Copyright: (c) Copyright 1996 QPC Software


Contents
QVT/Mail Help

Basic Concepts

Overview

Setup and Configuration

Printer Setup

Creating Mailboxes

Defining Mail Sources

Downloading Mail

Reading Mail

Viewing Attachments

Connecting to URLs

Sending Mail

Defining Aliases

Creating a Signature

Checking for New Mail

Routing Incoming Mail

Searching for Messages

Offline Mode


Basic Concepts

Before you start to work with QVT/Mail, it is important that you acquaint yourself with some of the terminology that is used in this help system. This section will introduce some of these concepts and terms.

Mail Source

In most situations where QVT/Mail is used, your PC is not in a position to actually receive mail messages directly over the network. This is because your PC is either not running all the time, or not connected to the network all the time, or both. Instead, your messages will be addressed to a location on another computer system (a 'mail server') somewhere on your local network. These messages are made available for downloading via a client/server protocol called POP3 ('POP' stands for 'Post Office Protocol'). In this context, your PC is a POP3 client, and the remote system is a POP3 server. In QVT/Mail terminology, the POP3 server will be referred to as a 'mail source'.

Mailbox

As explained above, your mail messages must be transferred from the mail source, or server, to your PC, before they can be made available to you for reading. The location on your PC that serves as a local repository for mail messages is called a 'mailbox'. When you first start QVT/Mail, two mailboxes will be created for you automatically. These are the 'Incoming' and 'Outgoing' mailbox. The names of these mailboxes serve to indicate their function:

The 'Incoming' mailbox is the repository for newly-downloaded messages

The 'Outgoing' mailbox is the repository for mail messages that you send

In addition to these two - which are created for you, and which you cannot destroy - you will be able to create new mailboxes which can be used to store your messages in an organized manner. For example, you can associate a mailbox with a certain topic, or with a certain point of origin (i.e., mail sent to you by a certain person).

Current Mailbox

The first step in reading mail is opening a mailbox. Once this is done, that mailbox is referred to as the 'Current Mailbox'. The name of the current mailbox will appear in the QVT/Mail title bar.

Selected Message

After a mailbox is open, the messages in that mailbox are presented in list form. In order to read a message, you must first 'select' the message from the list. This is done by clicking once on the small 'envelope' icon that is associated with the message. That message will be referred to as the 'selected message'.

As shown here, the envelope icon is somewhat darkened compared to the others.

Current Message

After a message is selected, you can open the message for reading by clicking on the 'Read' toolbar button. The text of the message will be displayed in the QVT/Mail window, and any attachments contained in the message will be decoded and placed in disk files. That message will be referred to as the 'current message'.

Just after a message is opened, the 'selected message' and the 'current message' will be the same. However, this situation won't necessarily persist for very long. This is because you can, after opening a message (making it the current message), use the mouse to click on another message. When you do this, you change the 'selected message', but not the 'current message'. The distinction is important because some of the toolbar commands apply to the current message, and some to the selected message. Commands that always apply to  the current message will be disabled if the current message is not 'selected' (e.g. 'Save', 'Print').

Alias

The Internet mail system uses a system of email addresses to move messages around the network. QVT/Mail allows you to create nicknames, or 'aliases', for email addresses that you use on a regular basis. In this way you can create 'user-friendly' names for the entries in your 'address book'. The alias list will be made available to you when sending mail, so you can use the mouse to select a recipient for the message.

Attachment

The single most common application for email is the sending of text messages between individuals. You can, however, use the mail system to send not only messages, but disk files, to recipients on the network. These are called 'attachments'. QVT/Mail will encode attachments when they are sent, and decode them when they are received. Industry standards are used throughout, so you will be able to exchange files with anyone who is using either the 'uuencode' or MIME encoding techniques.


Overview
Overview of Operation

QVT/Mail is designed to be used according to a certain procedure. Here are the steps that you should perform in order to get good results from this application:

One-time Setup Operations

The following two steps must be performed immediately after you first start QVT/Mail. They are not used on a regular basis.

Use the Setup dialog to configure the application

There are some critical pieces of information that QVT/Mail must have in order to function correctly. Examples include the 'Return Address', 'Save Directory' and 'SMTP Host'. You can supply this information using the 'Setup' dialogs.

