Windows Reference. Router, Editor, Text Conversion, Favorite Folders, Folder Defaults
Shareware Notice.
Credits & Legal.
About the Program
What is it?
America Onlineｪ is terrific for the way it lets you share with others worldwide. But after downloading your email, it can be a drag having to launch that huge applications just to read it. Thatﾕs where mAOL fits in. It lets you quickly read your messages, reply to them, and convert your email into a format any application can use. But thatﾕs just the beginning! It will also give your files descriptive names, sort them into any number of folders, apply custom fonts, and moreﾉ
Features
･ Drag a folder on to the mAOL icon, and all the messages in it will be opened. You can also choose a folder to always open when the application is double-clicked; perfect for Flashmail users.
･ All the fonts, styles, sizes, colors, and extended characters in the original message will appear in the conversion (if desired). You can also select a custom font and size in which all your messages will appear. Keep just the good stuffﾑstrip those long routing headers from Internet messages.
･ Compose email notes and replies in mAOLﾕs SimpleText-like Editor with the added dimensions of color and a picture translator. When complete, one keystroke tells mAOL to copy your message to the clipboard, switch to AOL, and open a New Mail window. It will even address it for you.
･ Define any number of ﾒfavorite foldersﾓ anywhere in your system, then convert and save email to them with one click. Easy organization! If a bunch of individual files arenﾕt your style, then put them all together in an email log. Limited only by the size of your hard drive.
･ Versatile naming options for the converted files. Ten combinations of name, subject and date; or rename groups of files with any title. Similarly named items are automatically serial numbered.
･ The Router will sort your messages either old-to-new, new-to-old, or alphabetically.
･ Fully controllable via AppleScript . See accompanying "Scripting mAOL" document.
･ Resurrect those old Flashbox message containers from AOL v1.x with mAOLﾕs Convert Flashbox command.
･ Also works with eWorldｪ email messages.
NOTE: mAOL is a stand-alone product. It does not change the AOL client software in any way. Use their programs to get your mail as usual, making sure the ﾒSave Flashmail as textﾓ preference is not selected. Then run mAOL to read and/or convert the files.
Using the program
There are three ways AOL saves email on your disk. If you schedule a FlashSession, your messages will all be saved into a FlashMail folder with your AOL name in the Online Mail folder. If youﾕre reading email real time, clicking the ﾒSave to FlashMailﾓ icon in AOLﾕs window will also file the message to this folder. If you use the Save command in the File menu, you can put the message anywhere. mAOL doesnﾕt care where the messages are saved, but itﾕs easiest if you keep them together.
To browse your messages, double click mAOLﾕs icon and use the Open command, or drag and drop them onto the application icon. You can drag message files and folders. All the messages will appear in the Router list. Double click any one to view it in the Editor.
If you want to reply to it, type your additions into the Editor window using creative styles and colors. Then use the Clip ﾕn Switch command and paste your message into AOLﾕs new mail window. You can then keep, convert, or erase the original.
To convert one or more messages to text, select them in the Router list and click on one of the folder icon buttons to ﾒrouteﾓ them there. See the Router window reference below for details. You can customize the translation using the settings explained later in this document. The program can optionally delete the original files as theyﾕre converted.
A log file with many messages strung together is just as easy to create or extend. Select the files in the Router and click the Log file icon button.
Any messages you donﾕt want to keep can be erased from your disk by hilighting them and pressing the ﾒDeleteﾓ button on the Router screen. Note that this can confuse AOL and those messages might still be listed in AOLﾕs ﾒFlashSessionﾉRead Incoming Mailﾓ window.
Menus Reference
The File Menu
･ Open: Adds files to the Router list. In the dialog that appears, you can pick an individual file or select the entire folder youﾕre currently viewing. Only AOL email, eWorld email, and text files are displayed. Alternately, you can drag and drop files and folders onto the mAOL icon in the Finder.
･ Close: Closes the current window. If itﾕs the Router, the program quits. No warning is given if you change whatﾕs in the Editor then close the window without saving.
･ Save As: Available when the Editor is open, allowing you to save the windowﾕs contents. Files are saved in the Apple SimpleText format, but the creator code is controlled by the Text Conversion Preferences dialog box.
･ Auto Open Folder: Choose a folder to automatically open when the programﾕs icon is double-clicked. I recommend your Flashmail folder. This is ignored when you drag files onto mAOL. A checkmark will appear in the menu when this is active; pick this item from the menu again to deactivate.
･ Convert Old Flashbox: creates individual modern email files from an AOL 1.x style Flashbox file. The new files are saved in the same directory as the Flashbox and with the same name, plus a serial number.
