nPOPuk - Windows Mobile Tips

Page updated 10 September 2010

[Top]  On this page:

• Notes

• Alphabetized tips

• WM help pages

[Top]  

Note 2: In nPOPuk, go to File > About to find links to these Windows Mobile help pages, as well as the nPOPuk support site.

Note 3: Find these links at the bottom of this page also.

[Top]  Alphabetized tips...

Address book:

• On the PPC/SP there is an option available to import Contacts into the nPOPuk address book. This option is found via File> Global Options > Other. If you check the box named "Use Pocket Contacts Address Book", then each time nPOPuk opens, it replaces its address book with the data from Contacts. Adding, deleting or editing is done in Contacts, so the New, Edit, and Delete features of the nPOPuk address book are disabled.
• If using Pocket Contacts, and ini setting LoadPOOMAtStart=0, then it is necessary to open the address book and tap Get Contacts to import addresses. This ini setting helps nPOPuk open faster, if the address book is large.
• To add an address from an email to the address book, when reading email, tap Mail > Address info, highlight address, tap Address book.
• To add, remove, or change between To, Cc, Bcc, go to Property > Recipients.
• Ctl+tap to select multiple contacts in Address book or in Recipients list before tapping an action button.
• Adding a group to the address book is easier if you select all the addresses first, then type the group name once. This is only an option if not importing the built-in Contacts.
• Go here for more info an addressing an email.

Address completion: Type part of name or email address in the address window, then keep tapping the spacebar to auto-complete addresses.

Attachment: If the mail icon is faded, it means not all the email is downloaded yet. Mark for download, then Update account. To open attachment, open message, View, tap on attachment. After downloading a large attachment, if there is a File save error, delete the attachment. To view attachments as links at the bottom of the email, choose File > Global Options > View > More > Append attachment list to message.

• When nPOPuk downloads an attachment, it is saved to the data folder. Each mailbox in nPOPuk is saved as a *.dat file. Each time the mailbox is viewed the size of the dat file is brought into the working memory of the device. If the dat size (mailbox size) reaches 3meg or more it could cause problems on a PPC/SP because of limited memory. It is a good idea to keep an eye on the mailbox size, through File > Mailbox > Summary or by viewing the data folder from a file explorer. One way to decrease the mailbox size is to delete attachments from emails after they are saved to a location of your choice.
• To delete the attachment, open nPOPuk, tap-n-hold on the email in the list and choose "Delete attachments". Or, highlight email and go to Mail > Edit > Delete attachments.

Auto check: Set minute interval to check for new mail in File > Global Options > Check. Also can set sound with new mail. Need to be online, or configure Auto-connect/Disconnect.

Auto complete address:

• Type a few letters of name, then space bar to toggle through matches.
• To select a complete category, type full category name, (spaces in the name won't work) then tap the spacebar.

Auto-connect/Disconnect:

• Configure first
  a) File > Global Options > Dial-up, check both Auto-connect to process mail, and Disconnect after mail processing is completed.
  b) File > Dial-up, un-check LAN.
• For Cellular connections
  a) File > Mailbox > Edit > Connection, select Dial-up and choose cellular connection (i.e. "Data Network Connect" or "Broadband Access" for Verizon, with username and password left blank)
  b) Check/Update account.
• For Dial-up connections (card modem, bluetooth modem, etc)
  a) On the PPC/SP, add a new modem connection. (i.e. on WM3se, Start > Settings > Connections > Connections)
  b) In nPOPuk, File > Mailbox > Edit > Connection, choose the modem connection in drop-down list, select the dial-up button, enter username and password for dial-up connection.
  c) Check/Update account.

Auto-Send/Receive: See Send/Receive below.

Backup: File > Backup files, tap .. to go up one level, then NewDir to create a new folder. Type today's date as folder name if wanted, such as 091005 (2009, 10th month, 5th day) Tap OK. Tap OK again. Wait until finished backin up to the new folder. If a person wants to check old backup folders, first File > Exit out of nPOPuk. Then place an nPOPuk.exe file into the backup folder. Run this exe file and check the mailboxes or address list of interest. If an old file is needed in the current nPOPuk folder, this can be copied from the backup folder to the current folder manually. Or, the dat file can be imported into the new folder as described in Import instructions below.

Categories: If built-in Contacts are not used, open address book, Ctl+tap to select multiple contacts, Edit, type new category name or choose from drop-down. select add, or remove to remove contacts from selected category. To select a complete category for To, Bcc or Cc, type full category name in address box, (spaces in the name won't work) then tap the spacebar.

Cellular: See Connect or Auto-connect/Disconnect.

