Medical School email accounts

• Web interface to email
• Setting up your email client
• Filtering out "spam"
• Vacation messages, forwarding, password change, etc.
• Updating your account details
• Creating/Changing your email signature with the Sydney Medical School format

Web interface to email

Accessing your email

Sydney Medical School has a web page where you can access your mail online if you use one of the following servers:

The address is: https://www.mail.med.usyd.edu.au/

The start of the address is "https". This signifies that it is a secure server and the page won't work unless you enter that precisely. The upside is that a secure connection is established between your computer and the server than this should keep your information private.

Enter your MedKey username and password and select the appropriate server from the drop down menu and then click "Login". The MedKey username entered here is most likely the information before the"@" in your email address. You don't type the whole email address as you may do with other web pages or servers.

Using the online client

• Sydney Medical School
• The Medical Program
• School of Public Health
• Medical Sciences
• Anatomy
• Physiology
• School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences

Your view will look something like this, although there will probably be more mail. If it seems like none of your mail is there then there's a chance you may be using POP mail. If this is the case then you will only be able to see mail on this server which has arrived since you last checked your mail from your usual computer. If you wish to change this discuss it with your local CSO.

Writing an email

Most functions are self explanatory. Click "Compose" to send an email and a new window will pop up.

You will not have access to your address book, however you can search the Directory for people who work for the Medical School.

To attach a document click the "Choose" button at the bottom of the compose window and navigate to your file and click open as usual. Then you have to click the "Attach" button to actually attach it to the email. If you change your mind you can either close the email window, or click the checkbox next to the filename and click "Remove Selected".

Setting up your email client

If you are familiar with setting up email clients then the only settings you will need to know are your username and password and;
IMAP Server: imap.med.usyd.edu.au
SMTP Server*: smtp.med.usyd.edu.au

If you don't currently have an email client then MedFacIT recommends that you download and install Thunderbird.

The first time you start the application it will ask you a number of questions, the answers are as follows.

• Your name: The name you wish to appear on your emails, usually your full name
• Your email address: Your actual email address, probably something like name@med.usyd.edu.au
• Click Next
• Check IMAP
• Incoming Server: imap.med.usyd.edu.au
• Outgoing Server*: smtp.med.usyd.edu.au
• Click Next
• Incoming Username: This will be your MedKey username
• Outgoing Username: This will be your MedKey username
• Click Next
• Account Name: Either leave this as your email address, or put something like "Medicine Email"
• Click Next
• Click Finish
• Check "Do not display this dialog again"
• Click Yes

The application should then attempt to log into your email on the Medicine server and it will ask for your password. If you wish it to remember the password check "Use password manager to remember this password" but keep in mind if you do this that other people may be able to access your email from your computer.

*Note: The outgoing or SMTP server will be different if you are located inside on of the hospitals. For example, in RPAH the outgoing server is "mail.cs.nsw.gov.au". If you find you can't send emails try that as an outgoing server and failing that contact your local CSO.

Filtering out "spam"

Spam is unsolicited, occasionally offensive and often nonsensical advertising. Because of the way in which these emails are structured computer servers can’t guarantee that they can determine which email is spam and which is real email. So to avoid the risk of deleting legitimate email what we instead do is "tag" email which is suspected to be spam, but don't actually delete it. Our intention in doing this is that these emails can then be automatically sent to a folder and then once a week you scan through the folder just to check that you haven’t missed any legitimate emails.

Setting up your spam filter in Thunderbird

• Go to Tools, Message Filters
• Select New
• Filter Name: Spam
• Beneath "Match any of the following" there is a drop down menu with "Subject" selected and to its right "contains"; right of that is a blank field; put in (copied precisely or the filter will not work):
  [Possible SPAM]
• Next you need to tell the spam where to go.
• In the bottom half of the dialog box there is a "Perform these actions" section.
• Check "Move to folder"
• To the right of your email address click "New Folder..."
• Name: Spam
• Click on "Create as a subfolder of" and navigate to the right to select "Inbox" and "choose this for the parent" as in the figure below;
• Click OK
• Click OK
• Close the Message Filters dialog.

