When a message is opened four or five panels are presented following the status message.

First Panel

The dialog     allows the full message be viewed in a format more suitable for printing, or as plain text. The raw view will display the full message, the header view just the Internet mail header if present. The    segment opens a new window.

The message navigation dialog     allows the previous and next message to be retrieved without returning to the message listing. The middle button returns to the message listing displaying the range containing the last read message. This dialog is also present in the third panel.

The dialog to the right of this panel   folder   allows the current message to be copied or moved to the folder specified by the adjacent folder selector. Where multiple mail files (drawers) are present, this dialog only display the folders of the currently selected mail file. If the desired target file's folders are not currently visible selecting the file name will refresh the list displaying the folders contained in that file. See section on multiple mail files in    help. The text entry field to the right of the folder selector can be used to enter the name of a new folder for message storage. With multiple mail files two fields are present, the first for a file name, the second for a folder name. If empty these fields default to the corresponding component in the folder list selector.

Message Header (Second) Panel

Message header information including subject line, address of originator, date/time sent (local to sender) plus date/time received in square brackets (local to soyMAIL system and the same time shown in the message listing), and the recipient list (which will usually include a "To:" field and sometimes a "Cc:" field).

The dialog     provided on the same line as the "From:" field allows the originator address to be added to the personal list as the entry named by the text field. The    opens the contacts list in a new window with the contact information ready to be edited.

Third Panel

This panel provides the buttons     to allow various responses to the current email. The    segment opens the response in a new window. It generates a message page containing the original message text with various addressing options.

• reply  includes the single sender address
• reply to all  plus all those it was sent to
• forward  and edit as new  add no addresses

The reply and forward functions also quote the message. The "edit as if it is a new message" does not.

If there is is an HTML alternative to a plain text message the button    shows the sanitised^** HTML content. Similarly, when viewing HTML content there will be a    button to show any plain text alternative. Read preference can selected via the soyMAIL page.

For plain text messages there are also the buttons    and    to enable and disable massaging of the message text. When enabled it wraps long lines, eliminates extra blank lines and removes any PGP signature from the text.

The third panel also also includes the dialog     allowing message navigation and disposition.

As from a message listing the    button moves the selected message(s) into a folder named "Waste Items". This functions in the role of a wastebasket, allowing subsequent access and retrieval, or final disposal of messages moved there (using its    button). This folder is is not the VMS Mail WASTEBASKET.

CAUTION:    completely removes the message. There is no way subsequently to retrieve it.

Message Text (Fourth) Panel

This panel contains the message text presented as either plain text or sanitised^** HTML.

Attachment (Fifth) Panel

If the message contained one or more MIME compliant attachments the fifth panel containing the dialog    ¤¤¤    allows access to the content of each of these.

Clicking on the button containing the attachment name opens the content in the current window. If the browser can process the content it will be displayed. If it cannot a browser save-as dialog will be presented. The    segment opens the attachment in a new window.

The   ¤¤¤   link to the left of the name button allows a browser right-click, save-target-as dialog to be initiated and the part easily saved to storage local to the browser system.

The text field contains the message-supplied content-type. Generally this should be left as supplied although it can sometimes be an advantage to modify it to something more acceptable to the browser or operating system. The    button restores the original content-type information for all attachments.

The (checkbox) allows the selected message(s) to be saved into soyMAIL using the    button for use as an attachment to a subsequently composed message.

At some sites (depending on configuration) an associated    button allows the attachment to be extracted into the user home directory on the soyMAIL server (file names are prefixed with  SOYMAIL-  and then derived using the part name).

Messages in character sets that do not have specific left-to-right directionality (most do) show two additional buttons      that allow the message text directionality to be explicitly set.

^**Sanitised means every effort has been made to render the HTML well-behaved and "harmless". All scripting (e.g. JavaScript) is removed and only tags with known and acceptable behaviours permitted. In particular the HTML should make no access to external resources for displaying the message. For that reason images are replaced with textual indicators. The original HTML message may be accessed using the respective "text/html" message part button in the attachment panel.