Checking Mail
There are several ways to check mail with Poco. You can use the E-mail, Check Mail menu item, Check Mail button on the toolbar or simply press CTRL+M. Poco will connect to a POP server and fetch mail for all accounts configured for checking mail. Any new accounts you setup are automatically configured to check mail. If you haven't entered your password already, you will be prompted for it before Poco retrieves your mail. For more details on configuring your e-mail accounts see Accounts Setup below. Once retrieved, the mail is placed in the In mailbox, unless specified differently in Accounts Setup or a filter or script routes it somewhere else. Mailbox(es) that receives new mail will be marked with a different colour and bold type. If you use a modem to connect to Internet, you can configure Poco to dial your modem as well, before fetching mail, for more details see Program Options description.
If you need to cancel mail check for any reason, simply click on the Stop button. If Poco encounters an error, the mail check will fail and the Progress Window will be shown automatically.
If you have several accounts configured to check mail, it is sometimes desirable to check only one account, without changing the account setup. To check mail for any account simply right click on the main program toolbar and click on Check Mail for menu, followed by the name of account you wish to check. This menu can also be accessed from the main menu, under E-mail.
Poco can also be configured to check mail automatically - by going to Program Options (F7), and clicking on the Automation section, just check the Check for new mail box and specify how often (in minutes) you would like Poco checking mail. From that point on, every so many minutes Poco will automatically log onto each account configured for checking mail, and fetch any new mail. This features works best when you fill out the e-mail passwords in the Accounts Setup box, so you are not prompted for them each time Poco attempts to check mail. This is best done in a private environment though, as anyone who has access to your computer will be able to check your mail.
If you want to temporarily disable automatic mail checking for whatever reason, you can use the On-line button on the main program toolbar, or by using the Online Operation menu, under E-mail menu. When this button is pressed, all your automatic on-line operations will work as normal. Depressing this button will suspend any automatic mail checks, as well as downloading of externally referenced images in your messages while button is depressed.
With Poco, you can browse messages waiting for you on the mail server before you check your mail and download them. Simply click on E-mail menu and select View Messages on Server (or press CTRL+K) to open View Messages on Server window. Choose which account you would like to connect to from the drop-down box and click on the Connect button. Poco will attempt to connect to the server. If there are no messages on the server the window will return to its default state. On the other hand, if you have any messages waiting they will be displayed in the pane below and a new set of buttons will show.
The Get button marks the message with a G; Delete marks a message with a D, while L.O.S. (Leave on Server) button resets the message back to L. When you click on the Finish button Poco will download all messages marked as Get and delete off the server messages marked with a D. This means that messages marked with GL will be downloaded but also left on the server, and messages marked with a GD will be downloaded and deleted off the server.
If you receive a message with a very large attachment that is taking too long to download, you can connect to the server with this method and delete the offending message without affecting your other mail. Or if you have a lot of new mail, you can check for and retrieve a single message that may be important, without downloading all of your other mail.
There are several ways to sort or filter incoming mail automatically. If you wish to separate messages coming from different e-mail accounts into different mailboxes you can use the Destination mailbox setting in Accounts Setup window, under Optional section. Simply pick or enter the name of the destination mailbox (for example Work), and all mail received on that e-mail account will be routed to the mailbox Work, instead of In mailbox. You will see when new mail arrives to this mailbox since the mailbox will appear in different colour.
For more filtering flexibility, use Poco's Quick Filters - they are simple to create and can act as a powerful tool to sort messages to different mailboxes or perform other actions on the messages. Filters consists of the filter condition, which when met triggers the filter action. This way you can scan incoming messages for specific text, and only if the text is found perform something on the messages. Quick Filters can be created in several ways, but the easiest one is by right-clicking on a message in the index you would like to filter in the future. Depending on which part of the message you click on (subject, from, date,...) Poco will setup a Quick Filter so all you need to do is to pick an action for it and hit OK. You can create filters similarly by right-clicking on an address in the Address Book or elsewhere in Poco, or by dragging and dropping address book entries onto the mailboxes pane. Quick Filters are a powerful tool, for more information see filters.
If you need the ultimate in filtering power, use PocoScript, Poco's scripting environment. Scripts can be setup to make complex decisions based on information provided to them. Like Quick Filters, scripts can be added to run on incoming or outgoing messages for automatic processing. With scripts, you can perform almost any type of action of messages, from parsing it for submitted data to building sophisticed Auto-responders. You can even combine scripts with Quick Filters - use filters to trigger a script, so you can automatically print incoming mail, or play custom sounds on different messages. For more information see scripting.
Poco enables you to easily setup multiple accounts. Multiple accounts are used when you use more than one e-mail address (i.e. personal and business). To set them up, go to Accounts Setup under Tools menu (or F3). To add another account, click on New button, give it a unique name (for your reference only) and fill out the fields below. If SMTP field is left empty, Poco will use the default SMTP server set in Program Settings, or if that is empty, it will attempt to use the POP server. If you want Poco to use SMTP authentication, make sure to check "Use Authentication" box. Poco currently supports LOGIN authentication.
There are some optional settings you can setup under Optional tab. You can skip retrieving messages if they are over certain size; leave messages on the server so you can collect them from another location, and optionally specify how many days should the mail be left on server - Poco will delete the messages after that period of time, if left blank Poco will leave them on server indefinitely; choose if you want sound alert or message box alert on new mail for that account. Specify an optional Reply-To address if you need. Override the default In mailbox for that account by entering another mailbox in Destination mailbox field, where the new mail will be deposited. Specify which signature to use as default on messages sent from the account and define the account specific signature tag (see Signatures) used when sending mail. To have Poco check mail for that account when you click on the Check Mail button, make sure you check the box next to the account name in the list of accounts in the left pane (default state). If you don't want Poco to check mail for that account, simply uncheck the checkbox next to the account name.
Thirdly, you can specify Virtual settings on the third tab. If you use mail forwarding to forward several "virtual" accounts to one POP account, here you can include and exclude addresses you want to belong to this account. This way, two or more people can share one POP mailbox. For example, if you have two e-mail addresses, one@domain.com and two@domain.com, and both are forwarded to a POP account three@domain.com, you can create a new account in Poco, to only download messages sent to two@domain.com. Poco will in effect leave messages sent to one@domain.com and three@domain.com on the server, and only download mail for two@domain.com.
Finally, you can also define Privacy settings for the account by using message encryption. By checking the corresponding checkboxes, Poco can encrypt incoming messages after download and save them to mailbox in encrypted form. Anyone clicking on those messages will not be able to read them until they supply the password. Poco can also encrypt outgoing messages: this does not alter the sent message, but encrypts the message afterwards, when it is saved to the Sent mailbox. Use caution when using encryption features - Poco truly encrypts messages on the disk and if the password is lost you will not be able to access them. For more information see privacy and security.
To change the Default Account, just select it in the bottom left corner of the Accounts Setup. The Default Account is used when starting a new message.