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Text File | 1994-09-06 | 5.7 KB | 127 lines | [TEXT/ALFA] |
- Introduction
- ------------
-
- Mail2000 is a small utility to read textfiles containing e-mail. I wrote
- it because I have lots of e-mail files lying around from over the last few
- years which I occasionally want to read. Mail2000 can open up to four
- files, and provides threading of the subject and of the sender, and easy
- navigation through the mails. People who have fancy high-speed modem
- connections with the rest of the world will probably find this not very
- useful. It needs system 7 to run.
-
-
- Quick Start
- -----------
-
- To open it, double click it, or throw any textfile onto the icon. The file
- wil be loaded, and the program will try to figure out the mails. A dialog
- box will display a counter and some information while it is examining the
- file. After that has been done, Mail2000 threads the subjects of the
- mails. A dialog box will be displayed while it is doing the threading.
-
- After the file has been examined and threaded, the first mail is displayed.
- The bottom of the window displays number of the mail that is displayed, the
- total number of mails in the file, the sender of the mail (in bold face),
- and the subject.
-
-
- Selecting Mails
- ---------------
-
- When a new file is read in, all the mails are selected and by date. Use
- the Thread menu to select either a thread or all the mails. When a thread
- is selected, selecting the next or previous mail will display the next or
- previous one in the thread. Use the Mail menu to thread the mails on
- subject or on sender. You can also select the previous or the next thread
- from this menu. The threads in the menu are sorted alphabetically, and the
- mails in a thread are sorted by date.
-
-
- Navigating Through The Mails
- ----------------------------
-
- There are several ways to read through the mails. Use the scrollbars and
- arrow keys to scroll up and down. Clicking in the text will display a
- scroll-cursor. Moving the mouse down a little will scroll down, and moving
- it up a little scrolls up. Keep the mouse button pressed while doing this.
- Moving the mouse up or down a lot will jump to the next or previous mail.
- If you click in the bottom part of the screen (where the information is
- displayed), a pop-up menu will appear. If all the mails have been
- selected, the Mail menu will pop up, and you can select an option from
- that. If you are reading a thread, a menu containing either the sender
- will pop up (when threaded by subject), or a menu containing the subjects
- of the mails will pop up (when threaded by sender). Pressing the spacebar
- or the page-down key will display the next page of the current mail, and
- jump to the next mail when you reach the end (you can read everything by
- just pressing the spacebar). The backspace and page-up keys do the same
- thing, but in the other direction. Finally, you can select Goto Mail in
- the Mail menu. Type the number of the mail you want to read. Note that if
- you are reading a thread, you cannot select a mail outside of it.
-
-
- Miscellaneous
- -------------
-
- Use the Font and Size menu to set the font and size for a file. Different
- files can be displayed in different fonts and sizes.
-
- Use Header Strings in the edit menu to change the definition of the mail
- headers. All Mail2000 does is simply look for a line in the text beginning
- with one of the strings displayed in the dialog when reading a file. The
- current settings allow you to read for example UN*X mbox files. When you
- select 'File header strings…' from the Edit menu, you can change the header
- definitions for the current opened file. These strings are saved in a
- resource with the file, and are used the next time the file is opened. The
- default header strings (also in the Edit menu) are used when the mail file
- does not have a resource with definitions yet. Modifications to the
- default strings will be saved. If you check 'Ignore header strings', the
- definitions are ignored, and the default definitions are used.
-
- The 'Save As' option under the File menu saves a file with stripped mail
- headers. That is to say, only the header-lines that are defined under
- Header Strings are kept, the rest of the header is not saved. This will often
- reduce the filesize by something like 40% if you have files with lots of
- small mails,
-
- Copy (Edit menu) will copy the mail that is being read at that moment.
-
-
- Limitations (And One Feature)
- -----------------------------
-
- Mail2000 uses TextEdit to display the mails. This means that mails that
- are larger than 32K are truncated, and only the first part will be
- displayed. A warning will be displayed when this happens.
-
- Building a menu with lots of items can take a long time (by lots I mean
- over 200). The program shows a watch cursor, but appears to hang. If you
- wait a few seconds (well, it takes about a minute for a file with 500 mails
- on my LC) everything will be okay.
-
- The items that are put in the Thread menu are truncated to 32 characters.
- Believe me, it's best that way. Keeping them full size makes the menu
- look even more ugly than it does now.
-
- A file that has UN*X style end of line characters is correctly read in, and
- converted to Mac type. A dialog box shows the progress when this is done.
-
-
- Finally
- -------
-
- I hope you like this, and find it useful. It is shareware; you can try it
- out for two weeks, but if you decide to keep it, you should pay the
- shareware fee. Or at least send me some e-mail saying whether you like or
- hate the program if you can't be bothered to pay. Or tell me about bugs or
- things you want to see changed. I take no reponsibility of any kind, so
- use this at your own risk. It has been written and tested on a Mac LC.
- Some testing was done on a Quadra 900, a Centris 650, a Mac SE and a IIcx.
-
- My adres is:
- Peter Berck
- Sparrenstraat 1
- 5038 MJ Tilburg
- The Netherlands
-
- e-mail: P.J.Berck@kub.nl
-