AtlantisMail&News Help

Atlantis is a combined mail and news reader. With Atlantis you can send and receive email to and from anyone in the world.  You can also use the program to read and post news (usenet) messages on over 28,000 newsgroups.  The interface is designed to be simple and user-friendly, although this help file is designed to assist with any initial problems you may have.

•	Introduction

•	Settings

•	Interface Guide

•	Misc

•	How to?


Introduction

What is Email?

Electronic mail (email) is fairly similar to ordinary postal mail (or snail mail).  You need to specify who the mail is going to, where it is coming from (in case of delivery difficulties) and what the message is, although you do not have to worry about going to the Post Office and buying a stamp!  You are not limited to sending just words, you can send pictures, program files, document files, etc., quite easily by attaching them to your mail.

What is News?

News (or Usenet as it is also called) is like a huge international bulletin board.  It consists of over 28,000 discussion groups, each on its own topic, to which people send messages (called news articles), which can be read by people all over the world.  Almost everyone who has access to news will be able to read any messages you send (post) to usenet within a day or so.

These articles are sorted into groups - these are collections of articles (usually) connected to a particular subject.  These groups are collected together under sub-headings known as a hierarchy.

Some groups have only two words in the their title (for example news.answers).  Other have more (for example comp.sys.ibmpc.games.flight-sim) and will usually give some clue as the general subject of the group.

The following are some of the main divisions:

comp	Everything relating to computers

sci	Subjects relating to science

rec	Recreational - sports, hobbies, arts

soc	Social groups e.g. soc.singles, soc.couples.wedding

news	Relating to Usenet itself

misc	Miscellaneous - everything that doesn't belong anywhere else

talk	Discussion groups

uk	The uk specific groups

alt	'Alternative' groups

claranet	Groups relating to Claranet specifically

Most newsgroups available contain FAQ's  - this stands for Frequently Asked Questions.  A FAQ is a list of the answers to the questions that appear on the group over and over again.  They can be a very good starting point for research into a topic as they will often have details of where to go for more information.  They also often give details of what type of articles are welcomed into that particular group.

Binary groups are also useful.  A binary is a computer program or something else (such as a picture or a word file) which is other than plain text.  They are only posted to binary groups.  These will have binary somewhere in their name.  With Atlantis the decoding is very simple and these files can be viewed or used almost instantly.  For help with decoding, see the Decode an Attachment section

The word 'subscribe' when used by NewsClient software (such as Atlantis) and refers to the way the software separates newsgroups that you are interested in from those that you are not.  Access to all newsgroups is free once you have an internet account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides access to a news server.

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Settings

Atlantis needs a certain amount of vital information before you are able to use it.

• 	IMPORTANT General

•	Address book

•	Newsgroups

•	Folders

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General

General Settings window:

This set of boxes allow you to set up Atlantis with your ClaraNET account.  The two important parts are the Identity and the Account boxes which need to be filled in correctly before you will be able to retrieve mail.  You will probably find that you can still send mail before these sections are filled in, but no-one will know where the messages come from!  Once you are used to sending mail you may want to experiment with changing the other settings.

The other sections (Attachments, Appearance and Miscellaneous) contain options on encoding, font colours and mail retrieval, amongst other things.

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Identity

Identity Settings

Name (required)

Put your name here - this will then appear at the top of all emails you send.  This is a required field and you must type in something.

Email Address (required)

This should be your email address, i.e., the address you are sending mail from - the format is username@clara.net

Reply Address

This is the address to which you want replies to be sent - usually the same as your email address

Organization

You can insert the name of your company here, or leave it blank.

Signature

A signature file is used to put a standard piece of text at the bottom of each email you send out.

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Attachments

Attachment Settings

This box allows you to choose between two different ways of encoding files to send them to other people:

UUE

This is an older standard - it sends the file as apparently random letters in the body of your mail.

MIME

This way allows more modern mail readers to decode the file automatically.

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Account

Account Details

SMTP sever

This is the outgoing mail server and should be set as mail.clara.net, if the information is not already in there.

POP server

This is the incoming mail server and should be set as mail.clara.net as above.

NNTP server

This is the news server and should be set as news.clara.net.

User name

This is the first part of your email address - i.e., before the @ sign and must be in lower case.

Password

This is the same password as you use to dial in.  If you leave it blank you will be asked for your password every time you collect mail.  This should also be in lower case.

Time Zone

You can change this so that your emails have the correct time stamp.

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Appearance

Appearance Settings

This allows you to change the font you use to display your email messages.  You can also change the colours you use to display which mails are read and unread.

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Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous Settings

Automatic mail retrieval - time interval

If you want mail to be retrieved automatically put the time interval in here - this will call up Dial Up Networking and you can then connect to pick up your mail.

Automatic delivery

This automatically delivers mail after a set interval (in minutes) - calling up Dial Up Networking again.

News header retrieval - per group limit

This limits the number of headers you will download per group.  If you subscribe to a particularly busy newsgroup, it will save on call charges if you limit the amount of headers you want to retrieve.

