Module 3 · 3.4

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Drafts, responses and extra options

Module 3: Writing email · Reading time: 10 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you know where drafts and canned responses are stored, you can edit a message as new, and you know what Return receipt, Delivery status notification, Priority and Save sent message in do and do not do.

Key concepts: draft, Drafts folder, automatic saving, Responses, Edit as new, Return receipt, Delivery status notification (DSN), Priority, Save sent message in

Drafts: half a message on the server

A draft is a message that hasn't been sent yet. If you click Save while writing, the webmail puts your message in the Drafts folder. If you do nothing, the webmail also saves it by itself every few minutes. You set how often under Settings > Composing Messages.

What matters is where that draft is stored. The Drafts folder is an ordinary IMAP folder on the mail server (lesson 1.2). So the draft isn't in your browser or on your laptop, but on the server. That has three consequences:

You can start an email at the office and finish it at home or on your phone. Open the Drafts folder and double-click the message.
If your browser crashes or you accidentally close the tab, you lose at most the last few minutes.
A draft counts towards your storage and can be read just like your other email. Anyone who can access your mailbox can access your drafts too.

When you send the draft, the webmail removes it from Drafts and puts the sent version in Sent.

One pitfall: if you use an email program alongside the webmail, both must use the same folder as Drafts. Otherwise you won't see in one program what you started in the other. Lesson 5.1 covers these special folders. A second pitfall: if you open the same draft in two programs at once and save in both, you end up with two versions.

Drafts are also a good way to avoid sending too quickly. Write a tricky email, save it as a draft and read it again an hour later. You'll often see what could be better (lesson 3.2).

Responses: fixed texts with one click

Do you often get the same question? Every week Sanne receives emails such as "Do you also deliver at the weekend?" and "How long does a bouquet stay fresh?". Instead of typing the same answer every time, she creates a response: a fixed text with a name that she inserts with one click while writing.

A response is not an automatic reply. Nothing happens by itself: you choose the text, you can adjust it and you send it yourself. That's why it's no problem to add a personal sentence. In fact, you should always do that: a reply that obviously comes from a template feels cold.

Tips for good responses:

Give them a short, recognisable name, such as "Weekend delivery".
Write them so they stand on their own, without a greeting or closing. You write those yourself for each email, so the customer's name is right.
Don't include details that quickly go out of date, such as a price or a date, or check them regularly.

The webmail stores responses with your settings, not in your mailbox. So you have them in the webmail on every device, but not in an email program such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Those have their own templates.

Edit as new

Sometimes you want to send a message again, but slightly different: the same invitation to a new group, or an email you sent earlier that never arrived. With Edit as new (under More on an opened message) the webmail opens a new message with the same recipients, the same subject, the same text and the same attachments. You change what's needed and send it.

The difference with Forward: with Forward you create a new message of your own about the old one, with "Fwd:" in the subject and the old message as a quote or attachment. With Edit as new it simply becomes an original again. Handy, but check the recipients: an old list may include people who no longer belong on it.

The extra options when writing

On the right of the Compose screen are options you choose per message. They look alike, but do very different things.

On the right of the Compose screen, the options Return receipt, Delivery status notification, Priority and Save sent message in — (1) Return receipt, (2) Delivery status notification, (3) Priority, (4) Save sent message in

Return receipt. You ask the recipient's email program to report that the message has been opened. Technically, your webmail adds a header to your message for this (Disposition-Notification-To). The recipient usually sees a prompt and may refuse. Many programs never send a receipt. If you get one, you know the message was opened, not that it was read or understood. If you don't get one, you know nothing.

Delivery status notification (DSN). DSN stands for Delivery Status Notification. Here you don't ask the recipient, but the mail servers along the way to report that the message was delivered to the recipient's server. So it says nothing about opening or reading, only that the email has arrived. Not every server supports it, so here too, no notification doesn't mean it failed. By the way, you always get an error message (bounce), even without this option (lesson 8.4).

Priority. You can give a message the priority Highest, High, Normal, Low or Lowest. Many programs show an exclamation mark for high priority. Use it rarely. If you choose Highest for every email, nobody takes you seriously after a week, and some spam filters find it suspicious when an unknown sender marks everything as urgent. Real urgency is better handled with a phone call, or with a clear subject ("Today before 2 pm: delivery confirmation").

