Copyright: Copyright ©1996-2002 Andreas Kinzler


Features

•	Intelligent three pane view with message reselection; list of folders, list of messages in the selected folder, message preview

•	Multiple mail accounts

•	Complete background mail transfer; does not block the application

•	Support for Dial-Up Networking. Can call your ISP, transfer mail and hang up after all

•	PGP integration. If the public keys are present in the PGP Manager, just set the option encrypt and/or sign in the composer and that is all you have to do. Supported PGP versions are 2.63, 5.5x and 6.x

•	Support for HTML mails. Create and read HTML mails. Internet Explorer 3.02 is required to use this feature

•	Archives can be created from selected messages. Very useful for backups. Available in the registered version only

•	Powerful message commands: Reply, Reply All, Forward, Redirect

•	Phrases allow you to insert text pieces via a hot key combination. Very useful for often needed phrases

•	Listserver functionality; filters can add/remove senders to/from address books. Forward filters can send mailings to address books.

•	Manual download manager; allows you to view the headers of messages being on your server, you can delete messages on the server without even downloading them or you can park messages on the server and download them whenever you want, or you can download downloaded messages again, or ...

•	Very powerful filters for incoming and outgoing messages; two modes are available: standard and advanced. Standard filters allow normal filter operations, advanced filters allow you to define variables and use boolean expressions so there is nearly no limit on what and how to filter. Extremely useful for filtering on junk mail and other complex scenarios

•	Automatic forwards and canned replies can be triggered by filters; templates and variables can be used to reply with individual messages; a filter that detects junk mail can trigger an automatic reply sending an empty message with 'REMOVE' as subject for example

•	Supports MIME attachments, umlauted letters in texts and headers

•	Powerful address book manager; manages multiple address books and mailing lists; all important information at a glance

•	Sharing of address books over a LAN. Available in the registered version only

•	Detection of URLs; allows you to invoke your web browser

•	Nested folders

•	Unbound folders help you to manage your mail with multiple accounts independent of a particular mail account

•	Automatic address entry generation from incoming mail

•	Let's you use Microsoft Word for editing your mails. Word is used instead of the normal editor control

•	Multiple signatures; highly customizable through variables

•	Sensitive signatures automatically select signatures based on the text you are replying to

•	Greatly enhanced signature system. Address book entries can have their own signatures so you can send individual messages to your friends

•	Customizable templates for new messages, replies and forwards

•	Advanced find function; searches folders, accounts or the whole message base

•	Can be invoked by any web browser supporting external mailto: applications

•	Uses SMTP and POP3 with UIDL support

•	Support for SMTP authentication via RFC 2554

•	Support for encrypted POP3 passwords using APOP

•	Support for DSN return receipts

•	Drag & Drop of messages, address books and address book entries

•	Logging functions; SMTP, POP3 and socket commands are logged to support debugging problems with your account

•	Import function to import UNIX like mailspools

•	Support for PCs without access to the Internet through AKMSend

•	OLE Automation. AK-Mail can be controlled by other applications like Visual Basic. Registered version only.

•	Built-in UU-Encoder, built-in UU-Decoder

•	Context sensitive menus

•	Context sensitive help

•	Easy install and setup


Overview

Getting Started

Welcome to AK-Mail 3. AK-Mail is a powerful mailer for Windows 9x, Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000. If you would like to see a list of useful features click here. This manual differs from other manuals you may know. It does not explain mail basics. Instead I spent some time to write down useful tricks and tips to get out the most of AK-Mail. All dialogs that offer you to modify settings have a context sensitive help page which can be opened by hitting F1.

Tips & Tricks

This chapter gives you information about certain topics. Here you will find really useful tips and background information. Definitely worth reading.

Shareware and Registration

AK-Mail is shareware. In this chapter you will find a link to the registration information page on the Web and instructions on how to install your key.


Feedback/Suggestions

Feedback

Your feedback is welcome. If you have something to report (for example a bug), please add log and debugging information. Especially if you have problems with your provider the account log is of greatest importance. Other information like the version of your operating system may be of importance too.

Suggestions - let me know

If you have suggestions, please let me know. Most of the features and changes in this new release of AK-Mail come from user suggestions. To make a suggestion, the message board on the AK-Mail Website is the right place to go.


Address Book Settings

Name

The name of the address book

Alias

An alias for the address book, may be empty. If you enter this alias in the To:, Cc: or Bcc: field of the composer the alias is replaced by the entries in the book. Assume you have a book called 'Friends' containing 5 entries. The book has the alias name 'cool'. If you enter 'cool' in the To: field of the composer, 'cool' is replaced by the 5 email addresses of your 5 friends in the book.

Notes

Notes, not used by AK-Mail. Feel free to enter whatever you like.


Entry Settings, General

Name

The name of the entry. Should be the real name of the person.

Alias

An alias for the entry, may be empty. If entered in the To:, Cc: or Bcc: field of the composer the alias is replaced by the email address of the entry.

E-Mail Address

The e-mail address of this entry.

Comment

A short comment being displayed in the lister. Put information you would like to see in the lister here.

Notes

Notes, not used by AK-Mail. Feel free to enter whatever you like.


Entry Settings, Options

Encrypt mails going to this recipient

Check this, if you would like to encrypt new outgoing mails going to this recipient. Click here for important information.

Sign mails going to this recipient

Check this, if you would like to sign new outgoing mails going to this recipient.

Create HTML mail

If checked, AK-Mail starts a new mail to this recipient in the HTML editing mode.

