MailPartner
MailPartner™

Internet Mail Client

Copyright 1997, Acropolis Software. All Rights Reserved

Acropolis Software

P.O. Box 5037,  Fair Oaks, CA  95628

(916) 967-4791 Voice/Fax

orderdesk@acropbbs.com or support@acropbbs.com

http://members.aol.com/acropsoft/

Send and receive Internet mail	Built-in spell checking for your messages

Send and receive MIME/UUE files	Handle Multiple E-mail accounts

Manage multiple mailing lists	Automated form letter replies

Multiple mailboxes	Sort incoming e-mail

Decode web page form data	Import your old e-mail

For an explanation of the options on the various menus select one of the following links:

File Menu 	Messages

Search Menu 	Spelling Menu

Mailboxes Menu 	Move Menu

Setup Menu 	Window Menu

Help is also available to aid in configuring MailPartner.

Auto-Reply allows you to send a canned message or messages.

MailPartner can be setup to handle the Decoding of messages from World Wide Web page forms and place them in comma delimited files for importing into database programs.

MailPartner has a master mailing list as well as sublists of the master list.

There are Sorting Options for in coming E-Mail.

The Profile Options will explain how to configure MailPartner for multiple E-Mail accounts.

You can Import your old mail into MailPartner.

Click here for an explaination of the functions on the Button Panel.

A Glossay of terms and acronyms is also available.


File Menu

The File Menu has the following options:

Check Mail	Contact the news server and retrieve any new mail.

Send Queued Mail	Send any mail queued up in the Out Basket.

Change Profile	Change to a different configuration profile.

Create Profile	Create a new configuration profile.

Delete Profile	Delete a configuration profile.

Print Setup	Select/Configure your printer.

Print	Print the current message.

Import Old Mail	Import your old e-mail messages.

Exit	Exit MailPartner.

Profile Options will explain how profiles and configure MailPartner to support multiple e-mail accounts.


Messages Menu

New Message	Start a new mail message.

Reply	Reply to a message sent to you.

Forward	Quote a message sent to you and sent to someone else.

Redirect	Send a message sent to you to someone else.

Auto-Reply	Generate an auto-reply to a message sent to you.

Delete	Delete a message and place it in the Trash basket.

Add To Mail List	Add the address of the selected message(s) to the master mailing list.

Deleting a message will place it in the trash basket.  However, if the message you are deleting is in the Trash basket then it will be deleted completely.


Move Menu

-> In	Move the selected messages to the In mailboxes.

-> Trash	Move the selected messages to the Trash mailboxes.

-> User Created	Move the selected messages to one of the user created mailboxes.

Move the selected messages to one of the user created mailboxes.. The User Created is actually a list of all the personal mail boxes you have created.  You can create new boxes, or delete existing ones, by selecting the New/Delete command from the Mailboxes Menu.


Mailboxes Menu

New/Delete...	First, create a new mailbox by selecting New/Delete from the Mailboxes menu. You will then be presented with the Mailbox Alteration dialog box (see below). You may then add or delete mailboxes

Empty Trash	Delete all the mail in the Trash.

Compact Mailboxes	Removes unused space in mailbox files.


Setup Menu

Settings...	Configure the mail settings/features of MailPartner.

Auto Reply...	Configure Auto-Reply settings.

Mailing List...	Create/Add/Delete/Modify your mailing list.

Mail Sorting...	Add/Delete incoming message Sorting Options.

Form Decoding...	Setup MailPartner to decode field data from web page forms into comma separated value database files. For more information see: Form Decoding


Search Menu

The Search Menu has the following options:

Find 	Find text in the message.

Find Again 	Find the next occurrence of text in the message.

Replace	Find text in the message and replace it with different text.

The Replace option is only available when you are editing a reply.


Spelling Menu

The Spelling Menu has the following options:

Check Spelling	Test the spelling of the mail message.

Dictionary Manager	Remove user added words from the dictionary.

If no text is selected then the entire mail message will be spell checked except for any quoted text.  Quoted text is any line of the message that begins with >.

If you have a portion of the text selected, then only the selected text will be spell checked. Check Spelling is only available while editing a reply.

