When a message is entered into the CommuniGate System, it can be read, stored, forwarded, replied, redirected, deleted etc. This chapter describes the operations you can do on a message using the CommuniGator application.
Reading a Message
To read a message, you select it in a mailbox window and choose Open from the File menu. Or you can double-click a message in a mailbox window. A message window appears. The upper part of the window contains the Mailer fields, the rest of the window contains the message itself.
You can click a triangle icon in the top left corner of the window to close the Mailer and leave more space in the window for the message itself. Click the triangle when the Mailer is closed to open it again.
The message can contain a so-called generic text (i.e. a styled text with embedded graphics and sounds), or it can contain fax pages.
Viewing and Printing Fax Messages
When a message displayed is a fax message, a pop-up menu appears above a fax page. That menu allows you to select the fax page to view.
You can use the Fax menu to scale a fax page on screen. If you select the Gray Image option in the Fax menu, fax pages will be shown in gray if the fax resolution is higher then the screen resolution. Please note that displaying fax pages in gray can be slow on low-end machines.
If a fax page was received flipped, you can turn it on screen using the Rotate command from the Fax menu.
You can select an area in a fax page by clicking and dragging. The selected rectangle can be copied using the Copy command from the Edit menu. It is placed on the Clipboard as graphics data and can be used in any other application.
When you print a fax message, a fax page can be larger than the size of the printer pages you use. If the Scale Long Faxes when Printing option is selected, long fax pages are scaled to fit the printer page. Otherwise, each long fax page is printed on several printer pages.
Viewing and Printing Plain Text Messages
Most of the message you receive from Internet and other text-only services contain plain text - there is no text style information in those messages. To display plain text messages, the default font and font size is used.
You can use the Text menu to set the style of the plain text on screen and on printouts, but it does not modify the message itself, and all style info is discarded as soon as you close the message window.
Some messages may contain tabulation symbols to align text in columns. Choose Tabulation from the Text menu to set the distance between tabulated text columns .
Sometimes it is useful to visualize the tabulation and return symbols. Choose Show ¶ from the Text menu to make these symbols visible.
To change the default font and default font size, choose Options from the Edit menu and select the Text Options. You can also set the default tabulation distance and the Show ¶ option there.
Searching in a Message
You can find some text in an open message by choosing Find from the Edit menu. Enter the text to find, select the desired options and click the Find button. When the text is found, it is highlighted and the message is scrolled to make the selected text visible.
Choose Find Again from the Edit menu to find the next occurrence of the same text.
Retrieving File Attachments from a Message
If a message has attached files, the names of those files can be seen when the Mailer is open and the Attachments are selected in the pop-up menu in the bottom right part of the Mailer.
To retrieve an attached file, double click its name in the Attachments list. The standard file dialog appears and allows you to store the selected file anywhere on your disk.
Printing a Message
To print a message, choose Print from the File menu. You may want to choose Page Setup first and set the page format and other options. When you choose Print, the message text is printed on your printer . The information about the sender of the message, the date the message was sent and the message subject is printed in the page headers.
To select the font and font size used to print headers, choose Options from the Edit menu and select the Print Options icon.
Replying to a Message
If you want to send a reply to a message, choose Reply from the Message menu. A new window is created and you can compose your reply message in it.
The Recipients field and the subject field appear filled, and the original message body may be automatically copied into the reply message text.
To fill the Recipients field, the Reply-To addresses are taken from the original message. If there is no Reply-To address in the original message, the From address is taken from the original message and inserted into the Recipients list of your reply.
The original message can be directed to you and several other recipients. To send your reply to all of them, as well as to the author of the original message, choose Reply To All from the Message menu.
The way the reply message is prepared depends on the Reply Options settings. To modify these settings, choose Options from the Edit menu and select the Reply Options icon.
Open Mailer when replying: when this option is set, the reply message window appears on the screen with the Mailer open.
Copy Priority to Reply: the recipients addresses automatically inserted into the reply message are marked with the same priority as your address in the original message, i.e. if you have received a high-priority message, the addresses in the reply message are marked as high-priority, too.
Copy as Cc: when replying to All: when you choose Reply To All, all recipients of the original message are inserted into your reply message as secondary recipients (Cc: - recipients). If this option is not set, the type of recipient is copied: the primary recipients of the original message will be primary recipients of your reply, the secondary recipients of the original message will be secondary recipients of your reply.
The Original Text option controls how the text of the original message is inserted into the reply. If the Don't copy option is selected, the original message text is not copied at all.
If the Copy Unchanged option is selected, the text of the original message is copied "as is", and the insertion point is set above the copied text; after you type your reply, the original message will be seen at the end of your reply.
If the Copy as Quotes option is selected, the original text is copied broken into individual lines, and the "Quote Mark" string is added at the beginning of each copied line.
Reply Header: when the original message text is copied into your reply message, a header is added above the copied text. The Reply Header option specifies that header string. The ^0 symbol combination in the Reply Header string is substituted with the date and time the original message was sent, the ^1 symbol combination is substituted with the name of the original message author (taken from the From address of the original letter).
When you submit the reply message, the original message is marked as "replied to".
Forwarding a Message
Sometimes you receive messages that should be seen by other people. To forward a copy of a message to one or several recipients, choose Forward from the Message menu. A new window appears with the text of the message copied and the Reply Header added.
Only the recipients field is editable, and you can specify the addresses the message should be forwarded to.
The message is sent on your behalf (i.e. your name is used as the From address).
When you submit the forwarded message, the original message is marked as "forwarded".
Redirecting a Message
Sometimes you receive messages that should be processed by somebody else. To redirect a message to one or several recipients, choose Redirect from the Message menu. A new window appears with the text of the message copied unchanged.
Only the recipients field is editable, and you can specify the addresses the message should be redirected to.
Your name is placed into the redirected message as the sender name, while the author (From) name is copied from the original message.
When you submit the redirected message, the original message is not deleted and it is marked as "redirected".
Transferring a Message into a Local Mailbox
You can transfer the message you are viewing into any local mailbox on your disk (see the Mailboxes chapter). To transfer the message, choose Transfer To from the Message menu. A submenu appears and allows you to choose the local mailbox name.
Deleting a Message
To delete the message you are viewing, choose Delete from the Message menu.
Sending a Message Again
When you view a copy of a message you sent earlier, you may want to send it again - unchanged or modified. Choose Send Again from the Message menu and the new window appears with the copy of the message you were viewing. You can modify that message if necessary. Choose Send from the Message menu to send the message again.
Storing a Message as a Disk File
To store the message you are viewing as a file on your disk, choose Save Copy As from the File menu. The standard dialog box appears and allows you to select the file format for the message.
The Letter format stores all information from the message; files in the Letter format can be read with the CommuniGator application. When read, they appear as letters with all attributes (From, subject, Recipients, Attachments, etc.) that the original letter had.
The fax messages can be stored in the Fax format. Files in the Fax format contain only the fax pages information. They can be opened and viewed with the CommuniGator application. Also, files in the Fax format can be attached to messages sent via FaxGate. When you fax the same documents repeatedly, it is recommended to create a fax message that contains those documents, then store that message as a file in the Fax format, and then use that file as an attachment when the documents should be faxed.
Messages can be stored as Text files. The text style information (if any) is stored, too.
If a message contains graphics, it can be stored as a PICT file. Only the first graphic element in the message is stored.
If a message contains sound data, it can be stored as a Sound file. Only the first sound element in the message is stored.
