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Kansas State University

IT Help Desk
Kansas State University
214 Hale Library
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-7722
helpdesk@k-state.edu

K-State Zimbra Tips and Tricks

Setting Preferences

Changing Zimbra web client default e-mail address

By default the K-State Zimbra web client sends mail as eID@k-state.edu but it is possible to change it so that it uses @ksu.edu. To do this, go to the Options tab and select the Accounts tab. Make sure your Primary Account is highlighted and then under Primary Account Settings, in the From section, select eID@ksu.edu from the list to change your default From e-mail address.

eID@k-state.edu and eID@ksu.edu are the only choices offered at this time. Custom e-mail addresses such as eID@department.ksu.edu can be sent with this identity using a local mail client such as Thunderbird or Mac Mail. All K-State LISTSERVs work with either eID@k-state.edu or eID@ksu.edu. Some externally or departmentally managed mailings lists may require you to submit mail to the list using the same e-mail address you subscribed as.

Displaying text for toolbar icons

The text for each icon will show if you have the browser window large enough.  If the toolbar text does not show, enlarge or maximize the browser window and the text will appear.  You can also use the "Refractor for Prism" tool for Firefox and Google Chrome.  For IE press the F11 button on your keyboard to allow the browser to be run in Application Mode.

Marking mail as read

If mail is not being marked as Read in your folders, go to the Options tab and select the Mail tab.  There are setting options for when to mark mail as Read.   One of the options is Do not mark it read.  If this is selected, change it to either Mark it read immediately or Mark it read after ___ seconds.

Reading e-mail

Managing your e-mail message view

You can view your e-mail messages as single messages or as conversations. Conversation view displays your messages grouped by subject. Your e-mail is set to message view by default. To change how messages are grouped in your mailbox, on the toolbar, click View and select whether to view by conversation or by message.  Learn more

Hiding and showing the reading pane

From the Inbox, click the View button and then toggle the Reading Pane to show or hide the reading pane.

Changing number of messages displayed

If you want to change the number of messages displayed in K-State Zimbra, click the Options tab and then click the Mail tab. On the Display menu, choose how many messages you want displayed.

Turning off message snippets

To turn off message snippets, click the Options tab and then click the Mail tab. Remove the check mark next to Display snippets of messages in e-mail list.

Viewing mail headers

To view mail headers, right-click the e-mail message that you want to view mail headers for and then click Show Original. Learn more

Getting notified of new mail

Click the Options tab and then click the Mail tab.  Under the Receiving Messages area, select the desired e-mail notification option.

Setting an auto-reply

When away from your e-mail, you may find it helpful to set an auto-reply message. This message will  automatically be sent to people who send you e-mail while you are away. The auto-reply message is sent to each recipient only once every seven days, regardless of how many e-mails that person sends you during the designated away time.

Departments that are using this feature to respond to departmental e-mails need to be aware that the auto-reply message will only be sent once every seven days to the original sender. To set an auto-reply message, click the Options tab and then click the Mail tab. In the Receiving Messages section, select the Send auto-reply message check box. (Note: You may have to scroll down to find this section.) Type the message to be sent. Set the start and end dates for using this message. Click Save. The auto-reply message feature is enabled immediately.

SPAM and junk folders

The SPAM and junk folders shouldn't be used for permanent storage. Zimbra automatically dumps the items from the SPAM folder that are older than 30 days and items from the Trash folder that are older than 180 days. These settings cannot be changed.

File Attachments

File attachment size

When e-mailing K-Staters, you can send an e-mail containing up to 35MB worth of attachments. If you are e-mailing a non-K-State e-mail address (for example, AOL or Gmail), whether or not your e-mail is successfully received by the recipient depends on their e-mail service provider and the size of file attachments their service provider will accept.

Types of files that can be attached

Nearly all file types are acceptable, such as Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, images, and Adobe PDF files. However, executable and source files such as .exe, .bat, .pif, .scr, and .com are blocked and not allowed. If you need to e-mail a blocked file, place that file in a compressed (zipped) folder and then attach and e-mail the folder.

Number of files that can be attached

Multiple files can be attached, but the total of all your attachments will be limited to 35MB. Using K-State Zimbra webmail, you will need to attach each file individually to the mail message; you can’t attach multiple files at once using a drag-and-drop method.

E-mailing a file attachment from my Briefcase?

