default, with a
list of messages to the left, and the content of a selected message to the right, by default. You can
change how messages are sorted, and the messages you want displayed. See more: Change
individual view lists
For IMAP messages, Opera Mail downloads only headers (the subject line and some information about
the message) when checking for new messages, by default. When you select a message header,
Opera Mail retrieves the message body, including any attachments when you are online. To read your
IMAP messages offline, see Use Opera Mail offline.

Message list information

The message list provides the following information for each message:
Indicator
Message
color

Description
In the message list, coloured text indicates status:
Bold text in blue indicates unseen messages that have not been selected or
viewed in Opera Mail.
Bold text in black indicates unread messages; previously viewed but not
marked as read.
Plain text indicates messages marked as read.

Subject

The subject header of the email. A plus symbol (+) shows that the message belongs
to a thread. Click to collapse or expand the thread.

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Indicator

Description

From (sender)
or To
(recipient in
Sent view)

The name of the sender or recipient.

Sent date

date the email was received or sent.

Attachment
icon
(paperclip)

A paperclip icon is used to indicate a file attachment. Messages with attachments

are also shown under the Attachments category with specific icons to indicate the
type. For details, see Default categories that display when needed.

Label icon

If a label has been applied, the corresponding icon displays. See more: Sort
messages using labels

View a message
To view a message:
1. Select the relevant view to display the message list.
2. Select a message and either:
Scroll through the content in the message content pane below, or
Double-click the message to display it in a new browser tab.

Mark messages as read

New messages are initially considered unseen and change to Unread once selected. Messages do not
change from unread until marked as read. There are a few quick ways to mark messages as read,
listed in the table below:
If you want to ...

Then ...

Mark a single
message as read

Highlight the message and click the Read button on the Mail toolbar, or press K.

Mark all
messages in a
view as read

Right-click the view header in the Mail panel and select Mark all as read, or
press Ctrl+Shift+A.

Re-set a read
message to
unread

Right-click the message and select , or press Shift+K.

Automatically
mark messages
as read

Go to the Default Mail Settings icon -- marked with a wrench symbol -- at the
top-right of the message display and select Mark as read and select a time
interval.

Pin a message
You can pin a message to remind you to act on it. Pinned messages display in a separate Pinned view
to help you keep track of them. You can pin a message in the following ways:
In the message view: Click the pin icon next to the date in the message header.
In the message list: Click the dot at the left of the message.
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Pinning is mapped to the IMAP \Flagged feature, so this will sync with starring or flagging in other
IMAP clients, such as Gmail. To unpin, click the dot or icon again.
With IMAP, changes such as marking messages as read, or moving messages offline, are reflected
when you next connect to the mail server.

Open or save an attachment

Emails with attachments display in both the Received and Attachments views. Under the Attachments
view header, messages with attachments are sorted into views by type:
When you open an email with an attachment, select the attachment to display a context menu of
options, including Open and different save options.
The Attachments view only displays emails with images attached, not those displayed as part of the
email (inline images). To save an inline image, right-click the image and select Save image.
Threads are ordered lists of related messages that allow you to follow an email discussion. If you
receive a lot of threaded messages, following threads makes it easy to recognize important messages,
while ignoring threads makes it easy to dismiss unimportant ones. Messages are threaded by default.
To display the thread within the message list, click "+" next to the threaded message. To collapse
the thread, click "-" next to the threaded message.
To display a thread on its own, highlighted a threaded message and click the Show Message
Thread icon at the top of the list. To return to the message list, click the icon again. Alternatively,
view a thread by right-clicking a message and selecting .
To turn off threaded messages for a specific view, change the settings from the Settings for This
View icon at the top-right of the message list.
To turn off threaded messages for all message lists, change the settings from the Default Mail
Settings icon.

Follow threads
Following a thread collects all messages in a
particular email thread and displays them under a
Followed Threads header in the Mail panel. When
new messages in this thread are received, the
header displays in bold with the number of
messages received.
To follow a thread:
1. Highlight a message in the email thread.
2. Click the arrow on the Show Message Thread icon and select Follow Thread.

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To stop following a thread, you can either:

Highlight the thread, click the Show Message Thread icon, and uncheck Follow Thread, or
Right-click the thread in the Mail panel and select Delete.
The messages remain in the Received view but are no longer shown under the Followed Threads
view.

Ignore a thread
Ignoring a thread automatically marks received and new message in the thread as read. They don't
display in the Unread view so you don't have to see them. They are available in the Received view,
should you need them.
To ignore a thread:
1. Select a message in the email thread. Tip: To ensure that you ignore all tangents of a thread,
find the first message in the thread.
2. Highlight a message in the thread, click the Show Message Thread icon, and select Ignore
Thread.
3. All messages in the thread display in gray.
4. To stop ignoring a thread, highlight a message in the thread, click the Show Message Thread
icon and uncheck Ignore Thread.

