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What it does

Each site has a site email address, that you can create by adding the email archive to your site (Site Info > Edit Tools). Email sent to the site email address is copied to all site participants and owners.

All messages sent to your site's email address are stored in the Email Archive. Each message sent to site participants will indicate if there is an attachment, and provide a link to get the attachment from the worksite itself.

Members of the group can choose how often they want to receive email sent to the site's email address in the Preferences feature in My Workspace.

In order to send email to the Email Archive tool, you must:

• Have the correct level of permissions in the site, and in particular the right permission for the email archive tool. Instructors can send an email archive message by default.
• Send email from the address listed in the Email Archive tool (i.e. Where it says "You are authorized to send email from:"). You can change this address in the Berkeley directory. To change the email address that you have listed in bSpace, visit the campus directory and select "Directory Update" from the left side of the screen. Any changes you make to the Berkeley directory are updated in bSpace the next morning.

Key concepts

Creating the Email Archive Address: Site owners can create an easy-to-remember site email address. When you are setting up your site you will have the step to create a prefix for the email archive address. If you add the email archive later you will be able to enter the prefix to the @bspace.berkeley.edu address in the same way. It is recommended that you included the semester and year in the address (hist1aF07 for example).

What's the difference between Announcements, Email Archive, and the Mailtool?

While all three tools facilitate email communication to the members of a bSpace site, you must log in to bSpace to post information with the Announcements tool or Mailtool but can send email through the Email Archive tool without logging in to bSpace first.

• In addition, the Announcements tool gives you the option of only posting to the bSpace site (without emailing), or posting to the site and sending email. Information posted with the Announcements tool appears in both the Home area of your site (in the Recent Announcements pane), and in the Announcements tool itself.
• The Email Archive tool, on the other hand, creates a listserv in your site, allowing you to send email to a specific email address that is then distributed to all the members of your site. You send this email without logging in to bSpace first. While email sent through the Email Archive tool is archived and searchable within the bSpace site, it is not posted in the Home area of the site.
• Mailtool is yet another option that is best used for emailing particular students or sections. A unique feature of the Mailtool is that it allows you to email any group of students, and the groups do not have to correspond to particular sections.

Things to consider

• Users who participate in more than one site can choose to receive email either as it is sent, or in digest mode, with all posts for the day sent in a single email message.
• Messages can be sent from any email program to the email address listed at the top of your Email Archive page.
• Clicking a column header (From, Subject, or Sent) will sort the messages by that header.
• When sorting by subject, clicking the up arrow will arrange the messages alphabetically. When sorting by date received, clicking the up arrow will order the messages from most recent to oldest. In both cases, clicking the down arrow reverses the order.
• The Email Archive uses plain text to format messages, even if their original format was HTML or rich text. Site participants can view a message in its original format by clicking the link provided in the Email Archive.
• The Email Archive uses links to handle attachments. Instead of receiving an attachment directly in the body of an email message, site participants can click a link to view the attachment. This feature helps prevent site participants from going over quota.