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Re: LK> which mailer is better?



THIS MESSAGE WAS POSTED 24 HRS AGO BUT WAS PROBABLY LOST
Both Brian and Jim convinced me that it is time to say good bye to my old
main-frame-based mailer (used for at least 15 years) in favor of a better
Mac-based tool. I am hesitating between Eudora and Netscape 3. Which one
is better and why? What else is worth considering?
Ludwik Kowalski

My reader (Eudora) ... allows immediate sorting on each of these headings,
and most valuable, permits a filtering action, which people often use to
discard mail from particular people unread ... It gives access to the
subject line, of course ...

However, Eudora is not the end all and be all of mailers -- even the
spell checker of the Pro version is a bit stupid. But it is much smarter
than *I* am.

I have not used the netscape mailer personally, but several of my
colleagues have and all have now converted to Eudora because of its
superior filtering, editing and sorting capabilities. In addition to these
features, I have, using my Eudora Pro software, set up separate accounts
for my wife and daughter and also can query my office e-mail account from
home automatically. And when I query the office account, I leave the
messages on the office server, so that those that need to be dealt with at
the office are still there when I get to the office.

I have set up about 20 mailboxes for different topics and the filtering
system built into Eudora sends the messages automatically to the correct
mailbox (as long as I have identified the criteria to dtermine which
message goes to which box).

I have set up mailing lists for my classes and send them homework
assignments, lab writeups, etc. Each student gets a message addressed to
them only, so when they print the message on the school printers, the first
three pages aren't a huge address list.

I can use the school server (or ay other server I designate) as a default
address, and if I just put down the account name, Eudora will automatically
add the rest.

Eudora allows you to do almost anything a word processor will do, so your
messages can be formatted with different fonts, special symbols, etc.
Unfortunately, most mail servers aren't this good, so most of this stuff is
lost at the other end.

Adding attachments to any e-mail is as easy as clicking the "attach
Document" item on the message menu. A dialog box opens and you select the
document you want to attach. It can be text (including graphics) or an
executable file but Eudora deals with it automatically and you don't have
to worry about it. Again, though, if the person at the other end doesn't
have the proper "decoding" software, this capability is lost.

Any address preceded by http:// or ftp:// or mailto://, or any one of
several others will show up in your highlight color in the text. If you
click on it, it will automatically launch the necessary application an open
the document indicated (web site, ftp site, newly created e-mail blank,
etc.).

I understand its built-in spell checker is mediocre, but I have dumped all
my built-in spell checkers in favor of "Spell Catcher" by Casady & Greene,
the maker of some great Mac Utilities. This little gem works with any
application and it (if you want it to) work interactively, alerting you to
spelling errors as they occur. I now use it with every application that has
a text function and have freed up all sorts of disk space by throwing away
about 10 application specific spell-checkers. So I don't care if Eudora's
spell checker is klunky. I'd just as soon developers wuit putting spell
checkers in their applications. Most of them are klunky, and since they
don't work with other applications, you end up with all these dictionaries,
and personal dictionaries that may be different in different applications..
it's all nutty. So I have one spell checker for everything.

Furthermore, Eudora is, I believe, available in both Mac and PC versions,
so it is another way for those of differing faiths to effectively
communicate with each other. I recommend Eudora. Eudora light is free, as
is Netscape e-mailer, but Eudora Pro has substantially more capability and
isn't very expensive. I believe I spent less than $50 for my copy.

Hugh

To get random signatures put text files into a folder called "Random
Signatures" into your Preferences folder.The box said "Requires Windows 95
or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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