Help: How M2 Works - READ THIS!

Help: How M2 Works - READ THIS!

NOTE: This is an old version. An updated version can be found here:

[url]http://people.opera.com/hkmoen/m2guide.html





M2 Quick Start Guide

M2 is very different from other e-mail clients, and it is therefore necessary to understand the concept behind M2, and how mail is organized.


The key to understanding M2

- M2 is fundamentally different from most other e-mail clients -

The easiest way to learn M2 is to forget how most other e-mail clients work. While other e-mail clients give you an Inbox and mail is moved around, M2 uses views. For example, it gives you an Unread view for unread mail. You do not move mail to folders. Instead, they appear in different views.

- Mail cannot be moved, and should not be moved -

Since views do not actually store your mails, it is not possible to move mail from one view to another. You can drag and drop mail to the Spam view under "All messages" or to your custom views to tell Opera that you want the mail to appear there, but they will not actually be moved, because M2 stores messages in one place instead of scattering them around in different folders. This makes it possible to show one mail in any number of views.

- Folders vs. views -

Most other e-mail clients use folders. Folders are like filing cabinets, where you actually move the mail away from your Inbox, and to different folders

M2 uses views (sometimes referred to as "access points"). Views are simply different ways of accessing your mails. The mails are stored in one place, but they can be shown in different views. Views are like filters, and it only shows mail there or gives access to it, it does not actually store the mail.

- Views can be compared to colored glasses -

If you put on green glasses, you will only see green colors. All the other colors will still be there, but you will only see green. Similarly, M2 will simply give you different ways of accessing your mails. The Unread view shows unread mail. All your other mail is still there, but only unread mail is shown.

- Unread is not an Inbox -

The Unread view in M2 is not an inbox. It is a filter which shows unread mails. The closest thing to an inbox in M2 is the Received view under "All messages" which contains all mails, but it is still not an inbox.

- Ignore the Received view -

Received is there to give you access to all your messages. It is not possible to move mails from Received. You should normally ignore Received, unless you need to find an old mail. However, you can use other views in M2 to locate mail, for example if you remember who sent it to you, or if it was on a mailing list.


Organizing your mail

- Stop organizing your mail like you used to -

The goal of M2 is to allow you to spend more time actually reading mail, and waste less time having to organize your mail. Since you can access your mail from several views, such as contacts, mailing lists and attachments, it should be easier to find your mail without having to manually sort your messages.

- Warning: Deleting mail in one view deletes it everywhere else -

If you delete an e-mail from a view, it is not simply removed from that view, but from all views.

- Contacts are views -

Contacts are found in the "Contacts" panel in the Hotlist, and they work like access points. Double-click a contact, all correspondence with that contact is shown.

- The built-in views -

M2 comes with a set of built-in views. These are either there by default, or are created when needed. Remember that M2 does not have an inbox. You read your mail in Unread or one of the other views.

Unread: Unread mail appears here. It will have the status unread until you mark it as read. When you do, it will disappear from the Unread view but still be available in other views.

Under All messages...
Received: Shows all your mail by default.
Outbox: Mail ready to be sent and queued mail is shown here.
Sent: Sent mail is shown here.
Drafts: The mails you are currently writing and not ready to send are shown here.
Spam: Spam is shown here.
Trash: Deleted mail appears here. To permanently delete mail, you have to empty trash.

Active contacts: Shows contacts you have recently interacted with.
Active threads: Shows threads you have recently participated in.
Labels: When you have labeled mail, it can be accessed here.
Attachments: Mails with attachments appear here.
Mailing lists: Mails from mailing lists appear here.

- Custom views -

In addition to the built-in views, you can create your own views and set the filter criteria yourself. To create a custom view, right-click anywhere in the area where other views are shown and select "New view". A new view will now appear under "Views". You can either drag and drop mail from other views to tell Opera that you want those mails to appear there, or you can create filters.

To create a filter, right-click on a custom view and select "Properties". Under the "Filter tab you can define filters for that view.

To remove mail from a view, select it and press Ctrl+X on your keyboard, or right-click and select "Remove from view". Removing mail from a view does not delete it, it simply hides it from that view.

- Accounts and account groups -

By default, Opera shows all messages from all accounts. You can set Opera to show mail from one account or a group of accounts in "Mail > Show account". From here, you can also enable "Show account selector" to make it possible to select accounts and account groups from a dropdown list in the Hotlist.

Accounts can be organized in categories. Go to "Mail > Manage accounts", select an account and click "Edit". You will find a field/dropdown where you can either enter a new category name, or choose from existing categories.

A nice clear explanation of the concept behind M2. If all new users read this it will save a lot of unnecessary questions and problems.

I would change one sentence though: "Mail cannot be moved, and should not be moved" to "Mail cannot be moved, so don't even try." The sentence is a bit ambiguous as it stands, like "Windows system files are hidden by default, but you can display them if you really want to."

When "hide from other views" is checked, the corresponding active contact views will show up as empty, because an active contact is a view.