Ignore	Ignore just the current word.

Ignore All	Ignore all occurrences of the word.

Change	Change just the current word. (You can also double click on the correct word in the list of suggested correct spellings.)

Change All	Change all occurrences of the current word to the new spelling.

Add	Add the word to the dictionary.

Suggest	Re-suggest correct spellings based on common typing errors.

Phoneme	Re-suggest correct spellings based on how the word sounds.

Cancel	Stop spell checking.

The Dictionary Manager dialog window will allow you to delete words from the user added dictionary.  You can delete them one at a time or select several words and delete them all at once.


Window Menu

The Window Menu has the following options:

Tile	Arrange the open documents as non-overlapping windows.

Cascade	Arrange in open documents as overlapped windows.

Arrange Icons	Arrange any minimized windows at the bottom.

Window List	The list of available windows.

Selecting one of the windows on the Window List will make that window come to the front of all displayed windows.


Configuration

The configuration window has the following pages:

Connections to set the information needed for MailPartner to connect to your mail server.

Personal to set your personal information like your name and return mail address.

Replying to set the options to use when replying to mail.

CheckingMail to set the options to use while checking mail.

Spelling to set the spell checking options.

Etcetera... to set some assorted options.

At the minimum you must set the information on the Connections and Personal pages before you will be able to use MailPartner. The other pages will allow you to further customize MailPartner, but for most people the defaults will work properly for them.


Connection Setup
Connections Setup

The Connections setup page is the most important configuration page. This is where you set the addresses of your:

SMTP Server (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

POP3 Account name (for receiving mail)

POP3 Server (Where your mail is retrieved);

Password for accessing them

The SMTP Server is normally the name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider), or the name that comes after the '@' in your email address or the name of your ISP with mail. in front of it. The POP3 Server is usually the same as the SMTP Server. The POP3 Account is almost always your email address.

Password is the password used to let the server know it is really you.  For security reasons your password will only be displayed as asterisks, so make sure you type it in correctly.

If you don't know what your SMTP/POP3 server addresses are or what your POP3 account should be, contact your Internet Service Provider; they can supply that information.

If you have more than one e-mail account you can create additional profiles (see Profile Options) and configure the Connections information for it so that you can use MailPartner to handle multiple mail accounts.

The next group of information that needs to be set is on the Personal Setup page.

Return to Main Configuration.


Person Setup
Personal Setup

The Personal setup page lets you:

set your email return address

the name you want to be known by

your organization name, if any

The Return Address field must contain your correct email address, otherwise no one will be able to reply to your mail. Note: The mail server will reject messages from you if the return address is incorrect.

The Real Name and Organization fields can optionally be left blank, but it is recommended that you fillout at least the Real Name field.  Without that information, anyone receiving mail from you would not know who it is from unless they remember your email address.

The Organization field usually contains the name of your company or, if it is for personal use, the name of the Internet Serve Provider. It can, however, say anything you want  or it may be left blank.

Note: The information on the remaining configuration pages will work with the default settings for most people.  You may want to review the remaining options, however.

Note: The information on the remaining configuration pages will work with the default settings for most people.  You may want to review the remaining options, however.

If you want to change things the next group is the Replying Setup  page.

Return to Main Configuration.


Reply Setup
Replying Setup

The Attachments box selects how to send attachments (photos, documents, etc.) as either MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) or UUE (UnixtoUnix Encoded) files.  For mail messages, the standard is MIME; some older systems may require the attachment file in UUE format.

If Quote Message When Replying is checked, your reply to a mail message will contain a copy of the original message at the beginning of the reply.  If you have it checked, the option of checking Quote Header As Well is available.  If it is checked, the header of the message will be included as part of the reply.

The Signature File is a text file that may be inserted at the end of an email messages.  If you do not want a signature file, leave the edit box empty.  You can use the Select button to search your hard drive for the desired signature file.

The Quote Header String is a line of text that will be placed above the quoted message.  If Quoting is turned off it will not be added to the reply.