Define a Mail Source

In order to read mail, the messages must be downloaded from a mail server to your PC. In QVT/Mail, a server is called a 'mail source', and you can use the Setup - Mail Source dialog to create definitions for mail sources that can be used by QVT/Mail to obtain your mail from the servers. You will be asked to supply a host name and user name; both of these will be given to you by your Internet provider.

Routine Cycle of Operations

The next two steps constitute the regular cycle of use for QVT/Mail. We recommend that you achieve some familiarity with these functions before accessing the more advanced features.

Download your Mail

Once the main setup has been done, and a mail source has been defined, you will be able to download your mail messages to your PC. This involves negotiating a fairly simple 'logon' process, after which you can watch the messages as they come down to the PC. For details, see the section on Downloading Mail.

Open the 'Incoming' Mailbox and Read your Mail

Mail that is downloaded from a mail source is placed (by default) in the 'Incoming' mailbox. To read this mail, you should open that mailbox. Click on the 'Open' toolbar button, then double-click on 'Incoming'. The mailbox will be scanned, and the messages will be displayed in summary form in the QVT/Mail window.

At this point, you can begin selecting and reading your mail messages!


Setup
QVT/Mail Setup

When you first launch QVT/Mail, the main Setup dialog will be displayed. This is so you have a chance to enter the required setup information before you actually use the application.  You can invoke this dialog any time by selecting menuitem 'Setup - Options'.

The main setup dialog looks like this:

Some of the items on this dialog are mandatory, and others are optional. The mandatory items are:

Return Address

This is your email address; the address that will be used in the 'From:' line on all outgoing mail messages. This should be of the form:

username@domain

If you like, you can add your 'real' name, in parentheses. Here is an example:

smithj@mysys.com (John Smith)

Save Directory

This will be the disk directory below which all of your mailboxes will be created. If you specify a directory that doesn't exist, QVT/Mail will create it for you.

POP3 Port

The IP port that your POP3 server listens on. The default is 110.

SMTP Host

The name of the machine (SMTP gateway) that you will connect to for sending mail. This information will be given to you by your Internet Service Provider.

SMTP Port

The IP port that the SMTP mail gateway listens on. The default is 25.

Optional items are:

Browse Directory

The initial directory that will be browsed for attachments. This is useful if you find yourself sending out the same documents over and over again.

Check for New Mail

The number of minutes between checks for new mail.

Notification

The audio (.WAV) file that will be played when new mail is found. Please specify a full-qualified path name. Note that audio notification will actually work only if you have a sound card installed.

Binary Encoding

The encoding method used for attachments that you include in your outgoing messages. The default is 'uuencode', but you can select 'MIME' if that is the standard in your environment.

Max Lines

The maximum number lines that are allowed in a single portion of an encoded binary attachment. If the attachment is larger than this maximum, it will be split into more than one part. The default is '-1', meaning that there is no maximum.

Keep Password

If checked, QVT/Mail will retain the password between accesses to a POP3 server during the course of a single QVT/Mail session. Passwords are not retained between sessions.

Delete After Download

If checked, QVT/Mail will delete messages from the POP3 server after they are downloaded.

Off-line Mode

This option places QVT/Mail in 'off-line' mode. In this mode, outgoing messages are not sent right away. Instead, they are held in a staging area for transmission at a later time. This is a useful option if you want to compose replies to some of your messages, but circumstances don't allow you to transmit them. For example, you may be working with a laptop computer on an airplane.

The second page of the main Setup dialog looks like this:

The input fields on this page are for setting the foreground and background colors for the main message-display area. The default is white on blue. You can specify colors in one of two ways. Either select a color from this list:

black

blue

red

cyan

green

magenta

brown

white

or, enter an RGB value of the form: rrr,ggg,bbb, where 'rrr', 'ggg', and 'bbb' are decimal numbers in the range 0 through 255. For example, the RGB value '0,0,128' indicates a 'dark blue' color.

Here is the third page of the main Setup dialog:

This page is used to specify the various 'helper' applications that are used by QVT/Mail. These are:

Text Editor

Image Viewer

Web Browser

The external text editor is used for composing outgoing mail messages, as a replacement for the internal text editor.

The external image viewer can be used to supplement or replace QVT/Mail's internal image viewing capabilities. It will be used to view images that are received as attachments to mail messages.