Save sent message in. Here you choose which folder the sent version goes into. By default that's Sent. You can also have a message go straight into a project folder, so all the correspondence with a customer is together. Note: a sent message that you don't save anywhere can't be found later.

Keep formatting makes sure the formatting of the original message is kept when you forward or reply. Lesson 3.2 covers plain text and formatting.

Example: Daan and the delivery question

Ahmed asks Daan whether the flowers can be delivered on Saturday before 9 am. Daan starts writing, but first has to check with the delivery driver. He clicks Save and carries on with other work. In the afternoon, on his phone, he opens the Drafts folder, adds that it's possible, inserts the response "Weekend delivery" for the terms and conditions, and sends it. He doesn't request a Return receipt and sets no priority: for Ahmed it's simply an ordinary, clear email.

In practice: how it works in the webmail

Save is at the top of the Compose screen. You create responses under Settings > Responses, and you insert them with the Responses button at the top while writing. You'll find Edit as new under More on an opened message. The options Return receipt, Delivery status notification (DSN), Priority and Save sent message in are on the right while writing. The Roundcube manual describes the steps. In other webmail these features have similar names, although a response is sometimes called a template or quick text there.

Summary

Drafts are stored on the server in the Drafts folder, so you can continue on any device.
Responses are fixed texts you insert yourself; they're stored with the webmail, not in your mailbox.
Edit as new turns an old message into a new original; check the recipients when you do.
Return receipt asks the recipient, Delivery status notification (DSN) asks the servers; no reply proves nothing.
Use Priority rarely; with Save sent message in you choose the folder for your sent version.

Quiz

1. Sanne starts an email in the webmail at the office and saves it. Where can she continue writing it at home? Nowhere, the draft is stored in the browser at the office
In the Drafts folder, on any device that opens her mailbox
Only if she forwards the draft to herself
Only in the webmail on the same computer

The Drafts folder is on the mail server. Every device that opens the mailbox sees the same draft.

2. Daan sends an email with Delivery status notification (DSN) switched on. What does he get if it works? A notification that Ahmed has opened the email
A notification that Ahmed has read and understood the email
A notification that the email was delivered to the recipient's server
A copy of the email in his Inbox

DSN is about delivery by the servers, not about opening or reading.

3. You use the webmail and Thunderbird. Where do you find your responses from the webmail? Only in the webmail, because they're stored with the webmail settings
In the Drafts folder
In Thunderbird under Templates
In the Sent folder

Responses are a webmail feature and aren't stored in the mailbox itself.

4. What is the difference between Edit as new and Forward? There is no difference
Edit as new sends the message back to the original sender
Forward doesn't keep attachments
Edit as new creates a new original; Forward creates a message about the old one, with Fwd:

With Edit as new you get a copy that you send as a new message. Check the recipients when you do.

Exercise

Exercise D3.4: Create a canned response. Choose a question you often get (or, if you don't have one: "What are your opening hours?") and create a response for it under Settings > Responses, with a short name and a text without a greeting or closing. Then start a new email to yourself, write a greeting, insert the response with the Responses button, write a closing and first save the message as a draft. Open the Drafts folder, finish the message and send it. Then answer: which folder was your draft in and could you also finish it on your phone, what did you change in the response for this one email, which details in your response do you need to check regularly, and why did you not use a Return receipt or priority (or why did you)?

Exercise D3.4: Create a canned response

You do this exercise yourself; no one checks it. Tick off what you've done and mark the exercise as done.

I created a Response under Settings > Responses.
I inserted the Response into an email to myself.
I first saved the email as a draft, then finished and sent it.

Which folder was your draft in, and can you finish it on your phone as well?

What did you change in the Response for this one email?

Which details in your Response should you check regularly?

Why did or didn't you use Return receipt or Priority?

Also save my answers in My courses (so you can view and download them on any device). Don't include any passwords or other secrets.

Here's how you could approach this

Drafts are stored in the Drafts folder on the server: with IMAP you can see them on your phone too. A Response is a starting point, not a finished text: adjust names, dates and details. Check fixed details such as opening hours and prices regularly. Use Return receipt and Priority sparingly: the recipient may refuse a receipt, and high priority on ordinary mail backfires.

Your ticks and notes only stay in this browser; we don't send them anywhere. If you're signed in, we only save in My courses that you've done the exercise.

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