Now that you have set up your email accounts on your iPhone, it’s time to take a brief tour of the Mail app. To better understand how to get around your Mail program, it helps to have a picture of how all the screens fit together (see Figure 18-2).
Figure 18-2. How all the Screens in the Mail app fit together.
Mailboxes Screen – Inboxes and Accounts
The top level screen is your Mailboxes screen. You can always get to it by tapping the button in the upper left corner. Keep tapping this upper left button until you see no more buttons. When that happens, you are in the Mailboxes screen.
From the Mailboxes screen you can access the following items:
■ The unified inbox: Do so by tapping All inboxes.
■ The inbox for each individual account: Do this by tapping that email account name in the Inboxes section.
■ The folders for each email account in the Accounts section: Do so by tapping the account name to see all folders.
Inbox and Threaded Messages Views
You will notice that any unread messages are marked with a blue dot to the left of the message (see Figure 18-3).
You will also notice that some messages show a number and a right-facing arrow (>) to n > the right of the message, like this: This shows that there are two related messages (replies and forwards) to the message shown.
Tap any message to open it. The only time it will not open is if there are related messages. In that case, you will first see a screen with all the related messages. Tap any of those messages to open and view them.
To leave the Inbox view, tap the button in the upper left corner.
You can tell which email account you are viewing by looking at the button in the upper left corner.
■ If the button says Mailboxes, you know you are looking at all your inboxes together.
■ If the button says an account name, then you know you are only looking at the inbox for that account.
Figure 18-3. Inboxes on your iPhone and threaded message views.
Moving Around in Mail Folders
You can get around your mail folders for each individual account by starting from the Mailboxes screen shown In Figure 18-4:
1. Swipe down to the bottom of the Mailboxes screen to see your accounts.
2. Tap any account to view all folders synced in that account.
NOTE: You will only see those mail folders you have chosen to sync during the mail set up process. For example, you might have 20 mail folders on your main mail account, but you might only see a few folders on your iPhone. The default synced mail folders are Inbox, Sent, Draft, and Deleted Items.
3. You may need to swipe to the bottom to see all your synced email folders.
4. Tap any folder to view the mail items in that folder.
5. To get back to the mail folders, tap the button in the upper left corner.
6. To return to the Mailboxes screen, tap the Mailboxes button in the upper left corner.
Figure 18-4. Navigating around your iPhone mail folders.
Move or Delete Multiple Messages
If you want to move or delete several messages at once, you can do so from the Inbox screen (see the right-most two images in Figure 18-4). Follow these steps to delete multiple messages at once:
1. Tap the Edit button in the upper right corner while you are viewing an Inbox screen.
2. Tap to select the desired messages; a red check mark next to a message indicates it is selected.
3. To delete the messages, tap the Delete button at the bottom.
4. To move the messages to another folder, tap the Move button and select the folder.
Viewing an Individual Message
When you tap a message from the Inbox screen, you see the Main message view.
Portrait View
Holding your iPhone in Portrait (vertical) orientation gives you the image shown in Figure 18-5. We will describe the various buttons and functions shown on this screen later in this topic.
Figure 18-5. Buttons and actions available while viewing an email message.
Landscape View
You may prefer to use the wider screen view, especially when enjoying pictures. To do this, just turn your iPhone on its side to get the Landscape orientation.
TIP: If you are setting your iPhone down on a desk or holding it in your lap, then you may want to use the Portrait Lock icon to lock your view in Portrait (vertical) mode. This will prevent the image from flipping around unnecessarily. To lock the view, follow these steps:
1. Double-tap the Home button and swipe left to right.
2. Tap the Portrait Lock button to lock the screen in Portrait mode.