The web browser is used to access web pages whose URL's are found embedded within mail messages.

The final page of the Setup dialog looks like this:

This page is used to specify the IP address and port of a SOCKS proxy server, if one is used in your environment.


Printer Setup
Setting up a Printer

From time to time, you will probably want to print a mail message. In order to do this, you must set up a printer for use with QVT/Mail. There two dialogs provided for doing this.

The first dialog is used to select a printer:

Select a printer from the displayed list, then click on 'Ok'.

The second is used to select a font for printing:

Here, you must select a font name, a style, and a size. For best results, we suggest that you use a fixed-pitch font such as 'Courier New'. This is because Internet mail messages are formatted under the assumption that all characters are of equal size.


Creating Mailboxes

In QVT/Mail, all of your email is received to, and stored in, a local mailbox. These mailboxes are implemented as subdirectories under the main 'Save' directory (as specified in the main Setup dialog). Mailboxes are created using the 'Setup - Mailboxes' dialog:

In this dialog, the list of existing mailboxes appears along the left-hand side of the dialog window. Initially, there will be only two entries in this list, 'Incoming' and 'Outgoing'; these entries are created when you first start QVT/Mail. You will probably want to create additional mailboxes, as repositories for mail that you will want to organize according to whatever scheme that you find useful.

To create a new mailbox, begin by clicking on the 'New' button. This will open up the right-hand side of the dialog, and the cursor will initially be placed in the 'Mailbox Name' field.

The two input fields should be filled in as follows:

Mailbox Name

Enter a meaningful name for the mailbox. It's OK to use multiple words, separated by blanks.

Location

The subdirectory that will represent the actual physical location of the mailbox. We recommend that all of your mailboxes be subdirectories of the main 'Save' directory. You can use either new or existing directories; QVT/Mail will create new directories if necessary.

When both fields are filled in to your satisfaction, click on the 'Save' button. The mailbox list will be updated with the name of the new mailbox.

When you are finished creating and/or editing the mailbox list, click on the 'Close' button.


Defining Mail Sources

In QVT/Mail, all of your mail messages are downloaded from a remote mail server to mailboxes on your PC, at which point they are made available to you for reading. The mail server is referred to by QVT/Mail as a 'mail source'. In order to download your mail from a server, you must first define the server as a mail source. This is done using this dialog:

The left-hand side of this dialog displays the names of existing mail sources (the list will be empty at first). The right side contains a set of input fields which are used to create and edit mail source definitions.

To create a mail source definition, begin by clicking on the 'New' button. This will open up the right-hand side of the dialog, and position the cursor in the 'Name' field:

You must fill in the three fields as follows:

Name

The name of the mail source. You can use multiple words, separated by blanks.

Host

The name or IP address of the machine that hosts your mail server.

Username

In order to connect to the mail server, you will be required to supply a username and password. You should enter  your username here; the password will be entered when you actually connect to the server.

After all three fields are filled in, click on 'Save' to update the permanent mail source list. To abandon this entry, click on 'Cancel'.


Downloading Mail

Before you can read your mail, you must download it to your PC. Mail will be downloaded from a remote mail server, to mailboxes located on your PC's disk. In order for this process to work, you must first:

Create one or more mailboxes

Define a mail source

To begin the process of downloading mail, go to the 'File' menu, and select the 'Download' option. This will bring up a popup dialog box:

There are a number of elements in this dialog:

The upper-left portion of the dialog contains a list of defined mail sources. The first thing you should do is select a mail source from this list.

Just below the list of mail sources is an input field for 'Password'. As mentioned elsewhere, when you connect to a mail server you must supply a username and password. The username is stored as part of the mail source definition, but the password is not saved; you must enter it now.

Below the 'Password' field is a pair of radio buttons labelled 'All Messages' and 'New Messages Only'. These buttons are used to specify to QVT/Mail that you want to download all available messages, or only messages which have been received at the server since the last download. Initially, you should select 'All Messages'; in subsequent downloads you can select 'New Messages Only', which will avoid repeated downloads of the same messages.

Lastly is a checkbox that you can use to indicate that you want each message deleted from the server after it has been downloaded. Use of this option eliminates the possibility of inadvertently downloading the same message more than once, and it also conserves space on the server. However, there will naturally be concern over the possible permanent loss of mail messages, so we recommend that you select this option only after you have become comfortable with the entire process of managing your mail messages with QVT/Mail. Note that the default value of this checkbox can be set in the main Setup dialog.


