Group Mail is an email application designed specifically for Mailing List management and Distribution. If you maintain mailing lists or if you regularly send messages to large groups of recipients, then Group Mail will be your saviour. Group Mail is perfect for keeping friends, customers, investors, and clients digitally informed.
For information on Updating from Group Mail v2 or lower please see the end of this file.
Build history & What's New:
* Changes in version 3.4.160
New: The number of recipients is now shown in all the places that the group list is available.
Update: Improved integration with new High Speed Delivery module.
Bug: Deleting recipients from the Search dialog could result in an automation error (UI indexing issue). Fixed.
Bug: The UpDown control beside the number of fields option on the file importer wasn't working properly. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.155
New: Delete/Exclude options modified.
Update: Address book import support improved.
Update: Date support for scheduling HSD improved.
Update: New version of SMTP Express available to Plus users.
Update: New version of HSD available to Plus users.
Update: Habeas SWE option removed. It is still possible to implement this using the custom headers though.
* Changes in version 3.4.150
New: Scheduled Sending support now available in Group Mail Plus edition
* Changes in version 3.4.145
New: Beta Support for new Group Mail High Speed Delivery system (Group Mail Plus only). Contact Technical Support if you would like to test the new Group Mail HSD engine.
Update: Mozilla 1.3 Address book import supported Added. Netscape 4.x Address book import issues corrected. GroupWise and Exchange Address book updates implemented also
Update: MIME Boundary generation used in messages improved.
Update: User identification setup dialog modifications made.
Bug: When sending in Bulk mode custom headers could get reset when reconnecting. Fixed.
Bug: When sending in Bulk mode The To: header could get duplicated in the message header. Fixed.
Bug: Email Setup dialog - some buttons would appear out of position. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.110
New: Habeas Sender Warranted Email (tm) Program support added. See Identity Setup for more info.
Bug: Date header was sometimes incorrectly formatted. Fixed.
Bug: Moving recipients from the Search results dialog didn't function correctly in all cases. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.106
New: New Merge Fields available (Group Size, Group Name etc.)
Update: CharSets updated
Update: OLE Drag and Drop support updated.
Update: Updated plug-in integration. Make sure to install the latest version of Group HTML and XML Transformer
Bug: Some times the search dialog wouldn't load correctly causing two error messages to appear. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.105
New: Custom header support. Now possible to implement support for Warranted Sender systems.
Update: Alterations made to the Add New Recipients screen (default focus changed to Email Field).
Update: SMTP Send/Message engine tweaks.
Update: File Import parse routines updated.
Bug: If you searched using All Groups you couldn't move or copy the results. Fixed.
Bug: Internationalization Font Problem on the recipient Browser/Search Windows. Fixed.
Bug: Showing the Add Recipient dialog when no group was selected (or created) could use an error. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.099(b)
Update: Improved International Character Set support implemented.
Bug: Main edit menu not resetting correctly when the main message area had focus. Introduced in 98 release. Fixed.
Bug: IF Then Else scripts could output the word "nothing" if a blank was selected for a positive or negative result. Fixed.
Bug: The ReplyTo field could get truncated in certain circumstances. This bug arose from the recent 98 release. Fixed.
Bug: A Divide by Zero error could occur when deleting from all groups via the Search results screen if some of the selected groups contained no recipients. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.098
Update: Better Subscriber integration - now you can launch it from the Send Results tab.
Bug: When sending in Standard Send mode temporary messages files could accumulate in the Group Mail folder and were not getting deleted when Group Mail closed down.
Bug: If you selected too many files when attaching files to a message they could get ignored (only if the combined length was greater than 256 characters)
* Changes in version 3.4.097
Update: AOL 8, Netscape 7, and Mozilla 1.1, 1.2 address books supported for importing
Update: Lotus notes and Palm desktop address book importing routines updated and improved.
Update: Support for Categories field added to Outlook Importing (Plus Editon)
Bug: Some temporary files were not being deleted correctly when Group Mail closed. This could cause a 'Too many files error'. Fixed
* Changes in version 3.4.096
Update: Several file dialogs tweaked. Some system dependencies removed.
Update: Header creation updated.
Bug: Context Menu Merge items where updating the message body instead of the subject line. Non critical but annoying.