Request a return receipt

If checked, AK-Mail sets the return receipt option for new mails to this recipient.


Entry Settings, Signatures

Use this template for new mails

You can overwrite the standard signature system by checking this flag. If checked, AK-Mail will start a new message going to this recipient with the signature given. The signature will be applied by AK-Mail as soon as AK-Mail gets knowledge of the recipient.

Use this template for replies

Similar to the option above, but for replies.


General Settings, General

Real Name

Enter your real name here. In my case this is 'Andreas Kinzler'. This name is the default name used as real name for all accounts. That means that the person who receives your messages will see this name in his message lister. Do not enter something else here, make sure that you entered your real name. If you would like to use alias names or business titles like 'Product Sales' use the real name field in the account settings of the corresponding account. The name entered here is the name used for the registration. When you register you will receive a personal key that contains this name.


General Settings, Confirmations/Warnings

Deletion of mails in folders other than 'Trash'

If you use the delete messages command, AK-Mail moves the messages marked for deletion to trash folder of the account that owns the message. Here you can specify if you would like to confirm this operation.

Deletion of mails in the 'Trash' folder

If a message is already in the trash folder, it is not moved to the trash folder again. In this case it will be deleted. Check this if you would like to confirm this operation.

Warn if there are unsent messages on program exit

You may be interested in sending all unsent messages before you exit AK-Mail. If you check this you are informed if there are unsent messages

Warn if a message with a stop mark is to be send

AK-Mail does not send messages that have a stop mark. But there is one exception: If you are in the composer and then click 'Send' AK-Mail sends the message even if it has a stop mark. Check this if you would like to see a warning.

Deletion of address book entries

Check this if you would like to confirm the deletion of address book entries.

Warn, if free space drops below ? MB

If checked, AK-Mail warns you if the free space on the storage device that contains AK-Mail's databases drops below a user-specified value. This option can help you to prevent data loss due to insufficient free space on your storage device. The amount of space AK-Mail needs depends on the way you use it. The default value is 50 MB, which is a good guess for "normal" use.


General Settings, Appearance

Proportional Font

For both reading and composing you can choose the fixed or the proportional font. Here you can specify which font is to be used for the proportional font.

Fixed Font

For both reading and composing you can choose the fixed or the proportional font. Here you can specify which font is to be used for the fixed font.

Color of normal text

The text color you wish to use for normal (that is non-quoted, non-URL) text.

Color of quoted text

The text color you wish to use for quoted text.

Color of URLs

The text color you wish to use for URLs.


General Settings, Options I

Mark messages as read if previewed for ? seconds

If you like the previewer of AK-Mail very much you may never open the message in a separate window. In this case it is useful to have a message marked as read if it is being previewed for a certain time.

Close separate message window

If you reply/forward a message from a separate message viewer, you may wish to close this window. Check this to close it. If unchecked AK-Mail will keep the viewer open.

Do not delay screen update after retrieving new messages

In previous versions of AK-Mail screen update was delayed after new mail was received. That means that after receiving a message this message was shown some seconds later. That makes sense when using a very fast LAN connection. Since most users use slower connections, you can now disable the delayed update.

Quote character

Specify which character you would like to use to quote text lines. Default is '>'. However you can also use ':' or '|'. Please note: This character is also used to determine if a text line is quoted in order to display the line using the correct color.

Pre-wrap quoted lines at ? characters

If you reply to a message that contains long lines, the composer cannot wrap the long lines correctly.
Here is an example how that looks like:

>> Hello, this is a long
line

That is why you can enable a pre-wrap mechanism that wraps quoted lines correctly.

Here is the result:

>> Hello, this is a long
>> line

Change account ownership

Every message is owned by an account. Check this if you would like to have the ownership changed if messages are moved/copied to a folder belonging to another account. For more information on this topic see Account Ownership.

Save MIME source code

Saves the MIME source code of incoming messages. This is useful for debugging purposes. You should uncheck this option when no longer needed because it consumes a lot of resources and slows down AK-Mail.


General Settings, Options II

How To Count Messages In The Unread/Total Columns, When To Use The Bold Font

If you are using child folders, it is useful to consider messages in child folders. Please note: Not every combination makes sense. If you count messages in child folders and use the bold font if there are messages in child folders you do not win anything because then the bold font is used if the counter is not zero. So you do not get more information.

There are two additional options for accounts. "Show counts for accounts" tells AK-Mail to display the number of messages along with the account name. "For accounts with unread messages" displays the account name in bold when there are unread messages in the account.

Tray Management

If the option 'Move to tray on startup' is checked, AK-Mail does not start with a visible window on startup. Instead it starts with the tray icon. The option 'Move to tray if minimized' removes AK-Mail from the taskbar and moves it to the tray if the user minimizes the main window. If the option 'Single click' is checked, a single click (instead of a double click) on the tray icon will open/restore AK-Mail's main window.


General Settings, Phrases

What are phrases ?

Phrases are small pieces of text that you use often. For example I have a phrase 'FAQ' that contains the AK-Mail FAQ. Other useful phrases are subject lines you use often. In general create a phrase if you do not wish to type the same text again and again.

With AK-Mail you can define up to 24 phrases.


General Settings, Address Book

Imports/Exports

This page allows you to define Imports and Exports. Click here to get more information about Imports and Exports.