Mark a thread as read

To mark a thread as read, highlight it, select the Show Message Thread icon, and select Mark Thread
as Read or Mark Thread and Go to Next Unread.
Alternatively, you can select these options by right-clicking a message and selecting Thread and
options from the context menu.
To search for a message, use the search field above the Mail toolbar. This searches messages in the
current view, including both the subject headers and message content. When you type a search term in
this field, a gray search bar displays below the Mail toolbar, confirming the view you are searching and
the search term. Matching messages display in the Mail window.
Sometimes, you might search your messages regularly using the same query for a particular view. You
can save this combination of search query and view by clicking the Save Search button on the right.
The search will be saved in Labels and is dynamic; the next time you select it, it searches all messages
received for that view and displays them in the resulting list.

Handle spam
Opera Mail features a spam filter, which helps to keep spam out of your way.
Messages may be either marked as spam or displayed in the Spam view. If a message is not spam,
highlight it and select the Not Spam button on the Mail toolbar. If the message is from someone you
know, but not yet a contact, press A to add the sender to your contacts. Messages from your recorded
contacts are assumed not to be spam.
The spam filter is set to learn from your actions by default. You can choose how aggressive you want
the spam filter to be. To set spam rules:

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1. Right-click the Spam view and select Properties.

2. In the Internal filter field, select from Off, Medium (default) or Strong.
3. If you do not want the spam filter to learn from your actions, uncheck Learn from messages
added to or removed from filter.
4. You can also set additional rules for spam.

Delete messages
You can remove a message from a view, delete a message, or remove a message permanently from
Opera Mail, as outlined in the table below.
Depending on the language you have chosen to use, deleted messages go to either Trash or Deleted.
If you want to...

Then...

Remove a message from a view,

so that it remains in other views

Right-click it and select Remove from view

Delete a message and move it to

Trash (Deleted)

Select the message and either:

Press Delete.
Select Delete from the Mail toolbar.
Right-click and select Move to Trash (Deleted).

Permanently remove a message

from Opera Mail in all views

Select the message and either:

Press Delete, then empty the Trash (Deleted) by rightclicking the folder and selecting Empty Trash (Deleted)
Press Shift+Delete

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Sort messages using labels

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/sort/

Opera Mail Tutorial

In this topic:

What are labels?

Labels are a way of automatically sorting your email into more categories than just the default views
without needing to drop-and-drag. Labels work like tags and you can use the default labels, such as
Important or To do, or you can create your own.
You can apply more than one label to a message and easily view
that message from each label. You can set rules to automatically
sort messages for you. If you prefer, you can drag-and-drop
messages into different labels, if you wish to use a more traditional
folder tree.
The Labels header displays in the Mail panel. This displays default
labels, any custom labels you create and saved message
searches. Unlike the default views, you have complete control over
the messages displayed in labels.

Using labels
The table below lists the various ways of using an existing label or
creating a new label, depending on your needs.
If you want to ...

Then ...

Create a new label

based on a
message

1. Above the message content, click

the label icon and select New Label.
2. Alternatively, right-click the
message in the list and select Label
As > New Label.
3. Name it and set rules in the dialog
then select Close.

Create a new label

from the Mail panel

1. Right-click an empty space in the

Mail panel and select New Label.
2. Right-click and select Properties.
3. Name it and set rules and settings
in the resulting dialog and select
Close.

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If you want to ...

Create a new label
from the main
menu

Then ...
1. From the main menu in Opera,
select .
2. Select New Label.
3. In the New Label dialog, name the
label.
4. If you want to use your own icon for
a label, click Icon after the name
field in this dialog, then Custom and
select the icon file.
5. See the sections below to add
sorting rules or change label
options.

Display a message
under an existing
label

1. Select the Labels header in the Mail

panel to expand the label list, if not
already displayed.
2. Drag the message from the
message list to the preferred label.

Select one or more

messages to
display under an
existing label

1. Select the message(s) in the

message list.
2. Right-click and select Label As.
3. Select the label from the list.

Set up label sorting rules

In the Rules tab of the Label dialog, you can specify some basic criteria to automatically sort mail under
a particular label. To set a sorting rule, click "Add Rule" and select what you want Opera Mail to look for
in your incoming messages. You can choose from: Subject, From, To, CC, Reply-to, Newsgroup, Any,
message body or entire message. Choose whether you want Opera Mail to look for messages that
contain a certain word, not contain a certain word, or that match a regexp expression. Then define that
word or expression. To change the rules of an existing label, right-click it and select Properties.
Some simple rule examples are:
Match messages where the From header contains [a contact's name]
Match messages where the Subject contains [a particular subject]
Match messages where the From header contains [a name] and the To header does not contain
[a name]
Match messages where the From header contains [name] or the Subject contains [a subject]
When you use a custom label with an applied rule, you can leverage Opera Mail's auto-learning
mechanism. This helps Opera Mail learn from the messages you mark with the label or remove from
the label view to then automatically sort your mail for you. To apply this, check Learn from labeled
messages when creating a new label. Initially, Opera Mail needs to learn about your preferences, so it
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will not always get everything right. Drag and drop messages that you want to show in a particular label
into it. Delete any irrelevant messages that may display under it. In this way, Opera Mail can train itself
to automatically sort incoming messages based on the pattern of messages you moved or removed.
Notes:
You can only set rules to add messsages to a label; not to delete messages.
You can set more than one rule for each label.
You can use AND, OR in rules; AND is applied before OR when combining rules.
You can also define rules using regular expression (regexp) format. This format is used to search and
manipulate text based on patterns. Opera uses the same regexp format that is used in ECMAScript
and Perl. For more information see the ECMAScript Language Specification section 15.10. The Regex
Coach is a free program that helps you experiment with regular expressions and may help you use
Opera's regexp support.