Bug: Address Book importing kicking up a 380 error and stopping Group Mail.
Bug: Address Book issue introduced with 095 release. If some fields were empty in the address book an error would result which disabled the address book importer screen. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.095
New: Mozilla 1.x, Netscape 6/7, Palm Desktop address book import formats now supported
New: All installations now code signed to ensure their integrity.
Update: Improvements made to AOL7, GroupWise, Lotus Notes and Outlook Address book importing
Update: Improved Windows XP Themes support
Update: Refinements to the email validation routines when importing from unknown data formats.
Update: Improved the script support in HTML messages by checking and replacing > and < replacements with > and <
Update: New context menu option available for the Subject line
Update: You can now select or de-select all fields to export on the Export screen - just right click on the field list for details.
Update: Improved integration with GroupHTML v1.5
Bug: If there was a space in the field data being used for IF THEN ELSE scripts it could cause the script to output nothing aka blank. Fixed
Bug: Fixed a problem with the FIXCASE command when used in HTML messages - the software could enter a loop causing what appearred to be a hung situation. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.091
New: If Then Else script support, for use when personalizing messages
New: Named Numerical formatting function support for each of the additional fields
New: Case fixing support for merge fields - turn fields that contain text like this jOE bLOggs into Joe Bloggs on the fly
Bug: Attachments could be ignored when doing a 'resume send' (fixed)
Bug: Logging setting in Express Setup was being reset (fixed)
Bug: Personalization bug introduced in version 3.4.090 - If you weren't using a URL or new Formatting field then the merge field was ignored. This bug resulted from the latest batch of optimization and was missed in QA. Apologies.
* Changes in version 3.4.076/3.4.083
New: New merge fields available. Now it is possible to merge information found in the Identity that you are using with the message you are sending. This will allow you to create group and identity independent template messages.
New: It is now possible to turn off automatic signature embedding in text messages - you can choose to use the Signature Merge field instead.
Update: Accessibility options improved - (toolbar short cuts)
Update: Header creation is now more intelligent with duplication information (like From and Reply To addresses being the same) removed.
Bug: If an invalid Dictionary was selected it could cause the application to halt. (fixed)
Bug: Some HTML messages could cause the Progress Bar on the Send Display to overflow causing the application to halt. (fixed)
Bug: Some plug-ins not launching correctly (bug introduced in 3.4.080 release - fixed)
Bug: Some merge fields not being inserted correctly - fixed
* Changes in version 3.4.075
Update: Splash screen and about box graphics updated
Update: New Duplicate checking code added to further speed up the importer
Update: Exclusion List searching improved
Bug: Netscape address books not showing up correctly
Bug: If you clicked on the Modify button in the Identity Manager when no IDs were available an error would occur which would cause the application to stop functioning. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.071
Update: Improved Importer speed
Update: Improved sending speed (apparant with larger lists - no visible effect with lists under 5000)
Bug: Some of the group orientated dialogs wouldn't load if no groups were first created. (Fixed)
Bug: Exclusion List grid some sometimes run out of memory when importing a large exclusion list. Fixed.
Bug: Main Group grid would refuse to load on some versions of Windows XP Home Edition. Fixed.
Bug: BCC To field was getting mangled if a ReplyTo address and name were specified (changes made in v3.4.065 brought about this bug). Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.065
New: Address book Import support added for AOL 7.0, Opera 6.0 and GroupWise (appears as Exchange on some systems)
Update: Improved Import support for Outlook Address books & folders (including Office XP)
Update: Header creation has been refined. New headers added for return path control (see Errors-To field in ID setup). The From name is also now specified with the Reply to address (makes replies look neater).
Update: New SMTP Express update available for Plus users.
Bug: Due to an odd OLE automation issue that crep in with the last build some systems were unable to re-init connections - the software would have to be forcibly closed. This issue has been addressed with this build.
Bug: You could use Merge fields in your signature and send in bulk mode (you should never be able to send in bulk mode if you are using merge fields because they would never be populated correctly). Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.063
Update: Improved Import support for quoted fields (More than one delimiter is supported in a quoted field now).