Check for email: When you are using a slow connection, or have limited space in your filesystem, you may wish to limit the size of downloaded emails to save time or space. This can be configured via File > Global Options > Recv, by unchecking "Download entire body when checking", and choosing the number of lines to download. Messages that are not completely downloaded can be completed later by marking the message for download, and doing an update for that account. If you have a fast connection and lots of space, you can check "Download entire body when checking", and you'll not need to do a later update.

Connect:

• Manually connect to Cellular, Dial-up or Wifi, then Check account.
• See Auto-connect/Disconnect or Wifi.

Contacts:

• To use Pocket Contacts, File > Global Options > Other.
• To add address from email to Pocket Contacts, when reading email, Mail > Address info, highlight address, tap Address book.
• When a PPC/SP device has a hard reset, it loses its information, including Contacts. So the bug here is that the built-in backup/restore facility for Contacts on some PPC/SPs does not save the categories for the Contacts. The freeware PPCPimBackup allows backup and reinstall of contacts with categories, from here.

Dial-up: See Connect or Auto-connect/Disconnect.

Drafts: When editing mail, "Save to outbox" to save as draft without send arrow. Flag mail if editing has started, leave with no icon if not. Use "sort by icon" or tap date column header to group flags/drafts. If File > Global Options > Sort is set to All mailboxes by column > date, then drafts stay at the bottom of the Outbox.

Edit as new: In Outbox, Mail > Edit > Edit as new - allows editing of sent mail with original To, Cc and/or Bcc addresses in place.

Error/Warning:

• Sometimes messages in Outbox are cancelled, red X, if connection fails, etc. Good to check the Outbox, or from version 2.09 and on, to check the Unsent count in the status bar, or view Outbox when sending (update), to be sure all mail is sent.
• If a warning occurs when attempting to delete email from the server, simply do another check, and then try the update operation again to delete the email. The check and update operations must not be separated by email arriving at the server and being inserted in the middle of the set of messages (most likely to happen with Yahoo POP servers which sort by Date: header; other POP servers generally sort by arrival order).

External viewer: Type the extension associated with the program that you would like to use to view the message, in the ini line called ViewFileSuffix= (i.e. ViewFileSuffix="txt").

Filters: In File > Global Options.

Find/Replace: See Replace below. Flag: Mark messages for follow-up later, sort by icon to group all flags.

Font: Change font and size through ini if wanted. (nPOPuk.ini or config.txt) FontName="Tahoma" (message) and LvFontName="Tahoma" (list) seem to work well for both PC and PPC/SP.

Forward/Reply: Select the part of a message of interest, tap "forward" or "reply", then the selected part is in the new message window.

Freeware for PPC/SP: Go here

Global Options: Select options as wanted. There are two ways to access the advanced global options editor to edit the ini as a text file. (CAUTION: experienced users only!!)...

• On the keyboard tap Shift, then File > Global Options to open advanced global options editor.
• In Global Options > Advanced choose Enable INI editor, then ok. Next time File > Global Options will give a choice to open the advanced editor.

GMail: Setup for Gmail here

• Be sure "disable 'RETR' command" is checked if wanting to re-download Gmail on this device or another.
• Add recent: to front of personal Gmail address in POP tab to receive mail from the last 30 days. Example - recent:name@gmail.com
• Use the nPOPuk.exe version with built-in SSL, be sure UseWindowsSSL=0 in the ini if this is an upgrade (default setting on a new install).
• NoEmptyMailbox=1 in ini keeps Gmail from causing an empty account view window on occasion.

GMail: Problem of unseen email on POP server

Gmail sets a limit on the number of emails available for download from the POP mailbox at somewhere between 250-400 or so. If more emails are on the POP server, they may not show up in nPOPuk until some older ones are deleted, causing new mail to not be seen.

One way to always retrieve all new mail is to add recent: to the front of the username. This causes all mail from the last 30 days to be retrieved. Any mail older than 30 days will no longer be visible in the account. Example - username@gmail.com is changed to recent:username@gmail.com in the POP3 settings. This mail can be filtered to a Savebox, and the Savebox used to read, reply, forward, delete from list, etc. This Savebox becomes the working mailbox for this account as shown below.