I'd like to see this changed so that active contacts will show mail in other views, even when the other views have the "hide from other views checked". It seems to me that the only other "reasonable" approach is to eliminate from the active contacts list any contacts whose mail is hidden by other views.

By the way, editing the name in the active contact properties does not change the name in the active contacts list. Is this a bug?

And this is relevant to the thread you are posting in - how?

M2

Excellent explanation. I am a klutz with computers but M2 makes the most sense for email. Thanks

Read the Filter Guide for more information on how to make custom views. See my sig.

OK, it's nice explanation. It may explain much about that issue, that IMAP folders are handled a bit differently than POP3 accounts. Anyway, is there some effective easy way, how to set filters (views) to have messages divided by the source account? I mean, I have about 6 POP3 accounts and 4 IMAP. Imap folders have automaticaly their own folder (maybe in this case is not view the right term, because the messages are really located on the server), but for POP3 accounts, there's no easy way to divide by source account. I have to set up manually filters where target address contains the address. It's too much work for me and I'm not clear about the 100% compatibility of such filter (view) with the source account (for example adress aaa.aaa@mail.com can be accessed via aaa.aaa@mail.com or "aaa.aaa"@mail.com, which is not in my filter).
It would be kind to give me some answer or explanation, thanks.

Originally posted by costra
Anyway, is there some effective easy way, how to set filters (views) to have messages divided by the source account?

Mail > Show account >> Show account selector. Now the Mail panel has an account selector where you can choose which account you want to see.

Thanx, I didn't find this before. Anyway it's not exactly what I wanted. I ment to have all accounts displayed the same way, like IMAP accounts, which means to see them all in the same time with messages count etc.

Moving Messages from One Account to the Another

Original posting here which haavard complained about
I'd like to be able to move a message from one account to another. Is this in the works?

In either case, I'd like to understand whether (1) this is something which is almost impossible given the M2 data structures, (2) the M2 author has some philosophical objection to a relatively easy change, (3) it is in the works or (4) something else.

Thanks -- Vincent
Running Opera 7.50, ver 3

Segment from "Help: How M2 Works - READ THIS!"
- Mail cannot be moved, and should not be moved -

Since views do not actually store your mails, it is not possible to move mail from one view to another. You can drag and drop mail to the Spam view under "All messages" or to your custom views to tell Opera that you want the mail to appear there, but they will not actually be moved, because M2 stores messages in one place instead of scattering them around in different folders. This makes it possible to show one mail in any number of views.

I think this article should make it clearer:

- How the M2 data structures/concepts forbid moving mail from one account to another.

- Why that is not a useful thing to do.

Thanks -- Vincent

Please don't use this thread to ask questions about Opera. Only feedback about the quick start guide is wanted.

If you don't like M2, don't use it. Nothing obliges you to use it. Opera can be easily configured to work with your preferred email client.

The appropriate way to complain about M2 is start a new thread listing your complaints (rather than attach them to this thread which is about the Quick Start Guide for M2).

I have been using Opera for about a year now and I am still in love with it. I consider myself permanently computer challenged and I am still learning how to use many of the Opera features, Opera for my mobile phone and of course M2. I have read and read and re-read stuff about M2 and this, above, seems to start to make things a little more clear. I wish there was a CD or video on the Opera Browser and the M2 but for now I guess there is not. I am currently using the paid for version of Opera with M2 7.50 and the button that says “Not Spam” is quite helpful. I still don’t know what the difference between “Flat View” and “Threaded View” is. I keeping clinking on them and I can’t see any difference. It is the same with the choice “Show Filtered.” I have always deleted all mail that I have received in M2 after reading it and coping and pasting some into a word document if I want to save it, just like I do with all other eMail clients. Now after reading this article I think maybe I can save some things. Some day I would like to try joining a news group but after looking at some of them they are too frightening. They seem to be moving at lightening speeds and speaking in a language from another dimension and mailing list are just the same to me except a little more confusing. I would like to know if I could post a few specific questions from time-to-time on using the M2 as I experiment with it? And don’t worry the questions will be very specific and very brief.

Well at least I can answer your question about "threaded" vs. "flat." Threaded view sorts your messages into threads; least in the access points panel anyway. Basically, it allows the user to more easily follow conversations but sorting the messages in a sort of heirarchy, or threaded, view. Hope this makes sense.

Tell something about filtering. it's not like in OUTLOOK E.. MAIL RULES (SELECT THE ACTION FOR YOUR RULE)

You would help yourself a lot if you read this guide: [url]http://my.opera.com/community/tips/pdf/FilterGuide.pdf. It answered all my questions and gave examples of various filters.

Originally posted by Kathy_P
You would help yourself a lot if you read this guide: [url]http://my.opera.com/community/tips/pdf/FilterGuide.pdf. It answered all my questions and gave examples of various filters.

I tried to open the above URL and got a message that the file wasn't found.

George

Try it without the period at the end of the URL -- like [url]http://my.opera.com/community/tips/pdf/FilterGuide.pdf