Inbox and folders

Juggling several mailboxes — your own, a shared team address, maybe an info@ inbox — usually means logging in and out of different webmail tabs all day. MailDesk ends that. Every connected account lives on one screen, related emails are grouped into a single conversation, and you spend your time reading and replying instead of hunting for the thread. This page is your tour of that screen: the folder tree on the left, the message list in the middle, the reading pane on the rig

Juggling several mailboxes — your own, a shared team address, maybe an info@ inbox — usually means logging in and out of different webmail tabs all day. MailDesk ends that. Every connected account lives on one screen, related emails are grouped into a single conversation, and you spend your time reading and replying instead of hunting for the thread. This page is your tour of that screen: the folder tree on the left, the message list in the middle, the reading pane on the right, and how MailDesk turns a back-and-forth exchange into one tidy conversation.

The three-pane layout, at a glance

Open MailDesk from the main Odoo apps menu. On a desktop screen you get three columns working together: your folders on the left, the message list in the middle, and the reading pane on the right. Click a folder, pick a message, read it — without anything ever reloading.

On a phone or a narrow window the same three areas stack into one column, with a bottom bar to jump between Folders, AI, and the rest — so the layout above shows the message list as you would see it on a smaller screen. Everything in this guide works the same way whatever the size of your window.

Here is what each area does for you.

1. The folder tree (left)

The left sidebar is your map. It lists every account you can access and the folders inside each one.

• Compose sits at the top — it opens a new, empty message. See Composing and sending.
• All Mailboxes shows everything from every account together. This is the unified inbox, and it is where most people live.
• Each connected account appears as a heading you can expand or collapse. Under it sit the account's folders: Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Archive, Spam, Trash, and any custom folders that already exist on that account.
• A blue number beside a folder is its unread count, so you can see at a glance where new mail is waiting.
• Click an account name to focus on just that account; click All Mailboxes again to bring everything back.

Folders versus tags — two tools, two jobs

MailDesk gives you two ways to organise mail, and they do genuinely different things:

2. The message list (middle)

The middle column shows the messages in the folder — or filter — you selected. Each row is designed to tell you what you need to know before you even open it.

A row shows:

• the sender,
• the subject (an untitled message reads No Subject),
• a short preview of the body,
• the date and time,
• any tags you have applied, and
• a paperclip when the message has attachments.

Unread messages stand out in bold. A reply or forward you sent carries a small orange arrow, and a draft is flagged with a red [Draft] label so you never mistake an unfinished message for a sent one.

The filter tabs and search

Across the top of the list, a row of tabs lets you cut the noise instantly:

• All — everything in the folder.
• Unread — only what you have not read yet.
• Starred — the messages you flagged to come back to.
• Incoming — mail you received.
• Outgoing — mail you sent.

A search box filters the list as you type, and the header tells you the folder name and how many emails it holds. Together these make even a busy inbox feel small.

For the full power of search — across every account at once — see Search, filters and tags.

3. The reading pane (right)

Click any row and the message opens on the right: the full, formatted body, the sender and recipient details, the mailbox and folder it belongs to, and any attachments below. A toolbar at the top keeps Reply, Reply All, and Forward within easy reach.

Attachments appear right under the message, so you can open or download them without scrolling away.

How conversations work

This is the heart of MailDesk. A single question and its three replies are not four separate emails to dig through — they are one conversation.

When several messages belong to the same exchange, the earlier ones appear as thread history beneath the message you opened. You read the whole discussion top to bottom, in order, in one place — no clicking back and forth, no wondering whether you missed a reply.

What ties messages together

You never have to set this up. MailDesk reads the hidden headers that every email carries — the same ones your previous mail program used — to work out which messages reply to which:

• the message's own Message-ID,
• the In-Reply-To header that points at the message being answered, and
• the References trail that lists the earlier messages in the chain.

From those, MailDesk gives each conversation a shared identity and keeps every message in it grouped together — across folders and even across accounts.

Folding the quoted history

Long threads pile up quoted text — the "On Monday, X wrote:" block repeated under every reply. MailDesk folds that older quoted material behind a tidy Show quoted text link, so you see the new words first and can expand the history only when you actually need it.

Reading and acting on messages

Open a message

1. In the folder tree, choose a folder — or All Mailboxes for everything.
2. Click a message in the list.
3. The full message opens in the reading pane.

What you'll see: the message body, its attachments, and the reply actions. If the message is part of a longer exchange, the earlier messages appear as thread history below it.

Reply or forward

Open a message and use Reply, Reply All, or Forward at the top of the reading pane, or the quick buttons on the list row. For the full walkthrough — including how the quoted history behaves and where your sent mail lands — see Replying and forwarding.

Mark read or unread, and star

• A message is marked read automatically the moment you open it.
• Use Mark as unread in the reading pane — or the Unread button when several rows are selected — to bring a message back to your attention later.
• Use the star to flag a message you want to return to. The Starred filter then shows just those.

Archive

Archiving clears a message out of the Inbox once you are done, without deleting it. Use Archive in the reading pane, or select rows and choose Archive. Archived mail stays available under the Archive folder.

Move to another folder

1. Open the message — or select one or more in the list.
2. Choose Move (the Move to Folder action).
3. Pick the destination folder and confirm.

Tag a message

1. Open the message — or select rows in the list.
2. Choose Assign tags.
3. Tick the tags you want, or create a new one: type a Tag name, pick a colour, and click Create.
4. Click Apply.

Tags live only inside MailDesk and never change anything on your email account. Remove a tag the same way — open Assign tags and untick it.

How fresh is the list?

New mail arrives through MailDesk's automatic sync — background jobs check each account on a schedule and bring in new messages, and the open screen then updates on its own, no manual refresh needed. A short delay between an email landing at your provider and appearing in MailDesk is normal.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Composing and sending
• Replying and forwarding
• Search, filters and tags
• Working with attachments
• Realtime and synchronization architecture
• Licensing and tiers