Resolution of Entries

AK-Mail 3 allows you to assign options to entries (2nd and 3rd tab in the Entry Settings). These options are only used if the message is addressed to one recipient only. And they are only used if the message was created in the composer. If an email address is entered in the composer, AK-Mail searches all entries in the address book manager. The options (HTML for example) for the mail are taken from that entry that has the same email address as the given email address in the composer. However there is a problem if there are multiple entries having the given address. Therefore AK-Mail offers two settings. If Default Address Book first, then other books is checked, AK-Mail searches the Default Address Book first, then all other books. If it is not checked, it is just the other way round. If Merge Options is checked, AK-Mail tries to merge the options of all entries that matched. Options from the 2nd tab of the Entry Settings are activated if at least one entry has them activated. That means if there are nine entries having HTML deactivated and one that has HTML activated, then HTML is activated. The signatures on the 3rd tab are used if there are no contradictions (different text). If Merge Options is not checked, the first entry found, specifies all options of the mail.


General Settings, Security

Attachments that are a potential threat to your system

Recently, more and more malware (viruses, trojans, etc) are send via email through attachments. If you are not careful you may accidentally open an infected attachment by double-clicking it in the message viewer. To prevent that kind of "accident", this tab lets you define a list of attachment extensions that should be considered a potential threat. The default list includes extensions like "EXE", "SCR" and "PIF". If you try to open such an attachment, AK-Mail will require explicit confirmation.


Account Settings, General

Name

The name of the account.

Real Name

If you do not want to use the real name entered in the real name field of the general settings you can enter a real name for this account here. Please note: This is the place to enter alias names like 'Cyber Fox' or other titles like 'Product Sales'. Do not enter alias names in the real name field of the general settings.


Account Settings, Send

E-Mail Address

Enter your email address here. Please note: AK-Mail performs a syntactically verification of this address.

Reply-To Address

Depending on your account you need to enter a reply-to address here.

SMTP Server

Enter the address of your SMTP server here. Both dotted IP addresses and symbolic names are accepted.

Wrap On Send

If you check this option the text of outgoing messages is wrapped at send time. This is done in memory and the results of the wrap process are not stored back to the message. Do not confuse this option with the wrap option in the viewer/composer. The wrap option in the viewer/composer specifies if long lines are wrapped or not. Its influence is limited to the visible representation. Wrap On Send really modifies the text on send time and inserts hard returns.

German Users: Convert 'ä' to 'ae', 'ö' to 'oe', 'ü' to 'ue' and 'ß' to 'ss'

This option is useful for German users only.

Send unsent mail every ? minutes

If checked, AK-Mail sends unsent mail for this account every ? (replace by your value) minutes.

Only if connected

This option is useful only if Send unsent mail every ? minutes is checked and you are using the dial-up networking. If Only if connected is checked, the time triggered send process is only started, if a dial-up connection exists. Important: It does not matter who established the connection.

Advanced Settings

This dialog allows you to set advanced SMTP options for this server.

Authentication thru RFC 2554

SMTP servers can be misused by other people to send SPAM. Authentication helps to fight this problem. With authentication you must "login" into your SMTP server. Only if authentication was successful you are allowed to send mail. Other people can no longer use your server to send SPAM if authentication is enabled. AK-Mail supports authentication thru RFC 2554. It supports the mechanisms "LOGIN" and "CRAM-MD5". Contact your ISP if you wish to know if your server supports these techniques.

Return Receipts thru RFC 1891 (DSN)

Old versions of AK-Mail use the header tag "Return-Receipt-To:" to request return receipts. However, most servers do no longer support this old method. Check this option to enable return receipts thru RFC 1891 (DSN). This method is better and more modern.


Account Settings, Receive

Login Name

Enter your login name here. Please note: The login name normally is a simple word. In my case it is 'ak'. In most cases it is the word in front of the @ (At) of your email address. In no case the login name contains an @ (At).

POP3 Password

A secret password that protects your mail on the POP3 server.

POP3 Server

Enter the address of your POP3 server here. Both dotted IP addresses and symbolic names are accepted.

Check for new mail every ? minutes

AK-Mail can trigger a background mail check every ? (replace by your value) minutes. This check does not block the application.

Leave messages on the server

Normally AK-Mail deletes all messages on the server. If you wish to leave your mails on the server check this.

Check for new mail on startup

Check this if AK-Mail should check for new mail on program startup.

Only if connected

This option is useful only if Check for new mail every ? minutes is checked and you are using the dial-up networking. If Only if connected is checked, the time triggered background check is only started, if a dial-up connection exists. Important: It does not matter who established the connection.

Advanced Settings

This dialog allows you to set advanced POP3 options for this server.

POP3 Authentication

Normally, passwords for accounts on POP3 servers are sent unencrypted (in cleartext) to the server. Since email clients contact the server on a regular basis, there is an increased risk that somebody monitors the network and catches your unencrypted password. This option can be used to instruct AK-Mail to send passwords encrypted if supported by the server. You can also tell AK-Mail to enforce the usage of encrypted passwords. In this case, AK-Mail will show an error message in the log of the account if the server has no support for encrypted passwords.

Disable duplicate check

For debugging purposes you may check this option to disable any kind of duplicate check. Be careful with this option: Without duplicate checks the Leave on Server option transfers and imports all messages on the server every time you check for mail. This will cause a high number of duplicate messages in your mail database.

New Mail Notification

Choose if and how you wish to be informed about new messages. If you wish to play a .wav file make sure that your audio card and speakers are setup correctly. A dialog box can be displayed, too.


Account Settings, Options I

Trash folder

Here you can specify how to treat messages in the trash folder.

Address Book Management

AK-Mail can automatically generate address book entries from incoming mail. You can disable this option, enable in standard mode or enable in advanced mode. Standard mode does not copy the subject to the comment field. Advanced mode does. Force name means that if a sender has no name ‘No name’ is put into the name field. If force name is not selected and a sender has no name the sender is not added.