News x-no-archive header

This stops your email messages being stored.  News articles are stored in archives, accessible to anyone on the internet.  If you enable the x-no-archive, this will prevent your usenet messages from being stored in the archives.

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Address Book

Address book window:

The address book is used to store frequently used email addresses.  When composing a piece of email, the address book can be selected to insert one of your stored addresses into the To field of your message.

The main window lists previously entered addresses.

The two text fields at the buttom of the window, Real name and Email address are where you will insert both the name and email address you wish to store.

Text entry fields:

Real name:

Enter the name of the person whose email address you wish to store here.  This will be brought up as part of the address.

Email Address:

Enter the email address you wish to store here.

Note email addresses are case sensitve.

Control Buttons:

Add:

Once you have entered both a Name and Email address in the relevant text fields click Add to add the new entry to the stored addresses list.

Remove:

To remove an unwanted entry from your address book first highlight the entry you wish to remove, then click Remove.

Modify:

To change either the Name or Email Address of an address book entry, first select the entry you wish to modify, edit the information stored in the two text entry fields, then click Modify to store the changes.

Sort:

To list all your address book entries in alphabetical order, click on the Sort button.

Clear:

If you wish to clear the text stored in both the text fields click on the Clear button..

Help:

Click on the Help button to view the help file you are currently reading.

Cancel:

Click on the Cancel button to abort any changes you have made to your address book.

OK:

Once you are happy with the amendments you have made to your address book, click on the OK button and the changes will then be made permanent.

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Newsgroups

Newsgroup setup window:

The Newsgroups window is split into 3 sub-windows: New Newsgroups, Subscribed Newsgroups and Active Newsgroups.

The active newsgroups window will list all newsgroups that are currently accessible to you.  In order for you to read or post to any newsgroup you will first need to subscribe to that group.  Once you have subscribed to a newsgroup it will then also be listed in the subscribed newsgroups window and also listed in the newsgroup list of the Main program window.  From time to time, new newsgroups will become available on ClaraNET's news server.  In order to access these newsgroups you will need to update your newsgroup list, the new newsgroups window will list any new groups.  When you download the newsgroups for the first time, be prepared for a wait.  ClaraNET currently carries over 28,000 newsgroups.

New newsgroup window:

Selecting update active newsgroup list from the newsgroup list will allow you to download a list of the new groups available on the news server.  This may take rather a long time, bearing in mind the amount of newsgroups available.

New newsgroups are listed in the main part of the window.  Double-clicking on a group will subscibe you to this newsgroup.

Once you have subscribed to a new newsgroup it will then also be listed in the subscribed newsgroups window.

Subscribed newsgroups window:

Before you can post or read messages to or from a news group listed in the Active newsgroup list you must first subscribe to that group.  All groups to which you currently subscribe will be listed in this window.   Subscribing does not mean that you have to pay to read a newsgroup, it merely deals with the way the software separates the groups that you want to read from the groups that are available.

If you wish to remove any newsgroup from your list of subscribed newsgroups first select the group from which you wish to unsubscribe and then select the unsubscribe option in the newsgroup menu.

Active newsgroups:

The active group list is listed in this window. You have full access to any newsgroup that is listed in this window, but before you can post or receive any news messages to a particular group, you must first subscribe to that group.

Clicking retrieve active newsgroup list will discard the active newsgroup list present on your computer and download a new group list from our news server.  As Claranet has provided an active group list with Atlantis, then there is no need to download a new group list. If you wish to access any new newsgoups that become available on Claranet's news server, select Update active newsgroups list from the newsgroups option instead.

*Warning* As there are 28,000+ newsgroups available on Claranet's news server, downloading a new group list can take long period of time, in excess of half an hour in some cases.

Double click on the name of the group to subscribe to the newsgroup you have selected in the active newsgroup list.  Once you have subscribed to a new newsgroup it will be then also be listed in the subscribed newsgroups window.   If you want to search for a group on a specific subject, use the find in active newsgroup list option.

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Folders

Folders are very useful for separating email and news messages you have stored locally on your computer.  Any new mail folder you create can be configured in a number of different ways.

If you are using multiple email addresses, mail folders can be created so that incoming email for each address is separated into different mail boxes.

You are not limited to sorting incoming mail, you can also sort outgoing mail into separate mail folders.  If for instance, you wanted to keep a record of all mail sent to particular address, you could create a mailbox that would store a copy of all outbound mail to that address.

The following lists how to create and configure new mail folders:

Create:

Selecting this option allows you to create a new mail folder.  You will be prompted to enter a name for your folder.  Folders must be named according to their proposed use.  For instance, if you wish to use multiple email addresses, the name of the folder must match the part of the email address before the '@' symbol.  Example: If you are using an email address of john@smith.clara.net, in order to have Atlantis filter mail destined for that address into a separate mail folder, the folder would have to be named john.