Your spam filter is now working!

While this will filter any new mail coming in it won’t filter the existing mail. You can go to Tools > Run filters on folder then it will filter anything applicable in the folder you currently have open.

Don’t forget to check it once a week to make sure that you haven’t lost any legitimate emails. When you’re sure nothing in the Spam folder is mail you need, feel free to delete the spam messages.

Vacation messages, forwarding, password change, etc.

When you need to set up or stop email forwarding, vacation messages, change your password or check your usage you can use the Medical School email administration utility: https://www.mail.med.usyd.edu.au/acct/

Log in with your MedKey username and password (just the username, not the email address!).

To set email forwarding

• Click on the forwarding button
• Enter the email address you would like the mail forwarded to.
• Select "Copy to self": yes or no
  (If you select yes then it will both keep a copy in the mailbox and send another copy on to that address. If you select this option then you will have to log into your Medical School email address regularly to check and delete your mail.
• If you select no it will pass the email on to the address in the usual fashion.)

To turn off email forwarding

• Simply log into this utility and remove the email address from the "Forward" field. You will very likely want to select "Copy to self" yes at this point. If you don't all of your incoming mail will be deleted.

Setting a vacation message

• Click on the "vacation" button.
• Enter the reply you would like people to receive when they email you during this period; you will probably want to tell people when they can expect you to return and who they should contact if the matter is urgent
• Select Vacation: On
• Select Store Received Email: Yes

Anyone who emails you will be sent this reply automatically by the server. However they only receive this notice once a week regardless of how many times they mail you. This can make it tricky to test the vacation message more than once.

Turning off a vacation message

• Log into this utility and select Vacation: Off

You can leave the text in the field as a template for next time you have need of a vacation message.

Changing your password

• Click on the "password" button.
• Type in the new password; and
• Confirm the new password
• Click OK.

Checking disc space used by your email

• Click the "usage" button.

While some say that nobody should ever need more than 10MB for email the IT Team is happy for people to use up to 100MB. If you go much further over this then it is very likely that you will be contacted by the IT Team and asked to reduce your usage.

Here you can also identify the folders which take up the most space as a clue as to where to delete old (or large) email from.

When you are finished with any of these functions you should return to the main menu and log off.

Updating your account details

To update your account details log into the Medical School email administration utility: https://www.mail.med.usyd.edu.au/acct/

• Click the "edit user" button and alter any field which is incorrect
• Click "Modify User"
• When finished editing your details, make sure you Log Out.

Creating an email signature with the Sydney Medical School logo

A quick, effective and cost free way to inform people that you are part of Sydney Medical School is to include the new name in your address panel (instead of Faculty of Medicine) and to have the logo automatically at the end of each email you send.
As most of us send many more emails each day than conventional letters, our recipients will rapidly become familiar with the Sydney Medical School name and its appearance.

Title & Name
Position, Department
Sydney Medical School
Address
Phone Fax
Email
www.medfac.usyd.edu.au

Instructions for the most frequently used email clients

• How To Customise Your Microsoft Outlook Signature with the Sydney Medical School format
• How to Customise your Exchange Web Access (OWA) Signature with the Sydney Medical School format
• How To Customise Your Microsoft Entourage Signature with the Sydney Medical School format
• How to Customise your Thunderbird Signature with the Sydney Medical School format
• How to Customise your Eudora Signature with the Sydney Medical School format

How To Customise Your Microsoft Outlook Signature with the Sydney Medical School format

Ensure any existing Microsoft Word sessions are closed before beginning work on your email signature.

Open Microsoft Outlook and click Tools, then Options, then Mail Format. Within the message format section, ensure that “Compose in this message format” is set to HTML.

Within Signatures section, ensure that within the “Select signatures for account” your normal email account is selected, in case you have more than one. For most users, this will be the one already displayed.

If you do not have an email signature defined, click the “Signatures” button, then click the “New” button. Replace the
“Untitled” text in the first text box with something meaningful (ie yourname-usyd-signature). Ensure that the “Start with a
blank signature” button is selected, then click upon the “Next” button. Now click the “Advanced Edit” button. A prompt will
pop up asking “This will launch an editor that is not part of Microsoft Office Outlook. Do you want to continue?” Click the
“Yes” button. Using the sample above, create your new email signature.

