Mail:[a4dos-list] Re:Re:[a4dos-list] Insight editing space Arachne v1.83 file:c:\arachne\mail\a4dos.lst\a217abe7.mes Sat, 19 Feb 2005 16:28:02 ________________________________________________________________________________ From: "L. D. Best" To: "Arachne4DOS" Reply-to:arachne4dos@coollist.com Date: Subject: [a4dos-list] Re:Re:[a4dos-list] Insight editing space ============================================================================== I can see there is still a lot of misunderstanding about the e-mail pages. Let me see if I can step thru some of these and explain what's going on ... and why some things simply are not there to clutter the place up. Bastiaan Edelman wrote: >>Top row we have "Options" and all could be deleted from this screen >>and replaced with a button taking you to an seperate page. If you want to remove these particular rows from your personal edit screen it can be done; but they are there not so much to "allow you to change things" as to tell you how you have things set ... > > > Who ever does use "Delete When Sent"? I normally have my options set to delete e-mail when I send it; if I didn't my HDD would quickly fill and I'd never be able to find the stuff I *was* interested in. HOWEVER, there are times when I most certainly want a copy of the e-mail I'm sending; at that point I can de-select 'delete when sent' and know I'll have what I consider a needed copy ... and when I go on to reply to my next e-mail, I can once again select to delete sent mail. If that button was not there on the e-mail page, this very important option would require going to Options Page, or Changing to Different ACF, or Editing Arachne.Cfg by hand. I think it should stay on the form. > "Use Replyto" does not function and has no function on this screen because > one did already choose with replying. > This *does* function, if you know what it does. If you check out various e-mails you receive, you'll see that often the FROM field is different from the REPLY TO field; often this is because of mail being filtered through a list. Many times it is because the mail may be sent from one e-dress, but the correspondent wants replies going to another e-dress. Arachne now allows you to decide if you want replies to your e-mail to return from whence they came, or be sent to the e-dress you designate. This needs to be an option on the e-mail forms themselves, otherwise we are once again looking at a very big lump of work on the part of the user just to change this one (necessary for many) aspect of e-mail. > "Use signature" must be kept. Actually, it is probably the *least* important part of all the options. Signatures can be imported as text with just a few keystrokes, and without having to rewrite any configuration files anywhere. > >>Next is the row labeled "Encoding" This whole row could be happily >>exiled to the same page as the "Options" Believe me, it is either going to require jumping through options hoops or removing the choice. ****** I think where some of the problem lies, why the misunderstanding exists, is that many people do not understand HTML and most particularly do not understand how FORMS work. It seems that some are considering the e-mail pages to simply be some sort of magical GUI that links into a black box which reads minds and checks all over the place to do things the way the user has them set up. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Each e-mail GUI has one or more FORMs on it, and each of them can be essential to how the mail is handled. Having them on the GUI means things can be done while writing e-mail, and that the underlying program need only check the GUI and CFG files before proceeding. If, as Sam wants, these 'options' were moved to a separate page ... well, the software would have to be rewritten so that once you're finished with the GUI, another one or two or three places would have to be checked ... and quite possibly Arachne.Cfg file would have to be rewritten for each of those places and any changes ... before the e-mail is ready to send. The e-mail pages are -- despite complaints to the contrary -- designed as part of a KISS interface ... that is Keep It Simple, Stupid!! Nothing on those pages can be omitted (other than e-dress list) and still allow the user *reliable* access to what we see as basic e-mail options. Bottom line: The e-mail pages are NOT "just GUI" ... they are FORMS. ******** No sense addressing the rest of the complaints because the reply is the same: If we remove those fields/choices from the e-mail GUI, we remove necessary choices and the ability to reliably change from "default" to "this is important on this message" stuff l.d. P.S. glennmcc or someone, I suggest that this message needs to be saved for inclusion somewhere in HELP or WALk-THRU ... it's a decent starting point on some of this stuff [Sponsored by:] _____________________________________________________________________________ The newest lyrics on the Net! http://lyrics.astraweb.com Click NOW! ============================================================================== Arachne Insight 3.87, GNUpyright (G)1997-2000 Arachne Labs (now being maintained by glennmcc)