Reading Mail

In QVT/Mail, all of your mail messages are stored in mailboxes on your PC. The process of reading mail therefore begins with you open a mailbox. To do so, you can either:

Click once on the 'Open' icon

Select the 'File - Open' menu item

This will bring up a new dialog box:

This dialog displays the complete list of mailboxes which exist on your PC. You should click on the name of the desired mailbox, then click on 'Ok' to open the selected mailbox. QVT/Mail will now retrieve header information from each of the messages stored in the mailbox, and display this information in list form:

The items in this list are as follows:

An icon which can be clicked on to select a message

A single-character display, indicating that a message has previously been read

The sender of the message

The subject of the message

The date that the message was sent

Initially, the message list is sorted on date, but you also sort on 'From' and 'Subject', simply by clicking on the appropriate column headers.

After the mailbox has been opened, and the message list has been sorted and displayed, all of the icons in the main toolbar will be disabled. The process of reading mail begins by selecting a message from the list. To do this, simply click once on the icon which represents the desired message. Once you have done this, the toolbar will change its appearance:

You will notice that the 'Read' and 'Delete' buttons are now enabled, thereby indicating that these functions are now available, with respect to the selected message. In other words, if you select a message, then click on the 'Read' button, the contents of the selected message will be loaded into the main message display area (the large bottom portion of the QVT/Mail window). In addition, if the selected message contains any binary attachments, these attachments will be decoded and written to local disk files.

Note: you can select and open a message in a single step by double-clicking on the message's icon.

If you select a message, then click on the 'Delete' button, the message will be marked as 'Deleted', and removed from the message list display. Actual deletion is postponed until you close the mailbox, which gives you the opportunity to 'undelete' the message if desired (see the menu item 'File - Undelete Message').

When you open a message for reading, the remaining toolbar buttons will be enabled:

Here are explanations of the functions which are associated with each of these buttons:

Read

The meaning of this button will change somewhat depending on the context. Normally, clicking on 'Read' will open the selected message for reading, making it the current message. However, if the selected message and the current message are the same, clicking on 'Read' will select and open the next message in the list. This approach reduces the number of mouse-clicks required to read the messages in a straight sequence.

Save

Pressing this button will save the current displayed message to a disk file. You will be prompted for a file name.

Reply

Click on this button if you want to send a reply to the current message. For detailed information on this process, see the section on Sending Mail.

Delete

Deletes the selected message. Note that it will always be the selected message that is deleted, and this may not necessarily be the current open message. This is because the mouse can be used to select messages even while a message is open for reading.

Print

Prints the current message to the selected printer. In order for the 'Print' function to work, you must have previously configured a printer for use with QVT/Mail. This is done from the 'Setup - Printer' dialogs, which are described in more detail in the section on Setup.

Store

Stores the current displayed message in a different mailbox. Mail is initially downloaded into the 'Incoming' mailbox, but if you decide to keep a message on your PC, you will almost certainly want it stored somewhere else (depending on how you are organizing your mail). To store a message, simply double-click on the name of the destination mailbox.

If you have not created any new mailboxes, or if you feel that none of the existing mailboxes are appropriate for this particular message, you can create a new mailbox by clicking on the 'New' button.

Note: unlike the 'Delete' function, the 'Store' function is not reversible.

Forward

This function allows you to send the contents of the current message to another recipient. For detailed information on this process, see the section on Sending Mail.

Attachments

If a mail message contains one or more binary attachments, the rightmost button in the toolbar will be enabled:

Pressing this button will allow you to view and/or execute these files. For details, see the section on Attachments.

Additional Functions

The toolbar buttons do not represent an exhaustive set of the functions that are available during a 'read' session. Some additional operations are available from the 'View' menu.

View Notes

QVT/Mail allows you to attach your own notes to a mail message, without actually touching the original message. This is done via the 'View - Notes' mechanism. When you select this function, a dialog will pop up that will initially display any notes that you may have already created. You can go right in and edit this text, then click on 'Ok' to save your changes. To cancel changes, click on 'Cancel'.