･ Erase Resource Fork: Resources are very important to many parts of the Mac OS and the applications you use, but simple data files, like email messages, donﾕt need them. The AOL software saves empty resource forks with each of its messages wasting 250 bytes of disk space each. This command will eliminate them with no adverse effects.
Use Wisely! The font and style information saved with some text files (like this one) is stored in the resource fork and if you delete it, youﾕll be left with plain looking messages. Thereﾕs no undo.
･ Page Margins: Brings up a window allowing you to change the amount of white space around the text on printed pages. If you specify a number smaller then your printer can manage, like zero, the printerﾕs minimum setting is used.
･ Page Setup , Print , and Quit: Just like every other Mac program.
The Edit Menu
･ Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear: Available when the Editor window is showing to move text on and off the clipboard; Mac standard, with a twist: If you try to Paste a picture, the Pictext Translator window appears and youﾕll see the image converted into tiny rows of colored ﾒOﾓs, which are pasted into your message. Each image takes up a lot of space and takes AOL a long time to download, so please keep them small, like an icon. The max size is 31800 pixels, limited to 200 pixels in either direction (max dimensions: 200x159, max square: 178x178). Note that AOL has a problem pasting in these text pictures from the clipboard, so youﾕll need to save the contents of the Editor to a file then use AOLﾕs ﾒPaste From Diskﾓ command to insert it into your email.
･ Select All: Hilights everything in either the Router or Editor.
･ Quote Text: Brackets the text selection in the Editor >>like this<<. Use it to set off parts of an original message when composing your reply. The selection is extended to include the quote signs so you can change the color too.
･ Clip ﾕn Switch: Does four things automatically: 1) Grabs the current Editor selection, if any, as an address; 2) Copies everything to the Clipboard; 3) Sends AOL an AppleEvent to open a new mail window with the address; and 4) Switches AOL to the front. America Online version 2.6 or later has to be running before you select this command.
The new mail message is created directly in your outgoing Flashmail box, not as a separate file. If you use FlashSessions to send mail, click the ﾒSave Changesﾓ icon after pasting the message. Before sending, you can view these messages using AOLﾕs ﾒFlashSessionﾉRead Outgoing Mailﾓ menu command. If you want a separate email file, use Save in AOLﾕs File menu then click the Delete button in the new mail window.
･ Sort List > Unsorted / Oldest to newest / Newest to oldest / Alphabetical: Puts the Router list items in the selected order. The age is based on the fileﾕs modification date. This setting is remembered and applied to all items added to the Router. With ﾒunsortedﾓ selected, items are displayed in the order they are added to the list.
The Set Up Menu
･ Text Conversion, Favorite Folders, Folder Defaults : Each opens a configuration dialog box described in the next section.
･ Warnings: Four checkboxes that let you decide how conservative the program operates. Warn me beforeﾉ
□ the log file exceeds 32K: Neither SimpleText nor mAOL can view a text file larger than about 32,000 characters. This option keeps you from going over. If youﾕre using ﾒTex-Editﾓ or a word processor that can open big files, then you can turn this off.
□ deleting mail with an attached file: mAOL does not erase attachments, but when the original message is erased, you can no longer download the attachment from AOL. Be sure you download any interesting attachments before deleting your email.
□ erasing files with the Delete button: Helps prevent accidents.
□ overwriting a mail file with its conversion: Will warn you if you tell mAOL to save a conversion using the originalﾕs name into the originalﾕs folder without asking it to delete the original. If this settingﾕs off, the old file will be overwritten with the new one, no questions asked.
･ Open Preference File: Opens a special file containing all custom configuration information. There are over 25 user settings in mAOL and switching between your two favorites, or upgrading to a new version can be laborious manually. The program always remembers your latest settings, but this item lets you quickly change them. You can also double-click or drag&drop a preference file (by itself) to start mAOL with those particular settings. This can be used to have access to a different set of favorite folders, start with a different auto-open folder, switch to different logs, and more!
Provided with the program youﾕll find a ﾒDefault Prefsﾓ file for resetting mAOL to its factory settings. This file is not required for the program to run; mAOL saves your current settings internally.
･ Make Preference File: copies all your current settings and options into a file for use with the Open command above.
･ Register: Enter the shareware registration code hereﾉthank you!
The Style Menus
･ Font: They all show up here, as usual. The checkmark beside the current font may be wrong if your menu is taller than 300 items or you add fonts using Suitcaseｪ.
･ Size: Some preselected text sizes plus an ﾒOtherﾓ box for special occasions. If youﾕre handy with ResEdit, you can change the items in this menu as long as the tenth one stays ﾒOtherﾓ.
