The Main Menu Bar
The File Menu
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License this software
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This option exists on the menu only if you have not yet entered your license
number into the application.
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Retrieve mail
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This option makes the program go to the server specified on the Mail
Servers page of the
General Settings,
or to the PPO Inbox Directory if you have that feature activated
on the
Personal Post Office page of the Advanced
Settings, to retrieve the mail. The new mail is placed into the current
account's INBOX folder, except in cases where a
Filter causes it to be placed elsewhere.
If your server is an IMAP4 server, this option will still download the
mail to the INBOX folder just as if this were a POP3 server account instead.
Use the
Preview IMAP4 Mail function if you want
to work interactively with your IMAP4 server and deal with the mail files
and folders on the server.
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Stop mail retrieval
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This option is enabled only while mail retrieval is taking place.
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Send mail
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This option makes the program send the messages in the current account's
OUTBOX folder to the SMTP or POP3 server specified on the Mail Servers
page of the General Settings, or to the
PPO Outbox Directory if you have that feature activated on the Personal
Post Office page of the Advanced Settings.
After the mail has been sent, it is moved from the OUTBOX folder to the
folder you have specified on the Sent Folder page of your default
Persona,
or the folder you specified in the Sent folder field of that specific
message while you were creating it in the compose
window, or by virtue of selecting an
address
book entry which has a specified Sent folder.
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Stop sending messages
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This option is enabled only while a send is taking place.
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Preview mail on the server
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This option brings up the Preview Mail feature.
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Message transaction log
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This option brings up the Message Transaction Log window which lets
you view or print the log of all messages sent and received by the current
account (the Transaction.Log file in the account
subdirectory).
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Popper message retrieval center
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When you use the Retrieve mail automatically
every [ ] minutes setting in an account without opening the Popper
window, the automatic retrieves happen only while that account is open.
When you open the Popper window, the old style of automatic retrieval which
only works on the open account is terminated, and will not be activated
again until you close and reopen that account, or close its settings notebook.
When you turn on the Popper window's Retrieval Center is Active
checkbox, automatic retrievals will be performed not only for the open
account, but also for all of your accounts configured for automatic
retrieval. If the Popper window is open when you close the Polarbar Mailer,
then it will automatically open the next time you open the program. After
you've connected to the internet, turn on the Retrieval Center is Active
checkbox and the retrievals will begin.
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The first account in the Popper window will do its retrieve and each of
the others will wait until the previous one is done. (Not only to spread
the CPU usage out over time, but also in case you have two Polarbar Mailer
accounts which access the same POP3 account. Most POP3 servers won't
allow the same account to be accessed by two client processes at the same
time.) The Popper retrieves the mail into a holding directory for each
account (below the POPPER subdirectory of your Mailer
directory). The new mail is actually brought into the INBOX
folder after the Popper retrieve is done only in the account that's open
at the time. The mail for the other accounts will be left in each account's
holding directory and the count of messages in each holding directory is
displayed in the Popper window. When you open any account, the program
looks to see whether there's anything in its Popper holding directory and,
if so, it is immediately brought into the INBOX folder of that account
and the Popper window's holding directory count is then updated for that
account.
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Turning on any account's Retrieve mail automatically
every [ ] minutes setting will add that account to the Popper window
if the Popper window is open. Turning off that setting in an account
will remove that account from the Popper window, even if that account is
currently being retrieved in the Popper window (the retrieve is halted
first). Turning off the Retrieval Center is Active checkbox in the
Popper window halts any retrieval that is currently taking place and prevents
any more retrievals from starting until you turn the checkbox on again.
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Settings
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General
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Advanced
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Exit
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This option closes the program.
The Account Menu
There is no limit to the number of different accounts you can set up
under one Polarbar Mailer installation. You can use different accounts
for different users or for different internet addresses for the same user.
Each account has its own settings, its own
folders (though accounts can be made to share folders by having "local"
folders under one account and "remote" folders under
the other accounts pointing to the first account's local folder directories),
its own Filters, etc.
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Create a new account
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This option lets you create a new account for another user or for another
internet address. If you specify only the account name, a directory by
that name will be created under the MailData subdirectory of your Mailer
directory and the account files and folders will be created in that new
directory. The program refers to these as "local" accounts. If you specify
a full pathname, such as "D:\My New Account", then that directory will
be created if it does not exist and the files and folders will be created
there. We refer to these as "remote" accounts. There are only two differences
between local accounts and remote ones: When you delete a remote account,
nothing actually gets deleted except the entry in the Account.Index file
and the account directory's Account.Settings
file. The directory, its other contents, and all of its folders and their
contents will still exist but Polarbar Mailer just won't see them anymore
unless you "create" the same account again or manually add the entry back
into the Account.Index file. The name of the account, as displayed within
the program, will include the pathname for remote accounts but not for
local ones.
