Page updated 1 November 2012
Creating New Mail
nPOPuk offers a number of ways in which to create a new message. Each of these methods is described more fully below:
- From the Main Window (Menu option, Toolbar button or Keystroke)
- From the Notification Area Icon on the Task Bar (Menu option)
- From an Existing Message (Address Information dialogue) The "Cancel" button closes the ADDRESS dialogue aborting the operation.
- From the Address Book (Mail Button)
- On Start Up (Command line options)
Starting the message using any of these methods opens the Property dialogue. This dialogue contains the fields usually found at the top of a message composition window in other programs but, for reasons of compatibility with small hand-held screens, they are kept separate in nPOPuk.
Clicking OK on the Property dialogue leads to the Mail Edit window or the External Editor, depending on the method used to start the process and nPOPuk.ini settings. The external editor can be invoked, in place of the Mail Edit window, by holding the SHIFT key when opening the Property dialogue. Only starting a message through command line options force use of the Mail Edit window.
Once the message is complete there are three options:
- Send Immediately:
This saves it to the Outbox and initiates connection with the server in a single step.
(Menu: FILE > SEND NOW, Keyboard: CTRL+SHIFT+G) - Save and Mark for Sending:
This saves it to the Outbox and marks the message so that it will be sent at the next server update. Updating the server is the way you confirm to nPOPuk that you wish to carry out any of the three actions: Sending, Deleting or Downloading.
(Menu: FILE > SAVE AND MARK, Keyboard: CTRL+G) - Save it to the Outbox
Messages saved using this option will not be sent and remain in the Outbox indefinitely. This option is useful for storing incomplete or draft messages, or for creating a message template that when needed, can be invoked with the Edit as New option.
(Menu: FILE > SAVE TO OUTBOX, Keyboard: CTRL+S).
Creating a New Message from the Main
Window
The usual way to create a new mail item is click the envelope icon on the Main Window toolbar (Menu: FILE > NEW MESSAGE, Keyboard: CTRL+W).
Creating a New Message from the
Notification Area Icon on the Task Bar
If the Notification Area icon is showing it is possible to right-click on the icon and select "New message..." from the menu that appears.
Creating a New Message from an existing
E-Mail
A new message may be created from the Address Information dialogue, reached from the File menu of a Mail View window.
Select an address from those listed on the dialogue and click the NEW MAIL button.
Creating a New Message
from the Address Book
With the Address Book open, use the techniques for searching the address list, select the required address(es) and click the MAIL button.
NOTE: Holding down the CTRL or SHIFT key will enable multiple addresses to be selected. (CTRL permits individual addresses to be selected or deselected. SHIFT allows a block of addresses to be selected.)
Creating a New Message when starting
nPOPuk
nPOPuk can be made to launch with the Property dialogue open, with many predefined details:
- Mailbox: The account from which the message is to be sent
- To: The address(es) to which message is to be sent
- Cc: Any Carbon Copy address(es) to which message is to be sent
- Bcc: Any Blind Carbon Copy address(es) to which message is to be sent
- Subject: The message subject
- Body: Any message Content
- ReplyTo: An address to which any reply should be sent (other than the From: address)
- Attach: Any files to be attached to the message
Refer to the Command Line Options page to see how to control this behaviour.
Replying to and Forwarding Mail
Replies and Forwards can be generated from either the Main Window or the Mail View window as explained below.
As with creating a new message, initially, the Property dialogue appears, but when replying or forwarding, some fields of the dialogue will already be populated with data from the original message, e.g. the subject line will appear prefixed with "Re: " or "Fwd: " (Advanced users can adjust this text by editing the nPOPuk.ini file). While the Property dialogue is open, the further Recipients and Attach dialogues may be opened and their contents amended, as required.
Once all details are confirmed correct and the OK button on the Property dialogue is selected the Mail Edit window or External Editor is opened.
On a Reply, by default, the entire text of the original message is quoted within the body of the reply under a "reply header". Each line of the quoted text is preceded with a "> " character pair.