･ Style: Dress up your message in boldface, italics, underlineﾉ
･ Color: Contains the AOL standard colors plus a few they forgot. Use the ﾒSpecialﾉﾓ item at the top to select any color off the Mac color wheel. If you know your way around ResEdit, feel free to add/change as many items in this menu as you wish, except the first.
Windows Reference
The Router Window
The heart of mAOL. All file names appear here with icons indicating their type: incoming, outgoing, or text.
Double-click any name to view it in the Editor. Other operations work on ranges of one or more files. Select contiguous ranges by clicking and dragging. Select or deselect individual items by □-clicking. Select All in the Edit menu also works.
To convert a range of files, click on one of the folder icon buttons. The ﾒFavorite:ﾓ icon uses the folder selected in the popup menu. Email will be translated and saved to the destination; text files will have their creator codes changed and, if less than 32K in size, copied to the selected folder. Pressing the ﾒreturnﾓ key on your keyboard is the same as clicking the folder with the boldface name. A click on the ﾒLog Fileﾓ icon appends the selected items, minus styles, to the log file.
Checking the ﾒ□ and delete originalsﾓ box will tell mAOL to erase the email and old text files as theyﾕre converted/logged/copied.
With a range selected, you can click on the ﾒDeleteﾓ button in the lower right to permanently erase those files from your disk . To simply remove them from the list, select Clear from the Edit menu, or press the Delete key on your keyboard. The ﾒNewﾓ button at the bottom will open a blank Editor window.
The Editor Window
Appears when you double-click a file or click ﾒNewﾓ in the Router. Itﾕs basic, but does offer a color menu unlike SimpleText. You can make changes to files then save, print, or cut/copy portions to the system clipboard for pasting into other applications. Only one file at a time may be opened in the Editor. See the description of the Edit menu above for all the available special features.
Text Conversion Preferences Dialog Box
Lots of controls for customizing mAOLﾕs translations.
･ Name files using: Suppose you received a message like this:
From: KathyD Subj: John's party Date: Monday, April 15, 1996
There are eleven names mAOL can give the converted file:
Same filename: John's party (what AOL saves it as)
Name: From KathyD (or ﾒTo ...ﾓ for what you write)
Name and subject-short: KathyD>John's party
Name and subject-long: (Fm KathyD) John's party
Name and date: KathyD 960415> (the dateﾕs in form: YYMMDD)
Subject: John's party
Subject and date: John's party 960415>
Date and name: 960415 KathyD>
Date and subject: 960415 John's party>
Add suffix ---> [ text]: John's party text (you can change the suffix)
This title ----> [Party]: Party (you can change the name)
Only the first recipient is shown if thereﾕs more than one. Internet addresses stop at the ﾒ@ﾓ.
Several of the formats indicate whether the email was sent or received with a greater-than sign pointing from the sender (ﾒColonel DJ>mAOL upgradeﾓ) for incoming mail, and a less-than sign pointing to whom (ﾒmyFriend<Cool Beans!ﾓ) you send mail. The formats with dates put the symbols at the end so they donﾕt effect name sorts.
･ Sequence Number Separator. If mAOL tries to write a file using the rules above, but finds that name already being used in the destination folder, it will start adding numbers to find a unique name (file001, file002, file003... up to file999). To set-off the numbers from the name, you can enter a separator in this field. For example, if you entered ﾒ #ﾓ (space, number sign), the names would be ﾒfile #001ﾓ, ﾒfile #002ﾓ, etc.
･ □Same for edit window. Makes the title of the Editor window follow the rules above.
･ □Use fonts & styles. Applies the font, style, and color information that may be in your email to the translated text. It adds a few hundred bytes to each file, so you can turn it off. Note that if you move a styled text file (like this one) using the folder buttons and this preference is turned off, the style information will be stripped away. This setting is also required to decode extended characters like ｣,,･, and ﾒﾓ. When you save files to the Log, fonts and styles are not used.
･ □Strip internet headers. If you get mail from outside AOL, each ﾒpost officeﾓ leaves its mark upon your message. This information appears at the bottom of each note below the ﾒ----headers----ﾓ tag. It can take up a lot of space and is pretty useless, so you can choose to skip over it in the conversions. Note: With this option on, your message will cut off at anything that looks exactly like an AOL header section. This might cause data loss if a message with a header section was resent over the net then back to AOL.
･ □Copy originalﾕs Finder dates. The Finder remembers two dates with every file: when it was created on your hard disk and when it was last changed. This option will give each new converted file the same dates as its original AOL/eW mail file. You can convert all your old messages, and theyﾕll still be ﾒoldﾓ in Finder list views.
･ Set Default Fontﾉ If the sender of the message didnﾕt specify a typestyle in the message he/she sent, mAOL will normally translate & display that message in Geneva 12-point. To make it something else, click on this button. Font and size codes within the message itself will override this preference. This setting does not effect plain text files which always show in Geneva 12.
