Monday, September 11, 2000		Learning Computers

Eudora Pro has integrated voice e-mail feature

THE world of e-mail is changing fast. Whatever we thought impossible till yesterday is becoming a reality today. In fact, during the last one decade, the whole meaning of communication has changed with a lot of value-addition to e-mail. Earlier, e-mail was popular for sending and receiving text messages, with limited facility of attachments. Now, you can send an animation, voice, video, text — virtually everything, which comes to your mind. For sending e-mails you need e-mail clients, which provide you the necessary interface. Some popular e-mail clients are Eudora, Outlook Express and Netscape. We have discussed Outlook Express an length in previous issues, so this time we will concentrate on Netscape and Eudora mail.

The Netscape e-mail client is a part of the browser Netscape Navigator and is an integral part of it. It is a full-featured e-mail client with well-equipped address book and easy to use e-mail box. In fact, this is one of the simplest e-mail clients available. The main feature of Netscape is its user-friendly interface. Actually, for sending e-mails you do not need any help. However, for configuring an e-mail account in Netscape mail, you may require some help. Unlike other e-mail clients, the steps required for configuring this e-mail client are minimum. The interface of the Netscape mail looks like Microsoft Word and Excel. It has a menu bar that has items like File, Edit, etc.

Click on Edit for configuring the e-mail account. This will open a drop-down menu featuring many sub-menus including Preferences. Click on this sub-menu to open a new window, which will be divided into two parts. The left side of the window represents the function, while the right side represents the corresponding action.

If you are using Netscape mail for the first time, click on Mail and Newsgroup. This will open all sub-menus of this function. Now click on Identity, which is the first sub-menu. On the right side of Windows, enter your name and e-mail address in the required columns. Then click on mail servers. This will open a new sub-menu on the right side of the window. Here you will be required to fill in your POP3 and SMTP server addresses. These addresses are provided by your Internet service provider and are critical for sending and receiving e-mails. Also, you need to choose the post office protocol (POP) server option and not IMAP server, as majority of ISPs use POP for e-mails. Once you have entered your POP3 and SMTP addresses, you are through, as this will complete the basic configuration of your e-mail client.

For fine-tuning your Netscape mail, you can click on Newsgroups and select the news service of your choice. Otherwise, the default news service will already remain configured. In Addressing option you can fine-tune your address book using the default settings. Similarly, in other sub-menus, like messages, you can control your message by defining the parameters and can also enable spell check for your e-mail before sending it. In the Window Settings menu, you can change the appearance by altering the design of your e-mail client. In fact, the task of configuring the e-mail is finished much earlier and you can also use the default settings for other sub-menus.

Now you are all set to use the Netscape mail by using customised buttons to send and receive mails. Other buttons, like Reply All and Forward, are also self-explanatory and are similar to those in other e-mail clients.

Netscape mail is easy to use e-mail clients, but it suffers from three major limitations:

1)You can configure only one POP mail account in this e-mail client. Whereas, in case of Outlook Express and Eudora mail, you can configure as many POP mail accounts you want.

2)Unlike Outlook Express, this e-mail client does not offer features on channelising your e-mails to separate folders. If you do not receive a lot of e-mail, then this feature is not of much use. However, if you receive lot of e-mail, then you need a facility, using which you can categorise your e-mails on the basis of priorities and are thus transferred to separate e-mail boxes. This feature is available in Outlook Express, but is not available in this e-mail client, as it has only one consolidated Inbox. However, you can create sub-folders in Inbox and in other boxes. But the transfer of email is not automated to these folders based on specific criteria.

3) This e-mail client also does not support voice interface. So, though you can send voice files as an attachment, yet you will need another software for preparing your voice e-mails. This feature is present only in Eudora Pro e-mail client.

Eudora Pro is a feature-rich free e-mail client, which is supported by advertisements. It is one of the best e-mail clients available and hosts a number of value-added features, including the integrated voice e-mail. A great feature of this e-mail client is that you can configure as many POP enabled e-mail accounts you want and all of them will be displayed in your main window. If you have an account with Glide, VSNL and Satyam, they can all be configured in Eudora Pro. Unlike Outlook Express, in case of Eudora, you do not need to log out from one identity to log in as a separate identity to use other accounts. You can simply click on any identity and can send and receive your e-mail.

As far as configuring Eudora is concerned, it is slightly different from the Netscape mail. The procedure in this case is equally simple. First click on Tools menu and then click the options sub-menu in the drop down menu. This will open a small graphical window. On the left side of the Window, you will find the category and on the right side the corresponding action window. In the first category of the left side of the window, click on the Getting Started button, and fill in relevant information like your name, e-mail address, POP 3 and SMTP mail server address and your login name. Then click on checking e-mail button. Fill in the POP address and the login name; and if you wish not to be reminded about the password, you can also check the Save Password option. In this window, you can also configure your e-mail client to automatically check e-mail after a particular interval of time. Then click on the incoming mail button and select the POP server configuration. If this is your only e-mail client and you do not intend to use any other e-mail client for accessing e-mails, then you should uncheck the field Leave Mail on server. Else you can check it for keeping a copy of your e-mail on the mail server to be accessed from some other e-mail client. Now, click on the Send e-mail option and fill in your e-mail address in the return address box and also write your SMTP mail server address in SMTP mail server. You can use other default features for your convenience. If you wish Eudora to negotiate a dial-up connection with your ISP, then you can click on Internet dial-up button and check mark the relevant fields. However, if you use other dialers for connecting to the Net, then you should not select these options. This makes the configuration of your e-mail account in Eudora Pro complete. There are some other buttons available in the options window, but you can use the default settings in them. And if you wish to fine-tune it, you can click on other buttons also.

Your first e-mail account will be displayed under the head "Dominant" in the personality window on the left side of the main window. If you wish to add more POP-based e-mail accounts, then click the right button of the mouse on Main Personality. This will open a drop down menu. Select the sub-menu and a new account wizard window will be opened. After filling in the boxes in this window with required information, a new account will be created in the personality window. You can independently use any of these accounts and can send and receive e-mails from any account you wish. It is worth mentioning here that in Eudora Pro you can also configure your Yahoo e-mail account by entering its POP and SMTP address. So, in Eudora, you can add as many e-mail accounts you want by following the procedure mentioned above.

Another interesting feature of Eudora is the voice e-mail. This e-mail client also has inbuilt voice recorder using which you can record your voice to send an e-mail. All you need to use this feature is a microphone and sound card in your computer. For using this feature click on the last button of your Tool Bar, this will open an e-mail window and the voice recorder. Record your message and save it as an attachment. You can also write your message in the relevant box and can send it to anybody.

Eudora Pro is an excellent e-mail client and offers numerous value-added features. Now, all your family members can use one e-mail client and save the hard disk space by installing individual e-mail clients. You can also configure your business, personal, and other accounts separately as per your convenience.

— Roli