Remove or delete a message from a label view

To remove a message from a label view, right-click and select Remove from view. This does not delete
it from Opera Mail.
To permanently delete messages from Opera Mail, see Delete messages.

Setting label options

When creating a new label, you can change settings in the Options tab of the label dialog, as outlined
in the table below. To change the label settings of an existing label, right-click it in the Mail panel and
select Properties.
Setting

Used to...

Hide
these
messages
from other
views

Hide messages sorted automatically into this label from all other views (including
Unread, Received and Attachments views). This is the easiest means of simulating
folder-based organization of messages. If a message appears in two or more labels
with this setting enabled, the message still appears in all of those labels.

Mark
matching
messages
as read

Automatically mark the labeled messages as read so they do not appear in the Unread
view or cause the label view to display in bold when new messages arrive.

Learn
from
labeled
messages

Allow Opera Mail to train itself into recognizing which messages belong in the label, and
which do not. This can act as a substitute for adding rules, or in addition to the rules. It
learns from the messages you remove or add.

Apply
rules only
to new
messages

Apply the rule to new, incoming messages only (enabled by default). If you want the rule
to apply to all your saved and previously sorted messages, uncheck this option.

Delete a label
To delete a label, select it in the Mail panel and either:

19 / 40

press Delete, then Enter to confirm, or

right-click, select Delete and select OK to confirm.
This deletes the label itself but messages that were in the label remain in the Received view.

20 / 40

Write and send messages

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/send/

Opera Mail Tutorial

There are various tools and features to make writing and sending messages simple and quick.
In this topic:
When you view a message from someone, use the toolbar above it to quickly reply, forward, redirect,
mark as read or spam, delete, or label.

Message context menu

There is also a context menu for multiple options,
when you right-click a message, as outlined in the
table below.
Context
menu
header

Use this option to...

Reply

Answer a message - click the

button to select from options to
reply, reply to sender, or reply to
the mailing list, as relevant

Reply All

Answer a selected message and

include all recipients

Forward

Pass a message to a third party,

with you as the sender in the
From field

Redirect

Send a message to a third party

so that it looks as though it is
coming from the original sender
by keeping the original sender,
date, and message-id headers
and only adding message
headers showing the redirecting
details (Resent-Date, Resent-To,
and Resent-From)

Follow/Ignore

Follow or ignore an email thread

- see View and manage threads

Mark

Mark a message as read,

unread, spam, and so on

Label As

Apply a default label, or add a

new one of your own. Labeled
messages are listed under the
Labels header in the Mail panel

Go To

Navigate unread messages, or

go to a thread or contact
21 / 40

Context
menu
header

Use this option to...

Copy

Copy a message and paste it to

another view or label

Paste

Show any copied or hidden

messages and paste in a view
or label

Remove from
view

Delete a message from the

active view or label; this will still
display in the Received view

Delete

Move a message to the Trash

(Deleted)

Delete
Permanently

Delete a message permanently,

without moving to the Trash
(Deleted)

Fetch
Complete
Message

If messages are not completely

fetched

Cancel post
(in the Sent
view)

Request all news servers to

delete a posting

Edit

Continue editing an outgoing

message

Add contact

Add the sender of a message to

your contacts

View All
Headers and
Message

Show all messages with email

headers, which contain details
about the sender, route, and
receiver (this can be useful for
detecting spamming, for
example)

Write a new message

To write a message, you can either select Compose from the Mail panel, go to , or use the keyboard
shortcut Ctrl + Option + M.

Compose tools
The tools in the Compose window allow you to:
Send messages
Discard drafts
Choose HTML or plain text
Alter view settings
Add attachments
22 / 40

Message drafts
While you are composing a message, Opera Mail saves it for you automatically in the Drafts view. After
you send the message, it moves from the Drafts view to the Sent view. If you decide not to send the
message, delete the draft by selecting Delete Draft on the Mail toolbar.

Address a message
The auto-complete feature in Opera Mail helps to fill in email addresses automatically as you type
based on your contact list. As this feature is based on names, you do not have to remember email
addresses, making it quick and easy to use. Start typing the first name, last name or email address of
someone listed in Contacts in the To field and then select from the list of matching names.
You can also select To and either:
Select contacts from your list, or
Select Add All Contacts in Folder to add all contacts in a particular folder as message recipients
(not for nested contact folders). For more information, see the Organize Contact into folders
topic.

