[Glastonbury] 2 more questions please - re KMail (Mandrake OS)

[info at wccl.co.uk]

Thanks to all who have commented. I'll combine any comments below:

>Ian Dickinson re Mozilla Thunderbird >>>>If you like Firefox, you could give 
Thunderbird a spin

I've rarely ever used browser emailers except a brief time with Netscape years 
ago in win (and I didn't much like it!) and I hadn't thought of doing so. 
Will look at it. On Win I had OE which was revolting but less hassle than 
Netscape's. We loaded Mozilla Firefox at Christmas, I haven't had time to 
look at it much yet.

>>KMail,  >>This is a horrible, horrible user interface design. That one 
factor alone would make me abandon an application in a heartbeat! Yuk.

With the odd exception such as I queried, it does what I want - plain text 
emails, mostly for business, quick and simple to use so I can get things 
done. I've occasionally tried to make Evolution work but I can't persuade it 
to receive or send emails and I've given up on it for the time being. Not to 
say I wouldn't change to another Mailer but they usually need more expertise 
than I've got, it seems. KMail seems to be my level for setting up since I 
managed it!

Andrew >>>>If you look at the way this mail is quoted, this is potentially a 
more normal way to quote/reply to someone's email. If you don't need to 
include all the message, snip some out - you may also want to indicate 
that you've done so.

Unfortunately I can't quote and snip in any but a very few very short business 
mails - simply because no-one ever does that I've encountered in our years of 
business - and indeed I'd prefer not to in case of confusing anyone with 
snipping etc. I imagine that's why no-one else does it either in the business 
mails. No alterations, no blame? Our reply goes above the other person's full 
mail. Hence I want the signature after my message (which I could do in OE) as 
if it is a mail containing a whole string of earlier mails (as can be the 
case with some clients where they want it all kept together - or we do) our 
signature would appear at the end of perhaps 7 other mails!!! I forget if 
Evolution will place signatures precisely.

I always do quote and snip for personal mails (mails to LUGOG are personal 
mails) but it takes much longer, Agreed it's easier to follow and friendly.
But the business mails aren't conversational!

>>Use the identities field settings in KMail - you should be able to
create a personal signature for each user and then just dump it in each
time as if you were working from a document template. 

Thanks, will look at that.

>>If you can keep a
business signature short, please consider doing so. Older rules of
'Netiquette suggested that a signature should be no longer than four
lines of text.

The business signature should - one is advised by publicists - be a  
advertisement for our company - but seize the opportunity in as few words as 
possible! 6 words says what we do. Absolutely no html (most people I know 
don't want html just as I don't, even personal friends don't want it, partly 
because they are mostly using OE), no logos. I have added what I have been 
told (I forget who by but it was official-like) one is actually supposed to 
put within the mail when it relates to certain aspects of business ... was it 
for orders, or quotations, or ... I don't remember ... so it goes into all 
the mails, I haven't the enthusiasm to work which need it and which don't! 
This, believe it or not - comprises co. est date, reg in England and number, 
Vat No. Weird and another line but there you are. The reason I don't want to 
type it every time is the specific content - numbers, which bits must go in 
where, can you remember your VAT no. or co est date?! 

>>ASCII art came along and produced a whole genre of
interesting images ...

Got to be honest - urk. I love fancy logos and so on for snailmail if want to 
amuse myself, and I like a nicely designed letterhead, but for business 
emails, no. They are time wasters. Since I've KMail set to see everything as 
plain text, these fancy mails appear as code with a top message generated by 
KMail "warning, this is an html message, do you want to read it?" or words to 
that effect. Usually the answer is delete, because nearly all such messages 
are spam.

>>I have seen
business-originated emails with a 12 line disclaimer which is overkill
In My Humble Opinion.

Yes. I put in the "If this mail is not intended for you" bit if the other 
person always does, but mostly omit it. I often put in a brief please check 
for viruses (a few words) but it's hardly worth doing really. I don't see any 
point in people putting in "This mail has been checked with x AV" because you 
see that in many virus messages and also denial of service virus-generated 
fiascoes such as the current one originating from reportedly a virus at a 
certain local organisation which has flooded our box and many other co's I 
know over the last 3 days or so.  

Thanks for the advice re the right justifying which I'll test. But am deeply 
disappointed that there seems to be no amazing and wonderful use for 
right-hand side ctrl-shift. It never seems to be much use for anything.

Tim >> kmail has a lot of irritating undocumented creatures. 

Yes. But not often enough to really annoy me.

>It's probably worth 
filing a bug report if there isn't one already. 

OK

>>Personally I'm in the process 
of weaning myself off KDE applications as they all seem to have these 
problems and seem to take way more resources than they should. Even Zak (my 
10 year old) has migrated to GNOME now.

I don't set up the Linux myself. Things get changed now and again, I just use 
the machine and Linux works..... We've put Redhat back on one machine for 
some reason or other, but not the machine I use. Don't know what's come with 
it, I haven't looked. 

Thanks again for all help. Haven't had the chance to test any of it yet, too 
busy, but when the problem occurs, I will do it.

Ros























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-- 
If this message is not intended for you, please delete it immediately as its 
contents may be confidential and its disclosure, copying or distribution 
unlawful. Thank you.
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Wells Computer Consultants Ltd 
Business Analysis and Database Systems Development
British Computer Society Registered Consultant
Business Link Mentor / BNI Taunton & West Mendip / Wired West - Member
Registered with the Business Link Somerset Business Services Register
tel +44(0)1749 674935 / info at wccl.co.uk   www.wccl.co.uk
alternative email address: wccl at fsbdial.co.uk
Company established 1988 / Registered in England No.2300774 /VAT 501-8293-67

Please check for viruses. Although we endeavour 
to keep files clean, we cannot take any responsibility 
for any damage caused by contagion.