If you wish to separate outgoing mail, the mail folder must also be named appropriately, i.e. the folder must have the same name as the first part of the outgoing email address.  Example: If you wish to save a copy of all mail destined for the email address sales@somebusiness.com then the mail folder would have to be named sales.

Delete:

Clicking here will delete the mail folder you currently have selected in the mail folders list. *Warning* Deleting a mail folder will also delete any messages you have stored in that folder.

Rename:

Click here to change the name of the folder you currently have selected in the mail folders list.  *Note* As mail is sorted into mail folders based on the folder's name, renaming a folder will change what messages are sorted into the folder.

Folder Options:

Click here to change the settings for the currently selected folder in your mail folders list.

The settings window:

The folder options window is split into two sections, one is for email messages and the other is for news messages.

Email: (Message->folder)

Send:

When a piece of email is sent you can store a copy of the email message into a mail folder by enabling the following options:

Author: 	Enable if you wish mail to be sent to this folder based upon the author of the message (i.e. the address from which the message is being sent).  This is useful when multiple email addresses are being used, and you want to store mail sent by a particular user.  Disable otherwise.

Recipient:        Enable if you wish mail to be sent to this folder based upon the recipient of the message (i.e. the email address to which the message is being sent).  This is useful for storing a mail which has been sent to a particular email address. Disable otherwise.

Retrieve:

When you retrieve your email you can set Atlantis to sort your waiting messages into separate mail folders automatically.

Author: 	Enable if you wish to retrieve email to a folder based upon the author (i.e. the email address of the person who sent the original message).  This is useful if you receive a lot of email from a particular email address and would like to keep a record of it.  Disable otherwise.

Recipient:	Enable if you wish mail to be sent to this folder based upon the recipient of the message (i.e. the email address to which the message is being sent).  This is useful when multiple email addresses are bieng used and you want to separate mail destined for a particular addressee from the rest of your email.  Disable otherwise.

News Articles: (article->folder)

Post:

When you post a news article you can store a copy of the posted message into a mail folder by enabling the following options:

Author: 	Enable to if you wish news articles to be sent to this folder based upon the author of the message (i.e. the address from which the article is being sent).  This is useful when multiple email addresses are being used and you want to store articles sent from a particular address.  Disable otherwise.

Newsgroup:	Enable if you wish any posts you send to a particular newsgroup to be stored in this folder.  Disable otherwise.

*Note* You can not change the settings for the default mail folders, in, out, sent and bin.

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How to?

Mail:

How do I:

•	Send email?

•	Reply to email?

•	Retrieve my email?

•	Read an email message

•	Decode an Attachment

News:

How do I:

•	Post an item to a newgroup?

•	Read a Newsgroup

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Send an email message

Before you can send a piece of email you must make sure your General Settings are correctly configured.

Click upon the Compose menu from the Main window of Atlantis and select Email message.  You will then be presented with the Compose window.  Enter the relevant information into the message fields and message body components on the compose window.  Certain fields must be filled in, i.e., the "to" field and the message body.  When you have finished typing out your message, click on the OK icon at the top of the screen (the hand) and you will be returned to the main window.

If you wish to insert an address from the Address Book press on the "to" button and the address book will pop up.  Highlight the address to which you want the email to be sent and press the OK button.  This will insert the address from your address book into the "to" field.

Once you have composed all the messages you wish to send, you will need to tell Atlantis to send them for you.  This is done by clicking on deliver and then selecting email messages in outbox.  If you are not already connected to ClaraNET, your computer should then dial us up and connect you to the server and then contact the mail server and send the messages for you.


Post an item to a newsgroup

To post an item to a newsgroup select the new news article option in the Compose Menu.  Fill in the options and then click on the OK button.  The article will then be in the out box until you open the Deliver Menu and select the post news article in outbox option.

Note:  Do not try and send a newsgroup article as an email - this will be returned to you with an error message.


Read an email message

To read an email message, double-click on the header in the main window of Atlantis.  This will bring up a separate window with the text of the message.


Reply to email message

To reply to an email message, open it and then press the R key.  This will open a reply box which will allow you type in the text of your reply.  When you have completed this, click on the OK button (the hand) and you will be returned to the main window.


Retrieve an email message

Before you can retrieve any email that has been sent to you, you must ensure your General Settings are correctly configured.

Note:  In order to retrieve mail from the server, you need to be connected to ClaraNET.  The connection to the mail server is completely separate from the connection to ClaraNET and can only be done when the dial-up connection to us is active.

To retrieve an email, you should click on the Retrieve Mail Menu and select Retrieve Mail.  This will connect you to the mail server and check to see if you have any mail waiting.  If there is mail, it will be retrieved into Atlantis for you.  You can also collect mail by double clicking on the in box folder in the mail folders window.


Decode an Attachment

When you receive either an email with an attachment, or retrieve news articles with attachments, you will find that they appear in the body of the message in binary form (i.e., they look like machine code).  Before you are able to view the attached files, you will need to decode them to enable you to view them in the appropriate application.