Save this Word file (it is not necessary to name it) and close Word. You will now return to the Microsoft Outlook signature panel where you should be able to see your new signature. Click “Ok” and “Ok” again.

Now open a new email as you would if you were going to compose an email,. You should see your new email signature.

If you do have an existing email signature, click on “Signatures” button. Click “Edit”, the click “Advanced Edit”.
Then answer “Yes” to “this will launch an editor…. Do you want to continue?”

This will open a Word document and if you have an existing email signature, it will appear.

Enter your signature details to include Sydney Medical School instead of Faculty of Medicine as per the example shown above,
if you have not previously done so. Save this Word file (it is not necessary to name it) and close Word. You will now return to
the Microsoft Outlook signature panel where you should be able to see your new signature.

Now as you would if you were going to compose an email, open a new email. You should see your new email signature.

How to Customise your Exchange Web Access (OWA) Signature with the Sydney Medical School format

Logon to Exchange Web Access using your Unikey userID and password. On the left hand side, select the Options button. In
the Messaging Options section (second from the top) click on the Edit Signature button if using Internet Explorer (for other
browsers this may not be necessary). Edit your signature to include Sydney Medical School instead of Faculty of Medicine
in the address block as shown in the example above. Click the Save and Close button, and then click on the Save and Close
button in the Options window. Click on the New button to create a new email. Your newly modified signature should be shown
at the bottom of the new email.

How To Customise Your Microsoft Entourage Signature with the Sydney Medical School format

Open your Entourage and click on the Entourage menu. Select Preferences, then select Compose. Ensure that Mail format is
set to HTML. Click the OK button.

Now select the Tools menu, and within that the Signatures menu item. If you are already using an email signature, double
click upon your default signature. If you notice that the toolbar in the signature window is greyed out, this indicates that the
signature was created when your Mail format was set to text. In this case, or if you did not previously have one, create a new
signature.

Edit your signature to include Sydney Medical School instead of Faculty of Medicine if you have not already done so as shown
in the example above.

Select the Entourage menu again and this time select Account Settings. Double click on the mail account whose signature you
will be changing. Click on Options, and in the Message Options section, set the Default signature to the one you just worked
on. Click the OK button and close the Accounts window.

Open a new mail message and check to see that the newly modified email signature displays correctly.

How to Customise your Thunderbird Signature with the Sydney Medical School format

Open your Thunderbird and open a new message. Format your signature to include Sydney Medical School instead of Faculty
of Medicine as shown in the example above.

Select the File menu, and within that the Save As menu item, and within that the File option. Name the file meaningfully (ie
my-email-signature.html) and select the Save as type to be All Files. Make sure that the file extension is .html . Remember the
file name and the location in which you saved it. Close the new message window.

Select the Tools menu and within this the Account Settings menu item. Click on the mail account whose signature you intend
to modify. On the right hand side of the Account Settings window is the Attach this signature check box. Click on this box,
then click on the Choose button and navigate to the location when you saved your signature file. Select the signature file and
click on the Open button. Now click on the OK button at the right hand bottom corner of the Account Settings window.

Open a new mail message and check to see that the newly modified email signature displays correctly.

Note that these instructions should cover the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of Thunderbird.

How to Customise your Eudora Signature with the Sydney Medical School format

Note that these instructions assume that your Eudora is not set to use stationery.

Open your Eudora and select the Tools menu. Within this menu, select the Options menu item. Click on the Composing Mail
category. In the When not using Stationery section, ensure that the Signature is set to the signature you intend to modify. Also
ensure that Show signature while composing is enabled.

Click on the Styled Text category. In the When sending mail with styled text (HTML) section select Send both plain and styled.
Deselect Ask me each time. Select Send the signature with styles.

Click on the OK button.

Select the Tools menu again. Within this menu, select the Signatures menu item. Double click upon the signature that you
intend to modify. Format your signature to include Sydney Medical School.

Close the signature window.

Open a new mail message and check to see that the newly modified email signature displays correctly.