Bug: A threading issue was found to cause the Full Send details log to not be updated properly. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.062
Update: The email address you use for test sending is now remembered for future use.
Update: Faster message preparation.
Update: New information available on the Sending Screen (time per message, transmission speed and much more).
Update: New SMTP Express update available for Plus users.
Bug: If you were sending a merged message the From Email Address would appear as the From Name unless you were using Merge Fields in the ID.
Bug: If you launch the ID Manager from the Setup Menu and make changes these will not be reflected on the From drop down list on the main edit message screen.
Bug: Recovering from previously failed mailings could produce a file error when Group Mail tried to reloaded the 'sent' log
* Changes in version 3.4.061
Bug: When in Direct Send Mode the connection was not being recycled properly after each message causing some delivery failures to occur incorrectly.
Bug: Failed DNS Lookup results were causing the DNS cache to be incorrectly populated = basically the wrong servers were being assigned to some domains where DNS look ups were failing.
* Changes in version 3.4.060
New: Option to disable Text Message generation when sending HTML messages. If you know your recipients can handle HTML messages then this can save a lot of bandwidth when you are sending.
Update: New version of SMTP Express included with Group Mail Plus.
Update: Importer modifications - data cleaning improved and optimized.
Update: Big Improvements made to message header and mime encodings. Optimized.
Bug (in 056): Email Test Feature had some infacta Test code left over which sent the test message to us as well as the intended recipient. This only applied to the test send and no information of use or value was passed.
New (in 055): You can now specify different encoding for HTML and Text part messages.
Update (in 055): Personalized header details are now ISO/Windows encoded.
Update (in 055): Faster application loading time
Bug (in 055): In some cases header personalization options were being ignored.
* Changes in version 3.4.053
New: Checking for Updates option added - one click tells you if you have the latest version installed
New: Current Saved message name now shows in main Title bar (user request)
New: New domain options in Advanced SMTP/Email Setup
New: DNS caching has been re-written and is greatly improved when direct sending - this will have the effect of reducing the amount of stress on your chosen DNS server and it will make sending in Direct mode faster.
New: Hard Group sorting has been added - see tools menu.
New: From Name and Reply To address personalization now possible
New: Force all replies to the Reply to address - over write the From Address shown in the actual message with the Reply to address - used in conjunction with the Errors To field you can now totally control where your replies go to.
Update: Windows XP Short Date Issue resolved (Thanks to Paul S. for his help with this).
Update: ISO Hebrew Character Set added
Update: Importing Custom Outlook Contact folders is now allowed in the Address Book Importer
Update: Technical Support Wizard has been updated and revamped
Update: Some Toolbar icons looked like they messed themselves when you clicked on them.
Update: Date sorting issue has been improved on the Sent Messages tab (international support issue 4993)
Update: International Font issues in some parts of the application have been corrected
Bug: Adding Recipients to multiple groups through the Add Recipients dialog would ignore all requests after first addition.
Bug: Advanced Exclusion Functionality not working correctly on Prepare to Send screen
Bug: Incorrect Merge Name being used for Additional Field1 in Personalized ID setup - fixed.
Bug: Moving recipients from one group to another would sometimes try to copy the first recipient over and over again - fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.033
Bug: Dates not showing correctly for some sent messages.
Update: Sending to large groups would slow down after approx 20,000 recipients due to excessive duplicate checking. This will no longer happen.
* Changes in version 3.4.030
New: New URL Friendly merge fields for use when building personzlized links in messages. All fields are now available as URL friendly ones. Basically any of the URL friendly fields encountered will be encoded using URLEncoding (similar to Server.URLEncode in ASP)
Update: Faster duplicate checking when importing, faster recovery list/exclusion processing when sending.
Update: Enhanced support for International users. Better font support. Basic BiDirection editing support now available for Arabic/Hebrew based users.
Update: Memory usage reduced by 10%
Bug: Copy/Move dialog now closing. This bug was introduced in last release. Fixed.
Bug: Sort order on the Browse dialog now being saved when the software was closed. Fixed.
Bug: If the exclusion list contained one recipient and you chose to add that recipient to a group then you could cause a lock out. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.021
Update: Direct Sending will now use all MX Hosts available for a domain when sending automatically regardless of the retry setting. This will greatly increase the delivery rates.