To work from a Savebox when using Gmail:

1. Change username@gmail.com to recent:username@gmail.com in the account POP3 settings.
2. Create a new Savebox.
3. Filter all mail to this Savebox. (ie: Copy to / Savebox / From / **)
4. In the ini go to the new Savebox settings, and set DefAccount="AccountName" to have a default SMTP for the new Savebox.
5. Set Account Settings>Recv to "Download entire body when checking" to Copy complete messages to Savebox. (or set this in the GO)
6. Set Account Settings>Recv to "Only header is saved" to keep the account mailbox small. (or set this in the GO)

Features and benefits of Gmail recent:username@gmail.com filtered to a Savebox:

1. The last 30 days of mail are viewed.
2. There is no message limit for retrieval as with Gmail POP. (limit of 300 +/-)
3. Mail deleted from server deletes from "All mail" instead of moving mail from "POP" to "All mail".
4. Sentmail retrieves to the account mailbox. (doesn't with Gmail POP)
5. There are always 30 days in which to re-retrieve mail, using the account mailbox, that has been "deleted from list" in the working savebox.

Html email:

• To view images within html email, Mark to download, Update (to get full message), View > text/html, Open, OK, Yes.
• To view an html email with a table imbedded...
  a) Mark for download, Update
  b) open email
  c) go to View > text/html > Open
  d) be sure PIE (browser) is set at Desktop viewing.

Hyperlinks: Double tap to open in default browser.

Icons: For icon screenshots go here. Or, tap-n-hold on icon to view description.

Icon view: 3 useful icons show in portrait view on a QVGA screen when reading mail if this ini setting is used...  ShowNavButtons=0  This hides the Prev mail, Next mail, Next unread mail icons. May only want to use this setting if the toggle D-pad is used to navigate.

Import:

• Import addresses form the PPC/SP built-in Contacts by choosing File > Global Options > Other > Use Pocket Contacts address book.
• Import backup mailbox files by File > Mailbox > Add > Import savebox, and import the wanted *.dat file from the backup folder.
• Import mailboxes from other email clients by choosing File > Global Options > Advanced > MBox. Then File > Mailbox > Add > Import savebox, and import the wanted MBox file.

Ini - common changes: See "Global Options" above to learn how to access the ini settings file. (CAUTION: experienced users only!!) Go here to learn the use of the various settings. You may find these changes useful...

• TimeoutInterval=30
• UseWindowsSSL=0 (If SSL files are included in the exe, this is default.)
• ShowNavButtons=0 (Portrait view hides navigation buttons and shows other useful icons. Use D-pad toggle for Prev mail, Next mail)
• NoEmptyMailbox=1 (Helps avoid an empty account view window from GMail.)
• LoadPOOMAtStart=0 (Starting nPOPuk can take longer when importing Contacts. This setting skips the importing of Contacts. Contacts then need to be imported manually from the Address Book window.)
• ReorderSendbox=1 (Will reorder the Outbox to put the unsent messages at the bottom, on by default)
• LvSortFromAddressOnly=0 (default), =1 means use only the e-mail address to sort the From column.
• DeletePerUpdateLimit=25 (Will delete a maximum of 25 emails from server with each Update, which helps when using a poor internet connection. Can set a different number.)

Install nPOPuk: Setup info here.

• Copy the nPOPuk.exe that matches your device (the arm version for current PPC/SP devices) to an empty folder. Use the nPOPuk.exe version with built-in SSL if needed.
• Run the program, then choose to use an account template, or fill in settings manually.
• nPOPuk may run better from main memory, accessing the data files from the storage card, as when a PPC/SP is turned on it takes awhile to load the storage card. To do this, see Relative path, below.

Keyboard shortcuts: Complete listing here.

Large emails: To read a message larger than 60k, download complete email, open email, then Mail > External viewer. If the default external viewer won't read the full message, type the extension associated with the program you would like to view the message in the line ViewFileSuffix= in the ini. (i.e. ViewFileSuffix="txt") The freeware cke works fine on the PPC/SP to open large files. (Version 0.21 alpha seems best at the moment)

List view: Use File > Global Options > Sort to change the first column in list view to From, if wanted.

Mailbox pane: File > Mailbox > Mailbox pane, allows easier access to the mailbox list than the drop-down list. Tap-n-hold pane to set width, 50-70 works well on narrow screens.

Mailboxes: To add, delete, move mailboxes quickly, use File > Mailbox > Summary. New mailbox is added after any highlighted mailbox. Tap up/down arrows to move highlighted mailbox.

Mailing List: For help in creating mailing lists, (to send to the same group of people more than once) go here.

Memory: Space in main memory can be saved by running nPOPuk from the storage card. Be sure to File > Exit before removing storage card. For more info regarding low memory errors go here.

