[aMail documentation]

aMail version 2.1.2

User's Guide - Using aMail
The first thing you need to enjoy are a POP mail account and a SMTP server. You should know both server names (they may be the same name), as well as your POP user name and password, and your email address. if you are missing any of this information, ask your email provider for this information.

The first thing you need to do to take advantage of aMail is to fill in your user information. You can do this by clicking on the button (User Info) on the top line of this screen. You need to enter all fields except for 'First and Last name', and 'Reply to'. If you are not in the US, or your time zone is not offered on the User Info screen, talk to the webmaster of the site you are using. Make sure you check 'delete mail from mail server' unless you want multiple copies of emails in your Inbox.

Here is a brief description of what you can do with aMail.

aMail Features

aMail Functions (top line)

The top line controls many of the functions of aMail. Clicking on your user name brings up your Inbox into the folder window.
(Check Mail): Checks the POP mail account you entered into aMail.
(Compose): brings up a blank mail form which can be filled in and sent.
(Folders): shows details about your folders and allows you to edit folder information.
(Address Book ): stores all of your contact and group list information. Addresses can be added through a form at the bottom of the address screen, or from any email.
(Search): allows searching messages with certain criteria.
(User Info): is used to enter user information.
(Your Files): stores any files you need, either from your computers drive or from an email attachment. These files can be sent along with email or saved to your computer.
(User's manual): displays the on-line user's manual.
(Logout): logs you out of aMail so your messages cannot be read. You will need to re-enter your password to access aMail after clicking Logout.

Message Functions (orange square below top line)

The orange box, below and to the left of the top line is used to move or delete messages, change the folder, or set aMail to view messages in a new window. The black arrow at the lower right points to the window which will be affected by the or buttons (Move or Delete). If any of the messages in the folder window are selected the arrow will point to the folder window. If one or more messages are selected, and Move or Delete is pressed, all selected messages will be acted upon. Moved messages are removed from the current folder and sent to the folder selected on the drop-down window. You can create a folder by selecting 'New Folder' and moving a message. Deleted messages are sent to the 'Trash', unless they are already in the 'Trash', in which case they will be removed altogether. If no message is selected in the folder window but a message is being shown in the message window, then the arrow will point down and Move and Delete will act upon this message. If no messages are selected and no message is being shown, then no arrow will be shown and Move and Delete will not do anything. The button (Go) changes the folder window to show whatever folder is selected on the drop down menu. Selecting show message in new window will open up each message in a new window as opposed to the lower half of the main window, as is usual.  This allows more viewing area for some messages which may need it.

Folder Window (shows message summaries)

This is the larger window below the Mail Functions.

The top line of the folder window shows the folder name, along with folder summary information. Next to the folder is shown which message numbers are being shown in the window. Message numbers change depending on how the messages are sorted. Select All and Clear All select or unselect all messages shown on the screen for deleting or moving.

The Folder window shows up to 50 emails in the current folder. Information about each email is displayed, one email per line. If a line has a yellow color to it, it has not been read yet. Each line shows who the email is from, when it was sent, the subject included in the mail, and the size of the message (in Kbytes). If a green paperclip shows up next to the size then the email has an attachment included. Clicking on the subject displays the message. Clicking on the email address in the 'from' field begins a message to that person. Clicking on any of the headings sorts the messages according to that column.

Message Window (should be this window)


The bottom half of the window is where messages can be read unless show message in new window is selected in the Message Functions window.

Next Message and Previous Message change the Message Window contents according to the contents of the Folder Window.  If the message displayed in the Message Window cannot be found in the Folder Window above, these functions will not work.

Clicking on Resend will resend the message without any changes.  You will be prompted to input the name of the recipient and the mail will be sent verbatim, only changing the from and the date field.

Clicking on add addresses will check all email addresses in the header of the email and display a form allowing you to add any that are not already in your address book.

Composing an e-mail

When you want to compose a new e-mail, just press the (Compose) button, and the next screen appears :

Here you insert the e-mail address of the destination (field To), a brief description of the e-mail content (field Subject), the recipients (e-mail address) that will receive a copy of this e-mail (field cc) and those recipients that will receive it too but neither the destination nor the ones that will receive a copy will be notified (field Bcc or blind copy).

After that is a big field that allows you to write you e-mail message (please keep in mind that at this time aMail allows text-only messages). Once this is complete you can send your e-mail pressing the Send Mail button.

Now you can be considered the happiest person in the world, because thanks to this e-mail you started a business, a new relationship, or perhaps sent a love letter to your loved ones, and as soon as you press Send Mail that huge spelling error appears in front of you ... it's too late, the e-mail has been sent sucessfully !!!

To avoid such embarasing situation there is one tool that you will love: the spell checker. Based on aspell or ispell (the one that is installed in your system) you can check if the words on your e-mail are properly written. To do this just select the proper language to use (the drop down list at the left of the Send Mail button) and press the Spell Check button. At this time a new one will appear, showing the original text with the words found to be wrong specially marked. I this first example the word night was mispelled, and the spell checker suggest some words that could replace it :

Also you can see two more items in the list, whose meaning is :

In case a replacement can't found, it let us modify the word freely, using a simple textbox. In case this word is right but it's not present in the dictionary, you can add it to your personal one just adding the characters '~=' (without the quotes) in front of it :

Once all errors are corrected, and you press the Finish Checking button, you corrected text is passed to the compose window.

Security

As you already know we try harder to keep things safest as possible. One of these security features consist on some problem detection. Sometimes when an e-mail message has been malformed can cause some malfunction or can be interpreted as a cracking intent. To warn you of this behaviour a bug picture will appear, like the one shown below :

This is only a warning, and in case can cause any harm you will be notified explicitly.

Personal Dictionary

When you compose a new e-mail (or a reply) you can check for its correct spelling, and from time to time you will find some words that are not in the spell checker dictionary. You can tell it to use an additional list of words that are referred as a Personal Dictionary. To manage this list you can do it while making a spell checking (see the section composing en e-mail section) or in the maintenance section (to access it go to User Info and at its bottom press the Maintain Dictionary button) :

In this screen you can work on addig and/or deting words from your personal dictionary.

Note: please note that you will have one personal dictionary per language, which can be selected from the drop down list at the top and pressing the Go button.

[aMail documentation]

aMail version 2.1.2

User's Guide - Using aMail