nPOPuk

Writing Mail

Page updated 1 November 2012

Go to TopThe Mail Edit Window

The nPOPuk Edit Window

To open the Mail Edit window you must first use one of the approaches outlined above. The elements of the window are explained below.

It is possible to start a number of new messages as, unlike the Mail View window, Mail Edit windows are not limited to a single instance.

A full list of Keyboard Shortcuts that work in this window are listed on a separate page.

Go to TopThe Title Bar

The Title bar of the window shows its name and the subject line, as defined in the Mail Property dialogue, in square brackets.

The options on the File Menu and Edit Menu are described below.

Go to TopThe Toolbar

The Toolbar contains a group of three buttons for the possible actions on completion of the message, one that re-opens the Property dialogue and a pair used to search mail for given text.

Resource
Folder
Native Description
Send Now Large Toolbar Button Send Now Toolbar Button Send Now
Mark to Send Large Toolbar Button Mark to Send Toolbar Button Mark to Send
Save to Outbox Large Toolbar Button Save to Outbox Toolbar Button Save to Outbox
Property Dialogue Large Toolbar Button Property Dialogue Toolbar Button Open Property Dialogue
Find Large Toolbar Button Find Toolbar Button Find Text
Find Next Large Toolbar Button Find Next Toolbar Button Find Next Occurrence of Text

The first four buttons duplicate the actions of the first four options on the File Menu. The Find Next button duplicates the action on the Edit Menu.

Under the Toolbar is the header area, which shows the principal mail properties. If they need to be changed, it is necessary to re-open the Property dialogue and edit them from there.

Go to TopThe Body Area

The main area of the window shows a cursor ready to accept text. Depending on the options seleced on opening the window may also show quoted text from a reply or for a forwarded message.

Go to TopFile Menu

The Mail Edit window File Menu

Send now
Immediately closes the window, saves the message in the Outbox, connects to the server, dialling if necessary, and completes a full update of the server.
CAUTION: This action not only sends the message in question, but also sends, deletes and downloads any other marked messages for the relevant account. Depending on the Account Settings and Global Options incoming mail may be checked as well.
Save and Mark
Closes the Mail Edit window and saves the message to the Outbox, marking it to be sent at the next server update.
Save to Outbox
Closes the Mail Edit window and saves the message. Typically, this option is used to save a draft message, that needs further editing before sending.
NOTE: The default behaviour relating to the three actions above is to switch to show the Outbox. You may wish to consider turning off this Global Option.
Property...
Opens the Property dialogue.
External editor
Closes the Edit window and re-opens the message body in an External Editor.
Save as...
Opens a File Save dialog to choose the name of a file to save the message as text.
Encoding...
Opens the Encoding dialogue. This option is normally accessed from the Global Options dialogue as part of initial setup of nPOPuk. It is only needed here if writing a one-off message in a language requiring foreign character set.
Attach files...
Opens the Attach files dialogue.
Close
Aborts the message being edited, closing the window.

Go to TopEdit Menu

The Mail Edit window Edit Menu

Undo
Cancels the most recent editing operation.
Cut / Copy / Paste
Execute the standard Windows functions.
Paste as quotation
Pastes the text on the clipboard, wrapped and with the quotation characters defined through the Global Options dialogue.
Reflow selection
Wraps any selected text to the line length defined under the Send tab of the Global Options dialogue. This "intelligent" option is especially useful for reflowing complex multi-level quotations in replies and forwarded mail.
Select all
Selects all the text in the window..
Find... 
Opens the Find dialogue to permit searches for specific text with in mail.
Find next
Continues the search for the previously defined string.
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.
Replace...
Opens the Replace dialogue to permit replacement of specific text within mail.
Paste from File...
Opens a standard Open file dialogue, with the defaults set to browse for *.txt files from the most recently opened folder. Browse for the required file, select it and click the Open button. The contents of the selected file is imported into the Mail Edit window at the location of the cursor.
Word Wrap
Toggles the text wrapping function. When selected, a check mark appears by the option and words are wrapped within the Mail Edit window.
Font...
Opens a standard Windows font dialogue that controls the appearance of text in the Mail Edit window.
NOTE: This setting has no effect on the message that is transmitted, which will be plain text. No special formatting of the mail is possible. The font seen by the recipient is determined by his own software.

Go to TopThe Sent Mail Window

Sent Mail Window

Once mail is marked as sent in the main window, it can no longer be opened in a Mail Edit window. Instead it opens in a revised version, the Sent Mail window. The change is indicated by the changed Title Bar which shows the revised name along with the message subject line.

The main difference between the two windows is that mail cannot be edited in the Sent Mail window and both the FILE and EDIT menus reflect this change.

Sent Mail Window - File Menu

The FILE menu shows two message navigation options and one to create a new message based on the sent item currently open. The first three buttons on the toolbar match these changed menu options.

Sent Mail - Edit Menu

On the EDIT menu those options that allow editing are disabled, leaving just those that control display active.

KNOWN ISSUE: The option to open mail in an external editor is provided to allow sent mail to be printed. If you never use an external editor for writing mail, it is recommended that you define an editor in the nPOPuk.ini file which has a command line switch that sets files to be opened in "read only" mode and use the nPOPuk.ini setting to set that switch. Without this it is possible to edit message text before printing, although any changes made are discarded and not incorporated into the saved sent message.

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