View Reply

When you send a reply to a message, your reply is saved right alongside the original message. You can use the 'View - Reply' menuitem to look at these replies at a later date. Note that if you send more than one reply to a message, all of them will be saved, in order. If no reply has been sent, the 'Reply' menuitem will be disabled.


Viewing Attachments

It is fairly common for people to use email to send copies of files to each other. These can be either plain text files, or binary files in some proprietary format, such as a spreadsheet or word-processor document.

If you receive a mail message that contains one or more attachments, the rightmost button of the main toolbar will be enabled:

This signifies that an attachment is present in the current message. Pressing this button will present a dialog that you can use to view the attachment:

The top part of the window contains a list of the attachment file names. There will be at least one entry in this list, but multiple entries are possible. To begin the process of viewing attachments, you should use the mouse to select a filename.

QVT/Mail has built-in facilities for viewing a number of standard graphic image formats, such as GIF and JPG. If the filename that you select is one of these standard formats, the 'Internal' radiobutton will be selected. Otherwise, the 'External' radiobutton will be selected, and the name of the default external image viewer will be displayed in the 'Viewer' field. The default viewer is specified as part of the main Setup process.

There are two other possibilities:

If the file is one having a registered extension, such as .DOC, the name of the program that is associated with that file type will be displayed in the Viewer field.

If the file type is not registered, and there is no default viewer, the 'External' button will be selected, and the 'Viewer' field will be empty. You will have to manually specify a viewer for the file.

The process of identifying a viewer is simplified by using the 'Browse' button, which brings up a standard Windows file selector:

You can use this dialog to locate and select an executable program that is appropriate for viewing the selected attachment.

When you have made your choices in this dialog, click on 'Ok' to view the attachment, using the selected method. If you chose 'Internal', the image will be displayed in QVT/Mail's main message display area. You can use the 'View - Swap' menuitem to flip back and forth between the text of the message and the image.

If you chose an external viewer, the viewer program will be launched with the selected attachment file.

Note: problems may arise if you receive a file, such as a spreadsheet, that is associated with a program such as Excel. QVT/Mail will be able to identify the file as an Excel spreadsheet, and the Excel .EXE filename will be brought up into the 'Viewer' field, but the full pathname may be missing. In a case like this, unless the directory that contains the Excel program executable is included in your path, QVT/Mail will not be able to launch Excel. The only solution would be for you to use the 'Browse' file selector to locate the Excel executable.


Accessing URLs
Connecting to URLs

The World Wide Web is one of the most popular ways of using the Internet. The Web consists of a vast collection of 'web pages', each identified by a unique 'universal resource locator', or URL. It is not uncommon for URL's to appear in mail messages, in various contexts. QVT/Mail makes is very easy for you to access the web pages that are referenced in mail messages that you have received.

Note: In order to use this feature,  you must specify a default web browser as part of the QVT/Mail Setup process.

Accessing URLs is done within the context of an open mail session. Once you have opened a mailbox for reading, the 'View - URLs' menu item will be enabled for the duration of the session. Selecting that menu item will bring up this dialog box:

The top portion of this dialog will contain a list of all the URLs that have been found in the current mailbox. Each message in the mailbox is scanned, and the URLs are extracted and placed in the list.

There are two active command buttons:

The 'Open' button will launch the default web browser, and connect directly to the selected URL.

The 'Save' button will add the selected URL to a list of permanently saved URLs that is maintained by QVT/Mail. Using this button, you can retain a URL for later use, even if you don't want to access it at the present time.


Sending Mail

In QVT/Mail, the process of sending mail has many options, but it can also be very simple and straightforward. Let's take the simple cases first.

Here are the steps that you must perform in order to send a mail message:

Use the 'Send To' control to select or enter the recipient's email address

Type the subject of the message into the 'Subject' field

Enter the text of the message

Click on the 'Send' button to send the message

There are also a number of additional features that you may use at various times:

'Cc' and 'Bcc' capabilities that allow you to send a copy of the message to recipients other than the primary recipient

An 'attachment' feature that allows you to include disk files in with your mail messages

An 'import' feature that allows you to use existing disk files as a source of message text

An 'editor' feature that allows you to use an external text editor for composing messages

Now, let's take a look at the 'Send Mail' dialog in more detail:

You will see a set of input fields along the left hand side, and a set of command buttons along the right-hand side. The input fields are used for these data items:

Send To

This field is used to enter the primary recipient of the message. You can either type in an email address (or alias) directly, or select from your list of predefined aliases. The topic of aliases is covered in a another section (Defining Aliases).