The default quote is "On $d, $n wrote...". It will place: "On date the message was written, name of person who sent the mail wrote..." prior to the text of the quoted message. In addition to "date of quoted message" and "name of person who sent the message," other options are available; there is no limit to the number of options you may use.

The "$" options are:

n	Name of person who sent the mail.

d	Date on which the mail was sent.

r	Email address of person who sent the mail.

o	Organization of person who sent the mail.

s	Subject of the original mail message.

$	Include a "$" in the header. (For example, $$ will result in a single dollar sign)

If you do not want a quote string, delete all the text and leave it blank.

The group of setup options are on the CheckingMail page.

Return to Main Configuration.


Spelling Configuration
Spelling Setup

The Spelling setup page allows you to control MailPartner's spell checking options.

The User Dictionary is the name of your personal dictionary; it contains all the unique words you have added while spell checking. The User Dictionary is usually in the same directory as MailPartner. You may, however, select a different name for the User Dictionary. In a network environment, you may wish to place the User Dictionary in a different directory. Specify the new name and/or path in the area provided under User Dictionary Name.

The Spelling Dictionary allows you to select the main spelling dictionary.  Clicking in it will show a list of the currently available dictionaries.

Suggestion Type sets the method MailPartner will use to find suggestions for misspelled words. Phoneme is best for people who spell words the way they sound.  Closest Match is best for people whose most common spelling errors are typographical or letter reversals.

Checking Give Extra Suggestions will cause MailPartner to increase the number of suggestion displayed.  Leaving it unchecked will speed up finding suggestions on slower machines, but will result in fewer suggestions for the correct spelling.

The next group of configuration options is the Etcetera... page.

Return to Main Configuration.


Etcetera Setup

The Et cetera setup page contains miscellaneous options for controlling MailPartner's behavior.

The Graphics options select the icon MailPartner uses when showing you messages. The options are the yellow Smiley Guy, a Space Alien and the Standard Mailbox.

If Query About Compacting on Exit is checked, MailPartner will check the unused space that has accumulated in your mailbox database (caused by deleting messages).  If it's over 25%, you will be given the option of compacting your mailbox when you exit.

If the Show Button Panel box is checked (the default), MailPartner will display a panel of buttons to give you quick access to some of the more common commands  .

Connect Time Out sets the number of seconds that MailPartner will wait for your ISP to respond to an attempt to connect.  Sixty seconds is a good default.  You may want to increase it if you are also running other Internet programs that keep moving a lot of data between you and your ISP, such as downloading messages from a news server or downloading a file with your web browser.

If Confirm Mail Deletion is checked, you will be asked to confirm each time before a message is actually deleted.

Return to Main Configuration.


Checking Mail Setup

The Checking Mail setup page lets you set several options to use while checking mail.

The Delete Mail From Server option tells MailPartner whether or not it should delete the mail from your ISP's mail server after retrieving it.  If you leave the box checked, the mail will be removed from the mail server after you have retrieved it. If it is unchecked, copies of your mail will be left on your  ISP's mail server.

Normally, you want to leave it checked so that the mail will be deleted from the server. Otherwise the mail file on your ISP's server will continue to grow since none of your mail will ever be deleted. It should only be unchecked if you are using MailPartner on two or more computers.  This will allow you to retrieve mail on one computer and still have the messages on your ISP's server for retrieval by your second computer.  You must, however, have at least one of the computers configured to delete the mail or none of it will ever be deleted from the mail server.

Check Mail Every xx Minutes will set MailPartner to contact your mail server and check and retrieve any new mail.  You must have your WinSock up and running and be connected to your ISP for this option to function. If you are reading news groups or browsing the web, MailPartner will automatically check your mail every xx minutes while you are online.

The Attachment Directory is the directory on your hard drive where MailPartner will place any attachments (files, graphics, etc.) that are mailed to you.  If you leave it blank the files will be placed in the current default directory  usually the directory in which you have the MailPartner program.

The next group of configuration options is the Spelling page.

Return to Main Configuration.


Auto-Replies

You can configure your auto-replies by selecting Auto-Reply Setup from the Setup Menu.