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Delete the current account
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This option, when used while a "local" account (the usual type) is open,
deletes the account's directory, all of its files, folders, subfolders,
and all their contents. The program warns you twice before doing so because
there is no way to undo it after it's been done. When used while the current
account is a "remote" one, this option has a less drastic effect; see above.
At the bottom of this menu is the list of accounts, as specified in the
Account.Index file in your
Mailer directory.
Selecting an account from this menu closes your currently open account
and opens the one you selected.
The Folder Menu
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Create a folder
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This option lets you create a new mail folder in which to store and organize
your messages. Polarbar Mailer folders are nothing other than directories
on your hard drive or other similar storage medium. Other than those limitations
imposed upon directory names by your operating system or file system, you
can name a Polarbar Mailer folder anything you like, as long as it doesn't
end with the string ".POP" or ".pop". When you create a folder by specifying
name, the folder is created as a directory by that name, as a subdirectory
of your account directory. The program refers to
these as "local" folders. If you create a folder by specifying a pathname
instead (such as "D:\New Folder"), then that directory will be created
if it does not already exist and it will be the location of the new folder.
We refer to these as "remote" folders and their existence is known by the
existence of an entry in the account's Remote.Folder.Index file. There
are only two differences between local folders and remote ones: When you
delete a remote folder, the program asks you whether you really want to
delete all of the folder's contents or whether you just want to remove
the folder from the account's list of folders (the Remote.Folder.Index
file). If you make the latter choice, then the folder, its messages, and
its subfolders will still exist;
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Polarbar Mailer just won't see them anymore unless you "create" the same
folder again or manually add the entry back into the Remote.Folder.Index
file. The second difference is that the display of the folder name will
include the pathname for remote folders, but not for local ones.
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The support for remote folders means that you can have folders that are
accessible by all of your Polarbar Mailer accounts:
Create a folder in one account as either local or remote, then create the
same folder in the other accounts, as a remote folder, using the original
folder's pathname. For example, let's say you have an account named EMAIL
which you allowed the program to create in the default location. This means
its pathname is probably something like d:\polarbar\Mailer\MailData\email.
If you create a local folder named FOLDER in that account, then that folder's
pathname is d:\polarbar\Mailer\MailData\email\folder. When you create the
remote folder in the other accounts, specify d:\polarbar\Mailer\MailData\email\folder
as the folder to create. Any subdirectory of a Polarbar Mailer folder
will automatically be seen by the program as that folder's subfolder. This
applies to both local and remote folders.
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Create a subfolder
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This option lets you create a subfolder under the currently selected folder
in the tree.
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Folder tree font
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This option lets you specify the font you want to use for the tree.
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Delete
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This option deletes the currently selected folder, all of its messages,
and any subfolders and their messages. In the case of the INBOX, OUTBOX,
and TRASH folders, it only deletes the messages and subfolders, not the
folders themselves. In the case of "remote" folders (see Create a folder
above), it will ask you whether you want it to really delete the folder
and all of its contents, or whether you want it to just remove the folder's
entry from the Remote.Folder.Index file so the program will no longer see
the folder as being part of this account.
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Expand all
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This option opens all folders which have children, to display the subfolders,
sub-subfolders, etc.
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Collapse all
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This option removes all the subfolders and sub-subfolders, etc., from the
tree view area so only the main folders are showing.
The Message Menu
Some options on this menu, such as Delete and Copy to a folder,
can be applied to all of the selected messages in the message list at one
time. Other options, such as Sticky notes and Reply, can
only be applied to one message at a time. If you use such an option while
you have multiple messages selected, the option will act upon the top selected
message and ignore the others.
Many of the options on this menu can be activated by keystroke combinations
when focus is on the browser section of the window. The default keystrokes
are listed here, but you can change them to whatever you like, via the
customized keystrokes feature.
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Compose a new message
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This option opens the compose window so you
can create a new message.
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Browser window style
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This option lets you select whether you want to view your messages in the
ICE HTML browser window, the HotJava
HTML browser window, or the text browser window.
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Word wrap
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Also activated via Ctrl-W. This option turns word wrap on and off.
When word wrap is on, which is the default setting, lines of text which
are longer than the browser window is wide, will be wrapped down onto the
next line. When word wrap is off, this will not be done; furthermore, a
non-proportional font is used, so this is the correct setting to use when
viewing a message which contains, for example, columnar data that was formatted
for display by a character mode, rather than graphical, program.