When viewing the message, go to the decode option and select decode single part attachment.  Sometimes, you will find that an attachment is split over more than one message.  This can be seen from the title of the message (i.e., 0/2, 1/2 and 2/2).  You will then need to select decode multi part attachment.  When decoding has been completed, you will see the decode log:

The file that has just been decoded will appear at the top of the decode log.  The file will be stored in the decode folder under Atlantis.  You can either launch it from here or save it to another directory.  When you are finished, press the exit button, which will take you back to The Main Window

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Read a Newsgroup

In order to be able to read newsgroups, you have to subscribe to them.  This does not mean that you have to pay an extra amount to read the articles in those groups, it is a term that is used to describe the way that the software separates newsgroups in which you are interested from those which are available.

In order to be able to read any articles that are available in a particular newsgroup, you need to Download the bodies of those articles from the news server at ClaraNET.  Once you have retrieved the bodies of the articles you wish you read, all you need to do is double click on the header of the article in the main section of The Main Window and the body of the message will be displayed on your screen in the View Window.

The Newsgroups window is split into 3 sub-windows: New Newsgroups, Subscribed Newsgroups and Active Newsgroups.

The active newsgroups window will list all newsgroups that are currently accessible to you.  In order for you to read or post to any newsgroup you will first need to subscribe to that group.  Once you have subscribed to a newsgroup it will then also be listed in the subscribed newsgroups window and also listed in the newsgroup list of the Main program window.  From time to time, new newsgroups will become available on ClaraNET's news server.  In order to access these newsgroups you will need to update your newsgroup list, the new newsgroups window will list any new groups.  When you download the newsgroups for the first time, be prepared for a wait.  ClaraNET currently carries over 28,000 newsgroups.

New newsgroup window:

Selecting update active newsgroup list from the newsgroup list will allow you to download a list of the new groups available on the news server.  This may take rather a long time, bearing in mind the amount of newsgroups available.

New newsgroups are listed in the main part of the window.  Double-clicking on a group will subscibe you to this newsgroup.

Once you have subscribed to a new newsgroup it will then also be listed in the subscribed newsgroups window.

Subscribed newsgroups window:

Before you can post or read messages to or from a news group listed in the Active newsgroup list you must first subscribe to that group.  All groups to which you currently subscribe will be listed in this window.   Subscribing does not mean that you have to pay to read a newsgroup, it merely deals with the way the software separates the groups that you want to read from the groups that are available.

If you wish to remove any newsgroup from your list of subscribed newsgroups first select the group from which you wish to unsubscribe and then select the unsubscribe option in the newsgroup menu.

Active newsgroups:

The active group list is listed in this window. You have full access to any newsgroup that is listed in this window, but before you can post or receive any news messages to a particular group, you must first subscribe to that group.

Clicking retrieve active newsgroup list will discard the active newsgroup list present on your computer and download a new group list from our news server.  As Claranet has provided an active group list with Atlantis, then there is no need to download a new group list. If you wish to access any new newsgoups that become available on Claranet's news server, select Update active newsgroups list from the newsgroups option instead.

*Warning* As there are 28,000+ newsgroups available on Claranet's news server, downloading a new group list can take long period of time, in excess of half an hour in some cases.

Double click on the name of the group to subscribe to the newsgroup you have selected in the active newsgroup list.  Once you have subscribed to a new newsgroup it will be then also be listed in the subscribed newsgroups window.   If you want to search for a group on a specific subject, use the find in active newsgroup list option.


Guide to the interface

There are 5 main elements to the Atlantis interface.

•	Main Application window:

•	View message window:

•	Compose email message window:

•	Compose news message window

•	Keyboard Shortcuts

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The Main Window

This is the window you see when you first load Atlantis. From this window you will gain full control of both Internet email and Internet news. The following details each individual function accessible from this window.

The Menubar:

The menubar consists of the following menus:

Atlantis mail

View

Compose

Deliver

Retrieve

Settings

Help

Toolbar:

The toolbar consists of a row of buttons which activate commonly used functions.

Listed from left to right the buttons are as follows:

Cancel, Print, Save as, Compose, Deliver, Settings, Folders, Help, Exit.

Windows:

Mail Folders window

The mail folder window contains a list of all the mail folders you have. There are four standard mail folders listed in this window: In, Out, Sent and Bin.  If you have set up your own mail folders they will also be listed here.  The messages present in the currently selected mail folder will be listed in the Message folder window.

In:

The In folder is where any email you retrieve will be stored, unless you have set up additional Folders.

Out:

When you compose, reply to an email message or post to a newsgroup the message will not be sent to its destination immediately.  It will be stored in this folder until you select Send email messages in outbox from either the menu or the toolbar.  This allows you to compose replies off-line and send them once all your messages are ready to be sent, therefore saving on phone calls.

Sent:

Once you have sent any email messages or newsgroup posts onto the internet, the messages in the Out folder will then be moved from the Out folder to the Sent folder.