Order Of Operation

Here you can specify the order of the mail transfer operations.
This option is used on two places:

•	The ‘Both Fetch/Send’ command from the account menu of the main window

•	Whenever the time triggered background check is going to both receive and send

Deletion Of Messages

If you do not need the trash folder, check this option to disable its usage. Mails will be deleted immediately instead of being moved to the trash folder.


Account Settings, Options II

Adjust receive time

This option overwrites the date of incoming messages with the current local time set on this computer. This is especially useful if you have to do with people living in different time zones. Another reason is the following: Some people write mail today and send it some days/weeks later. Without this option checked the mail has the date when the mail was initially created. So it can be easily overseen because in the list of messages it is among the old messages you answered weeks ago.

Adjust send time

This option overwrites the date of outgoing messages. Normally the date of outgoing messages is that of the last modification. If this option is checked, the date of outgoing messages is that of the moment when the mail was actually sent.

Exclude from Sending
Exclude from Receiving

The account menu has three commands to check mail and/or send unsent mail for all accounts. This options allows you to exclude this account from this process. Note: This options only apply to the ‘All Accounts’ commands.

Forward Attachments

If checked, mail with attachments is forwarded including the attachments of the original mail. If unchecked, only the text is forwarded.

Redirect Attachments

If checked, mail with attachments is redirected including the attachments of the original mail. If unchecked, only the text is redirected.

Show Dialog with Sender Name

Everytime you redirect a message, AK-Mail puts the original name of the sender into your sender field for this message. If this option is checked, a dialog will appear that lets you edit the sender name.

Edit Note

Click this button to edit the note for redirected messages. This applies only to manual redirection. Click here to get more information about notes.


Account Settings, Filters

Filters

This property page allows you to define, view, modify and delete filters. AK-Mail's filter are very powerful. To get more information on filters and how they work click here.


Account Settings, Signatures

Signatures

This property page allows you to define, view, modify and delete signatures. AK-Mail's signatures are very powerful. To get more information on signatures and how they work click here.

Mode for new/fwd. Messages

There are two modes how to select a signature for new or forwarded mails. ‘Last used Signature’ means that the signature is used that was selected last in the composer. ‘Standard Signature’ means that the standard signature is selected. Use the button ‘Set As Standard’ to set a standard signature. If there is no standard signature, then AK-Mail falls back to the ‘Last used Signature’ mode.

Mode for Replies

For replies AK-Mail offers the same options as for new or forwarded mails plus a special mode called ‘Sensitive Signature’. This mode selects a signature based on the text you are going to reply to. For more information on this topic click here.


Account Settings, Templates

Forward Templates
Print Templates
Export Templates

AK-Mail allows you to customize the way messages are forwarded and printed. This is done using templates. To get more information on forward/print templates and how they work click here. Export templates are used in the export command in the Message menu.

Replies: Do not quote original text

If this is checked and you replying to a message, AK-Mail will start with a blank mail. If unchecked, AK-Mail will quote the original text.


Account Settings, Dialer

Use Dialup Networking

Check this option if you wish to use the Dialup Networking at all.

Do not dial if another connection already exists

If you check this option and a connection already exists, this connection is used. Otherwise the connection is terminated and a new connection is established.

Use the following connection
Login Name for the connection
Password for the connection

Select the name of the connection you wish to use and enter the login name and password (optional).

Retry ? times and wait ? seconds if the line is busy

Allows you to specify redial parameters if the line is busy.

Hang up after mail transfer finished

If AK-Mail established the connection and this option is checked the connection is terminated after mail transfer is completed. AK-Mail does not terminate a connection that was not established by AK-Mail.


Key Settings, General

Bits
Key ID

Shows the number of bits this public key has and the key ID.

Fingerprint

Shows the fingerprint of the public key. Very useful to make sure that this public key is unchanged. Please see the PGP manual for details. In the PGP manual you will also find information on how to use the fingerprint.

User ID

Allows you to change the user ID of the public key. AK-Mail searches the user ID of all keys if you are sending PGP encrypted mail to find the public key.


PGP Settings, General

PGP Pass Phrase

You can enter your PGP Pass Phrase here. DO NOT do that unless the computer you use is secure. Please see the PGP manual for details.

Set Secret Key (PGP 2.63 only)

Before you can use PGP, you have to import your existing secret key into AK-Mail. You can do this using this button.

Time Zone (PGP 2.63 only)

Specifies the value of the TZ= environment variable when pgp.exe is called.


PGP Settings, Options

Sign using cleartext, if possible

PGP offers two basic options how to sign messages. One option is to sign messages and then convert the output of the sign process into the base-64 format. The message in base-64 format is not encrypted although it is not human-readable.

The other option signs messages, then the output is encapsulated as cleartext. That means that it is human-readable. If you check this then AK-Mail will use the human-readable version, if possible.


PGP

Do not break the law

There are tons of legal restriction on the use of PGP. Do not do anything that might be illegal or is illegal. AK-Mail supports PGP 2.63, PGP 5.5x and PGP 6.x. Every PGP version has its own special license agreement. If you wish to use PGP 5/6 commercially, you need to purchase a commercial version.

PGP 2.63 cannot be used in America as far as we know because AK-Mail requires a Win32 version of PGP 2.63 and there is no such version.

Note that some countries do not allow encryption at all.