Immediately to the right of the 'Send To' input field is a button labelled 'New'. Pressing this button will allow you to quickly define a new alias based on the email address that is already present in the 'Send To' field.

Note: if this is a reply, rather than a new message, the 'Send To' field will already be filled in, using 'reply-to' information extracted from the original mail message.

Subject

Use this field to enter a subject line for the message. If this is a reply, or a forward, the subject line will already be filled in. You are, of course, free to edit the subject line prior to sending the message.

Cc

This field can be used to enter a list of additional recipients, each of whom will receive a copy of the message. Once again, you will be allowed to select from the list of predefined aliases, as an alternative to typing in the addresses manually.

Important Note: if you want to enter more than one email address into the 'Cc:' field, they should be separated by commas. There should be no blanks either within or between the addresses.

Bcc

The 'Bcc:' field is similar to the 'Cc:' field, in that it specifies additional recipients of this message. The difference is this: 'Cc:' recipients will be able to see the entire distribution list when they receive and read the message; 'Bcc:' recipients will not be able to see the names of the other recipients.

Attachments

This field is used to enter or select the names of files that you want to attach to the mail message. All attachments will be encoded and placed at the end of the message text. The 'Files' button makes it easy to browse around your disk and interactively construct a list of attachments, using this dialog:

The upper listbox in this window displays the present state of the attachment list; it will initially be empty. The lower listbox displays a list of the last five files that have been sent as attachments. This list can come in handy if you send the same file more than once.

The 'Browse' button invokes the standard Windows file selector, which allows you to locate and select a file from anywhere on your disk.

The 'Delete' button will delete the selected file from the attachment list. This button will be disabled unless a file is selected.

The 'Close' button will close the 'Attachments' window and return to the main 'Send Mail' window. All changes and additions to the attachments list are retained.

The 'Cancel' button also returns to the main 'Send Mail' window, but all changes and additions are 'forgotten'.

The 'MRU' button (MRU stands for 'Most Recently Used') will take the selected file from the lower list, and add it to the upper list. You can also move a file from the MRU list to the Attachment list by double-clicking on it.

Message Text

The large text area that takes up the lower portion of the 'Send Mail' window is used to type in the text of the message. If the current message is either a 'Reply' or 'Forward' operation, rather than a new message, the contents of the original message will be placed in this text area. In the case of a Reply, the original text will be indented, using the '>' character.

If you have defined a standard 'signature' for your outgoing messages, it will be included at the bottom of the message text. For more information, see the section on 'Creating a Signature'.

The upper-right portion of the 'Send Mail' window is taken up by a set of command buttons. These buttons are associated with the following functions:

Send

Transmits the current message. The message, and all attachments, will be sent to the primary recipient, as well as all of the recipients included in the 'Cc' and 'Bcc' lists. After the message has been sent, the 'Send' dialog will remain on screen until you click on the 'Close' button.

Cancel

Closes the 'Send Mail' dialog.

Save

Saves the current message text to a disk file. The 'Send To' and 'Subject' lines will be included at the top of the file. These feature can be useful if an attempt to send a message fails for some reason; you can save the message, then retrieve it and send it at a later time (see 'Import', below).

Import

This function will load the contents of a disk file into the message text area. The imported text will be appended to the end of any text already present.

The 'Import' function has some valuable applications:

A set of 'standard messages' can be kept on disk and retrieved as needed

A failed message can be saved and retrieved for transmission at a later time

Editor

This function will load the current contents of the message text area into the default external text editor. You can then edit the message using that editor, instead of the built-in editor.

Caution: if you use an external editor to compose a mail message, make sure that you Save the message before you Send the message.


Defining Aliases

One of the most useful aspects of any email installation is a list of mail aliases. In QVT/Mail, an 'alias' is simply a name that is used to refer to an email address, or list of email addresses. For example, if your email address is 'smith@mysys.com', you can create an alias that allows you to use the name 'Myself' to refer to this address.

Another important feature is the ability to group a list of email addresses together under the heading of a single alias. This allows you to create your own 'mailing lists', for use in situations where you regularly send mail to the same set of recipients.