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Decode attachments
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This option, turns attachment decoding off and on. When attachment decoding
is on, which is the default setting, then when you open a message which
contains an attachment, the binary attachment file data will be removed
and decoded (if it was encoded before transmission) into a temporary file
(in the atchmnts subdirectory of your Mailer
directory), and the only part of the message which will show in the browser
window will be the body text portion and any attachments HTML text; the
binary and text attachments will be available to you via the attachment
toolbar below the browser window. When
attachment decoding is off and you open a message which contains an attachment,
the browser window will show you the message just as it was sent to you
with the (encoded) attachment file data still inside it, in case you need
to see it for diagnostic reasons.
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Print
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Also activated via Ctrl-P. This option prints the message(s) currently
selected in the message list. If there are multiple selected messages,
they will be printed together, for page numbering purposes, but an Advanced
Setting lets you specify whether or not you want a page break between
each message. Whether or not the header lines of the message(s) will print,
and if so, how many of them will print, depends upon the current setting
of the Headers option (see below).
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Alter a composed message
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This option is available only in the OUTBOX folder. Its purpose is to edit
the selected message which you have created before sending it.
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Color code
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This option lets you add a color/shape code to the selected message(s)
for identification and classification purposes. Select None to remove
the existing color code(s) from the selected message(s). Each color/shape
code has a description which shows in the Specify a Message Color Code
dialog to remind you of the purpose for which you've decided to use that
color code. To specify or change a color code's descriptive text, select
it in this dialog and press the Change button. Filters
can also add color codes to incoming messages.
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Sticky notes
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Also activated via Ctrl-S, or the tiny icon at the top right corner of
the message in the HTML styles of browser
window. This option adds a sticky note to the selected message as a
reminder of anything you might want to remind yourself of in relation to
that message. It is actually a stream of text that is stored in the program's
index file entry for that message.
When you copy or move a message, its sticky note will go with it. This
option also lets you modify or delete a message's existing sticky note.
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Add message addresses to address book
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This option presents you with a list of all the internet addresses found
in the currently selected message and lets you pick one to add to the current
address book. You can change the current
address book there before doing so. You can also choose one address to
add to one address book and then change the current address book and choose
another address to add to that address book, etc. Each time you click on
the Add button, the following dialog will let you specify the nickname
for the new address book entry and choose whether or not this new entry
should be part of that address book's Short List. When you've finished
adding the desired address of the message to your address books, click
on the Close button to dismiss the dialog.
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Copy selected text to clipboard
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This option copies the selected text from the browser
to your clipboard if you're using an operating system which has a clipboard.
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Open browser using selected text
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This option opens a browser window using the selected text (in the Polarbar
Mailer main window's browser panel) as the URL to be visited. See The
Browser Window for details.
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Reply
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Also activated via Ctrl-R. This option opens the compose
window in reply mode with the Reply-to or From address of the selected
message already entered into the Addresses: field of your reply
and the Subject: line matching that of the original message (with
"Re:" inserted at the beginning if it was not already there). If the message
to which you're replying has multiple addressees or has a Sender: line
which probably indicates it's from a Majordomo or ListServ type of mailing
list, then the Select Address(es) for Reply dialog will also come
up offering you all of the email addresses found in the message. You can
select as many as you want. If you Cancel out of that dialog, then
the message's Reply-to address is the one to which your reply will be addressed.
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Forward
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Also activated via Ctrl-F. This option opens the compose
window, with the Subject: line matching that of the original
selected message (with "Fwd:" inserted at the beginning if it was not already
there) and the message text (not including any encoded attachment data)
copied into the text area of the compose window.
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This option is also used to resend a message you had previously sent. If
you want to resend a message without making any changes to it first, you
can just copy it to your OUTBOX folder.
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Bounce
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This option opens the compose window with
the Subject: line matching that of the original selected message,
and the message text (including any encoded attachment data) copied
into the text area of the compose window so that you can send it along
to someone else. The From: and Reply-to: header lines of the new message
will be copied from the original message rather than being your own. Your
signature, tagline, etc., will not be used. The
Sent folder: field
will be blank, so the message you're sending will not be retained unless
you choose a folder here yourself before closing the compose window. If
the original message has attachments, they will be sent as well (make sure
your Word wrap value is set wider than the
block of encoded data. If the attachment was MIME encoded, anything you
add to the message before the first MIME boundary or after the last MIME
boundary will most likely never be seen by the recipient since any data
in those two locations is normally discarded by any MIME processing software.
You cannot add your own attachments to a bounced message.
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Route
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This option lets you forward one or more selected messages, all to the
same addressee(s), without taking the time to go through the compose
window. First it lets you specify the addressees and optionally a short
note. Then it creates one OUTBOX message
for each of the selected messages, using the From and Reply-to names and
addresses and the Sent Folder of your default Persona,
the optional short note that you may have typed into the route dialog,
followed by a line which says "Routing message from" and your From name
and address and the date and time, and the text of the selected message.