• When nPOPuk downloads an attachment, it is saved to the data folder. Each mailbox in nPOPuk is saved as a *.dat file. Each time the mailbox is viewed the size of the dat file is brought into the working memory of the device. If the dat size (mailbox size) reaches 3meg or more it could cause problems on a PPC/SP because of limited memory. It is a good idea to keep an eye on the mailbox size, through File > Mailbox > Summary or by viewing the data folder from a file explorer. One way to decrease the mailbox size is to delete attachments from emails after they are saved to a location of your choice.
• To delete the attachment, open nPOPuk, tap-n-hold on the email in the list and choose "Delete attachments". Or, highlight email and go to Mail > Edit > Delete attachments.

Modem: See Auto-connect/Disconnect.

Open files: PocketNotepad, cke or TextMaker can be used to open and read either the address, ini or mailbox files on PPC/SP.

Outbox: Sometimes messages in Outbox are cancelled with a red X if connection fails, etc. May be good to view Outbox when sending (Update), to be sure all mail is sent. Can "Always Bcc" in settings to be sure all mail sends okay.

Outlook: When using Microsoft Outlook or similar email client on a computer, and wanting to use a PPC/SP when away, there can be a couple conflicts with GMail. This seems to work fine...

1. Set up the Gmail account in nPOPuk on the smaller device, using the template if desired.
2. Put "recent:" in front of the POP username, without the quotes, so username@gmail.com would become recent:username@gmail.com to access the last 30 days of email.
3. Be sure to check-mark "Disable 'RETR' command".
4. Check account and wait until mail starts coming in, then tap the X to stop the process.
5. Notice the number of emails on the server. If you don't want them all to be retrieved, go to File > Mailbox > Initialise and choose the number to start with, then Check account again.
6. If you notice your own sent mail coming through, go the the account filter option in nPOPuk and set a filter to reject all mail from your email address. Asterix may be needed before and after the address.
7. Now nPOPuk should show the same messages as Outlook, from the message number chosen when initializing. New mail is still available to retrieve through Outlook after first retrieving with nPOPuk on the smaller device, and visa versa.

Photos:

• To view imbedded photos, mark to download, Update (to get full message), then in read view, View > text/html, Open, OK, Yes.
• To view attached photos, mark to download, Update (to get full message), then in read view, View > View images, or tap the image name at the bottom.

Port numbers: File > Mailbox > Edit allows setting port numbers.

Portable use: nPOPuk can be used from a storage card on separate devices by renaming the nPOPuk.exe files so files from each platform can reside in the same folder. If SSL is needed, use the nPOPuk.exe files which contain SSL capability internally.

Print: From read view, Mail > Save as, then print this txt file if printing software is installed on PPC/SP. Otherwise, may need to print from a PC.

Quote a portion of email: Highlight the part of a message of interest, tap "forward" or "reply", then the highlighted part is in the new message window.

Reflow selection: Select text in edit view, Edit > Reflow selection, to correct bad linebreaks.

Relative path: A relative path allows the nPOPuk.exe file to be placed at a location different than the data files. For instance, on a PPC/SP device, it may be best to place the exe file in main memory, and the data files on the storage card. To do this:

1. Download the 2-folder framework from here.
2. Unzip the nPOPuk folder to the main memory. (Program Files is the normal location)
3. Unzip the nPOPukData folder to the root of the storage card. (not inside any other folder)
4. Download the appropriate nPOPuk.exe with built-in SSL from the nPOPuk support site here.
5. Unzip the 3 files (nPOPuk.exe, license, readme) to the nPOPuk folder in main memory.
6. If wanting a shortcut in Programs, using the native File Explorer, navigate to the nPOPuk.exe file. Tap and hold on the nPOPuk.exe file and then tap Copy on the menu which pops up. Go to Windows\Start Menu\Programs, then tap Menu > Edit > Paste Shortcut. This will create a shortcut for easier access to nPOPuk in the future.
7. Run nPOPuk, by tapping the shortcut in Start Menu > Programs > nPOPuk, or tap nPOPuk.exe in the nPOPuk folder.
8. Choose to import an ins file with account settings, or fill them in manually.
9. If desired, place the Win32 nPOPuk.exe file in this same folder on the storage card, then the card can be removed from the PPC/SP device, inserted into a card reader on a PC, and this file can be run on the PC, accessing all the same mailboxes and address book. Or, the PPC/SP can be attached to a PC by USB cable, using the freeware program WM5torage to turn the storage card into an external harddrive, from here.

Replace:

• Go to Edit > Replace in edit view. Can delete the ">" marks in received email by typing > in the Find text field and leaving the Replace field blank, then "Replace all".
• To find/replace a return, use \n or \r in the field.
• To replace one return with two, put \n\n in the Replace field.
• To remove unwanted blank lines, find \n\n and Replace all with \n.
• To find/replace a tab, use \t in the field.
• To find various characters, checkmark "Use wildcards" then use * for multiple characters or ? for one character.