Regardless of the "Quote original message" setting on the Global Options dialogue, if any of the text of the original message is selected before initiating the reply then only that text will be quoted. (This facility is the recommended way to include the full message Header Lines if they are needed in the body of a reply.
If a signature has been defined for the account, this will appear below the quoted text. This approach assumes that the user will delete any of the quoted text not relevant to their reply and interject their responses between appropriate lines of the original text. To change any of these defaults adjust the settings on the Reply tab of the Global Options dialogue.
With a Forward a similar process can be followed. However, there are differences:
- The To: line in the Property dialogue will always be blank and need completing
- A different set of options for laying out the message are available, accessed from the Global Options dialogue
- A warning is displayed where the message being forwarded has not been fully downloaded, with an option to abort the process.
- Attached files are handled differently.
Unlike replies, attached files remain attached and will be included with the message, subject to:
- The attachment must be fully downloaded. (The message and its attachments need not all be fully downloaded, but only those attachments that are complete will be forwarded.)
- The HTML part of a message cannot be forwarded unless the entire message is sent as an attachment.
These attachments are visible in the Attach dialogue from the Property dialogue, prefixed with "Fwd:". To forward an entire message as an attachment, simply check the "Attach message" box on the Property dialogue. The message in the Attach dialogue will change appropriately.
WARNING: nPOPuk expects to be able to copy attachments out of the original message at send time. It issues a warning should you attempt to delete the original message before the forwarded copy is sent. If the message is deleted anyway, or nPOPuk is unable to find the original message for some other reason, sending the forwarded copy will fail.
To Reply or Forward from the Main Window
To reply or forward from the Main Window, select the message, open the MAIL menu and select one of the following options:
- Reply: to write to the original sender only
(Menu: MAIL > REPLY, Keyboard: CTRL+R). - Reply to all: to write to all recipients of the original message and
the original sender
(Menu: MAIL > REPLY TO ALL, Keyboard: CTRL+ALT+R). - Forward: to write to a third party adding the contents of the
original message
(Menu: MAIL > FORWARD, Keyboard: CTRL+O).
NOTES:
1. It is also possible to right-click a message when
the MAIL menu opens as a floating context menu.
2. As with a new message, if the SHIFT key was held when starting the
Reply or Forward, the External Editor
will be invoked.
To Reply or Forward from the Mail View
Window
To Reply or Forward from the Mail View window, simply click the appropriate toolbar button:
- To create a reply only to the sender, click the white envelope icon with the single left pointing arrowhead (Menu: FILE > REPLY, Keyboard: CTRL+R)
-
- To create reply to all the recipients as well as the original sender, click the white envelope icon with the double left pointing arrowhead. (Menu: FILE > REPLY TO ALL, Keyboard: CTRL+ALT+R)
-
- To forward a message, click the envelope front icon with the right pointing single arrowhead on the Mail View window toolbar.(Menu: FILE > FORWARD, Keyboard: CTRL+O).
When replying from the Mail View window, it is possible to select only particular addresses to which to post a reply. To do this, open the Address Information dialogue, reached from the File menu.
NOTE: As with a new message, if the SHIFT key was held when starting the Reply or Forward, the External Editor will be invoked.
Spell Checking
There are a number of freeware spell checkers available which can be used with nPOPuk. Just one suggestion is made here:
tinySpell: (http://www.tinyspell.com - Approx 550kb, depending on version)
This simple spell checker will check any word copied to the clipboard. Alternatively, it can be made to sit in the Notification Area (System Tray) and optionally, actively check text as it is typed into any program.
The disadvantages are that the free version only comes with an American English dictionary and that its mechanism for replacing words is a little crude. When an error is detected, it beeps, and if an alternative spelling is accepted from the list offered, it replaces the offending word by backspacing and retyping in the corrected word. This approach means that use of the cursor keys can easily confuse the software!
Please post any suggestions you have for other freeware spell checkers on the Forum.