The Subject: line of each new message will be the same as that of the original
from which it was created. Your signature, tagline, etc., will not be used.
If the selected message has attachments, they will be sent as well. If
the attachments are MIME encoded, the addressees will never see the "Routing
message from" line or the preceding short note, because the receiving software
routinely discards anything before the first MIME boundary line, according
to the MIME standard.
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Copy to a folder
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This option copies the selected message(s) to a folder after providing
you with the Select a Folder dialog. This dialog has a tree view
area just like that on the program's main window.
The Expand All and Collapse All buttons work like the menu
options on the Folder menu of the main menu bar. There is also a
New button that allows you to create a new folder or a new subfolder
of the selected folder. You can select an existing folder or create a new
one and select that and click on the OK button to have the selected
message(s) copied to the specified folder. Polarbar Mailer remembers
the last folder to which a message was copied.
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Move to a folder
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Also activated via Ctrl-M. This option is just like Copy to a folder
above except it moves the selected message(s) rather than copying
them.
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Save as
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This option copies the selected message (the *.POP file) to the drive,
directory, and filename you specify.
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Delete
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Also activated via Ctrl-D. This option moves the selected message(s) to
the TRASH folder and opens the message
below it in the browser window. If the
current folder is the TRASH folder, this option deletes the message from
the drive.
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Headers
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Also activated via Ctrl-H. This option lets you select how many header
lines you want to see for each message in the browser
window. (The keystroke lets you cycle through the four choices in order;
the menu lets you make a specific choice.) The state of this setting also
determines whether or not the header lines will be printed when you print
a message.
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None
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No header lines, just the message body text.
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Brief
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Only displays the From: and Date: headers on the first line, the Subject:
header on the second line, and the message body text.
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Normal
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The Date:, From:, To:, Cc:, Bcc:, and Subject: headers, each on its own
line and the message body text.
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All
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All of the header lines and the message body text.
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Message list font
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This option lets you specify the font for the message list.
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Browser window font size
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Also activated via Ctrl-T. This option lets you specify the font size you
want to use in the browser window. (The keystroke lets you cycle through
the four choices in order; the menu lets you make a specific choice.)
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Utilities
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Mark opened
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This option marks the selected message(s) as opened so they won't appear
in a
Virtual Folder of unopened messages.
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Mark unopened
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This option marks the selected message(s) as unopened, so that they will
appear in a
Virtual Folder of unopened messages,
even if you've already opened them.
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Copy to another account
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This option copies the selected message(s) to the INBOX
folder of another of your existing accounts, or
even lets you create a new account as the target of this operation.
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Move to another account
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Just like the above option, except that it moves the message(s) rather
than copying them.
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Store attachment(s)
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This option functions like the Store button on the Attachment
Processor dialog, but automatically, on all the attachments in all
of the selected messages, all at once, after asking you for the name of
the directory where you want the files to be stored.
The Tools Menu
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Address books
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Mail filters
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Download an internet file
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This feature provides a quick way of doing simple file retrievals from
the internet via the FTP and HTTP protocols. First, you specify the host
and pathname/filename of the file to retrieve. If you don't specify the
filename under which to store the file on your local system, the program
will use whatever comes after the last slash character in the host filename,
and put it into the directory from which the program was started. Or you
can type the local path and filename, or the Find button will give
you a file selection dialog to let you find the pathname and specify the
filename. Specify whether you want to retrieve the file via the FTP or
HTTP protocol. For FTP, you must specify your userid and password. The
program will remember the userid you used the last time you used this dialog,
and it will also remember the password if you turn on the Remember Password
checkbox. The
Options button will let you change the default parameters
for the port numbers; time to wait for a connection; and maximum idle time
to allow between packets received.
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Virtual Folders
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The Windows Menu
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Toolbar
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This option turns the toolbar on if
it's off, or turns it off if it's on. The state of this setting also controls
whether or not the compose window's toolbar
will be present.
The Help Menu
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Contents
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This option brings up the online help window. The Polarbar Mailer help
files are ordinary HTML web pages, which means that you can also use the
online help window as a simple web browser; that's the purpose of the URL
field at the top right. The only part of this window that isn't self-explanatory
is the Toggle Contents button on the toolbar; it toggles the window
between the normal display with the Contents and Index on
the left and the browser section on the right, and just the browser section
filling the whole window. (Note: This help system is called InnoHelp,
and can be purchased by Java developers via InnoVal's home page, http://www.innoval.com.)
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About
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This option shows you the version number of the Polarbar Mailer installation
you're running.