Bin:

If you delete any mail messages or news articles from any of your folders or subscribed newsgroups, they will not be removed from your computer completely.  Instead, the message will be moved to your Bin folder (a bit like the Recycle bin in Windows 95).  Deleting any messages in your Bin folder will completely remove the messages from your computer.

Newsgroups window

Any newsgroups to which you have subscribed will be listed in this window.  Once you click on any newsgroup listed in this window the messages headers that you have retrieved from Claranet's news server will be listed in the Message window.

Message window:

Listed in this window are any messages you have in the currently selected folder from the Mail folders window, or if you have highlighted a newsgroup from the Newsgroup window, the headers you have retrieved from that newsgroup will be listed here.

When you have a folder or newsgroup selected, the messages listed will be split into the following fields:

Author:

The name and email address of the person who wrote the email message.

Recipient/Newsgroup:

If you have a mail folder selected from the mail folders window, the name and email address of the person who received the email. This will be your name and email address.

Subject:

Short description of what the contents of the message are about.   If 'Re:' (regarding) is present at the beginning of the Subject field, then the email message is a reply to another message.

Date:

The date the message was sent.

Size:

The size in Kilobytes of the message.

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Atlantis Mail Menu

The file menu consists of the following selections:

Select all:

This selects all the items in the active window, which allows you to perform any action on them.

Move selected items to folder:

Allows you to copy the selected message to any other mail folder you may have set up.

Move all items to folder:

Allows you to copy all message to any other mail folder you may have set up.

Delete selected items:

If you select this option whilst you have selected some mail in any mail folder excluding the bin mail folder, the messages will then be moved to the bin folder. If however, you delete any mail from your bin mail folder, the messages will be deleted from your computer permanently.

Only delete mail from the bin folder once you are sure you no longer need the messages.

Delete all items:

Selecting this option whilst you have any mail folder other than the bin mail folder selected will move all mail in the currently selected folder to the bin folder.  If you select this option whilst you have the bin folder highlighted every message present in the bin folder will be deleted from your computer permanently.

Only delete mail from the bin folder once you are sure you no longer need the messages.

Highlight selected items:

Highlighting messages in any of your mail folders will allow you to select certain news article bodies for retrieval.

For example if you were subscribing to a particularly busy newsgroup and did not want to retrieve all of the articles in that group, you would highlight the articles you were interested in receiving and then select retrieve then highlighted news article bodies in selected group.

Unhighlight selected items:

If you have any highlighted messages, select this option to unhighlight them.

Find in subject:

This does a search of the subject lines in the current window.

Find in author:

This does a search for a specific author in the current window.

Expire selected folder or group:

This deletes old news messages or emails based on various criteria - read or highlighted articles, or items older than a specified number of days.

Exit Atlantis Mail:

Click here to exit Atlantis.

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View Menu

The View Menu consists of the following Options:

Selected item:

This allows you to view the selected item in the view window.  You can also double-click on the item to view it.

Selected item header:

This displays just the headers of the item selected - this shows the full header of the message, i.e., the time it was received, from where and the message identifier.  This is slightly more full information than the standard headers visible when you open an email or a post.

Launch selected item:

If you select an article or email message with an attachment included in it and then click on this menu item a suitable program will be run to display this file.

View Decode Log

This allows you to see how many decoded items are currently in the decode directory.

Print Selected Item

Prints the item.  Please ensure before selecting this that your printer is set up correctly in Windows95.

Save selected item as

This allows you to save the item as a plain text file.

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Compose Menu

The Compose menu consists of the following selections:

New Email message:

Click to compose a new email message. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Reply to selected item via email:

Click here to reply to the currently selected message.  You will then be presented with the Compose window

New News article:

Click here to compose a news article to be posted in the currently selected newsgroup. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Follow up selected item via usenet:

Click here to reply to any news article you currently have selected. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Forward selected item:

If you wish to pass on a message you have received to another email address, click here. You will then be presented with the Compose window with the body of the message you have received, ready to be sent to someone else.

Recompose selected item:

If you wish to edit any email you have written before you have sent it, select the message from your out folder and click here.  You will then be presented with the Compose window.  This will put a second copy in the outbox, including any changes you may have made.  If you don't want the original message to be sent, be sure to delete it.

Edit selected item header in outbox

If you wish to change the header of any item (for example, if you want to add an extra recipient) click here.  You will then be presented with the header in a box which will allow you to edit it.

Edit selected item body in outbox

If you wish to change the body of the selected item, click here.  You will then get the body in a box which will allow you to edit it.

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Deliver Menu

The following options can be selected from the Deliver Menu:

Send email messages in outbox

This allows you to send all the emails in your outbox, once you have connected to ClaraNET.

Post news articles in outbox

This alllows you to send all the news articles in your outbox, once you have connected to ClaraNET.

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Retrieve Menu

The Retrieve Menu consists of the following selections:

Email messages:

Click here to retrieve any new email messages you have on our mail server.

