| Email Essentials | What is it? | ODU Has | ODU Lacks |
| Search | Ability to look for message by sender or recipient's name, subject and words in message | P | X |
| News and Notification | Notifies user when message is waiting to be read | A | X |
| Message Filing | Saving messages into folders with related messages | X | U |
| Message/Status Listing | Lets the user know which messages have been read, saved, or unread | X | L |
| Mail Forwarding | Ability to redirect message to another recipient | X | I |
| Attachment Handling | Ability to attach files from an outside source to the message | X | S |
| Print Services | The ability to print the message from the program | X (through Browser) | S |
| Message Protection | A way of backing up the database so that messages can't be lost | X (deleting and emptying trash system) | O |
| Message Storage | Lets the user know when there are too many messages being stored | C | X |
| Traffic Monitoring | Lets the user know how many messages each user sends and receives | O | X |
| User Profile Handling | The ability to create a profile for each user | O | X |
| Support of Platforms | Email should service several platforms including DOS, Windows, and Mac | X | L |
| Privacy Protection | Ability to protect others from viewing your message by creating a password or encrypting the messages | X (with password) | I |
| Junk EMail Handling | Ability to filter unwanted messages | T | X |
| Delivery Confirmation | Lets the user know when the message was successfully sent | S | X |
| Import Message Text | Ability to bring messages in from a text file | X | S |
| Outbound Message Handling | Ability to save sent messages | X | I |
| Change Address while Composing | Ability to add or change address of recipients even after user has begun to compose a message | X | L |
| Space-Savers | The ability to compress messages to make more room | L | X |
| Distribution List Handling | The ability to send a message to a group of people | X | Y |
Tittel, Ed and Robbins, Margaret. E-mail Essentials: Everything You Need to Know. AP Professionals: Boston, MA. 1994.