Using Oncourse Messages, how do I send, forward, and reply to messages?

View feature demonstrations relevant to this topic.

Using Messages, you can send messages to other site participants, and reply to messages sent by other participants.

On this page:

• Sending a message
• Forwarding a message
• Replying to a message

Sending a message

To send a message:

1. In your site's menubar, click Messages.
   
   
2. On the Messages screen, or while viewing the contents of a Messages folder, click Compose Message.
   
   
3. Next to "To", use the list to select the individual(s) or group(s) you want to receive the message. To select multiple participants, Ctrl-click (in Windows) or Command-click (in Mac OS X). You can also choose to send your message to the entire site, or to all users with a particular role (e.g., all instructors or all assistants).
   
   
4. If available, next to "Send Cc", check the box if you want to send a copy of the message to recipients' email addresses.

   If you send your message using the Send Cc option, your message will go directly to the recipients' email addresses, and a copy will go to both their Received folders and your Sent folder in Messages. Recipients cannot reply to the message via email; they must use the Messages tool.

   Note: IU Webmail users may have difficulty reading messages sent from Messages to their email addresses. In Webmail, an Oncourse message will appear as a link labeled unnamed that you must click to read the message text.

5. Under "Label", use the drop-down list to change the priority status for your message.
   
   
6. Next to "Subject", type the subject of your message.
   
   
7. Under "Message", use the rich-text editor to compose your message.

   Note: Pasting text into the rich-text editor should preserve most formatting, but some types of formatting, such as colored text, may need to be added manually in the editor after pasting. You can also use the Paste from Word icon to paste from a Microsoft Word document, although it may not preserve every type of formatting. For details, see Pasting from Microsoft Word.

8. Under "Attachments", you can attach a file from your local computer or from Resources, or specify the URL for a file on the web. For instructions, see Options for adding attachments.
   
   
9. To send your message, click Send.

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Forwarding a message

To forward a message to another recipient:

1. In your site's menubar, click Messages.
   
   
2. On the Messages screen, click Received to view the messages you've received.
   
   
3. Click the message you wish to forward.
   
   
4. Click Forward.
   
   
5. The text of the original message is included in the rich-text editor. To edit and send the forwarded message, follow steps 3 through 9 in Sending a message above.

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Replying to a message

To reply to a message:

1. In your site's menubar, click Messages.
   
   
2. On the Messages screen, click Received to view the messages you've received.
   
   
3. Click the message to which you're replying.
   
   
4. Click Reply or Reply to all.
   
   
5. To compose and send your reply, follow steps 3 through 9 in Sending a message above.

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Feature demonstrations

All the following feature demonstrations include audio, and each link will open a new window.

• Send a message
  
• Read and reply to messages