You will need to download the file to your computer and then attach it to the e-mail message. Currently, you cannot attach a file directly from the Briefcase.

Using and maintaining the address book

Global address list (GAL)

The GAL is a searchable collection of K-State e-mail addresses. It is available in both the webmail and desktop Zimbra clients. Only people with a K-State e-mail address (@k-state.edu or @ksu.edu) will have access to this list. Learn More

Exporting e-mail addresses in MAC OS X

Download Address Book Exporter.  Export addresses from Address Book Exporter to the file format of Yahoo's contact file format, then import to the Zimbra Contact and the respective folders or directories within.  Yahoo contact file format works well when importing addresses into Zimbra.

Turning off preference for automatically adding addresses to address book

An Emailed Contacts address book is automatically created in your mailbox. This preference is turned on by default. If you would like to turn this preference off, click the Options tab and then click the Contacts tab. Remove the check mark next to Add new contacts to Emailed Contacts and then click Save.

Creating a group contact list

The Contact Group List feature allows you to create contact lists that contain multiple mailing addresses.  When you select a group contact name, everyone whose address is included in the group list is automatically added to the address field of the message. LEARN MORE.

Importing contacts into Zimbra from another program

You can import contact lists and address books that are saved in a comma-separated (.csv) text file format. Import is available from your Preferences Import/Export tab. LEARN MORE

Organizing e-mail

Ensuring mail is delivered to your inbox

Zimbra web client filters take effect before the SPAM filter, so to make sure mail does not accidentally end up in your SPAM folder, you can create a filter that will force delivery of any e-mail with ksu or k-state in the e-mail address to your inbox. To create this filter, go to the Options tab and then select the Mail Filters tab. Click the New Filter button, give the filter the name My Inbox, and then under If Any of the following conditions are met add From contains ksu. Click the plus button and then add From contains k-state. Under the section Perform the following actions, select Keep in Inbox. Keep the Do not process additional filters option checked and then click OK. You can tighten the conditions or add additional conditions as needed to insure other mail is delivered to your Inbox too.

Organizing mail with filters

Filters help organize your Inbox. Add filters to automatically move mail to a folder, forward to another e-mail address, or tag an item. To create or modify mail filters, click the Options tab and then click the Mail Filters tab. Learn More

Mail filters best practices
  • Over Filtering: be careful that you don't over filter your mail and get to a point where you prevent mail from being delivered. If you think a filter is faulty or causing problems with mail delivery, simply deselect the Active setting in the filter. This will disable the filter. If needed you can always reactivate the filter later.
  • Placement: mail filters are processed from the top of the list to the bottom and before the SPAM filters take effect. Plan accordingly and check to see if they are processed in the right sequence.
  • Conditions: Use contains instead of match exactly. Use does not contains instead of does not match exactly. Matching exactly means just that. In general using contains produces more predictable results.
  • Actions: Minimize the use of Discard. Discard means to throw it away. Mail processed in this manner will not appear in the Trash folder, but will be removed from the e-mail system. There is no recovery from this action. Place mail in a folder for later review, and then discard it at your leisure.
Ordering filters

As filters are created in the Zimbra Web Client, you can control the order they are processed and tell them to do not further processing (a default setting).  To order the filters, create the desired filters and click the Move Up or Move Down buttons on the right side of the page until the filters are in the desired order. The filtering should take place no matter which e-mail client is used to access Zimbra e-mail. This means filters created in the web client are applied for the e-mail client, Thunderbird, Pegasus, Mac Mail, etc. without having to recreate filters in each environment.  The server side filters are applied as mail is received and before the e-mail client sees the e-mail. Learn MorE

Organizing mail using tags

Tags are similar to folders, but they allow you to sort items by a common theme, regardless of location, whereas folders only allow an item to be stored in one place. Try creating a tag called Follow Up and tag your tasks and e-mails. All your items that you must follow up with will be grouped together, regardless of whether they are in different folders (even your sent items). Learn more

Sorting e-mail by different columns

Any pane containing email messages, such as your Inbox, can be sorted by the Subject and the Received columns. Columns that be used to sort are highlighted as you pass your mouse cursor over them. To sort by a particular column, click the column title. The column shows an arrow indicating whether the sort is in ascending order (up arrow) or descending order (down arrow). You can only sort by one column at a time. To sort by the From column, you must be in Message view, not Conversation view..