Quick Reply
For brief, chat-like correspondence, Opera Mail's unique Quick Reply feature is just the tool you need.
To use the Quick Reply
field, follow these short
steps:
1. Enable it by clicking
the Default Mail
Settings icon, shown
as a wrench, at the
top-right of the
message view. Check
Show Quick Reply.
2. Type a short reply in
the Quick Reply field
at the bottom of the
Mail window.
3. Click the Quick Reply
button to send it.
The original message is quoted in the reply, with your reply added underneath, and is sent to all
recipients of the original message. Opera Mail removes text that has been quoted more than twice. For
a news message, your reply is sent to the message sender's email address.
To disable Quick Reply, click the Default Mail Settings icon and uncheck Show Quick Reply.

Customize settings
You can maximize the message view so that it displays across the full window width, change the fields
that are displayed, edit your signature and choose another outgoing account if you have more than one
set up. Click the Settings button at the top-right of the compose window and make your selection.
You can also enable automatic completion of reply-to, cc and bcc fields, change fonts and more. See:
Edit mail and news accounts

23 / 40

Opera Mail Tutorial

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/news/

Use newsfeeds and newsgroups

Newsfeeds are web-feed formats used to publish frequently-updated content, such as news headlines,
blog entries, or podcasts. They are a great way to ensure you are kept up-to-date regularly, as they
inform you when new content or updates have been posted on subscribed sites. Opera Mail includes
support for multiple news servers, offline reading, and provides easy separation between news and
email.
In this topic:

Subscribe to a newsfeed
Opera can act as an aggregator for Atom, RDF Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
newsfeeds. In Opera Mail, newsfeeds are stored on your computer so you can read them later, even
when you are offline.
Some webpages offer newsfeeds using a link to the feed. Some pages use automatic feed discovery,
and tell Opera that a newsfeed is available automatically. When Opera loads one of these pages, an
RSS button shows in the right side of the address field. Click this button to subscribe to the newsfeed.
When you click a link or RSS button to a newsfeed in Opera, a preview displays, to give you an idea of
the information the newsfeed provides. If you decide to subscribe, simply select Subscribe.
Once you have subscribed to a newsfeed:
the Feeds header displays in the Mail panel, with each newsfeed listed under it, even if you do
not have an Opera Mail account. When newsfeeds are received, the header displays in bold,
showing the number of feeds received.
the Feeds menu option is added to the main menu, which you can use to read and manage
newsfeeds. You can also manually add other newsfeeds by selecting .

Select a newsfeed item

When you select a newsfeed from either the Feeds header in the Mail panel or the Feeds menu, it
opens a message view showing the items in the newsfeed. Each newsfeed item appears as a
separate message. New items are downloaded after a set period of time (1 hour, by default. As with
any message in Opera Mail, newsfeed messages can be stored indefinitely, searched, labeled,
forwarded, or deleted.

Subscribe to a newsgroup
Newsgroups are similar to discussion forums on the Web as they generally focus on a particular topic.
By subscribing to a newsgroup, you will receive a message whenever an item for discussion is posted.
To subscribe to a newsgroup, you first need to set up a news account, as follows:
1. Go to Mail and Chat Accounts.
2. Select Add, then Newsgroups.
3. Enter your name and email address. You can also enter your organization if you like.
24 / 40

4. Enter the news server information provided by your service provider or the newsgroup. For
Opera newsgroups, enter news.opera.com for both servers.
5. Click Finish to create your new account.
6. Select the newsgroups you want to subscribe to by checking next to them in the list. Use the
search field at the top of the dialog to narrow your selection.
7. Close the newsgroup dialog.
Once you have an account set up for the news server, you can add more newsgroups by selecting from
the main menu. For a newsgroup on another news server, you need to set up another account as
outlined above.

Read or send newsgroup messages

Reading and writing news articles is very similar to working with email messages. Each news account
has its own category in the Mail panel, with a view for each newsgroup you subscribe to. Newsgroup
messages do not show in the Unread view by default.
To read newsgroup messages, select the relevant group under the category in the Mail panel. Note:
The first time you select and view a newsgroup, you are asked how many headers and/or messages to
download since the last posting. For news accounts, headers only are downloaded by default. You can
change this setting in account settings.
The table below lists options you may need when handling news messages:
If you want to...

Then...

Post a follow-up article

(an answer to the article
you are currently reading)

Select Reply on the message

Post a follow-up and also

reply to the author by
email

Select Reply all on the message

Post your article in

multiple groups (called
"cross-posting")

Enter a comma-separated list of groups in the To field

Send people copies of the Enter email addresses in the CC field

article by email
Delete an article from the
server

Select Cancel post Note: This is respected by some, but not all, news
servers

Delete your local copy of

a news article

Select the message and press Delete

Download new
newsgroup messages
from a server

1. Select the arrow on the Check All button in the Mail panel.
2. Select your news account from the drop-down list, or the
newsgroup view. Tip: You can also ensure the view is active and
press F5.

