General Settings
This notebook is accessed via the toolbar
button by the same name, the General submenu option of the Settings
option on the program's main window's File
menu, or the OK-Goto General button in the
Advanced
Settings notebook. These two settings notebooks hold most of the program's
settings, but many others are found instead in the location where you use
them. For example, the main window's
Message
menu remembers things such as your Word wrap, Decode attachments,
Headers,
and font settings; the compose window remembers
your word wrap and font settings; etc.
The Mail Servers Page
The first option lets you specify whether your mail server is a POP3
server or an IMAP4 server. If you select IMAP4, two extra
settings, Mail Folder and Mailbox Name, will appear; see
Preview
IMAP4 Mail for their explanations as well as information about the
other ways in which the program will act differently based on whether an
account is configured for POP3 or IMAP4.
If you leave blank any of the next three fields here, the program will
prompt you for all of this information each time you try to retrieve mail
from the server. This can be useful if you don't want your password to
be stored on your hard drive (even though the program does encrypt it before
storing it) or if you often like to retrieve mail from other mail accounts
into one Polarbar Mailer
account. (However,
you probably don't want to leave the User Name field blank, because
unless you have the Personal Post Office
feature enabled, the program will open the General Settings notebook
automatically each time you start it if there's no User Name filled
in here.)
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Server
-
The address of the POP3 or IMAP4 server from which this account
gets its mail.
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User Name
-
The userid by which your POP3 or IMAP4 server knows this account. Very
often, the piece of information that goes here is the part of your email
address before the @ sign.
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Password
-
The password used to make your POP3 or IMAP4 server provide access to this
account's mail.
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Connection Timeout
-
How many seconds the program should wait for a connection. It will stop
waiting sooner than this if TCP/IP returns an error or if the connection
is made.
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Port
-
Usually 110, the port number to which the POP3 server will respond. For
an IMAP4 server, this setting is normally 143.
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Use SMTP instead of POP3 to send messages
-
If you turn off this checkbox, the program will attempt to send your mail
via your POP3 server. This will only work if your Internet Service Provider's
POP3 server supports the XTND XMIT command. Many POP3 servers do not. Most
ISPs and most users prefer to send via an SMTP server instead even when
they have access to a POP3 server which does have a proper XTND XMIT implementation.
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SMTP Server
-
The address of the SMTP server to which this account
should send its mail, if the Use SMTP instead of POP3 to send messages
checkbox is turned on.
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Port
-
Usually 25, the port number to which the SMTP server will respond.
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Alternate
-
A second SMTP server which the program can try to use any time there is
no response to an attempt to connect to the first one.
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Port
-
The port number for the Alternate SMTP server.
-
Connection Timeout
-
How many seconds the program should wait for a connection. It will stop
waiting sooner than this if TCP/IP returns an error or if the connection
is made.
The Retrieving Page
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Retrieve new mail only
-
This setting applies only when mail is being retrieved from a POP3 or IMAP4
server, not from the Personal Post Office
directory. When this checkbox is turned on, the program will only retrieve
messages that it thinks you haven't already read. You might use this setting
if you like to leave your mail on the server for safekeeping or for future
reference. The way in which the program will decide which messages you
have and have not read depends upon the state of the Mail server supports
the UIDL command setting, below. The only reason for the existence
of the high message counter method is for those few POP3 servers which
don't support UIDL.
-
If that setting is turned off, so that the UIDL identifiers can't be used,
then the program will only retrieve messages whose message number is higher
than that specified in the Last message number setting and it will
update that setting each time it retrieves a message. (This applies to
normal mail retrieval, not anything done by the Preview
Mail feature.) Do not use this setting if you use another program or
the Preview Mail feature to retrieve mail from the same server on the same
account, unless you manually adjust the Last message number setting
accordingly.
-
If the Mail server supports the UIDL command setting is turned on,
then the Last message number setting will be ignored and the program
will instead determine whether or not to retrieve a message based on whether
or not the server's Unique IDentification Listing for that message is already
stored in the account's UIDL.IDS file
or not.