The dialog box that is used to maintain your QVT/Mail alias list looks like this:

The listbox that occupies the left-hand portion of the window displays the current list of aliases. To edit one these existing aliases, double-click on its entry in the listbox. The contents of the alias will be presented in the fields within the 'Now Editing' rectangle. For details on these items, see the section below on 'Editing an Alias'.

Below the listbox are two buttons:

New

Click on this button to create a new alias. This will open up the right-hand side of the window, and you will use those fields to define the content of the alias:

Delete

Clicking on this button will delete the selected alias.

Editing an Alias

Within the rectangle labelled 'Now Editing' are some controls that are used to work with individual aliases:

Alias

This input field is used to enter or edit the alias name.

Email Addresses

This is a multiple-line text field. It is used to enter or edit the address, or addresses, that are associated with the alias name. Each address should be placed on a separate line, and there should be no blank lines. Use the <Enter> key to open a new line.

Save

Clicking on this button will save the current alias definition. The alias name will be placed, or replaced, in the alias list (as it appears in the listbox).

Cancel

Clicking on this button will close the current 'edit' session without saving changes.

There are some additional buttons located along the lower-right portion of the window.

Clicking on 'Ok' will close the 'Alias' window and save all changes

Clicking on 'Cancel' will close the window without saving changes


Creating a Signature

When you send mail messages, you will usually want to include some information at the end which will identify you as the sender of the message. Typically you will include at least your name, and possibly additional items such as alternate email addresses, or your home page URL. QVT/Mail will automatically include the predefined signature at the end of each message that you send.

To create or edit your QVT/Mail signature, use the 'Setup - Signature' dialog:

This dialog contains a single text-input field that you can use to enter the contents of your signature. This is a multiple-line text editor, with each line separated by a carriage return. All standard Windows editing techniques apply.

When you are finished, click on 'Ok' to save the modified signature.


Checking for New Mail

Since QVT/Mail uses the POP3 client/server model for retrieving mail, new messages will not be delivered to your PC automatically. Instead, you must periodically check the server to see if any new mail is present. QVT/Mail automates this process for you. Using QVT/Mail's background mail check feature, you can start a process that will periodically (at intervals that you specify) connect to a mail source and determine if new mail has arrived there since the last access. You can optionally specify that any new mail found be automatically downloaded to your PC, and (optionally) deleted from the server.

To launch the background mail check, select the 'File - Start Mail Check' menu item. A popup dialog will be displayed:

This dialog contains the following elements:

List of Mail Sources

This listbox displays the list of defined mail sources. You must select an entry from this list.

Password

The password that you use when logging on to the selected mail source.

Repeat Option

If this button is checked, the mail check will be repeated periodically, until new mail is found.

Download Option

If this button is checked, new messages will automatically be downloaded when found.

Delete Option

If this button is checked, new messages will be deleted from the server after they are downloaded. Note that this button will not be enabled unless the 'Download' option has already been selected.

After all items are set up correctly, click on 'Ok' to launch the background mail-check process. The initial check will be done right away; subsequent checks will be performed at intervals specified in the main QVT/Mail Setup dialog.

The QVT/Mail title bar will be modified to show that the background mail-check process is running:

When new mail is detected at the server, the QVT/Mail icon will change from white to red.

In addition, if you have included a 'Notification' entry in your QVT/Mail setup, the .WAV file specified by that entry will be played, thereby providing audible notification of new mail.

Any 'new mail' options that you selected will be executed at this time:

If the 'Download' option was selected, new messages will automatically be downloaded

If the 'Delete' option was selected, the downloaded messages will be removed from the server


Routing Incoming Mail

When you first start QVT/Mail, an 'Incoming' mailbox is created for the purpose of storing messages as they are initially received. When you activate the 'Download Mail' process, the downloaded messages will be placed in the 'Incoming' box. This is also the case if you run a background mail check with the 'Download' option.

Note: if you execute a 'Download' within the context of an open session, the downloaded messages will be placed in the currently open mailbox, not the 'Incoming' mailbox.

QVT/Mail also provides a facility that allows you to automatically route mail that matches certain criteria to mailboxes other than the default. This is done by means of a 'routing list'. Each entry in the routing list consists of two elements:

The email address of the sender

or:

A subject line

and:

The mailbox in which matching messages should be deposited

If you use an email address as the selection key, all messages which originate from that address will be placed in the specified mailbox. If you use a subject as the key, all messages which match that subject will be re-routed.