Design concepts of the PGP integration

Aim was to simplify the usage of PGP as much as possible. If the public keys of the recipients are present in the PGP Manager (PGP 2.63) or in PGPkeys (PGP 5/6), you just need to check the encrypt and/or sign option in the composer to encrypt and/or sign your message. Incoming PGP messages are decrypted automatically.

AK-Mail uses only a small subset of the PGP functionality. Your local computer has to be secure. Message texts and message data of incoming and outgoing messages are stored as plaintext or unencrypted data.

Setup for PGP 2.63

•	Read the complete PGP manual. This is totally serious. It's absolutely essential that you understand the principles of PGP before using it with AK-Mail.

•	Get a Win32 version of PGP. The filename of the archive is pgp263i-win32.zip. Internet search engines will help you to find the file. Again, do not use this version inside the USA.

•	You need to have an existing pair of pubring.pgp, secring.pgp containing your key pair.

•	Create a subdirectory 'PGP' in the AK-Mail data directory if it is not already existing.

•	Copy the file pgp.exe and randseed.bin to this directory. Make sure that the directory 'PGP' contains these two files only. randseed.bin is not contained in the archive; it is created by PGP on demand.

•	Start AK-Mail and open the PGP Manager.

•	In the File menu of the PGP Manager select PGP 2.63.

•	Select the Settings command from the File menu.

•	Import your secret key. If your local computer is completely secure you might enter your PGP pass phrase.

•	Import your pubring.pgp using the command in the Key menu of the PGP Manager.

Setup for PGP 5/6

•	Install PGP 5/6

•	Read the complete PGP manual. This is totally serious. It's absolutely essential that you understand the principles of PGP before using it with AK-Mail.

•	Start AK-Mail and open the PGP Manager.

•	In the File menu of the PGP Manager select PGP 5.5x or PGP 6.x. The key management part of the PGP Manager will be disabled because PGPkeys (comes with PGP 5/6) handles all the key management.

•	If your local computer is completely secure you might enter your PGP pass phrase (File menu: Settings)

•	Make sure that there is at least one private key in PGPkeys. Make sure that one private key is marked as default private key (the default key is displayed bold). The PGP integration will not work otherwise.

Limitations of the PGP integration

AK-Mail has very limited support for multiple private keys. With PGP 2.63 you can only have one private key. With PGP 5/6 the default private key is used for signing.


Program/Data directory

Program directory

The program directory is the directory that contains the akmail.exe file. Note that the program directory can be different depending which akmail.exe file you invoked. If the path to akmail.exe is c:\akm3\akmail.exe then c:\akm3 will be the program directory.

Data directory

The data directory contains the folders 'ATTACH', 'FLDRS' and 'PGP'. Prior to AK-Mail 2.1 the data directory was always identical to the program directory. Now you can change the data directory. This is done using a file called akmail.ini that has to be in the program directory. To move the data directory to a location different from the program directory, create a file akmail.ini that contains the following line:

PATH: full_path_to_data_directory

A sample akmail.ini file:

PATH: g:\akmdata

There are other options that can be set in the akmail.ini. For details please read the readme.txt file in the 'NETWORK' subdirectory of the program directory.


Filters

How Filters work

In AK-Mail you can define a list of filters for each account. Every time AK-Mail receives an incoming message, AK-Mail takes the first filter in the list and verifies if it matches. Filters marked as inactive are skipped. If the filter matched the actions defined in the filter are taken. If a filter has the continue flag set the next filter is verified. Otherwise processing is stopped. The same holds for outgoing messages and outgoing filters. This algorithm in pseudo language shows how it works:

For ActualFilter := FirstFilterInTheList To LastFilterInTheList
  If ActualFilter.IsActiveFlagSet Then
    If ActualFilter.Match(IncomingOrOutgoingMessage) Then
      ActualFilter.TakeActions
      If NOT ActualFilter.IsContinueFlagSet Then Break ;will exit the for loop
    EndIf
  EndIf
EndFor

Search Sources

A search source is a place where to search, a specification how to search and a search text. An example for a search source is "Search From: and match if it contains 'hello'". Another search source is "Search X-Mailer: and match if it does not contain 'AK-Mail'". If talking about incoming filters the place can be a user-defined header line (means you can filter on any header line) or one of these predefined places:

From:
To:
Subject:
Cc:
Bcc:
Reply-To:
<Header>
<Message Text>
<Whole Message>

If talking about outgoing filters the place can be one of these predefined places:

To:
Cc:
Bcc:
<All Recipients>
Subject:
<Message Text>
<Whole Message>

The specification how to search can be 'contains' or 'does not contain'. The search text is the text you are actually searching for.

Standard Filters

A standard filter is for simple search/filter problems. It allows you to define up to two search sources. You can select one of four operations:

 Ignore (only use the first search source)
 And (match only if both search sources match)
 Or (match if one search source matches or both)
 Unless (match if the first search source matches but not the second one)

Advanced Filters

You can use advanced filters if standard filters are not powerful enough to filter on complex scenarios. Advanced filters allow you to define search sources and then bind them to variables. The final evaluation is done using a boolean expression. AK-Mail allows you to use full-featured boolean expressions. Sounds complicated? Here is an example (you will find another example in the text about junk mail detection):

 Variables:

 MsgContainsAKMail := "Search <Message Text> and match if it contains 'AK-Mail'"
 MsgIsFromSteveB := "Search From: and match if it contains 'Steve Back'"

 Expression:

 MsgContainsAKMail * MsgIsFromSteve

So, what does that mean? There are two variables defined called MsgContainsAKMail and MsgIsFromSteveB. MsgContainsAKMail is true if the incoming message contains the word 'AK-Mail'. MsgIsFromSteveB is true if the From: header line contains 'Steve Back'. The expression is true if both MsgContainsAKMail and MsgIsFromSteve is true. Click here to get a reference sheet about boolean expressions within AK-Mail. Please note: The filters that can be defined using standard filters are a small subset of the filters that can be defined using advanced filters.