News Article headers and bodies in selected group:

If you know you will probably want to read everything in a particular group, this is the quickest way to download them all and then disconnect.  If, however, you want to choose what to download, you should use the following selections:

News article headers in selected group:

Click here to retrieve any new headers present in the newsgroup you have currently selected in the newsgroup window. When you download any new message headers, you will then be able to read the subject line of the new messages and choose, by highlighting, which messages you want to download.

Tip: To save on the telephone costs of being online its a good idea to download all the message headers in your subscribed groups, disconnect from Claranet, highlight the messages that interest you and then reconnect to download the message bodies.

Selected (highlighted) news article bodies in selected groups:

Click here to retrieve the bodies (i.e., the actual message itself) of any news article headers you have highlighted.

Note: Depending on how many message headers you have highlighted, the length of the articles and the speed of your modem, retrieving news bodies may take some time.

News Article headers and bodies in subscribed groups:

This is the fastest way to download everything in all the groups to which you have subscribed.  It may however take a long time to accomplish this if you subscribe to a large number of newsgroups, especially if the articles are long.

News article headers in subscribed groups:

This will download all of the headers in your subscribed groups.  You can then decide which bodies to download.

Highlighted news article bodies in selected groups:

This will allow you to download the bodies in which you are interested and which you have previously highlighted.  If there is a large number, it may take some time.

Click here to return to previous page.


Toolbar

The toolbar consists of a row of buttons which activate commonly used functions.

Listed from left to right the buttons are:

Cancel, Print, Save as, Compose, Deliver, Settings, Folders, Help, Exit.

The Compose button:

Clicking on the Compose button produces a drop down menu consisting of the following selections:

Email message:

Click to compose a new email message. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Reply message:

Click here to reply to the currently selected message.You will then be presented with the Compose window

News article:

Click here to compose a news article to be posted in the currently selected newsgroup. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Follow up article:

Click here to reply to any news article you currently have selected. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Recompose:

If you wish to edit any email you have previously written, click here. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Forward:

If you wish to pass on a message you have received to another email address, click here. You will then be presented with the Compose window

The Deliver button:

Clicking on the Deliver button will produce a drop down menu consisting of the following:

Send email messages:

Once you have composed some messages they will be stored in the out folder waiting to be sent.  Click here to send all messages in the out folder.  This will connect you to ClaraNET and then connect you to the mail server.

Post news articles:

Once you have composed a news article, it will be stored in the out folder waiting to be sent.  To send any news articles stored in your out folder, click here.  This will connect you to ClaraNET and then connect you to the mail server.

Cancel:

This cancels whatever online operation you are currently undertaking, e.g., downloading articles or emails.

Retrieve email messages:

Click here to retrieve any new email messages you have on Claranet's mail server.

Retrieve news articles

Headers:

Click here to retrieve any new headers present in the newsgroup you have currently selected in the newsgroup window. When you download any new message headers, you will then be able to read the subject line of the new messages and choose, by highlighting, which messages you want to download.

*Tip* To save on telephone costs, you may want to download all the message headers in your subscribed groups, disconnect from Claranet, highlight the messages that interest you and then reconnect to download the message bodies.

Bodies:

Click here to retrieve the bodies (i.e. the actual message itself) of any news article headers you have highlighted.

*Note* Depending on how many message headers you have highlighted, retrieving news bodies may take some time.

The Print button:

Select this to print any selected/highlighted messages.

You must make sure that you have a printer driver correctly installed and that your printer is connected and switched on before you use this option.

The Save As button:

Click here to save any selected/highlighted messages as a text file.

The Settings button:

Clicking upon the settings button will produce a drop down list with the following selections:

General

Address book

Newsgroups

The Folders button:

Click on the Folders button produces a drop down list containing the following entries:

Create

Rename

Delete

Options

The folder setup guide contains full information on these options.

The Help button:

Click here to view this helpfile.

The Exit button:

Click here to exit AtlantisMail&News.

Click here to return to previous page.


View Window

This window is displayed whenever you wish to read the contents of a news article or email message. Using the following controls you will be able to reply to the message/article, decode any file attachments in the message/article and perform other useful functions with the message/article.

The Menubar:

The menubar consists of the following menus:

View

Decode Menu

Compose

Settings

Help

Toolbar:

The toolbar consists of a row of buttons which activate commonly used functions.

Listed from left to right the buttons:

Next, Last, Print, Save as, Decode, Compose, Settings, Help, Exit.

Windows:

There are two sub-windows displayed when viewing a message, the Message header window, and the Message contents window.

Message header window:

The Header window displays the header fields of the message you are currently viewing. Header fields within a mail message or news article contain various pieces of information about that news article or email message.  The header fields displayed by default are: From, To, Subject and Reply. To view any other header fields present in the news article or mail header, clicking and holding down the left mouse button upon the separator between the Header and Message windows will allow you to increase/decrease the number of header fields shown.

Message contents window:

Displayed in this window are the contents of the message itself.

Click here to return to previous page.


View Menu

The View Menu consists of the following Options:

Top item

This moves you to the top item of the folder or newsgroup at which you are looking.

