Students in School of Nursing courses use their TROY email accounts for ALL course correspondence, both sent and received. All students are assigned an email account upon admission to the University. TROY email is the University's way to contact you about events and deadlines, so it's a good idea to check your account regularly after during the semesters and in between semesters too. Note: the terms TROY Email and WebMail or Webmail are interchangeable -- they mean the same thing.

Please pay particular attention to Item 6 below.

1. Locate TROY WebMail by going to http://mail.troy.edu/ OR by going to the Troy University home page OR by choosing the Email Login link at the top of the Bb screen.
2. Login to your account. Your username is the same as your Blackboard login and your Trojan Web Express login. The first time you use TROY Email, your password will be your 8-digit birthdate. For example, if you were born on August 25, 1985, you would enter 08251985 as your password.
3. Check out WebMail Help -- after you login, find the Help link on the left of the screen and take a look around. Many questions you might have are answered here.
4. Change your password to something else -- do this even if you like your password! You may then change it back, but going through the process is part of this course. Change your password by clicking on the Change Password link on the left side of your screen. You'll receive a confirmation when your password has been changed.
5. Create your profile by choosing the Preferences link.
   • Enter your Full Name in the first text box. This is the name that will appear in the "from" category on all emails that you send.
   • Enter your complete TROY Email address in the Reply-To area. Whenever anyone replies to an email you send, the reply will automatically go to this address. Check to be sure that you entered your correct TROY email address ______@troy.edu
   • Message Count is the number of messages that appear in your email list on a single screen. The default is 20, but I have 100 entered on my computer and it works nicely with that many.
   • Now skip down a few lines to the area concerning Reply: choose the middle option, "Include original inline." When you reply to another person's email, what they just wrote to you will be in your email message. This is really useful, particularly when someone is replying to a question -- it helps you remember what the question was!
   • Signature is an automated signature that you can add to messages if you would like. This should ALWAYS be your name -- you can also add a quote that you like, contact information ... anything! Create a signature, and choose the "yes" option to include your signature in your email messages. You can always come back and change your signature options.
   • Mode controls the look of your email window. The default appearance is frames (the one in the middle). The left one is plainer and faster to open, and puts all links at the top of your screen. The one on the right is fancier ... try different ones until you find one you like best.
   • Choose the time zone that matches yours; for example, GMT-05:00 America/Chicago matches the central time zone. There are additional areas on this page that we haven't addressed; just leave them as you found them.
6. Create a class folder to keep a copy of ALL course correspondence for each course. Here's how to create a class folder:
   • Select the Folders link to the left of the email window
   • Enter NSG xxxx in the text box to the right of the Add button (the xxxx would be your course number)
   • Click on "Add."
7. When you send an email:
   • Always include a subject line that begins with your course number "NSG xxxx"
   • In addition to the course number in the subject, add a brief description of the reason for the email (NSG xxxx, Assignment 4)
   • Use the Cc area to send a copy of the message to someone else.
   • Always send a copy to yourself by entering your email address in the Bcc area -- then when the copy comes back to you, you can easily file it in your course folder for quick reference to your correspondence
   • Always enter a greeting -- it's just good netiquette to say "Hello Dr. Stokes" or "Dear Dr. Wise" or a similar greeting -- just like you would do if you were writing a letter with pen and paper.
   • Always enter a message -- sometimes students forget to do this when they send attachments. It's important to let your professor know what the attachment is.
   • And ALWAYS sign your name! It's so frustrating to faculty when email messages come in and there's no signature. Remember that you would always sign your name in a written letter, so do the same here.
   • Put a checkmark by "Save copy of sent message." Even though you're sending a blind copy to yourself, having an additional saved copy is good insurance.
8. After you send the email, the Bcc (blind copy) will appear in your inbox -- file this copy in your course folder. To do this, go back to your Inbox if you're not already there. Click on Check Mail (the link is just below the Troy logo). When the message you just sent appears, move the message to your course folder by going through this 3-step process:
   • Put a check by the message
   • Select the appropriate course folder from the drop down menu on the right of your screen.
   • Click Move.
   • To see messages in your course folder, click on the Folders link on the left side of the screen, then click on the folder name.
9. Other options exist including an address book, auto reply, email filtering (for example, to automatically trash emails from selected senders), and forwarding your TROY email to another email account (for example, an AOL or HotMail account.) Advanced email users might want to set up their Troy email accounts in an email program such as Outlook. To locate instructions for this task, log out of web mail, then go back to the login page. Choose the "E-mail Information & Tutorials" link. Scroll down a little and select Setup email tutorials clients, then choose the link that best fits your computer.
   • Remember that if you forward your email to another account, you must still send your email from your TROY account.

• An extensive help site for TROY email is <here>.

One of the most important skills associated with email is to send and receive attachments. You'll be sending attachments in every nursing course. They might be Word files or PPT files -- it doesn't matter because they're all sent in the same manner. Not only is this easy, but it's a great way to keep up with your work, especially when you organize everything in folders.

The paragraphs below describe how you would sent a Word file as an attachment to an email message; both Microsoft Word and TROY WebMail are used.

Open Microsoft Word, your word processing software. Microsoft Word is the only word processing software acceptable for use by nursing students. You don't have to close this screen (window) that you are on now in Bb -- just click on Start (lower left corner), Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word.

1. Create a new document in Word.
2. The next steps are very important. Save the document by clicking on File, Save.
   • A drop down box near the top of the window lets you select where to save the file. It doesn't matter where you save it, but be sure you remember where you save it!
   • At the bottom of the screen is a text box where you specify the file name. A file name might already be entered (usually it's something like Doc1). Save your document with a meaningful file name. Word automatically adds the .doc extension, so you don't have to enter anything but the name (for example, NSG 8888 - Research Paper).
   • Now click the Save button and minimize or close out Word.
3. Go back to your TROY Email account and compose a message to your professor. Put her name as the "TO" recipient and yourself as the "BCC" recipient -- select Back To Compose, and if asked to verify your selection, select Back To Compose again.
4. The subject of the email will be NSG xxxx followed by the purpose of the email (substitute your course number for xxxx).
5. The body of the email will be complete -- this means it has a greeting, body, and signature -- all 3 and no less! For example (but you don't need to color-code your emails):
   
   "Dear Dr. Stokes,
   I have attached a paragraph about myself to this email."
   Sign your name OR include your automatic signature.
    
6. At the bottom of the compose screen is the Attachment area. Click the Browse button, find the file you just saved, click once on the file name to highlight the file, then click Open.
7. Now click the Add button, then click the Send button (at the top of the screen)
   
   When someone sends you an email attachment:
   
8. Open the email by clicking on the subject that is hyperlinked (hyperlinked text is a different color and is underlined).
9. Near the bottom of the email will be a note about the attachment, giving the file name and showing a link to Open the attachment. Click Open. You'll be asked if you want to open the file or save it to a disk. You may do either, but in this case just open the file (you can save it later if you want to).
10. Sometimes files attached to email messages contain computer viruses. Never open an attachment from someone or some business that you don't recognize.

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