Actions

There are six actions you can check. You can forward a message, redirect a message, copy the message to a folder, send/save/save+stop a canned reply, do an address book operation and delete the message.

Using canned replies

Canned replies are based on templates. For more information on templates click here. The template that is used for canned replies allows you to override the subject. That means that you can answer with a message that has a certain user defined subject. This can be useful if you wish to automatically reply to junk mail because you can send a 'REMOVE' on the subject line then. See this text for more information on junk mail detection.


Templates

What is a template ?

A template is a text that can contain variables. There variables are replaced by some information from the context of the operation in which the template is used. In AK-Mail templates are used for signatures and canned replies. They are also used to define how forwarded messages and printed messages look like.

An example !

Here is an example how a template can look like:

Hello %FIRSTNAME%

On %DATE% you wrote:

%QMESSAGE%

What variables can I use ?

Name of the variable	Meaning
%MESSAGE%	Replaced by the original message
%FIRSTNAME%	Replaced by the first name of the sender
%LASTNAME%	Replaced by the last name of the sender
%NAME%	Replaced by the name of the sender
%EMAIL%	Replaced by the email address of the sender
%CURRENTDATE%	Replaced by the current date
%DATE%	Replaced by the date of the message
%SUBJECT%	Replaced by the subject of the message
%TO%	Replaced by the To: header line of the message
%CC%	Replaced by the Cc: header line of the message
%BCC%	Replaced by the Bcc: header line of the message
%QMESSAGE%	The original messages is quoted, then the quoted text replaces the variable
When to use which variable

Sometimes it makes no sense to use a certain variable in a given context. So the use of variables is restricted.

The following table shows what variables you can use in signatures.

Name of the variable	New Message	Reply	Forward
%MESSAGE%	Yes	Yes	Yes
%FIRSTNAME%	No	Yes	No
%LASTNAME%	No	Yes	No
%NAME%	No	Yes	No
%EMAIL%	No	Yes	No
%CURRENTDATE%	Yes	Yes	Yes
%DATE%	No	Yes	No
%SUBJECT%	No	Yes	No
%TO%	No	No	No
%CC%	No	No	No
%BCC%	No	No	No
%QMESSAGE%	No	No	No

This table shows what variables you can use in forward/print/export templates. The column Incoming is valid if the template is applied to incoming mail, the column Outgoing is valid for templates applied to outgoing mail.

Name of the variable	Incoming	Outgoing
%MESSAGE%	Yes	Yes
%FIRSTNAME%	Yes	No
%LASTNAME%	Yes	No
%NAME%	Yes	No
%EMAIL%	Yes	No
%CURRENTDATE%	Yes	Yes
%DATE%	Yes	Yes
%SUBJECT%	Yes	Yes
%TO%	No	Yes
%CC%	No	Yes
%BCC%	No	Yes
%QMESSAGE%	Yes	Yes

This table shows what variables you can use in canned replies.

Name of the variable	Canned Replies
%MESSAGE%	Yes
%FIRSTNAME%	Yes
%LASTNAME%	Yes
%NAME%	Yes
%EMAIL%	Yes
%CURRENTDATE%	Yes
%DATE%	Yes
%SUBJECT%	Yes
%TO%	No
%CC%	No
%BCC%	No
%QMESSAGE%	Yes


Forward/Print Templates

Customize your messages

AK-Mail lets you customize your forwarded mails. And it lets you define how your printed messages should look like. This is done using templates. Please make sure that you have read the text about templates. AK-Mail lets you choose the header lines you want to have in your forwarded mail. A very simple template for a forwarded mail is just '%MESSAGE%'. If you forward a message using this template the editor will bring up the plain text of the message that is to be forwarded. Another (more useful) template is:

--- Start of forwarded message ---
From: %NAME% (%EMAIL%)
Subject: %SUBJECT%

%MESSAGE%
--- End of forwarded message ---

The same procedure holds for print and export templates.


Signatures

How signatures work

Every signature consists of three templates. Please make sure that you have read the text about templates. There is one template for new messages, one for replies and one for forwarded messages. The command you chose determines which template to use. If you chose the new message command, the new message template is used. If you chose the reply command, the reply template is used. If you chose the forward command, the forward template is used. Normally the selected signature is applied at send time but you can also apply it in the composer. Please note: It can be useful to apply a message in the composer to see the effect. However this operation cannot be undone. That means that after applying a message in the composer you can not select another signature. All signature related commands or toolbar buttons will be disabled.