When you autoreply to a message, the Select AutoReplies selection dialog box will appear.  You can select one or more replies to attach to a message.  If the Preview Reply box is checked, MailPartner will display the reply for you to send manually.  If it is not checked MailPartner will immediately send the message after you press the Do Reply button.

To select more than one reply, you can click on multiple entries while holding down the Control key or select a range by clicking on the first response you want and then, while holding down the Shift key, click on the last response in the range you want. All highlighted messages will be added to the reply.


Auto-Reply Setup

Auto-Reply Setup allows you to configure Auto-Replies for use with MailPartner.  Clicking the New button will create a new auto-reply.

The options for an AutoReply are:

Reply Name	An identifying name for the AutoReply; it will be the name shown when you select an AutoReply.

Message From	The default is the Real Name field in the Personal Configuration page. You may edit the Message From field in the AutoReply Setup.

Return Address	The default is your email address as entered in the Personal Configuration page.  Unless your mail server is set up to allow you to send mail from multiple email addresses, it is recommended that you leave this as your normal email address.

Organization	The default is the optional Organization field in the Personal Configuration page. You may edit the Organization field in the AutoReply Setup.

File To Insert	This is the file containing the text that will be placed in the reply.  You can type the name of the file directly into the edit box or use the Select Insert File button to search your hard drive for the desired file.

Quote Message In Reply	This option tells MailPartner if it should quote the original message in the autoreply.  If it is checked, the original message will be quoted.  That also makes the Quote Header As Well option available.  If it is also checked, the header of the original message will be included in the quoted text. If it is not checked, only the body of the original message will be included.

The Delete button will delete the selected autoreply from the list.

The Edit button will allow you to change the information for the selected autoreply.

The Preview Replies checkbox sets the default setting of the "Preview Reply Before Sending It" option when selecting autoreplies in the AutoReply Selection dialog box. This default may be overridden on a casebycase basis when the AutoReply function is used. Just uncheck it for each AutoReply you wish to preview.


Auto-Reply Selection

When you auto-reply to a message, the Select Auto-Replies selection dialog box will appear.

You can select one or more replies to attach to a message.  If the Preview Reply box is checked, MailPartner will display the reply for you to send manually.  If it is not checked MailPartner will immediately send the message after you press the Do Reply button.

To select more than one reply, you can click on multiple entries while holding down the Control key or select a range by clicking on the first response you want and then, while holding down the Shift key, click on the last response in the range you want. All highlighted messages will be added to the reply.


Mailing List Setup

If you routinely mail the same message to a number of different recipients, the Mailing List function will save hours of tedious work. One message may be sent to any number of preentered addressees. This function is quite powerful and requires some preplanning in order to take full advantage of its power and flexibility.

The mailing list setup allows you to control your master mailing list that contains the email addresses of people to whom you frequently send mail.

Additionally, you can create or modify sublists of people  in the master mailing list. Using sublists, you can quickly and easily send the same message to one or several hundred people by simply selecting the appropriate sublist from the mailing list selection dialog box while writing your message.

The Mailing List Setup dialog lets you add and remove names from you master mailing list as well as create and modify sublists.

Master List Control

The buttons under the Master Mailing List control those entries.  You can use the Delete button to delete the selected person from the master list as well as any sublist they maybe in, Change to alter their email address, the >>Add>> button to add the selected person to the sublist highlighted in the Sublist Names list.

To add a person to the master mailing list, click New button; the following panel will appear:

Type the name in the edit box and press the [ENTER] key.  When you are finished adding the name, click the Done button.

Sublist Names Control

The New button under the Sublist Names list works similarly except it creates a new empty sublist.  Creating a Sublist allows you to group people in the master list for easier selection.

The Delete button will delete the selected Sublist and the Rename button will let you rename the Sublist.

SubList Contents Control

The buttons under the Sublist Contents list work the same as the others.  The Delete button deletes a person for the current Sublist and the New button will add a person to the current Sublist.

Caution: adding a person to the Sublist will also add them to the master mailing list.  Deleting someone from a Sublist will only delete them from the Sublist and not from the master mailing list.


