Preview IMAP4 Mail

The Preview IMAP4 Mail function is activated by the toolbar button or File menu option by that name, if your General Settings notebook says that the current account is an IMAP4 one rather than a POP3 one. (Otherwise, this toolbar button and menu option will bring up the Preview Mail window instead.)

If you want to bring the contents of your IMAP4 INBOX into your J Street Mailer folders for local storage, using the Retrieve mail option is probably the easiest way. The Preview IMAP4 Mail window is mainly for interacting with the mail folders on your server, though you can also download mail from this window if you wish.

When you select IMAP4 at the top of the first page of the General Settings notebook, two extra settings appear. The top one, Mail Folder, lets you specify the server directory which is the parent of your INBOX and other mail folders. Most people will never need to type anything here, since the directory you're in when you log onto your IMAP4 account is likely to be the right one. But if you do need to specify the directory name here, be sure to include a trailing separator character. For example, if you want to say "~/Mail", say "~/Mail/" instead. This setting affects the Preview IMAP4 Mail window only. The lower setting on the other hand, Mailbox Name, has no effect on this window. It is where you specify the folder whose mail you want the Retrieve mail option to download. The default, which will work for most people, is "INBOX". If you need to change it, include the full pathname, without a trailing separator character.

When you attempt to bring up the Preview IMAP4 Mail window, one other dialog comes first: Preview IMAP4 Mail Setup. Its settings will be filled in using the information in your General Settings, but you can change the server name, userid, password, and port number as desired, if you want to work with the mail in some account other than the J Street Mailer account you have open at the moment. If you turn on the Debug Mode checkbox, the commands that the program sends to the server, and the server's responses, will be displayed in the window in which your Java virtual machine is running.

When you leave the setup dialog, then the program will proceed to the main Preview IMAP4 Mail window. This window is very much like the program's main window, with a folder tree panel, a message list panel, and a browser panel. If you select a folder, a dialog comes up to tell you how many messages are in the folder and ask you which ones you want displayed in the message list panel.

The Folder Menu

Create a folder
Creates a folder on the server.
Create a subfolder
Creates a folder on the server, as a child of the folder you currently have selected in the tree panel list.
Rename
Lets you rename the selected folder on the server.
Reload messages
Re-opens the selected folder.
Delete
Deletes the selected folder and all of its contents.
Expand all
Opens all folders which have children, to display the subfolders, sub-subfolders, etc.
Collapse all
Removes all the subfolders and sub-subfolders, etc., from the folder tree panel, so that only the main folders are still showing.

The Message Menu

Print selected message(s)
Prints the selected messages.
Print marked message(s)
Prints the marked messages (see below).
Retrieve selected message to a file
Places the message into the file you specify.
Retrieve selected message(s) to inbox
Retrieves the selected messages to the account's local Mark all
Marks all of the messages instead of just the selected ones; see above.
Unmark selected message(s)
Unmarks the marked ones of the selected messages; see above.
Unmark all
Unmarks all of the marked messages; see above.
Message display options
This submenu contains options which have the same meanings here that they have on the Message menu of the program's main window.
Move selected message(s) to a folder
Moves the selected messages to a folder on the IMAP4 server.
Move marked message(s) to a folder
Moves the marked messages to a folder on the IMAP4 server.
Copy selected message(s) to a folder
Copies the selected messages to a folder on the IMAP4 server.
Copy marked message(s) to a folder
Copies the marked messages to a folder on the IMAP4 server.
Copy selected text to clipboard
Copies the selected text in the browser window to the clipboard, if your operating system has a clipboard.
Delete marked message(s)
Deletes the marked messages from the IMAP4 server, after asking you if you're sure you want to do it, and closes and re-opens the folder. There will never be any way for you to get any of the messages back, after doing this; that's why the program makes it difficult to do by making you mark the messages first and then asking you for confirmation.