Sensitive Signatures

Sensitive signatures are a way to automatically select a signature when replying to messages. This is very useful, if you have to do with people from different nations. Assume you have two signatures called English and German and you are able to speak and understand both English and German. If you wish to reply to an English mail, you select the English signature. If you wish to reply to a German mail, you select the German signature. Without sensitive signatures you have to select your signature manually. Sensitive signatures can do that automatically based on the text you are going to reply to. Here is how it works:

For every signature a numerical value is calculated. The signature with the highest value is selected. The value of a signature is calculated as follows: You can assign up to 5 words and weights to each signature. The text you are going to reply to is searched for these words. For every match the value (that starts with a value of zero) is incremented by the weight of the word. After the whole text is examined, an additive constant is added. Here is an example: Consider the English sentence ‘The tree is green, a fox is brown’. The English and the German signature are defined as shown (have a look at the pictures). The English signature has a value of:

0.4 (the) + 0.5 (is) + 0.42 (a) + 0.5 (is) + 0.12 (additive constant) = 1.94

The German signature has a value of:

0.1 (additive constant) = 0.1

That means that the English signature is selected. Now lets consider the German sentence ‘Der Baum ist grün, der Fuchs ist braun’. The English signature has a value of:

0.12 (additive constant) = 0.12

The German signature has a value of:

0.35 (der) + ist (0.4) + 0.35 (der) + 0.4 (ist) + 0.1 (additive constant) = 1.6

That means that the German signature is selected.


Junk Mail

Junk Mail - A serious problem

Perhaps you noticed - junk mail is becoming a serious problem. Every day I check my inbox I find some mails I really do not want to read. I am not interested. Because there is no law to stop it, I have to filter on it. If you have this problem, this text will help you to create filters. Unfortunately a computer is not intelligent enough to detect junk mail because it does not understand the contents of the mails you get. But it is even worse: Before you can successfully use filters you have to examine your inbox and find out what characteristics your mails have. Do not panic, here is an example. One of the best ways to detect junk mail is to set up a filter that detects mails that do not contain your email address in the To: field. Unfortunately, list servers send mails without your email address in the To: field too. You have to add every list server in your filter. Please understand that this does not make sure that only junk mails are filtered. There is a lot of other stuff that could match this filter. That is why you should never delete messages detected by such a filter. Instead you should move it to a folder like 'Perhaps Junk Mail'. And you should not SEND an automatic reply. Instead you should save the reply with a stop mark. This allows you to review the messages and to decide if it is a junk mail. If yes, just remove the stop mark. If no, delete the automatic message from your outbox. Two screenshots show how that can look like. But never forget: This is just an example. You have to find your own strategy. If you have good ideas, please let me know.


Account Ownership

Messages are owned by an account

Because you can move messages for example to unbound folders there must be a mechanism to associate an account with these messages because otherwise you could not reply or forward them because sending requires an account. That is why every mail is owned by an account. If you reply or forward a mail the account that owns the message will be used to send it.


Manual Download Manager and UIDL

What is UIDL ?

UIDL is a command that modern POP3 servers understand. This command allows the mailer to do nice things like intelligent "leave on server".

What has the Manual Download Manager to do with it ?

For technical reasons the MDM requires the POP3 server to understand UIDL. If the POP3 server does not understand UIDL most of the functionality of the MDM is disabled. You will not be able to use features like parking, ...

Problems with the account option "Leave messages on the server"

If "Leave messages on the server" is deactivated, the use of the manual download manager can cause undesired results. The reason is that AK-Mail will always delete messages on the server (because "Leave messages on the server" is off). If you used the action "Ignore" with the MDM your messages are deleted, not ignored. You should turn "Leave messages on the server" on if you use the MDM.


Ways to enter recipients

Aliases

First of all you can just type the email address in. A comfortable way is to use an alias. There is a predefined alias 'ak' that you can use if you would like to write me a mail. But you can define other aliases of course. To use an alias just type it in and hit tab. Address books can have alias names too. In this case the alias is replaced by the e-mail addresses of all entries in the book. That means that address books and mailing lists are the same thing.

Drag & Drop

You can enter recipients using drag & drop. Open the address book manager from the composer and drag a book or an entry over the To:, Cc: or Bcc: field and drop it there.

Context menu

You can click right on the To:, Cc: and Bcc: field. A context menu will appear that allows you to select recipients.

From the address book manager

Another possibility is to open the address book manager. Then select a book and use the 'Mail To' command. Or select one or more entries and use the 'Mail To' command.


Drag & Drop

Where can I make use of drag & drop ?

You can use drag & drop to copy/move mails. You can use it to copy/move address book entries. And you can use it to enter recipients by dragging an address book or address book entries over the To:, Cc: or Bcc: field and dropping them there.


Find Function, Virtual Folder

Finding messages

One of the highlights of AK-Mail is the find function. The find function searches folders, accounts or even the whole message base. The search starts somewhere in the tree (can be an account or a folder), then the subtree is searched. The find results are displayed using the predefined folder 'Find Results'. 'Find Results' is a virtual folder. If you select this folder you will see a list of messages just if it were a normal folder. However the messages shown in the lister do not really live in this folder. They are just links to the original message, but - that is really important - they do not behave like links. They behave the same way original messages behave. That means: If you delete a message in the 'Find Results' folder, the original message is deleted. You can do everything you can do on normal messages too, and it is done on the original messages.

Great feature !

I hope the text above did not confuse you completely. There are a lot of nice things you can do using the find function. You can search for a certain person and then read all the messages you got from this person. Or you can delete all the messages you got from this person.


Registration Information

Important note: The registration information has been moved to the AK-Mail website to ensure that you always get the most current information. The URL is:

http://www.akmail.com/eng/personalkey.html


Acknowledgments

Microsoft

For fantastic development tools (Visual C++), well designed software and, in my opinion, the best operating system for PC's, Windows NT.

Sandy Seeds

He helped me a lot to evaluate some options.

Sami Mikhail

Extremely useful suggestions.

Armin Gessert

The audio files mail_d.wav and mail_e.wav.

All others I forgot

So many people made useful suggestions. I cannot list them all :-) Thank you very much.


