Yahoo! Mail Classic Tutorials

Receiving Email Messages

Reading a Message Replying to a Message Forwarding a Message Working With Shortcuts Deleting a Message What Do Those Icons Mean?

Reading a Message

Yahoo! Mail keeps email messages in mail folders. Initially, all of your incoming email messages arrive in your Inbox folder. This is a good place to read and work with them.

The Welcome page lets you know how many unread email messages you have by displaying the number of messages next to the Inbox folder on the left side of the page and under the Welcome label.

The Welcome page tells you how many unread messages you have.

Clicking either label displays your Inbox, where you can open and read your email messages.

 

Here’s How

  1. In the Welcome window, click Inbox on the left side of the page or under the Welcome label.

    Click the Inbox link.

    Your Inbox opens.

    Tip: You can view your mail folders anytime, whether or not they show unread messages.

    To learn more about an area of the Inbox, hold the cursor over the area in the figure below.

    Your InboxEnlarge Links to navigate through your list of messages. If you have many messages, use these links to view the next/previous page or the first/last page of your Inbox. Moved checked messages to another folder. Mark checked messages as read or unread, or flag checked messages for follow up. Mark checked messages as spam. Delete checked messages. View your messages by preference, for example, view only messages from unknown senders. Delete checked messages. Mark checked messages as spam. Mark checked messages as read or unread, or flag checked messages for follow up. Moved checked messages to another folder. Links to navigate through your list of messages. If you have many messages, use these links to view the next/previous page or the first/last page of your Inbox. Check boxes to select one or more messages. Uncheck all of the checked messages. Check all of the messages. The name of the person sending the message. The subject or purpose of the message. Click a subject to open the message. The date each message arrived in your Inbox. The size of each message. Your list of email messages Links to navigate through your list of messages. If you have many messages, use these links to view the next/previous page or the first/last page of your Inbox. Moved checked messages to another folder. Mark checked messages as read or unread, or flag checked messages for follow up. Mark checked messages as spam. Delete checked messages. View your messages by preference, for example, view only messages from unknown senders. Delete checked messages. Mark checked messages as spam. Mark checked messages as read or unread, or flag checked messages for follow up. Moved checked messages to another folder. Links to navigate through your list of messages. If you have many messages, use these links to view the next/previous page or the first/last page of your Inbox. Check boxes to select one or more messages. Uncheck all of the checked messages. Check all of the messages. The name of the person sending the message. The subject or purpose of the message. Click a subject to open the message. The date each message arrived in your Inbox. The size of each message. Your list of email messages

    Tip: All Yahoo! Mail folders have a look similar to the Inbox.

  2. To open and read an email message, click the message’s subject in the Subject column.

    Click the message's subject text.

    Tip: You can open any message whether it is bold text (an unread message) or plain text (a message you’ve already read).

    The message opens in the browser where you can read it, reply to it, forward it, and more.

    An opened email messageEnlarge

 

What’s Next

So what can you do when you receive spam or messages with attachments?

Dealing With Junk Mail

Some of the email messages you receive could be unsolicited junk mail, also called spam. Often, the sender or subject alone makes it clear that a message is spam, and you can choose to read it or immediately delete it.

An example of possible spam.

At other times, you may not be sure about who sent the message or whether it’s safe for you to read it. To learn how to protect yourself from spam, see the Protecting Yourself From Spam tutorial. You can also help Yahoo! Mail protect you from spam by using SpamGuard. To learn more, check out the Using SpamGuard tutorial.

 

Working With Attachments

An email message may include an attached file, such as a text document or an image, that you can open in a separate application. A paper clip icon next to the email’s subject in a mail folder tells you that the message includes an attachment.

The paper clip icon tells you that the email includes an attached file.

To learn more about attachments and how to work with them, see the Working Safely With Email Attachments tutorial.

You can reply to the sender of an email message or forward the message to another contact.

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Words to Know

  • Attachment: a separate file included as part of an email message; for example, a multimedia or document file.
  • Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
  • Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in Yahoo! Mail.
  • Forward: (two uses in Yahoo! Mail) to send an email message that you receive on to someone else or to configure Yahoo! Mail to send all email messages that come into your Yahoo! Mail account to another email address.
  • Inbox: a folder where you receive incoming email.
  • Junk mail: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called spam.
  • Reply: to respond to an email message you received.