25 / 40

If you want to...

Download specific
messages

Then...
Use the following syntax to download a specific message:
nntp://[newsserver]/[newsgroup]/[message range].
For example, to download the first message in the opera.general
newsgroup at news.opera.com, use
nntp://news.opera.com/opera.general/1.
To download the first through one-thousandth messages, use
nntp://news.opera.com/opera.general/1-1000.
Message numbers are usually located in the Xref message
header, as in "Xref: news.opera.com opera.wishlist:16983" which
has the form "Xref: [newsserver] [newsgroup]:[message number].
Since these addresses are simple URLs, you can enter them
directly into Opera's address field.

26 / 40

Opera Mail Tutorial

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/contacts/

Manage contacts
This topic explains how to manage your contact list; Opera Mail's online address book. Contacts are
automatically added to your contacts list whenever you send a message.
In this topic:

The Contacts panel

Contacts are shown in a separate panel to the Mail panel. You can toggle the panel by clicking the
Contacts panel selector.
The Contacts panel allows you to:
Keep track of all sorts of information about people you communicate with
Group messages you have received from a particular person or groups
Follow or ignore messages from contacts
Send messages to groups of addresses easily

Add a new contact

There are several ways to add a new contact, as outlined in the table below.
To add a contact ...
from the Contacts panel, you can
either:

Then ...
select Add.
right-click in the panel and select New contact.

using the main menu

Select and select New in the Manage contacts window.

from a received message

right-click the message and select Add Contact.

when replying to a message

Opera automatically adds the email address to your contact

list.

Follow or ignore messages from contacts

Follow messages from a contact
If you want to be alerted to messages from a specific person, you can follow messages from them. This
displays all messages from that person under the Followed Contacts header in the Mail panel. When
new messages are received, this header becomes bold and the number of unread messages is shown.
The person must be added as a contact for this option to appear.
To follow messages from a contact, you can either:
27 / 40

Right-click their email address and select Follow contact.

Select the contact in the panel.
Right-click the name from the list in the Contacts panel and and select .
To disable following emails from this person, you can either:
View a message from them, right-click their email address and uncheck Follow contact.
Right-click their name under the Followed Contacts header in the Mail panel and select Delete.
Messages from this person will still display in the Unread and Received views.

Ignore messages from a contact

You can also ignore all messages from someone so that their messages do not display in the Unread
view. Messages still display in the Received view but are marked automatically as read. The person
must already be a contact for this option to appear.
To ignore messages from someone, you can either:
While viewing an email from them, right-click their email address and select Ignore contact.
Right-click their name in the list in the Contacts panel and select .
To stop ignoring these messages, view a message from them, right-click their email address and
uncheck Ignore contact.

Manage contacts
The Manage Contacts window open in the full browser window to provide a larger space for you to
organize your contacts. To open this window, go to the main menu and select Contacts. Tip: If you need
to find a specific contact, use the search field on the toolbar.

Organize contact into folders

To help you manage your contacts, you can use folders to group contacts together. To add a new
folder:
1. Right-click in the Contacts panel.
2. Select New Folder from the context menu.
3. To move contacts into folders, drag-and-drop them into the folder.
Tip: To quickly compose a message addressed to all the contacts in the folder, select the folder, rightclick and select Compose.

Change contact properties

You can add, remove, and change information about contacts. To do this, right-click a contact and
select Properties. Use the tabs to record different types of information. The table below lists the tabs
and describes what you can change. Tip: You can leave any field in any tab blank, but if you leave
Name and Email address blank, it limits the usefulness of contacts.

28 / 40

If you want to ...

Then ...

Record the
primary address

In the General tab, type the address in the Email Address field.

Record
additional email
addresses

In the Notes tab, type the address separated by a comma, as follows:

[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

Record or
change personal
details

In the Home tab, type or change the details, such as postal address or phone
number.

Record a home
page associated
to the person

In the General tab, type the URL in the Home page field.

Record notes
about a person

In the Notes tab, type any notes you wish to keep.

Record an IRC
nickname for
Chat

In the Chat tab, records your contact's registered IRC nickname in the Nickname
field so that you can see when you and your contact are logged on to the same
network in your Chat panel.

Change the icon

displayed for this
contact

An icon is displayed in the message list for messages received. The default is
the first contact icon in the list but you can change this here; just select a new
icon from the list.

Display an image
at the top of the
Contacts view for
the person

In the Images tab, type the URL of a webpage in the Picture URL field. The
maximum size is 150 x 150 pixels. It is better to use photos from the Web by
specifying a URL. There may be problems uploading photos from your computer,
as they must then be cached to display.