Selecting multiple messages at the same time

To select non-consecutive e-mail messages, press the CTRL key while selecting individual e-mails (not clicking checkbox) to highlight those you want to select.  Clicking the FROM column works better than clicking on the check box.   To select multiple consecutive e-mail messages, select the first e-mail, press and hold the SHIFT key and then select the last e-mail desired.  You can then delete or move all selected e-mail messages simultaneously.

Viewing the number of messages in a folder

Hover the mouse cursor over the name of a folder.  The total messages in the folder and the size of the folder will pop up. 
On Mac Mail, simply right click the Inbox and click "Get account info".  This will display the total size of the mail account.

Using Documents and Briefcase

Briefcase

Upload and store important files in your briefcase so you can access them anywhere, anytime, from any computer. Learn more

Documents

Create and save HTML documents on-the-fly, which is great for taking notes during a meeting or class. Documents can easily be shared, edited, printed and e-mailed. Learn more

Searching

Searching only in selected folder

To set the search to only return items that are in your currently selected folder, click the Options tab and then click the Mail tab. In the Default Mail Search box, type "in:<current folder>.

Searching Inbox only

To set search parameters in Zimbra webmail, go to the Options tab and select the Mail tab. There is a box for "Default Mail Search".  Make sure it is set to "in:inbox". 

Mobile Devices

Mobile Site for cell phones and PDA’s

The URL for mobile devices is: https://webmail.k-state.edu/m

This page may not display in the same fashion on all devices.  If you cannot get to the page on your mobile device, click the link for the Classic HTML version.  It uses less programming and can be accessed by more devices.

Suggestions for Palm users

There are several e-mail programs that Palm customers can use.  At this time we have verified that Versa mail does not work with Zimbra because it uses weak encryption.  Palm has other software available for use, but they have not been tested at this time. 
Palm officially stopped producing the Palm OS in March 2009 and will be using a new OS that likely will be compatible – but has not been tested.

Trouble-shooting

Correcting folder counts in the Zimbra web client

The Zimbra web client can occasionally incorrectly display the number of unread mail or mail in a folder. This is a direct result of the campus e-mail migration process and can reoccur if you switch between local mail clients and the Zimbra web client. To correct this problem, select the Trash folder in Zimbra. Move any trash you want to keep to another folder, right-click the Trash folder and then select Empty Trash. This will permanently delete the contents of your Trash folder and update your unread messages and mail folders counts accordingly. Note: deleting mail from the Trash folder will not reset the folder counts. The trash has to be emptied using the method above.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome doesn't show the Spell Check button in a Compose window because the Zimbra Spell Checker is not supported by Chrome.

Zimbra Web Client

Text labels for the button bar will show or not show depending on the size of your browser window. It is dynamic based on the width of your browser.

Incorrect Inbox Message Count

Using a local IMAP client such as Outlook, Thunderbird, etc and simultaneously using the Zimbra Web client causes an incorrect folder count in the Zimbra Web client. The workaround until the bug is fixed is to empty the trash.

Seeing which folder is highlighted

The highlight is set to a light gray so it makes it difficult to see that there is an actual highlight. A workaround until the bug is fixed is to change the folder color so it contrasts with the light gray highlight.  To change this setting, right- click the desired folder, click Edit Properties and then select the desired color. At this time you cannot perform this function on the Drafts, Spam or Trash folders.

Problem signing in after changing password

If you cannot log into your Zimbra web client after changing your eID password, clear the temp files and cache for your browser.  Make sure to clear all files, cookies and stored items.  Clearing the temp files will take care of many issues that occur with logging into the web client or problems with viewing items incorrectly.

Fixing signature problems

When creating a signature, Zimbra has two options that can be used: “Format as plain text” and “Format as HTML”.  The best option to use is “Format as plain text”.  It is more stable and seems to create fewer problems with signatures changing.

Problem with e-mail being marked as SPAM

The issue is with the pilotauth.smtp.k-state.edu settings.  It is a known issue that is being corrected by Zimbra administrators.  It is possible to set up a filter that will assist in correcting the issue.  Create a filter with the following settings:
Filter name:  K-State Inbox
If ANY of the following conditions are met: 

  • From contains ksu.edu,
  • From contains k-state.edu

In the Perform the following actions box, Select the Keep in Inbox option.  Then check the Do not process additional filters box.   Click OK.