Page updated 24 August 2009
Downloading Mail Bodies
In the Main Window, if there is no read or unread icon beside the mail item you wish to read, you will first need to download the body of that item. Once there is such an icon clicking on the item will open the Mail View window.
The Mail View Window
To read a mail item select the desired Mailbox in the Main Window (Menu: MAILBOX > NEXT/PREV, Keyboard: Tab toggles between the Mailbox pane and message list. Up/Down Cursor keys select Mailboxes/messages. Enter opens the selected Mailbox/message.) and double-click (Keyboard: ENTER) the item to be read. The Mail View window opens.
A full list of Keyboard Shortcuts that work in this window are listed on a separate page.
The Title Bar
For Accounts, the title bar of the Mail View window will show the account name and [message number] in brackets. The number reflects the order of receipt by the server and does not change if the message list is sorted on any column.
For Saveboxes, the title bar shows the [Savebox name] in brackets and (source account) in parenthesis.
The Menu Bar
The options on the Mail and View and Transfer Menus are described below
The Toolbar
The Toolbar buttons are shortcuts to a range of options on the Mail Menu, other than the "Find Next" action, which is an View Menu option. Further information about these actions are described in the menu sections below.
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Show Previous Message |
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Show Next Message |
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Show Next Unread Message |
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Reply to Message |
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Reply to All Recipients |
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Forward Message |
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Find Next Occurrence of Text |
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Mark to Download Current Message (Inactive in Saveboxes) |
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Mark to Delete Current Message (Only available in Accounts) |
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Delete From List (Only available in Saveboxes) |
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Mark as Read (When Depressed) |
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Mark as Flagged (When Depressed) |
The Header Area
The header area within the window shows the Sender and Subject, and if not the sole recipient, the contents of the To: and Cc: lines, as appropriate. Appearance of the date is controlled from the View menu.
The full e-mail headers are not retrieved by nPOPuk unless the appropriate Global Option has be set before they are retrieved. To view the full headers the View Source option used from the Extended View Menu. The full headers contain such technical information as the message's routing to reach the recipient, the e-mail program and version used the author to create the message and are normally only required for investigating certain kinds of mail problems.
The Body Area
nPOPuk normally displays only the plain text part of a message. Attachments, including the HTML part of a message, normally have to be saved first and handled by an external program.
By default, mail that has no plain text part, but only an HTML body, has the HTML tags stripped from the body and the remaining text is displayed. A note at the head of the text is inserted by nPOPuk indicates when this has occurred:
[HTML tags removed by nPOPuk]
It is still possible to read the full body of the message by using the View source option on the View menu. This behaviour can be changed by editing the nPOPuk.ini file. It is also possible to view such mail in the external viewer, but the default settings need to be changed in the nPOPuk.ini file to optimise the behaviour for this kind of mail.
nPOPuk will only create a single Mail View window. If a further item is opened for viewing, the new one replaces the existing contents of the Mail View window.
Any full URLs (those that include the "http://", "https://" or "ftp://" prefix), which appear in a message, are clickable and will open in the default browser, defined in the registry. The browser launched can be controlled by editing the nPOPuk.ini file.
E-mail addresses (a "mailto:" prefix is NOT required) are also clickable and will open the Property dialogue, with the address included in to "To:" line ready for creation of a new message.
The Mail Menu
- Prev mail / Next mail / Next unread mail
- The first group of options on the Mail menu control navigation through the Mail list in the Main Window. As they are selected so the contents of the chosen item fills the Mail View window. For individual mail items, the "Prev mail" and "Next mail" items are constrained to the current Mailbox. When used within a mail digest, they move to the next digest item, with a return to the digest "envelope" on reaching the first or last item.
- If the Global Option to "Scan all mailboxes for unread mail" is at its default setting, the "Next unread mail" option, will jump to the next Mailbox holding unread mail, if there is any.
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The Space bar operates in a similar mode to the CTRL+Enter keystroke, but additionally will "page down" though any mail item longer than the Mail View window will display.
The action taken when there are no further messages or messages have been marked for deletion or moved is controlled through the Global Options dialogue.
- Reply... / Reply to all... / Forward...
- In the second group "Reply...", "Reply to all..." and "Forward..." operate conventionally, moving to the facilities for replying to or forwarding messages.
- Address Information...
- The Address Information dialogue shows all mail addresses found in the message header lines and provides facilities to reply or create a new message to any combination of those addresses or add them to the Address Book.
- Mark for Download / Mark for Delete (Accounts Only)
- "Mark for Download" and "Mark for Delete" change the status of the message as indicated. A check mark appears beside the menu item when either is selected. The corresponding toolbar buttons stay depressed when selected.
- Delete from list (Saveboxes Only)
- Deletes the current mail item. A warning dialogue will appear before the item is deleted.
- Mark as read / Mark as unread
- "Mark as read" and "Mark as unread" change the status of the message as indicated. The corresponding toolbar button will show depressed when in the read state.
- Save as...
- The "Save as..." option opens the standard Windows dialogue. The default file name will be the message subject line. The file extension defaults to "txt", but this can be configured in the nPOPuk.ini file.
- External viewer
- By default, the "External viewer" option opens the currently displayed mail item in Notepad. By editing the nPOPuk.ini file both automatic printing of mail and the use of alternative viewers becomes possible.
