Re: Mail Software Terminology: Clarification

[Jim Purcell <jimpur -at- MICROSOFT -dot- COM>]

Janice Gelb asks:

> Sorry to follow-up with another message, but I don't think my first
> one
> was clear. While it is helpful to find out what other mail GUIs call
> their "inbox" in their menus, we're really stymied about what to call
> these in a general way when describing processes to system
> administrators, such as setting up the users "inbox," moving the
> user's
> directory and "inbox," and so on. Most GUIs needs to have a title for
> this mailbox; however, we're trying to figure out whether a title
> should also be used in general sys admin instructions or whether in
> that case it's a more generic usage. And, in all cases, whether it's
> capitalized or hyphenated.
>
I'm not on the MS Mail/Exchange/Outlook team, so I can't speak for them.
My interpretation is that Microsoft caps Inbox because it refers to the
mail folder whose name is Inbox. The docs could say "Mail arrives in
your Inbox folder" and such like, but "Inbox" seems useful and
defensible shorthand.

In general discussions about inboxes, you'd probably use lower case. At
least I would. Before e-mail came along, people's desks (in places where
they delivered mail to your office) contained boxes for mail labelled
"In" and "Out." I recall these being called the "In box" and "Out box,"
two words, first word capped because that was the name of the box.
Nowadays one word, no hyphen is pretty well established.

Jim Purcell
jimpur -at- microsoft -dot- com
My opinions, not Microsoft's

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