Mail Menu Help
Name: | Mail Menu |
Version: | 2.2 |
Last update: | 2019-11-27 14:12:54 |
This help file describes the Mail Menu. This package allows you to
compose an e-mail message in Alpha, and then send it using one of the
various mail handler services provided. Some sophisticated AlphaTcl mail
handlers also allow you to read your e-mail in Alpha.
Introduction
Alpha allows you to compose your email using Alpha and then send it using
one of the Mail Handler services provided. This Mail Example hyperlink will insert the Mail menu in the menu
bar, and demonstrate the use of the New Message menu item.
To turn on the Mail Menu, select the
Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ Menus item and
click the checkbox next to Mail Menu.
Click here to display the Menus Preferences dialog.
The default Mail Handlers in Alpha's standard distribution include:
- Apple Mail
- This mail handler allows you to send your new e-mail using Apple's Mail
application.
- Default Mailer
- This is a very simple Mail Handler -- after you have composed a new Mail
message you can compile its contents. It is sent using your default mailer
client, that it to say to whichever mail application that is considered the
default mail application by OS X. A new window is opened in the default
mailer application and you must use this client's UI to actually send the
new message.
- Eudora
- If you use the Eudora mail client (MacOS only), Alpha provides a reasonably
complete mail handling system, communicating with Eudora by apple-events.
You can view messages previously downloaded by Eudora, transfer them to
different Eudora mailboxes, or delete them.
- Alpha
- This Mail Handler allows you to send your new e-mail internally from Alpha,
provided that you have an smtp server account available.
To obtain more information about these different Mail Handlers, select this
Mail Handler Help hyperlink.
You can also instruct Alpha to automatically open mailto:... hyperlinks in
a new Mail Menu window. These hyperlinks appear in many Help files. Just
adjust your Compose Email Using preference that appears in the dialog
Alpha ↣ Preferences ↣ Global Preferences ↣ WWW.
Mail Menu
The Mail Menu always includes the items listed below. Some Mail Handlers
will add more commands, as described in their
Mail Handler Help windows.
Note that some of the Keyboard Shortcuts associated with these menu items can
be changed, select Mail Menu ↣ Mail Menu Prefs to open a dialog that
includes the various options.
- New Message
- Create a new message. Use tabs to move between fields.
- New Message To
- This menu includes all previously e-mail addresses that you've saved using
the Mail Menu ↣ New Message To ↣ Add New E-mail command. Selecting any one
of them will open a new message window with the To: field filled in.
- Add Cc
- Create a Cc: line.
- Add Bcc
- Create a Bcc: line.
- Select Next Field
- Use the Keyboard Shortcut for this item (the default is Tab) to navigate the
current Mail window fields, i.e. To:, Cc:, Subject: and the body of the
message.
- Send
- Send the message using the protocol defined by your Mail Handler.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The Mail Menu includes a number of default Keyboard Shortcuts that you can
change via the Mail Menu ↣ Mail Menu Prefs ↣ Menu Shortcuts dialog pane.
All changes will take place immediately, without the need for a restart.
Important: These Keyboard Shortcuts are only available when
the mode of the active window is Mail. Even if the Mail Menu has
been turned on globally, you will have to select menu items manually using your mouse until the menu command has opened a window in
Mail mode.
Mailbox Browser Windows
If your Mail Handler supports the reading of e-mail messages (and not just
the sending of new ones you have composed), summaries of mailboxes and
incoming messages are displayed in a Mailbox Browser Window, a read-only
window that displays the originator and subject of each messages.
Move down the list by using the Down-Arrow, Control-N, or Space. Move up the
list by using the Up-Arrow, Control-P, or Delete.
View the entire message by pressing Return or Enter.
While viewing messages, Space scrolls down the message, closing the window
when the end is reached. Delete scrolls up the message.
You can change the default window parameters (geometry) of Mailbox browsing
windows via the Mail Menu ↣ Mail Menu Prefs ↣ Mail Windows dialog pane. If
the preference for Remember Window Geometry is turned on, then whenever you
re-size the browsing window manually the new parameters will be used for
all future browsing windows. Otherwise, the geometry preference is only
changed when you do so explicitly via the preferences dialog.
Mail Viewing Windows
If your Mail Handler supports the reading of e-mail messages (and not just
the sending of new ones you have composed), pressing Return or Enter in the
Mailbox Browser Window will open a new viewing window in Mail mode. All
of the relevant e-mail header fields will be listed at the top of the window,
along with some handy hyperlinks to Reply/Reply To All and Trash the
message in the active window. The body of the message is displayed beneath a
divider line that looks like this:
>========================================<
You can change the default window parameters (geometry) of Mail viewing
windows via the Mail Menu ↣ Mail Menu Prefs ↣ Mail Windows dialog pane. If
the preference for Remember Window Geometry is turned on, then whenever you
re-size the viewing window manually the new parameters will be used for all
future browsing windows. Otherwise, the geometry preference is only changed
when you do so explicitly via the preferences dialog.
You can also change the default Font for viewing windows.
Composing and Sending Mail
Select the Mail Menu ↣ New Message menu item to open a New Mail window.
If you want to postpone the composition, select Mail Menu ↣ Save As Draft
to place the contents in your Drafts folder and close the window.
If you attempt to close a New Mail window that has not been sent, you will
first be presented with the standard Save Changes before closing? dialog.
If you press the Save button then you must select a folder in a local disk
in which to save the message as a new file. If you press the Don't Save
button in this initial dialog, then another one will appear asking if you
want to save this message in your special Drafts folder. (Yes, this
two-step dialog business is a bit awkward, we'll see if we can clean it up in
a future release.)
After composing a new e-mail message, select Mail Menu ↣ Send to instruct
your current Mail Handler to send the message. You have the option to save
all sent e-mail messages in your Mail Mode Sent Folder and to automatically
close the window.
Use the Mail Menu ↣ Sent Mail submenu to set any of the options associated
with sending mail, or to open a previously sent message in a new window.
Remembered E-mail Addresses
The Mail Menu ↣ New Message To menu contains a list of e-mail addresses
that you can automatically include in the To: field for new messages. You
can assign a unique menu name for each address.
Turn on the Remember Recipient Email preference to add the sendee's address
to the Mail Menu ↣ New Message To list of options whenever you send mail.
This list of remembered addresses will also be offered when you select the
Mail Menu ↣ Add Cc / Add Bcc / Forward menu item.
Once you have created a list of remembered e-mail addresses, you can rename
the menu item associated with them, edit the addresses, or delete them.
Mail Attachments
As of this writing, it is not possible to send attachments with your e-mails.
When you receive e-mails that have attachments they will be displayed as a
one-line message, but it is not possible to download or view/save them.
Summary
To send a message:
- Mail Menu ↣ New Message
- Tab (to subject line), type subject of message
- Tab (to body), type body of message
- Mail Menu ↣ Send
To reply to a message (assuming a message is open and your Mail Handler
supports the viewing of messages from your server):
- Mail Menu ↣ Reply
- Continue as above.
Known problems
Please report any problem or bug you encounter in
Alpha's Bug Tracker.
License and Disclaimer
Original Author: Pete Keleher.
Copyright (c) 1995-2019, Pete Keleher and Contributors.
Contributors: Vince Darley, Juan Falgueras, Jon Guyer, Craig Barton Upright.
All rights reserved.
The Mail Menu package is free software and distributed under
the terms of the new BSD license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of Pete Keleher nor the names of its contributors
may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL PETE KELEHER OR THE CONTRIBUTORS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.