Returns: File > Global Options > Send > Word wrap at 0 characters allows recipient to print email at full page width.

Save as text file: From read view, Mail > Save as.

Savebox: File > Mailbox > Add.

Savebox: To create new saveboxes with custom file names:

1. Create an empty text file in the data directory and name it "empty_savebox.dat" or similar.
2. Go to Mailbox > Add > Import Savebox and choose this file to import.
3. Type a custom filename and savebox name.

Send/Receive: If what is wanted is "one tap" to do everything, then...

1. File > Global Options > Check > Update after Check > (Options)
2. Options - choose to have messages marked for deletion, Deleted or Kept, when doing a Send/Receive. Choosing Ask would stop the auto process.
3. Now tap the double blue + yellow down-arrow icon when online (Check all accounts) to do a Send/Receive.

Sent mail: Can "Always Bcc" to a separate email account, such as GMail, to have a complete record of all sent mail.

Shortcut for notes: To create a shortcut in the Start menu to automatically open nPOPuk, open a new message window, choose the account wanted, fill in the To window and fill in the subject:

1. Create a shortcut to the nPOPuk.exe file in \Windows\Start Menu\
2. Rename shortcut to note.lnk
3. Tap-n-hold on shorcut then go to Properties > Shortcut > Target and type the location of the exe file, pluss other details wanted such as this... "\nPOPuk\npopuk.exe" /Mailbox: Mailboxname /To: username@yahoo.com /Subject: "Note"

Shortcut in Programs: Using the native File Explorer on your PPC/SP, navigate to the nPOPuk.exe file. Tap and hold on the nPOPuk.exe file and then tap Copy on the menu which pops up. Go to Windows\Start Menu\Programs, then tap Menu > Edit > Paste Shortcut. This will create a shortcut for easier access to nPOPuk in future.

Sort:

• By column, tap column header.
• By conversation, in list view, Mail > Edit > Thread mode.
• By icon, in list view, Mail > Edit > Sort by icon.
• Default, File > Global Options > Sort.

Spell check:

• Write email in PocketWord or other word processor. Spell check then save as plain text document. Open new message in nPOPuk, then Edit > Paste from file.
• Use PocketWord as External editor. Be sure to close the Word list view after closing Word.

Storage card warning:

• Always exit nPOPuk before removing storage card. (File > Exit is best)
• If on a PC, when finished be sure program is closed (File > Exit is best) then use "Safely remove hardware" option (green arrow on bottom right of PC screen) before removing storage card. If warning says do not remove after a couple trys, then shut down computer before removing storage card.
• In some devices, nPOPuk should not be run from a storage card without exiting the program before powering off the device, as powering off has the same effect as removing the card with nPOPuk still running. Files will not be saved, and there may be a potential for data corruption.
• To run nPOPuk from main memory, and to access data files on the storage card, see Relative path above.

Summary: See Mailboxes.

Text reader: PocketNotepad, or (cke for larger files) can be used to open nPOPuk.ini, Address.lst or the mailbox (*.dat) files in the nPOPuk folder.

TimeoutInterval: If timeout error message pops up too quickly, increase the value for TimeoutInterval= in the ini. Or decrease value for quicker error pop-up.

Weblinks: Double tap to open in default browser.

Wifi:

1. Check LAN in File > Dial-up.
2. Connect to Wifi.
3. Check account.

Writing email: When writing an email on a PPC/SP, occasionally it is helpful to be able to access several other emails for info, plus being able to access the nPOPuk address book to copy/paste addresses into the email, and maybe send/receive email while composing. This can be done using the freeware NeboPad. See Tools page here This program has the option of multiple tabbed notepad windows,.

1. from nPOPuk, open emails of interest, File > Save as text, to save to location of choice
2. open NeboPad
3. create New Doc (use this Doc to type the new email)
4. open saved emails to browse in NeboPad (now tabs appear for each email plus the one being edited)
5. now a person can toggle between the various emails, read, copy/paste, and still access nPOPuk for any need (saving an extra email to text, or the address book, etc.)
6. when finished composing, copy/paste into nPOPuk for sending.

[Top]  WM help pages:

• Windows Mobile Contents

• Windows Mobile Setup

• Windows Mobile Icons

• Windows Mobile Address

• Windows Mobile Write

• Windows Mobile Tips

• Windows Mobile Details

• Windows Mobile Tools

• nPOPuk Website

• download WM Help Pages

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