Mailing List Selection

If you click on one of the [image] buttons next to either the To:, CC: or BCC: fields when sending a message you will be presented with your mailing list.  The first entries will by any sub-list you have setup followed by the complete mailing list.  Select one or more and it will be placed in the field you selected.

To select more than one person or list you can click on an entries while holding down the Control key or select a range by clicking on the first one you want and then while holding down the Shift key click on the last one in the range you want.

You can create and maintain mailing list and sub-lists by selecting Mailing List Setup from the Setup Menu.


Sorting Options
Sorting Options Setup

If you receive a large volume of mail, you will find MailPartner's sorting option particularly timesaving. Your mail may be sorted by From, To, Subject, Return Path or words/phrases in the body of the message.

To create a sorting option, start by clicking on the name of the mailbox you want it placed in  then click the New button under the Sort Options list.  The blank area under it will be replaced with the following dialog box.

Enter the text you want to sort by and in which field it appears. In the example, all messages with "EditPartner" in the subject line will be placed in the "EditPartner" mailbox.

Pressing [ENTER] will add it to the list of sort options and then wait for you to enter another Sort Option. When you have finished, click the Done button.

Any message that does not match any of the sort options will be placed in the In mailbox as normal.

If you enter the same sort options for two or more mailboxes, a copy of the message will go into each mailbox that matches the criteria.

Hint: To make the sorting option more useful, use a different Real Name on the Personal Setup configuration page when you initially subscribe to a mailing list. Having something unique in the "To:" field makes sorting more consistent and useful.  Something as simple as a slight change in the spelling of your name is effective; for example, Robert Bequette, Bob Bequette or R. Bequette.  Another way is to add a unique number after your real name  you can then sort any message with that number in the "To:" field into the appropriate mailbox.

If you use a different real name when posting to Usenet newsgroups you can also use the "To:" field to sort any message sent as replies to those posts to a different mailbox.

If the mailing list sends everything from the same address, you can use the address in the "From:" or "Reply To:" field to sort them into the right mailbox.


Glossary Of Terms
Glossary

Attachment	An attachment is a file you add to an email message. An email message can have more than one file attached, or can be just attached file(s) with no actual email text.

BCC:	(Blind Carbon Copy) Like the CC header, the BCC is a list of people who should also receive a copy of the email message. It differs in that the people in the BCC field will not be listed on the original email message as having received a copy.

CC:	(Carbon Copy) The CC header in a message is a list of people who should also receive a copy of the email message.

FTP	(File Transfer Protocol) The protocol used to transfer files between computers on the Internet.

HTTP	(HyperText Transport Protocol) The protocol used by the World Wide Web.

ISP	(Internet Service Provider) The company/computer you call to connect to the Internet.

MIME	(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) The standard method for transferring files and other nontext based data between people using email on the Internet.

POP3	(Post Office Protocol version 3) POP3 is the method used to send email to another person on the Internet.  A POP3 Server is the server program running on your ISP's computer. A POP3 account is your email account on that server.

SMTP	(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) The method used on the Internet for picking up email sent to you.  A SMTP Server is the server program running on your ISP's computer.

UUE	(UnixtoUnix Encoded) An older method of transferring files between people using the Internet.  UUE is not very common for mail, but is the most common method for transferring files within Usenet Newsgroups.

URL	(Universal Resource Locator) This is the address used for a location on the WorldWideWeb. It may look something like http://members.aol.com/acropsoft.

WWW	(World Wide Web) That section of the Internet devoted to the transmission of  "pages" of information that are graphicbased.


Profile Options

The profile options allow you setup MailPartner to handle multiple email account configurations.  That way if you have more than one email account you can use one copy of MailPartner to handle all of them.

When MailPartner is first started it will load and use the default profile. If you only have one email account all you will ever use is the default profile and can ignore this section.

On the File Menu there are three options to deal with configuration profiles. Change Profile, Create Profile and Delete Profile.

Change Profile will switch MailPartner from one profile to another. However, if you only have one the one default profile it will be grayed and unavailable. If you have more than the default profile it will contain a submenu from which you can select which configuration profile to use.