Update: Toolbar and Tabs updated to work better in Windows XP.
Update: Address Book Importer now supports Office XP. Several issues with importing from Outlook in Corporate mode have been resolved also.
Bug: Sometimes when direct sending the DNS lookup procedure would stall. Fixed.
Bug: If you closed the Recipient Move/Copy window while a copy or move was in progress you received a file error.
Bug: Import and Export options on the right click menu in Group Manager failed to start up either tool properly. Fixed.
Bug: Encoding of some 8bit subject lines was producing unreadable text. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.017
Bug: CompleteName merge field was incorrectly mashing the First name and initial together - ugly!
Bug: Resume sending sometimes caused a problem when preping the message for sending. This is fixed.
* Changes in version 3.4.016
Bug: Helpfile wasn't loading correctly.
Bug: Pro/Plus not remembering license information if not licensed correctly at the time of install.
Bug: Address book import screen was resizable when it shouldn't have been.
* Changes in version 3.4
New: 7 New character sets in Message Setup
New: Windows XP Tested and tweaked
Update: 1 click resume feature has been tweaked as per feedback
Update: Identity Manager re-arranged - again because of feedback
Update: All DNS functionality has been re-written for faster more robust performance when direct sending
New: Log view/history and 1 click resume capabilities
* Changes in version 3.3
New: Address Book Import support - the software is now capable of importing directly from most popular email address books (Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape, Eudora, Pine, Exchange and Lotus Notes - more are on the way).
New: Ability to be able to turn off ESMTP support manually. Some servers didn't like any attempt to connect via ESMTP - now you can force the software to talk pure SMTP to them.
Update: New file importer screen - redesigned to resemble the new address book importer.
Update: Numerous tweaks to the recipient browser with regards to post action selections
Update: Much improved version of SMTP Express available to Plus users.
Update: Documentation has gone into full edit review and is being updated based on feedback.
Update: Faster standard sending - up to 20% faster that previous versions.
Update: Changes to Recipient Dialog - Email Address is now first field available (User request).
Update: New Advanced Email Setup options - control ESMTP Mode and domain usage better now.
Bug: Importing of multiple distribution lists is now possible.
Bug: Status display in Send Engine was duplicating some status entries (NOTE: Not messages - just display text). Fixed.
Bug: Importing recipients via Exclusion list when you have no groups created caused a fatal error - fixed.
Bug: Some subject lines caused problems when saving messages - fixed.
Bug: Problems with Copy/Move screen and error 52 - fixed.
* Changes in version 3.2.046
Bug: Messaging Save option not functioning correctly and in some cases causing crashes.
* Changes in version 3.2.045
Update: Better filtering and exclusion messages when sending now featuring in log files
Update: Send Engine revised, tweaked and generally refined.
Update: Grids enhanced to show multiple rows in alternative colors - user requested update.
Bug: If you chose to delete a recipient from the recipient browser/viewer but none were selected then the entire set of command buttons were disabled and the appliction would have to be terminated using a three finger salute. This has been corrected/fixed.
Bug: Grid Sorting options weren't being saved properly on shut down - this has been resolved.
Bug: Attachment order on saved messages was stored in reverse order. Fixed.
Bug: On some systems the File Attachment dialog appearred incorrectly (short file names etc.). Fixed and now also includes new Win2000 support.
* Changes in version 3.2.040
- Update: Major improvements have been made to the way messages are previewed before sending. See the Test / Preview on the Prepare to Send screen.
- Update: Direct Send Retry now forces a fresh DNS lookup and will cycle through the MXHost list for each troublesome domain automatically.
- Bug: If no text message is included with a HTML message some of the inline images may not get encoded as inline. Fixed.
- Bug: If the computer has a invalid TCP domain name then none is specified with the EHLO or HELO command. This has been updated so that the domain part of the senders email address is used, if that isn't available then the localhost address is used.
- Bug: Wrapping was always applied to text when no Encoding was enabled - even if encoding was disabled.
- Bug: If the first few lines of a previously message contained a tab character then the message wouldn't view properly on the Message History tab, it also wouldn't load properly from that tab.
- Bug: Importing from the clipboard - if the last record was not terminated with a CRLF sequence it would be ignored. Fixed.