- Close
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The "Close" option closes the Mail View window.
Printing Mail Items
There is no "Print" option on the Mail menu. However, printing will normally be provided by the facilities of the "External viewer". An answer in the F.A.Q section explains how the nPOPuk.ini file can be edited so that printing becomes automatic when selecting the External Viewer option.
The View Menu
The View menu can be opened either from the Menu bar or by a right-click in the main area of the window. The version shown here is that which will display for simple text messages.
An extended version of the menu is shown if the Global Option "Include header lines" is set or has attachments. (Mail list digests are presented as a message with multiple attachments.)
- Copy
- This option is conventional taking the selected text onto the clipboard.
- Select all
- Another standard function, Select all will select the entire body of the message displayed.
- Find...
- Opens the Find... dialogue which enables searching though the subject line and body of the current message or entire Mailbox.
- Find next
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Find next searches for the next occurrence of the text input to the Find dialogue.
NOTE: The Find Next button on the toolbar acts as if selecting this option unless no text has been previously entered in the Find Dialogue, when the toolbar button opens the Find Dialogue instead. - Word Wrap
- "Word wrap" forces text in the main display to wrap within the window.
- Font...
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"Font..." opens a standard Windows Font dialogue. This controls the font used in the body area of the Mail View window.
CAUTION: Using over-large fonts can corrupt the window display.
- Show date
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When "Show date" is checked, the date and timer is shown within the header area of the window. The format of this data is controlled from the Global Options dialogue.
The Extended View Menu
When viewing a message with attachments, a mail list digest, or when the Global Option to include headers is selected, an extended menu, similar to that on the right, will be shown. Other variants of this menu are seen when View source or a Message attachment item are selected.
NOTE: Mail List digests are presented as a message with a number of attachments. Typically, the first and last attachments are shown as "text/plain" and contain, respectively, a list of the subject lines of messages included in the digest and a footer to the digest. The remaining items take the subject line of the original message.
The extended View Menu has the following additional options:
- View source
- Shows the full contents of the message (subject to any partial retrieval) including the full headers (if the appropriate Global Option has been set) and any attachments.
- Save attach
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Opens a modified "Save" dialogue box (See image below). The Cancel button is replaced with a "Skip" button. This cancels the save operation for the currently identified attachment and moves on to the next attachment.
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NOTES:
1. See also the individual File name options.
2. A text/html (and certain other unnamed types of attachment) will be given a randomly generated hexadecimal file name. - Delete attach
- Deletes all the attachments listed in the bottom section of the menu.
- Filenames
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The final batch of one or more options show each of the attachments to the message. Certain attachments are listed under generic titles, e.g. the HTML portion of a message is shown as "text/html" on the menu. Other files are shown by their file name.
Except in the case of mail list digests, selecting any of the items listed at the bottom of the menu opens the "Attached file" dialogue. This will display details of the file and provide options to open or save it.
If an attachment is a recognised document, then shift-clicking on the item will by-pass the dialogue and open the file without further interruption. (This makes reading HTML mail, the way the sender wanted you to see it easy - but be aware of the risks with this kind of mail.)
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Where the attachment is one of the messages contained in a mail list digest, selecting the attachment (including shift-clicking) will behave as with any other attachment, except that it opens in the Mail View window.
NOTE: The additional parts, or attachments, are only detected, and listed at the bottom of the menu, if sufficient lines have been read from the server (See: Global Options/Recv). Partially downloaded attachments are greyed out and cannot be saved.
The View Source View Menu
When viewing message source code the menu changes again. All options remain as before except for:
- View text
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Returns you to viewing the original plain text part of the message.
The Attached Message View Menu
When viewing an attachment that is itself in message format, i.e. a "message/rfc822" attachment (for example a message contained in a digest) yet another form of the menu appears that includes a "Return to original" option.
- Return to original
- Sends you to the original message. (In a digest this will typically be the "envelope", usually containing general notes on the mail list owner, e.g. how to contact the list owner, post messages and subscription information.)
NOTES:
1. On this menu the "View source" option shows the source of the current message only.
2. Should the attached message also have an attachment (for example, because it has an HTML part) then the menu will be extended with "Save attach" and options showing the attachment type or name as described for the Extended View menu.
The Transfer Menu
The Transfer Menu allows mail to be copied or moved to a Savebox from another Savebox or Account. If a message is to be moved from an account, the original message will not be deleted immediately. Instead it is marked for deletion and will be removed from the account at the next server update.
- Copy to / Move to
- If no Saveboxes have been created, the cascading menus show only a "(New)" option that opens the "Add Savebox" dialogue. This works in the same way as the Add mailbox dialogue, described on the Mailboxes page. Once a Savebox has been created it is added to the cascading menus that appear for either the Copy to or Move to menu option.
- When there are more than 10 Saveboxes the Copy to/Move to options show an ellipse, indicating the Transfer dialogue will appear, rather than the cascading menu. (Shown here is the "Copy to:" Transfer dialogue. Only the legend changes on the "Move to:" Transfer dialogue)
- NOTE: The point a which the switch is made from cascading menu to the Transfer dialogue can be controlled through a setting in the nPOPuk.ini file.