Bottom item

This moves you to the bottom item of the folder or newsgroup at which you are looking.

Next item

This moves you to the next item of the folder or newsgroup at which you are looking.

Next unread item

This moves you to the next item which has not been read

Next highlighted item

This moves you to the next highlighted item.

Previous item

This moves you to the last item at which you looked.

Copy to clipboard

This allows you to copy selected text to the clipboard so you can paste it into other messages.

Print item

This will print the current item.  Ensure your printer is set-up correctly and turned on before selecting this.

Save item as

This allows you to save the current message as a text file.

Exit View

This will bring you back to the main window.

Click here to return to previous page.


Decode Menu

The following options can be selected from this menu:

Launch single part attachment

This allows you to display a single part attachment - it will launch a program that can display the relevant file.

Single part attachment

This will decode any single part attachment into the Decode directory.

Multiple part uue attachment

This will decode any multiple part attachment into the Decode directory.

Unheaded bade 64 attachment

This will decode a simple MIME encoded message.

View Decode log

This will display all deocded items currently in the Decode directory.

Any files shown in the decode log are stored in the decode folder in Atlantis.  For further help, see Decode an Attachment

Click here to return to previous page.


Compose Menu

The compose menu consists of the following selections:

New message:

Click here to compose a new message.  You will then be presented with the Compose window

Reply message:

Click here to reply to the message or article you are currently viewing. You will then be presented with the Compose window

News article:

Click here to compose a news article.  You will then be presented with the Compose window.

Follow up article:

Click here to reply to any news article or mail message you are currently viewing. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Forward:

If you wish to pass on the message or article you are currently viewing to another email address click here. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Recompose:

Click here to edit the message you are currently viewing. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Click here to return to previous page.


Settings Menu

The settings menu consists of one toggleable option, selecting this option will either disable the option if it is currently enabled (indicated by a tick) or enable the option if it is disabled.

Toolbar:

Choose whether or not to have the toolbar displayed when viewing messages or articles.

Click here to return to previous page.


Toolbar

The toolbar consists of a row of buttons which activate commonly used functions.

Listed from left to right the buttons

Next, Last, Print, Save as, Decode, Compose, Settings, Help, Exit

The Decode button:

Click upon the decode button to be presented with a drop downlist with the following selections:

Decode single part:

If the message/article you are viewing contains a file attachment, click here to decode the file. If the file is spread across several messages/articles use Decode multipart instead.

Decode multipart:

If the message/article you are viewing contains a file attachment that is split across several messages or articles click here to decode the file.

Decode log:

When files are decoded a log file records the event. Click here to view the Decode log. If any files have successfully been decoded they will be listed in the Decode log window.  See how to Decode an Attachment

The Compose Button:

Click upon the compose button to be presented with a drop down list with the following selections:

Reply message:

Click here to reply to the message or article you are currently viewing. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Follow up article:

Click here to reply to any news article or mail message you are currently viewing. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Recompose:

Click here to edit the message you are currently viewing. You will then be presented with the Compose window

Forward:

If you wish to pass on the message or article you are currently viewing to another email address click here. You will then be presented with the Compose window

The Print Button:

Click here to print the message or article you are currently viewing.

You must make sure that you have a printer driver correctly installed and that your printer is connected and switched on before you use this option.

The 'Save As' Button:

Click here to save the message/article you are currently viewing as a text file.

The Help Button:

Click here to view this helpfile.

The Exit Button:

Click here to close the View Window and return to the Main Application window.

Click here to return to previous page.


Compose window

Whenever you wish to send or reply to an email message or a news article it is this window that you will use to do so.

Menubar:

The menubar consists of the following menus:

Compose

Template

Settings

Help

Toolbar:

The toolbar consists of a row of buttons which activate commonly used functions.

Listed from left to right the buttons:

Cancel, OK, Insert Text, Clear All, Merge Templates, Save As, Help

Windows:

Message Header Fields

Message Body

Click here to return to previous page.


Compose Menu

The Compose menu consists of the following options:

Insert Text File.

Insert a text file in where the cursor is at the moment.

Append Text File

Append a text file to the end of what is already in the Text box.

Clear all

This will delete everything in the window.

Copy from Clipboard

This will insert text from the clipboard in the message.

Cut to Clipboard

This allows you to copy selected text to the clipboard so you can paste it into other messages.

Paste from Clipboard

This will insert text from the clipboard in the message.

Cancel

This cancels the message which you are currently writing.

OK

This puts the mail into the out box.

Click here to return to previous page.


Template Menu

The Template menu consists of two items:

Merge:

Click here to Insert a Template at the beginning of the message/article that is currently being composed.

Save As:

Save the message/article that is currently being composed as a Template.

Click here to return to previous page.


Settings Menu

For help with general settings, see General

For help with the address book, see Address Book

For help with newsgroups, see Newsgroups

For help with folders, see Folders

The remainder of the settings menu consist of three options, which you can toggle (i.e., switch on and off as necessary).  A tick by the side of the option means that it is switched on, the absence of a tick means that it is disabled.