* Changes in version 3.2.032
- Bug: Modifying Group names didn't work properly after changes were made to update code in last release. Fixed.
- Update: Faster Deleting
- Bug: Blank lines in Exclusion List. Fixed
- Bug: Unable to test Direct Send settings correctly. Fixed.
- Bug: Double Byte Safety - Deletions not working properly. Fixed.
- Bug: Saluation Field not getting merged correctly. Fixed.
- Bug: License Module refusing some keys. Fixed.
- Bug: Prepare to Send dialog would sometimes close of it's own accord. Fixed.
- Bug: Preview sometimes not showing signature properly.
- Updated: Error Processing while sending has been enhanced.
* Changes in version 3.2.026
- Bug: DNS Address not being saved properly. Sometimes causing a GPF. Fixed.
- Updated: Help file.
- Bug: Retry/ReRoute option values not correctly being saved, Fixed.
- New: Email Setup dialog
- Updated: Direct Sending Engine enhanced
- Updated: Inproved error handling
- New: Direct Send Retry and ReRoute feature added
- Bug: Memory leak on some systems when using Plus version. Fixed
* Changes in version 3.2
- New: Group Browser
- New: Search Options
- New: Customizable Grid Views
- New: Easier List Sorting
- New: Group Printing
- New: Recipient Setup Grid
- New: Check/Verify Email Addresses from the Recipient Setup screen
- Bugs: Error 27 when sending addressed and handled better
- Bugs: Attachment Order when a message is saved is backwards
- Bugs: Sending Split was sometimes being skipped - fixed
- Tweaks: any reported issues with 3.1 have been addressed in this build.
- Tweaks: All frames used have been updated.
* Changes in version 3.1
- New Name - Aureate Group Mail is now three products - Group Mail Free, Pro and Plus
- New Feature: Direct Send added to Group Mail Pro and Plus
- New Feature: SMTP Express High speed sending now available in Group Mail Plus
- Tweak: Attachment Procedure streamlined
- Tweak: Improved Sending Engine with improved HTML supported and Error Checking
- Tweak: Email Server Setup dialog re-arranged
- Tweak: Message Setup dialog re-arranged and simplified
- Bugs: A number of interface bugs have been quashed.
- Tweak: New Antispam measures added to Group Mail Free - send limitation of 100 added
- Tweak: Group Mail Free is now advertisement free.
- Tweak: New About Box and Splash Screen
- Tweak: DSN (delivery status notification) feature replaced with Request Read Receipt option
- New Feature: New Test options added to Setup dialogs and Send screens.
- Tweak: APOP Authentication support added (to complement traditional POP Authentication)
- New Feature: CRAM-MD5 SMTP Authentication Support added
* Changes in Build 3.0.611
- KOI8 Encoding corrected and some new character sets added.
- Bug fixed when trying to load an active log file as a block file
- Text Wrapping is now optional
- Some issues with extended SMTP commands have been corrected
* Changes in Build 3.0.451
New Features
- POP3 Authentication Support (check before send)
- Full Range of ISO Character Sets now supported
- New Prepare to Send Window with new functionality (e.g. Message Previewing)
- New Server Setup, Message Setup and Identification Windows
- New Merge Field - Username - this strips the domain part of an email address away - handy if you don't have a Name for the person you are sending to.
Fixes etc.
- Email Field on the Merge Menu didn't work - you had to use the Pop menu
- Sending Optimized (especially for non personalized messages)
- Default Encoding is set correctly now.
- Text Attachments (text and HTML) are now correctly attached on International systems.
* Changes in Build 3.0.300
New Feature!! - Now each recipient can have up to 4 unique/custom attachments send to them when you decide.
Inline Image support improved. There were parsing limitations in earlier releases which caused some inline images to be skipped - this is no longer the case.
The date shown on some messages being sent was being localized incorrectly for some timezones. This has been corrected.
Connection resetting with some Mail servers was being skipped - this has been corrected.
Importer has been tweaked - logging improved.
There was an intermittent issue with the Exclusion list - it would sometimes fail to load properly when sending - this has been corrected.
Main program interface has minor changes to increase speed and reduce the resource requirements for the application.