29 / 40

Customize Opera Mail

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/customize/

Opera Mail Tutorial

As with the Opera browser in general, Opera Mail can be customized in many ways. In this topic, we
have listed just a few ideas about how to customize it to suit you.
In this topic:

Change default mail settings

If you want to change the global default settings for Opera Mail, click the Default Mail Settings icon -marked with a wrench symbol -- at the top-right of a selected message, as show below.
The settings are described in the
table below.
Setting

Allows you to...

Mail layout

Change the layout

of the message
list and message
view. Options are
(from left to right):
Show the
message
list to the
left and the
content of a
selected
message to
the right
(default)
Show the
message
list at the
top and the
content of a
selected
message
below
Just show
the
message
list without
any
message
views

30 / 40

Setting

Allows you to...

Default list
sorting/Sort
Acending

Change the way

lists are
automatically
sorted and
grouped

Threaded

Enable or disable
the display of
threaded
messages

Prefer
Plain Text

Toggle plain text;

HTML formatting
is the default for
messages

Fit to width

Toggle Fit to width,

which fits
messages to the
available window
width

Show
Quick
Reply

Toggle the Quick

Reply message
box below the
message display;
this is off by
default

Mark as
Read

Choose to mark
messages as read
manually, or
automatically after
a certain time

Note: For contacts view, there are additional options to select whether you want to see messages to
someone, from someone, or both to and from someone.

Change individual view lists

You can change how messages are sorted, and what kinds of messages display, for each view using
the Settings for This View icon at the top-right of the message list.
You need to enable the option to override default sorting, which is set using the default mail settings
described above.
The Settings for This View icon gives you quick access to some of the most common functions,
described below:
Setting
Flat or
Threaded

Allows you to...

Choose the type of message display
Flat view shows messages in a flat, unthreaded list (default for mail views).
Threaded view groups messages that belong to the same discussion (default for
newsgroup and mailing list views). For more on threads, go to View and manage
threads.

31 / 40

Setting

Allows you to...

Sort by...

Sort the selected message list by a range of criteria

Show

Select the type of messages to display in the current view, for example, if you want to
see only unread messages for one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to, not the ones
you have already seen

Period

Display messages from a specified time period (default is Forever)

Edit Opera Mail and news accounts

You can customize Opera Mail by editing the
account details. To edit account details:
1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts from the menu.
2. Select the account.
3. Select Edit. The Account Properties dialog
displays. See the table below for information on how you can edit accounts in this dialog.

Useful ways of customizing Opera Mail accounts

If you want to...
Use low bandwidth
mode

Add a custom account

category to organize
accounts into
categories
Set up an alternate
address people should
send replies to
Send copies (Cc) or
blind copies (Bcc) of all
messages sent to a
particular email address
Show a warning for
empty subject line

Then Edit account details and...

On the Incoming tab, check Low bandwidth mode. For POP, this means
that Opera does not fetch more than the first 100 lines of a message
unless requested. For IMAP, Opera only synchronizes new messages and
does not fetch attachments unless requested.
1. On the General tab, add a custom account category.
2. Type a new category name or choose an existing category from the
drop-down.

1. Select the General tab.

2. Type the email address in the Reply-To field.

1. Select the General tab.

2. Type the email address in the CC or BCC fields.

1. Select the Outgoing tab.

2. Check this option.

Add a signature or
message line on all
sent messages

1. Select the Outgoing tab.

2. Type the signature or message line in the Signature field.

32 / 40

If you want to...

Change incoming
server settings:

Then Edit account details and...

1. Select the Incoming tab.
2. Click the relevant checkboxes to:
leave or store messages on server.
download or store message bodies.
change timeframe for checking for new messages or disable
automatic checking.
set a sound to play when new messages arrive.

Account settings storage

Account settings are stored in the accounts.ini file, located in your Mail directory. See: for the exact
location of this file. Information for each account is stored in a separate section of the configuration file.
To find the relevant account section, search for your email address and change the settings for that
account.
Important note: Close Opera before making configuration file changes.

Switch off notification for new messages

To switch off notification for new messages, you need to use the Opera browser settings.
1. Select .
2. Uncheck Show notification for new messages.

Customize the Mail window

You can customize the Mail window in Opera Mail, as outlined in the table below.
If you want
to...
Restrict the
display of
messages to
one account,
one account
type, or a
category

Customize the
Mail toolbar

Then...
1. Right-click anywhere in the Mail panel.
2. Select Show messages from.
3. Select from the account options listed (default is All). The Mail and News
account settings restrict message display to only email accounts or
newsgroup accounts respectively. Choosing one of your email or news
accounts will restrict message display to only that account. If you have set
up a custom account category, select the custom category to display
messages from that category exclusively.

1. Select .
2. Select Mail or Mail view.
3. Drag-and-drop buttons or fields to the Mail toolbar.
4. To remove a buttons or field, right-click it and select Remove from toolbar.

33 / 40

If you want
to...
Change the
color of
Unread
message
status

Then...
The color of Unread messages follows the color settings of normal links.
1. Select .
2. Select Normal link color.
3. Select a color and select OK to confirm.