Routing-list entries can be created only during an open session, and only with respect to the current message. The 'From' address, 'Reply-To' address, and 'Subject' lines are copied from the current message to the 'Create Routing List Entry' dialog box. Here is an example:

This dialog shows you the email address of the person who sent the current message, the subject line from the current message, and below that a list of available mailboxes (not including 'Incoming'). You should first select either 'origin' or 'subject' as the type of match that you want. Then, you should select a mailbox, and click on 'Ok'.

Once a routing entry is defined, all future messages received from that sender (or on that subject) will be placed in the specified mailbox, rather than in the default location ('Incoming'). Note: the routing function is only enabled if you run a download with no mail session open. If mail is downloaded from within an open session, all of the downloaded messages will be placed in the currently-open mailbox, not the default mailbox!

The matching process used by QVT/Mail is very 'forgiving'. The logic is case-insensitive, and considers a partial match to be as good as a complete match. This is especially important when matching on subject, since subject lines are often truncated or otherwise corrupted in transit.

You can also delete routing entries, using the 'Setup - Routing - Delete Entry' dialog:

All you have to do is select the address that corresponds to the entry that you want to delete, then click on 'Ok',


Searching for Messages

You will probably find it necessary from time to time to locate a message that is stored somewhere in one of your mailboxes. QVT/Mail provides a dialog box that is specifically designed for this purpose:

This dialog contains a pair of input fields at the top, along with a set of control buttons.

The input fields 'From' and 'Subject' are used to enter search criteria. You must enter a search string into at least one of these fields, or both if desired.

From

Enter the email address of the person whose messages you are searching for. A partial address is sufficient.

Subject

The subject line of the messages that you are searching for. You need only include a part of the subject, not the whole thing.

Note: QVT/Mail's search logic is case-insensitive, so you don't have to worry about case when entering the search criteria.

When ready, click on the 'Search' button. QVT/Mail will begin searching through all of your mailboxes for messages that match the specified criteria. Messages that meet these criteria will be included in the result set:

If a 'From' string is supplied, messages received from, or sent to, the specified address

If a 'Subject' string is supplied, messages whose subject lines contain the specified string

If both are supplied, both criteria must be met.

While the search is in progress, the name of the mailbox being searched, and the number of matches so far, will be displayed. The search can be aborted by clicking on the 'Stop' button.

After the search is finished, the result set will be displayed in the listbox that occupies the upper-middle portion of the window:

You will see the date of the message, the subject of the message, and the mailbox in which the message was found. To view a message, simply double-click in the listbox, and the text of the selected message will be displayed, along with the original 'From' and 'Subject' lines.

Once a message has been displayed, the 'Reply' and 'Print' buttons will be enabled. These buttons operate the same as their counterparts in the main QVT/Mail toolbar.

To reset the 'Search' dialog in preparation for a new search, click on the 'Clear' button.


Offline Mode
Using QVT/Mail in Offline Mode

In normal use, QVT/Mail will send messages as soon as the 'Send' button is pressed. However, this may not always be the best approach. For example, you may want to take a laptop computer on a trip, and use some of the travel time to answer backlogged mail messages. In that situation you probably won't be able to connect to your Internet provider, which means that the messages can't actually be transmitted at that time. To help with this situation, QVT/Mail provides an 'offline' mode of operation.

In offline mode, outgoing mail messages are not transmitted right away. Instead, they are held in a temporary storage area. You can access these messages by selecting the 'Send Mail - Stored Messages' menu item. Note that this menuitem will be enabled only if stored messages are present. Otherwise it will be disabled.

When you select 'Send Stored Messages', a new dialog box will come up:

The first stored message will automatically be loaded and prepared for transmission. The buttons that run along the bottom of the window provide these functions:

Send

Transmits the current message. If the transmission is successful, the message will be deleted from the 'outgoing' queue, and the next message in the queue will be loaded.

Next

Skips the current message, and brings up the next message (if any).

Delete

Deletes the current message, and brings up the next message (if any).

Close

Closes the 'Transmit Saved Messages' window. Any messages left in the queue will remain there, where they can be accessed at a later time.