Names can now include comma's in them. This wasn't possible before.
All core technologies and components have been upgraded to the latest versions. This may cause some issues when running the software on older versions of Windows - this can be corrected however by visiting the correct download section for your Operating system at http://www.microsoft.com and downloading the latest system updates and patches.
* Changes in build 3.0.205
On some systems there was a problem with attachments not listing correctly - this has been fixed.
When mailing through mid-night the timer would report an incorrect negative time taken to send - this has been corrected.
Anti Spam modifications to the Free Edition have been made.
* Changes in build 3.0.200
Improved HTML Message support added - now with support for inline images.
The importer has been re-designed with a new field match up tool and the ability to determine file format, field count and delimiter type automatically.
Message priority (when sending) has been added.
The attachment window and process have been entirely re-designed.
* Changes in build 3.0.180
Cut, Copy and Paste shortcuts would some times stop working for the Subject line on the Edit Message tab - this has been fixed.
Import Filter precendence has been changed for that filters are applied before duplicate checking takes place.
A new notice has been added to the Free Edition which reminds Users of their responsiblity when it comes to sending messages.
When sending a mailing where an exclusion list didn't exist sometimes the first attempt at mailing would fail - this has been fixed.
A new message tag has been added to the Free Edition which now contains additional details regarding the sender of the message - such as name and email address. This is intended to reduce the number of people using the produce for spamming.
* Changes in build 3.0.160
Field layouts can now be saved for importing later and re-using.
Exporting has been tweaked - the exporter now remembers the last export file used for each group.
Double byte safety has been added for people using double byte language versions of Windows. This must be enabled on the setup menu and will result in slower deletions but will prevent groups from becoming corrupt on those systems.
Invalid Domain error found and corrected. When sending a 501 error would some times occur with some email servers.
The Importer has been overhauled and optimized. it is now much much faster at importing data.
Sending Speed has been improved overall. Recovery and Exclusion checking have been optimized.
SMTP Connection authentication support added. Authentication is required by a growing number of service providers now.
The Exporter has been overhauled.
Faster modifying of recipients. The active Group no longer has to be re-loaded.
* Changes in build 3.0.120
Partial Sending feature added to the Prepare to Send Window.
New Right click menus added to all major parts of the application.
New Group Only view option added to Group Setup.
Support for Invalid Recipient Error generated by some email servers added.
Message History sorting issue now corrected.
Full Version number details are now shown in the About Box.
Adding and Modifying Recipients has been optimized.
Additional Error Checking and logging added to the logs.
Full Version number details are now shown in the About Box.
Logfile printing added to the Send Results dialog.
Problems with the attachment list not resetting properly after clicking New Message have now been resolved.
Type Mismatch Error on some Systems when adding recipients has now been resolved.
* Changes in build 3.0.105
New options added to the Importer to increase speed.
15 Day Trial Version has now been converted to a Free Advertisment Sponsored Edition
Registered version no longer carries an ad when sending.
Date Filtering Issue fixed. Filters wouldn't correctly function sometimes on systems which only used two digit years.
Attachments with Long Pathnames can now be sent. Previously the names got truncated and this caused them to be skipped.
Installation now includes the latest OLE runtime files available for Windows.
Attachments listing is now correctly reset when your sending a new message.
Improved support for large fonts.
Out of Memory Error Message when sending fixed.
* Changes in build 3.0.092
First Release Build.
Updating from version 1.x or 2.x:
If you are upgrading from version 1.x or 2.x please read make sure to install this software into the previous Group Mail directory. Then run the Group Updater utility after installation. This will convert all your existing group files for use in this new version. For further details on the Update process please consult update_readme.txt.
Updating v3.0
The Group Mail installation will attempt to locate the last installed copy of version 3.0. Please double check when it prompts for permission for the file install that it has chosen the correct directory. You will not need to do anything else.
Using this software:
Please consult the helpfile for operational instructions.
Uninstalling:
To un-install this software please go to Control Panel and use the Add Remove programs applet. Group Mail will appear on the list of installed applications. Just double click on it to remove it.
For more information on using Group Mail and how to purchase Group Mail Pro or Group Mail Plus please see http://www.infacta.com/purchase.asp