Customize the Mail panel

You can re-order the headers in the Mail panel by dragging them where you want them. You can also
decide what headers to show by selecting the View button at the top of the panel and checking or
unchecking items in the list.

You can customize how the mail headers display, for example, you can remove the To field from
display. To customize headers, right-click a header and select Customize. In the dialog, you have
options to:
change the order of headers by moving them up or down.
edit the header properties to toggle the header name, new line for the header, right alignment or
use a large font.
add a new header.
delete a header

Customize composition settings

There are ways to further customize settings for composing messages:
If you want to...
Set automatic completion
of Reply-To, CC or BCC
fields

Then...
1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts from the menu.
2. Select the account and select Edit.
3. Select the General tab.
4. Type the recipient(s) in the relevant field.

Change the font used in

the message composition
window

1. Select .
2. Select Fonts.
3. Select Email compose.
4. Select Choose and choose a font from the list.

Override the encoding

setting for your account
on a per-message basis

1. Select .
2. If the current message contains characters that are not part of the
selected encoding, select the Settings button at the top-right and
check Encoding. The default override value is UTF-8.

34 / 40

Remove the signature

Your automatic signature displays at the bottom of the message. If you want to remove your signature,
for example, if you top-post when you reply to messages, follow the steps below:
1. From the menu, select
2. Select the relevant account and click Edit.
3. Select and remove any signature text.
4. Click Save and OK to save this change.

35 / 40

Opera Mail Tutorial

opera.com /help/tutorials/mail/advanced/

Advanced tips and solutions

The list below contains topics with advanced tips, information to help you solve problems, and ways to
find more help for Opera Mail.
Select the arrow to view each topic below, or select the Expand All button to view all topics at once.

IMAP
IMAP organizes your email messages on the mail server. Regardless of where you are when you look
at your email, you will see the same messages organized the same way, even if you use different
computers.

Setting up an IMAP account

Before attempting to set up an IMAP account, make sure the email service you are using supports it.
Then follow the procedure for POP and select IMAP instead of POP when asked. Do not set up an
email account to use both POP and IMAP simultaneously as this is likely to cause problems. Therefore,
use either POP or IMAP for each account.

Using IMAP
When your IMAP folder has been set up, and all messages are downloaded to your computer, your
IMAP folder tree appears in the "Mail" panel under "Mail for...".
The INBOX folder is the default folder for incoming messages and cannot be deleted. Click it to read
your messages. Reading and sending messages over IMAP is similar to working with POP.

Maintaining IMAP folders

Go to to customize your IMAP folder tree. Click the checkboxes to select which IMAP folders you want
to access from your computer.
Note that when you delete an IMAP folder from the mail server, all messages in that folder will be lost.
To move a message from one IMAP folder to another, drag the message from the message view and
drop it in the new folder.

Options
Account options are the same as for POP, with these additions:
You can set the path to your IMAP root folder (if indicated by service provider)
You can choose a folder on the IMAP server where you store messages sent from your IMAP
account
Note: To take full advantage of IMAP capabilities, you should be connected to the Internet.

36 / 40

Exporting messages
If you want to export your email messages from Opera for use with a clean Opera install or a different
email client, the easiest way is to make sure all incoming message types are displayed in the Received
view. Then rightCtrl-clicking it and selecting Export. Opera will then export all the messages in the
selected view to a single, compressed file that is convenient for import.
Note that any view in the mail panel can be exported individually. This includes sent messages and
drafts.

Create message templates

You can use Opera's notes feature to create message templates. Open the Notes panel and create a
folder to store your templates. Add a new note and add the template for your message as the note text.
Whenever you want to use this template, either select the note in the Notes panel and double-click it, or
right-click a message composition window, and pick the template from the Insert note sub-menu.
Thanks to Mark Schenk for this idea.
You can also create message templates using drafts:
1. Open a message composition window and create the message template. The draft is
automatically saved in the Drafts view.
2. Create a new custom label to store your templates.
3. Check Hide messages from other views in the label properties.
4. Select OK to save your changes.
5. Drag the message template from Drafts view to Templates view.
6. To use the template, select it from the created label and compose your message.
Thanks to MarcFou for this idea.

Use Opera Mail offline

For IMAP messages, you need to download the full message content first. To do this:
1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts.
2. Highlight your IMAP account and select Edit .
3. Select Incoming and check Download message body when checking .
4. Select OK . When the system checks for messages, both bodies and headers are retrieved and
you can read them later when you're offline.
To read and compose messages offline:
1. Select to avoid Opera connecting to the Internet unless explicitly told to do so. While offline,
replies and sent messages remain queued in the Outbox view.
2. When you are next online in Opera, select Check/Send in the Mail panel, then select Send
queued to send replies and retrieve messages.