-
Last message number
-
When the Retrieve new mail only setting is in use but the Mail
server supports the UIDL command setting is not, this number is what
tells the program which messages to retrieve from the server. For example,
when this setting says 6, the program will retrieve message 7 and anything
thereafter. If the program finds that there are only 6 messages in the
account on the mail server, it will think there are no new messages to
retrieve. If it finds that there are 5 or fewer messages on the server
(for example, if you have used Preview Mail
or another program to delete some), then it will retrieve all of the mail
since it obviously can't rely on a high message counter that's higher than
the last message in the server. However, if you use Preview Mail or another
program to delete some mail but some other new mail arrives too, so that
the number of messages in the server is still as high or higher than this
high message counter, the program will not retrieve all of your new mail.
For example, if the setting says 6, you've deleted 2, and 3 new ones have
arrived so the server now contains 7, then messages 5 through 7 are new,
but the program will only download message number 7 since that's the only
one that's higher than the high message counter. If you remembered to reset
this setting to 4 after you deleted the two messages from the server, though,
then everything would be fine and the program would download all of the
right messages.
-
Mail server supports the UIDL command
-
The program will automatically turn this checkbox off, if your server returns
an error code in response to the program's attempt at using the UIDL command
(see Retrieve new mail only, above). If your Internet Service Provider
installs new server software that does support UIDL, or you change to an
ISP whose server does, turn this checkbox back on. You can also turn this
checkbox off even if your server does support the UIDL command, if you
think you will not be wanting to use the UIDL feature any time soon and
you don't want the program to waste time retrieving the UIDL identifiers
if you're not going to be using them. If this checkbox is on, the program
will retrieve the UIDLs even when Retrieve new mail only is turned
off, so that once you do turn it on, the program will already know which
of the messages on your server you've read up to that point. The program
keeps the UIDL records of all the messages that are currently in your POP3/IMAP4
server account each time you retrieve mail, in the UIDL.IDS file in your
account
subdirectory.
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Delete retrieved messages from server
-
With this checkbox turned on, the program will delete messages from the
server after successfully retrieving them.
-
Retrieve mail automatically every [ ] minutes
-
With this checkbox turned on and a number of minutes specified, the program
will automatically retrieve new mail whenever the account
is open after each time the specified number of minutes elapses. To temporarily
turn it off, or to make automatic mail retrieval occur on all accounts,
see Popper.
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Provide a warning for messages larger than [ ] kilobytes
-
With this checkbox turned on and a number of kilobytes specified, the program
will not retrieve a message larger than that size. Instead, it will retrieve
only its headers. The message that ends up in your INBOX
folder will contain a notice from the program that you need to use the
Preview
Mail feature to retrieve the entire message. This way, you know the
sender and the subject line of the message to decide when to retrieve the
message at your own convenience rather than having your system tied up
by a large download when you weren't expecting it.
-
Play an audio file when new mail is received
-
With this checkbox turned on and a valid audio (.AU) file selected via
the Find button to the right, the program will play that audio file
instead of making the normal beep sound, when a mail retrieval action results
in new mail being received.
-
Send mail in outbox when performing receive
-
With this checkbox turned on PBM will try to send any messages in your outbox
as soon as a mail retrieval process has been started.
The Messages Page
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Prompt before deleting messages
-
With this checkbox turned on, the program will ask you for confirmation
each time you delete a message from a folder.
-
Prompt before permitting addresses without domains
-
With this checkbox turned on, the program will ask you whether you're sure
you haven't made a mistake each time you try to leave the compose
window with an addressee which is not formatted like a legal internet
address and is also not found as a nickname in one of your address
books. Turn this setting off if you need to be able to address messages
to other users on your own network without having to specify the domain
name as part of the address.
-
Include message headers when forwarding
-
If you turn this setting on, then when you forward
a message, its header lines will be included instead of only its message
body text.
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Default word wrapping ON/OFF for all composed messages
-
This setting lets you specify whether you want the Word wrap setting
on the Edit menu of the compose window
to be on or off by default.
-
Default MIME/UUENCODE as the method of encoding attached files
-
This setting lets you specify whether you want the compose
window's Attachments menu setting to default to Mime or UUencode.
