Students signing into their Trumpeter Webmail accounts after Jan. 8 found their inbox layouts treated to a facelift - part of an update that added over 20 new features to the system.
"This was a complete replacement and upgrade of every component of Webmail, both hardware and software," Tolman said.
Features including improved mail attachments and junk-mail filtering software headline the list of improvements.
Users can now enjoy server-side filtering, a feature that automatically sends spam e-mails to a junk mail mailbox, already offered by many other mail applications like Microsoft Outlook, said Director of Enterprise IT Infrastructure for Tufts Computing and Communications Services Lesley Tolman.
Previously, messages were automatically lost if sent after the session had timed out - a flaw which has been remedied with the new update.
Users can now view multiple received attachments within an email itself, as opposed to only after downloading, and these attachments can be downloaded simultaneously in a zip file.
Users can also preview attachments to be sent, and can also decide whether or not to save the attachment along with the email in one of their folders.
Messages may now be composed in an HTML Graphical User Interface with several fonts and plain text.
The selection of languages has also expanded - it now includes Latvian and Macedonian - bringing the count of available languages and variations to 42.
Other updates automatically save sent mail in whichever mail folder is alphabetically listed first. They also allow users to view all messages in the same thread, forward more than one email at once, and see graphical emoticons, or smileys, in messages.
Some of these changes were made as a result of user feedback. For example, saving sent mail by default "was the most frequent request for improvement," Tolman said.
According to Tolman, the email system will also run more smoothly because of technical improvements such as "encrypting, signing, decrypting and verifying of signed and encrypted messages and integrated quota support."
A variety of groups that work with technology at Tufts helped implement the changes, including Tufts Computing and Communications Services, University Systems Group, the Documentation and Training Group, and the University IT Support Center.
Members of these groups are currently working on additional improvements for Tufts' Webmail.
"We are always looking to improve performance and reliability," Tolman said. "We expect to implement some changes that we weren't able to include in this version, including the ability to view Microsoft Word attachments from within Webmail."
"This [upgrade] was on the heels of a similar replacement and upgrade to the email server itself," Tolman added.
The upgrade prior to this one took place in December, at which time the email server, including the disk drive system where email is stored, was replaced. This replacement enabled an increase in email storage space from 20 MB to 50 MB.
The update's improvements took effect quietly.
"I think it works well, I don't have any problems with it," Junior Nick Shatraw said.
But for the many Tufts students who opt to forward their Tufts e-mail to other services to consolidate their e-mail flow, the change went unnoticed.
"I have multiple addresses, and I can get all my mail forwarded to Gmail," senior Danielle Emery said. "It's easier. And you can search. And there's tons of space. And I'm it's biggest fan."