･ Set Date & Time formatﾉ You can choose to include a short, medium, or long version of the message date in the output file. The time can be included too, but youﾕll need to tell mAOL what time zone youﾕre in. Type the hour correction factor and label into the edit fields, or use the popup menu. For more control over how the date and time appear, visit your ﾒDate & Timeﾓ Control Panel.
･ Use ____ as text file creator code. Determines what application will open when you double-click the converted files. The default is ﾒttxtﾓ which is for SimpleText. Every application has itﾕs own ID code which you can type here. If you donﾕt know the code, click on the Same as button. You can select any document or application and that itemﾕs ID code will be inserted.
･ □Enable Drag-ﾕn-Quit mode. If you always convert your email using the same settings and into the same folder, you can check this box to enable a special time saving mode: When you drag files onto the mAOL icon, they will be immediately converted into the boldfaced folder and the program will quit. If your boldface folder is ﾒFavoriteﾓ it will use the one you had selected in the popup menu when you previously quit the program. Useful Tip: If you hold down the Option key when files are dropped onto the icon, this setting temporarily toggles on or off.
The Favorite Folders Dialog Box
This box programs the popup menu in the Router window for direct access to folders you want to save mail conversions into.
To create a new favorite folder, click the ﾒNewﾓ button, then in the dialog box that appears, move to the desired folder and press ﾒSelectﾓ. That folderﾕs path will appear in the ﾒReal folderﾓ section, and its name will be filled into the ﾒShow Asﾓ line. You can change the Show As title to anything you like, except it cannot start with a ﾒ-ﾓ.
Choose any of your programmed favorites from the menu in this dialog. Its path will appear, and you can change its substitute name. The ﾒChangeﾓ button will reassign this entry to a new folder, and ﾒDeleteﾓ will remove it from the menu.
If mAOL cannot locate one of your programmed favorites, ﾒ<cannot find: xxx>ﾓ will appear as the path. You should Change or Delete this folder.
The Folder Defaults Dialog Box
Here you choose the Log file settings and boldface folder. The boldface folder is saved into when you press the ﾒreturnﾓ key on your keyboard and is also used in drag-ﾕn-quit mode. To choose which of the four to use, ﾒOriginalﾓ, ﾒOtherﾉﾓ, ﾒFavorite popupﾓ, or ﾒLog fileﾓ, click the small button next to it.
This dialog is also where you fill in the name of the Log file and specify where on your disk you want it saved (by clicking the ﾒChangeﾓ button). If you change the log folder, the present log is not moved; a new one is started.
What can you do with a log? One option is to import it into ﾒLogﾕoﾕlogsﾓ, a program by bowerbird@aol.com. It will allow you to browse the messages, jumping easily from one to the next, following subject lines, and previewing using headers only.
mAOL is SHAREWARE!
Youﾕre encouraged to convert a few files for free to see just how useful this program is, but continued use obligates you to ﾒfinish the downloadﾓ by sending a mere $10 to the author:
Jeff Dickson
4745 Spiva Drive
Del City, OK 73115-4311
Please include your email address and youﾕll receive a password to enter into the Registration box allowing unlimited file conversions. I welcome your suggestions for any future versions; most of what you see is direct response to user need. Write me!
E-addresses: ﾒColonel DJﾓ on AOL // Internet: coloneldj@aol.com
Credits / Disclaimer
And Nowﾉ
Thanks to all my registered users for your support and honesty. A little encouragement has gone a long way!
Special thanks going out to: Joan (Diakeuast) for her support in MHM; Greg (GregNeagle) for a programming tip; Bowerbird for the log idea and testing; Chris Charla of Mac Home Journal for the plug; D. Lake, G. Ritchie, and R. Hommel for the fine AE example code; my beta testers; Andy G. for the tips and making it all possible!
And most especiallyﾉ my family, Debra and Jordan.
mAOL was written using the elegant and powerful FutureBASIC II compiler and ResEdit on a Macintosh PowerBook 160.
FutureBASIC II is a product of STAZ Software, who authored portions of this code.
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The unaltered, unregistered mAOL program together with this documentation may be distributed by all means provided the only charge is for media or transmission. Any bundling of this software in a commercial product must be cleared through the author.
THIS PROGRAM IS LICENCED WITHOUT ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER. BECAUSE OF THE DIVERSITY OF CONDITIONS AND HARDWARE UNDER WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE USED, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. THE USER IS ADVISED TO TEST THE PROGRAM THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF THE AUTHOR WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF THE SHAREWARE FEE.
This program is Copyright 1994-1996, Jeffrey Alan Dickson.
Can you find the egg? (This isn't it, but nice try!)