Change authentication settings

Opera protects your username and password as they are sent to your mail or news server, by
supporting a variety of authentication schemes. To help you easily configure your account, Opera Mail
automatically tries to find the most secure authentication method your server supports. Unfortunately,
37 / 40

this does not always work. If you are receiving authentication errors, try choosing a different
authentication method for the server in the account's server properties. The authentication methods are
listed in order of security, with the most secure at the top.
Authenticatation for the incoming server is set to "Auto" by default. When the Auto setting us used, the
server attempts to use the most secure authentication method available first and, if it fails, tries the next
most secure method until one succeeds. Authentication for the outgoing server is enabled by default,
and set to "Auto". These authentication settings only control encryption of your username and
password. TLS or SSL encrypts mail data, if available. Not all servers support all methods of
authentication. To change these settings, see the Edit account topic.
Opera supports:
CRAM-MD5, APOP, login, and plaintext authentication for POP accounts
CRAM-MD5 and plaintext authentication for IMAP and NNTP accounts
CRAM-MD5, login, and plaintext authentication for SMTP accounts.
We are always interested in improving the automatic authentication negotiation. If you run into
problems that are solved by changing to another authentication method, please file a bug report
(including a log of client server communication) or visit one of the relevant discussions forums.

Outgoing Opera Mail problems

Relay denied error
One of the most common problems users experience when sending email is a relay access denied
error. Many ISPs are trying to fight spam by making it more difficult for spammers to send their emails.
Outgoing mail (SMTP) servers are often configured to only allow outgoing mail from users it recognizes
through a process called "SMTP authenication". If you receive a relay access denied error, your
outgoing mail server probably requires SMTP authenication to send emails. See the above
troubleshooting tip for instructions to enable SMTP authentication.

Disable SMTP authentication

Some SMTP servers do not support authentication. If you get an error message from the server when
sending mail, try disabling SMTP authentication. To disable SMTP authentication, follow the steps
below.
1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts.
2. Highlight the relevant account and select Edit.
3. Select the Servers tab.
4. In the Authentication field, select None from the drop-down menu.

Enable logging
You can log the communcication between Opera Mail and the email server. If you are filing a bug report
and add this log as a text file, it makes it easier for us to investigate the problem.
To activate logging for incoming mail, IMAP or NNTP (news), follow these steps:
1. Find the location of the accounts.ini file in your mail directory by selecting and close Opera.
2. Open the accounts.ini file in a text editor.
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3. For the account in question, find the line marked with "Incoming Log File=".
4. Enter a path and filename, for example: Incoming Log File=C:\incoming-log.txt.
5. Save the file and start Opera.
6. Try to check your mail.
To activate logging for outgoing mail, follow the steps below:
1. For the account in question, find the line marked with "Outgoing Log File=".
2. Enter a path and filename, for example: Outgoing Log File=C:\outgoing-log.txt.
3. Save the file and start Opera.
4. Try to send mail.
It is a good idea to disable logging again after the relevant information is gathered. Simply leave the
"Outgoing Log File=" and "Incoming Log file=" options empty.

Send queued messages after checking email

As an additional step to fight spam, many ISPs require you to check for new email before being able to
send messages. Opera allows you to do this by queuing email, then sending it when checking for new
messages. To enable this:
1. Select Mail and Chat Accounts.
2. Select the relevant account.
3. Select the Outgoing tab.
4. Check Queue messages and Send queued email after checking email.

Customize the message reply/follow-up text

Syntax of the Message-ID header
The syntax for the message-ID header sent by Opera is described below:
It will always start with "op".
The next 6 characters are a semi-base36 representation of the time_t returned from
::time() (seconds since 19700101 000000UTC).
The next two characters are semi-base36 of either the 10 least significant bits of the
milliseconds time of day (for Windows) or a 10-bit random value (all other platforms).
The next 6 characters are semi-base36 of either the most significant 4 bytes of a 16-byte MD5
checksum of the From address or a random 32-bit value (if for some reason From is missing).
The contents of the Personalization account setting.
"@"
The contents of the IDNA-version of the "FQDN" account setting.
In short:
<op[seconds since 1970][millisecond|random][md5 of From:|random]
[personalization]@[idna-fqdn]>
(Semi-base36 is a function that will take modulo-36 of a number and convert this to a character where
'a'=0...'z'=25...'0'=26...'9'=35, and add it to the left of the already calculated string. The number
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is then divided by 36, and the function loops until it has given the wanted number of characters.)

Personalize the message-ID header

There are two settings that allow you to customize your message-ID header:
Personalization
This setting is initially empty. You can add a short identifying string (such as "suoc" for
"SomeUserOperaCom") to help to identify your messages.
FQDN
Initially set to your outgoing email ( SMTP) server for email accounts and your news (NNTP)
server for news accounts, this must be a domain name that actually exists. Many news and
email servers will reject messages that do not have at least one ., or they will simply append
their own FQDN.
Using these settings, you can easily create a label to catch all messages that you have posted to a
newsgroup and any replies to those messages (as long as the replier's newsreader correctly cites your
message) by labeling for any messages that contain "Personalization@FQDN" in any header. For
instance, if Personalization is set to suoc and "FQDN" is set to "news.opera.com", create a label for
[email protected].

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