Installation of Eudora was very simple. The software is easily downloaded from the Eudora Website (http://www.eudora.com). I downloaded to my c:\temp directory, and then double-clicked on the self-extracting file. Running the setup.exe file then installed Eudora very easily in its own directory.

Eudora allows a large number of configuration options, from system options to screen appearance. A full list of Eudora Light features (compared to Eudora Pro) can be found at http://www.eudora.com/prolight_compare_win.html. People whose e-mail programs cause difficulties by sending messages that contain too many characters to fit on the standard text screen (certainly not LIS professors), will appreciate that Eudora makes it easy to control the number of characters per line.

The standard configuration is really very useful, and will serve most people very well. Along with required personal information, I made the following customizations to the program:

• Enabled "Save password."

  Since my computer is secure (?) in my own home, I save myself the bother of entering my password every time I want to retrieve mail.

• Enabled "Leave mail on server."

  Since I do a large amount of my work at school, I want to have access to my e-mail from the server.

• Set "Determine first unread message by:" to "POP3 LAST command."

  The other options were: "First message not read by this machine," or "Status: headers." Since I do most of my e-mail directly from the server on my UNIX account, the POP3 LAST option appeared to be one that would keep my home computer current with what I had already read via UNIX at work.

• Set "Domain to add to unqualified addresses:" to "alexia.lis.uiuc.edu."

  Most of my e-mail goes to this domain, so this makes life easier for me.

• Enabled "Put text attachments in the body."

  Every mail program can display text, and I like to have the attachment right in the body of the message. Anything that I sent as text is typically short. Longer items will probably be binary files, and would have to be separate attachments any way.

• Enabled "Switch messages with unmodified arrow keys."

  Simply a personal convenience item. Can be set to "Alt-arrow keys," as well.

• Enabled "Use Eudora MAPI server always."

  This makes Eudora the default MAPI server (bypassing Microsoft's program, that I do not use any way). I tested this setting, and was able to successfully sent both Microsoft Word 6 and WordPerfect 6.1 documents as attachments directly from the programs.

• Disabled "Send immediately."

  Those who are going to use Eudora offline for composition, will want to use this setting. Messages are sent to a "Queue" where they are stored until the computer is connected online.

Sending and Forwarding Mail

If the message is sent to the Queue, it will not be sent until the user selects the "File -- Send Queued Messages" option. If the computer is not online, Eudora will automatically load the Winsock software and connect to the SMTP server and send the queued messages.

Forwarding a message is also handled by a GUI button. After selecting a message in a mailbox, a click on the "Forward" button invokes the editor with the text and subject of that message already included. All the user has to do is fill in the address, edit as needed, and then send/queue. Inserted text is indicated by the inclusion of the ">" symbol along the left margin.

Using Mailboxes and Folders

In "DOS-speak," creating a "folder" is creating a subdirectory; and creating a "mailbox" is creating a file. Any mailboxes created under the "Top Item" (default) folder are files stored in the C:\EUDORA directory, with the filename name.mbx. When the user creates a folder, it is a subdirectory under C:\EUDORA, named name.fol. Mailboxes can then be created as files in this subdirectory. Once this distinction is clear, it is very easy to organize one's mail.

To save mail from the IN box to a mailbox, one selects the "Transfer" icon. This pulls down a list of existing folders and mailboxes -- and an option for easily creating new ones. Clicking on one of the mailboxes will move the message from the IN box to this mailbox. Using a "shift-left click" will COPY the message rather than move it (leaving the original in the IN box).

Filtering Mail

Selecting the menu item: Tools -- Filters presents the user with an easy to use "fill-in-the-blank" form. Up to 2 criteria may be specified for each message, based on text found in any of the e-mail header elements. The 2 criteria can be combined with Boolean operators for more precise control. Messages that are filtered may be treated with up to 5 different actions, including priority ranking, and transferring (saving) to specified mailboxes. Drop menus and fill-in boxes make configuring the filtering procedure very simple.

I established a couple of filtering criteria and tested them with mail retrieved from my Alexia account at GSLIS. Each of the messages was properly assigned to the correct mailbox. Since the messages were not in the generic IN box, one could be unaware of their presence. Selecting "Mailboxes" from the menu bar, however, provides a list of mailboxes and uses a flagging system to indicate which ones have new mail in them. This allows for a one-stop review of the presence of unread mail.

• Set "Getting Started:" to "Shell Process."

  Being on the LAN means that Eudora does not need to run under a Winsock setting (default).

• Set "Hosts:" to include port addresses for mail, ph, and finger settings.

  Being on the Internet makes these functions more likely to be used.

• Set "Checking Mail:" to "Check Mail every XX minutes."

  With a constant connection to the LAN, it makes sense to allow Eudora to routinely check the POP3 server for new mail. "XX" could be replaced by any value, depending on the needs of the particular user. Some might prefer to have frequent checking, while others who have light e-mail traffic would choose a longer interval.

• Set "Checking mail:" to disable "Save password."

  Unless the computer is in a secure place, it would be unwise to allow Eudora to preserve an individual's system password.

• Set "Sending mail: unqualified addresses" to local domain.

  This would help the user if they send a number of messages to the local domain.

• How can two or more people use Eudora Pro on the same Windows PC? Can each user have their own settings and preferences?

  To allow multiple users to use Eudora on the same PC, make a separate mail directory and create a separate program manager icon for each user. The directories can be named whatever you like and placed anywhere, including floppies or network volumes. Place a copy of the Eudora.ini in each user's directory.

  To tell Eudora which directory to use, specify that directory on the command line of the Program Item properties dialog box as shown in the examples below:

  c:\eudora\eudora.exe c:\user1
  

  c:\eudora\eudora.exe c:\user2

  Then in the working directory field, set the path to that user's directory. Each user will have his or her own location for mailboxes and user settings.

  c:\user1\
  

  c:\user2\

• I know I need a password in order to get my mail from my mail server, but Eudora doesn't protect the mail I have already downloaded onto my PC. Is there any way to protect my mail from other users?

  The simple truth is that you don't need Eudora to see the messages on the computer, any program that can view text files can display your messages. If we were to add password protection to Eudora, it would only give an illusion of protection. What is truly needed is a tool to protect the contents of the hard disk.

• Mailbox -- Folder Confusion

  As discussed above, Eudora does not do a good job clarifying the difference between mailboxes and folders. It is difficult to know how to answer Eudora's question, "Create a folder?," if you do not know the difference. Creating both and then looking around finally revealed how they differ.

• Viewing Attachments

  Attachments placed within the body of a message do not look as good when viewed in Eudora as they do in Pine (UNIX). In my test, I included a text attachment in a message. Because I did not add a line feed at the end of the last line, the attachment began in the middle of the last line -- resulting in a distortion of the original attachment. Pine, on the other hand, not only added a line break, but a statement indicating the attachment followed. This preserved the formatting of the original. Although this is a rather small problem, users might want to allow for it by ending messages with hard returns.