The Cleanup Page
-
Maintain the Transaction Log
-
With this checkbox turned on, the program will monitor the size of the
message
transaction log file and remove the oldest entries in order to make
it adhere to the Maximum Number of Log Items setting. This action
is taken each time you close an account,
either by switching to another account or by closing the program.
-
Maximum Number of Log Items
-
If the Maintain the Transaction Log setting is turned on, the program
will remove the oldest entries from the message transaction log file in
order to keep only this number of entries in the file.
-
Maintain the Trash Folder
-
With this checkbox turned on, the program will monitor the size of the
TRASH
folder and delete the messages that have been in it the longest, in order
to make its size adhere to the
Maximum Number of Trash Messages
setting. This action is taken each time you close an
account,
either by switching to another account or by closing the program.
-
Maximum Number of Trash Messages
-
If the Maintain the Trash Folder setting is turned on, the program
will delete from the TRASH folder the messages which have been in it the
longest in order to keep only this number of messages in the folder.
-
Do Not Copy Discarded Messages to the Trash Folder
-
With this setting turned on, the program will actually delete all messages
you tell it to delete immediately, instead of ever moving them to the TRASH
folder as it would normally do.
-
Persist Java console output to debug file
-
Used for diagnostic purposes, this setting sends various messages about internal
operations and error messages to a file named DEBUG.OUT in the Polarbar main
directory. Normally this setting is off.
-
Max log size in kilobytes before archiving
-
Enabled only when Persist Java console is checked, this setting determines how
large the diagnostic file can grow to. Once this size is reached, it is either
truncated if the next setting (number of archives) is 0 or it is archived and
then truncated.
-
Number of log archives to keep
-
Enabled only when Persist Java console is checked, this setting determines how
many diagnostic files are kept. An archive file is created only when the diagnostic
file reaches the pre-defined max log size setting above. Any number of archived
files can be maintained, limited only by disk space.
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Number of status message lines to keep for viewing
-
This setting determines how far back you can view status line messages that are
ovewritten over time. Status line messages are the ones that show the number of
messages downloaded and how many notes were filtered, etc. The default is 100
lines. Entering a larger number for this value may result in increased memory
usage and should be adjusted with care.
-
Number of Java console lines to keep for viewing
-
This setting determines how far back you can view standard Java console messages
that are redirected by Polarbar when it starts. Java console messages usually
only occur when errors or diagnostic messages are produced by Polarbar error
handling routines. The default is 1000 lines. Entering a larger number for this
value may result in increased memory usage and should be adjusted with care.
The News Page
If your only use of internet newsgroups is by web sites such as http://www.dejanews.com
or
http://www.hotbot.com, you don't
need a news reader application. Those web sites let you read all the newsgroup
postings you want and they even let you write a reply, but not easily.
The Polarbar Mailer provides an easy way to write newsgroup postings and
replies so you can interact with such web sites in both directions without
using a full-fledged news reader. To write an original posting, just type
NEWS: and the newsgroup name as the addressee, in the compose
window. To reply to a posting on a newsgroup web site, see Paste
quoted.
-
News Server
-
The address of your news server.
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Port Number
-
Usually 119, the port number to which the news server will respond.
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Interpret addresses containing a period (.) but no (@) as newsgroups
-
If you leave this setting on, then you don't have to type NEWS: before
a newsgroup name in the Addresses: field of the compose
window. The program will assume that any address that has a period
without an @ sign is a newsgroup and will send the message using your news
server. (If the message also has other addressees that don't look like
newsgroup names, the program will send the message to those addressees
using the SMTP or POP3 server; it will only send the message to the news
server for those addressees that look like newsgroup names.)
-
Note: This setting applies to you even if you never want to use the Polarbar
Mailer for newsgroup postings or replies. If you need to be able to send
an email message to an address which does not contain an @ sign but does
contain a period (for example, another user at your own domain so that
you want to leave off the @ sign and the domain name, but his username
has a period in it), then you have to turn this setting off or else the
program will always try to send that message to your news server (and if
you don't have your news server setting filled in, the program is going
to prompt you for it at send time). With this settings turned off, the
program will never try to send anything to the news server unless you type
NEWS: in front of the address in the compose window.