Toolbar:

Choose whether or not to have the toolbar displayed whilst composing a message or articles.

Status Bar:

Choose whether or not to have the status bar (at the bottom of Atlantis) displayed.

Sort By Status:

Choose whether or not to have the messages sorted by their status (i.e., grouping all read and unread messages together).

Click here to return to previous page.


Toolbar

The toolbar consists of a row of buttons which activate commonly used functions.

Listed from left to right the buttons

Cancel, OK, Insert text, Clear all, Merge Template, Save as Template, Help.

Cancel Button:

Select to cancel all changes you may have made to the message/article and exit the Compose message window.

OK Button:

Once you are happy with the message/article you have written, click here to send the message to the Out folder, ready for sending out.

Insert Text Button:

Click to insert a text file into the message or news article you are currently composing.

Clear All Button:

Select here if you wish to clear all text currently entered in the window.

Merge Template Button:

Click here to insert a template at the beginning of the message/article that is currently being composed.

Save As Template Button:

Save the message/article that is currently being composed as a template.

Help Button:

Click here to view this helpfile.

Click here to return to previous page.


News window

This is the same as the Compose Window for Mail except for the fields at the top which have to be included - instead of an email address, you have to include a newsgroup name instead.

Click here to return to previous page.


Keyboard Shortcuts

There are some Keyboard Shortcuts which will enable you to navigate through Atlantis.  What they do often depends on what window you use them in.

View Window

t - top article in group

b - bottom article in group

a - next unread article

h - next highlighted article

n - next article

p - previous article

r - reply (via email) to current item

f - follow up to current item

m - new email message

k - new article

e - recompose article

o - forward item to someone else

l - launch attachment

x - exit window

Main Window

f - find in subject

a - find another

g - find again

x - close

Enter - View

Del - Delete

News

f - find in active list

s - subscribe

g - find again

x - close window

Click here to return to previous page.


Misc
Miscellaneous

General topics covered under this heading include:

•	Using multiple email address

•	Signature files

•	File attachments

•	Decode log window

•	Help


Using multiple email address

The standard email address format looks like [login]@clara.net, where login is the users login name. At ClaraNET you can choose to have as many email addresses as you wish using a single dial up account. There are no extra costs, this service is free to any of our customers.

The format for using multiple email addreses is slightly different to that of a single address. Instead of [login]@clara.net, the addresses will look like:

[name1]@[login].clara.net

[name2]@[login].clara.net

[name3]@[login].clara.net

......

[namex]@[login].clara.net

There is absolutely no limit to the number of email addresses you can use. There is also no need to contact ClaraNET to setup each individual email address, simply choose the names you wish to use and change the reply to field in the General settings as appropriate.

There are many instances where you would wish to have more than one email address. Individual members of a family may wish to have their own address, perhaps using the family surname as the login name (if available). An example of this would be:

john@smith.clara.net

mary@smith.clara.net

anthony@smith.clara.net

pauline@smith.clara.net

When the Smith family comes to access its mail, each member's email can be separated into individual mail folders. Click here for more information on the setting up of mail folders.

If you do not wish to use multiple email addresses simply use the standard format of [login]@clara.net.

The applications for using mutliple email address are endless.

Click here to return to previous page.


Signature files
A signature is a small piece of text that can be added to the end of each piece of mail you send.  It can contain your name, an address, phone numbers, job title, or other information you think might be useful. You save this information in a plain text file, without formatting, and as long as you have the signature file enabled and listed under the Atlantis General Settings it will be appended to the end of every message or article which you write.

Click here to return to previous page.


File attachments
A file attachment can be any kind of computer file, a picture, a spreadsheet, a database or a binary executable.

Before a file can be sent with an email message it must first be encoded. Atlantis handles the encoding for when you select the file to be attached.  Once the file has been encoded, it will be inserted in the message body and sent with your message, probably in more than one part.  When you receive an attachment it will appear as random characters within the body of the mail, which is normal.  You will need to decode the attachment before it will make any sense, for which it must be decoded, again Atlantis will handle this for you.

Click here to return to previous page.


Decode log window

The decode log lists any recently decoded file attachments.

You can view certain file types immediately from the decode log window without having to load the files into separate applications. The file types currently supported by Atlantis are:

JPG images:

A picture file. All JPEG image files will end with the file extention JPG.

GIF images:

A picture file. All GIF image files will end in the file extension GIF.

Text files:

ASCII text file. Text files ending with the file extension TXT will automatically be loaded into Notepad.

Click here to return to previous page.


Key Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are an alternative, and often faster, way of performing shortcuts, rather than using the menu system.


Help

Click here to view this helpfile.

Click here to return to previous page.


Download
Downloading is a term used to describe the transfer of information from one computer to another.


subscribe
Subscribing is a term used, when applied to newsgroups, to distinguish newsgroups which you wish to read from newsgroups which are available.  As there are over 28,000 newsgroups available, it would be extremely time-consuming to read all the articles available.