Create Profile allows you to create a new configuration profile.  When you select it a window will appear that and let you enter the name of a new profile to create.  When you click OK to create you will immediately be switched to the new profile configuration.  It will be configured exactly as the MailPartner was when you created it.  You can now use the Setup command on the Configuration Menu to change any needed settings.

Delete Profile allows you to delete any configuration profile except the Default Profile (it will not even me an option) or the profile currently active.  MailPartner will prompt you to confirm the deletion.

Warning: Make sure you really want to delete a configuration profile before doing so, as it will delete the configuration for it as well as the data files on the hard drive containing any mail you have received or sent with that account.


Button Panel

The Button Panel contains several speed buttons that allow you quick access to many of the most common menu commands.

The buttons are:

Check for new Mail.  File|Check Mail

Start a new e-mail message.  Messages|New Message

Reply to a message.  Messages|Reply

Auto-Reply to a message.  Messages|Auto-Reply

Check the spelling of a message.  Spelling|Check Spelling

Delete a message.  Messages|Delete


Form Decoding Options
Form Decoding Setup

Form decoding will let you set up MailPartner to automatically decode database entries sent from your web page or pages into comma separated value files ready for importing into most database programs.

The buttons function as follows:

Add	creates a new Form Decoding definition.

Delete	deletes the selected form decoding definition.

Add Field	adds a new field to the list of fields to decode for that form.

Delete Field	deletes the selected field from the list.

If you delete or add a field to an existing database file you should copy the old file and delete the copy indicated as the Save File. Otherwise the header field at the top of the file will no longer match what you have entered.

Save File is the file to place the database records in. You can manual enter the filename or use the Select File button to locate or create one.

The name entered in Mailbox is the name of the mailbox who's incoming messages are scanned for the database field. You can use the Sorting Options to control which messages go into that mailbox. This keeps entries from different web pages separate and avoids having to scan every incoming email message to see if it contains database fields.

Checking Quote Fields will cause MailPartner to place quotes around all fields in the database record. If it is not checked, only the fields which contain commas will have quotemarks placed around them.

Example

For this example well assume that:

  1.	You have MailPartner setup to scan all mail sent to the In mailbox.

  2.	The form asks for a persons E-Mail address First name and Last name.

Decoding is setup to look for the field names EMail, FirstName and LastName.

An example of the HTML code for such a form is:

<FORM action="mailto:myaccount@myisp.com" method="POST">

<PRE>eMail Address<INPUT type=text size=30 maxlength=30 name="EMail">

First Name&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<INPUT type=text size=15 maxlength=15 name="FirstName">

Last Name&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp&nbsp;<INPUT type=text size=20 maxlength=20 name="LastName"></PRE>

<INPUT type=submit value="Submit Form"><INPUT type=reset value="Clear Form"></FORM>

When someone clicks in the web pages Submit Form button a mail message would be sent that looks something like this simplified e-mail message:

To: myaccount@myisp.com

From: aperson@theirisp.com

EMail=aperson@theirisp.com&FirstName=Arnold&LastName=Person

When MailPartner finds a message containing form submitted database information it will place an entry in the save file you specified so that you can import it into your database program.

If the save file does not exist it will be created and a field header record will be placed at the start of it. Assuming you have only received the one entry so far the save file will look like:

"EMail","FirstName","LastName"

aperson@theirisp.com,Arnold,Person

The fields will be placed in the save file in the order they appear in the Field Names list.

As more entries are received they will be added to the end of the save file without adding another field header record.

After you import the save file into your database you should delete the save file so that it will have the proper field header record is added to it the next time an entry is mailed to you.  If you do not delete the file you should make sure you leave the field header record at the beginning so your database program can import it properly.


Importing Old Mail

The three directly supported mail programs are Eudora, Netscape Mail (the mail program in Netscape Navigator) and Internet Explorer Mail (the mail program in Microsoftís Internet Explorer). The fourth option is to attempt a generic import of email from another mail program. MailPartner will look at the data file you indicate and try to figure out the format and import the mail.

When you select one of the options, the above dialog box will appear with a description of how to import the email from that particular program. Clicking on the Import Mail button will start the process of importing the mail.