Trademarks

The software and hardware products mentioned in AK-Mail (online help, other texts, the software itself) as well as programs with their own trademarks belong to their respective owners and manufacturers; they are hereby acknowledged.


Operator1
Boolean Expressions in AK-Mail

Binary Operators

Operator	Function	Logic Table
*	And	Operation	Output
		False * False	False
		False * True	False
		True * False	False
		True * True	True
+	Or	Operation	Output
		False + False	False
		False + True	True
		True + False	True
		True + True	True
#	Xor	Operation	Output
		False # False	False
		False # True	True
		True # False	True
		True # True	False
=	Equality	Operation	Output
		False = False	True
		False = True	False
		True = False	False
		True = True	True
>	Implication	Operation	Output
		False > False	True
		False > True	True
		True > False	False
		True > True	True
Unary Operators

Operator	Function	Logic Table
!	Not	Operation	Output
		! False	True
		! True	False
Constants

There are two constants:

0 (False)
1 (True)

Operator Precedence

! (Highest)
*
+
>
#, = (Lowest)


Redirection And Notes

Redirection

Redirection is similar to forwarding. However there is one major difference. Redirected mails contain the sender name and the sender email address of the original sender. Forwarded mails contain your sender name and your sender address. That means that AK-Mail sends redirected mails under somebody else’s name and email address.

Notes

An important term related to redirection in AK-Mail is the note. A note is a small template that defines if and how the original sender information is to be altered. That makes sense if you wish to somehow indicate to the recipient of the redirected message that this message is redirected. Therefore you can overwrite both sender name and subject and enter new text. The following picture shows the dialog that edits a note.

In the example the sender name is modified. The % sign is replaced by the original sender name. You can also modify the subject. The % sign in a subject line is replaced by the original subject.


AKMSend And Java

No Connection

AKMSend is a Java class that can help you if you do not have access to the Internet in a direct way. It is mainly intended for people having a UNIX account with full internet access. This is the case for most students. With AK-Mail you can use work with your mail even if your PC is not connected to the Internet. Therefore you can import your UNIX mail using the import function of UNIX mailspools. That feature is not new. This is the new feature: Now you can send without having Internet access. Here is how it works:

AK-Mail can send into a virtual server. That means that a real server is simulated and that the real output actually goes to a file not to a server. This file is called SendPackage file. A SendPackage file is created by AK-Mail and sent by the AKMSend utility on a Java capable machine that is connected to the Internet. To make this clear, here is a scenario: A student has no Internet access at home. Still he can use AK-Mail. If he wishes to send his mail he uses the command from the Account menu to create a SendPackage file. On a Java machine in the university he sends the SendPackage file using the AKMSend utility.


Imports/Exports

Shared Books

In many cases it is useful to share address books over the network. With Imports/Exports you can do that. In General Settings you can define Imports and Exports. An Import tells AK-Mail to import an address book archive into a given book. The Import dialog lets you enter a path to a file containing the archive. You can specify to import on program startup. In addition to that you can check three marks for the manual tasks. In the address book manager you can execute these tasks (File Menu). If the mark of the corresponding task is checked, the Import is executed. Exports are similar to Imports. They export books as archives. With Exports the additional option to use a time triggered background export is available. Imports/Exports make sense if the filename given in the Imports/Exports is somewhere in the network. So users can export their books and other users can import them.

This feature is available in the registered version only.

Modes

There are four modes how archives can be imported.

•	Add

In this mode entries from the archive are added even if there is already an entry with the same name and email adress

•	Overwrite

In this mode entries from the archive are added. If an entry with the same name and email address already exists, it is overwritten

•	Keep

In this mode entries are only added if there is no other entry having the same name and email address

•	Load

In this mode the contents of the book is replaced by the contents of the archive. That means that existing entries are deleted.


HTML

Internet Explorer

Most of the HTML functionality is only available if Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 is installed. If it is not installed, you can still write HTML mails but you will not be able to view these mails in the preview pane and you will not be able to view incoming HTML mail.

Security

Recently, malware (viruses, trojans, etc) more and more use the possibility of active content (for example Java, JavaScript, ActiveX) in HTML mails to infect systems. AK-Mail 3.2 puts the Internet Explorer in a special mode to minimize danger that comes from active content. This special mode disables the execution of all types of active content given that the deactivation is supported by Internet Explorer. Supported deactivations include Java, JavaScript, VBS script and ActiveX. Deactivating JavaScript has a nice side effect: Annoying popup windows – often used by advertising emails – are deactivated too.


How To Install The Key

The key for AK-Mail is a file. The file size is about 8-10 kilobytes. You will receive it as an attachment in a mail. If you are using AK-Mail 3, AK-Mail can automatically install the key for you. Here is how that looks like:

If you do not use AK-Mail 3 or if you didn't use AK-Mail 3 when you received the key message (message containing your AK-Mail key), you can install the key manually. Therefore open the key message by double clicking on the message in the lister of the main window.

Next select the attachment with the left mouse button and then click right to get the context menu. In this menu use the command Save As. The key has the name akmail.key. Save it into that directory that contains the akmail.exe main program file. Make a backup of akmail.key so you can get back to it if your hard disk fails.

Now open the General Settings. Use the field Real Name to enter your main name. The main name is stated in the key mail. In this example the main name is Steve Miller.

If you requested alias names, you can enter your alias names in the Real Name field of the first tab of the Account Settings. In this example Steve Miller requested the alias name Cyberbob. Enter only one alias name in this field. You can enter different alias names in the Account Settings of a different account.

Close AK-Mail and start it again.