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CRitchie Newbie
Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 39
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Posted: 23 March 2005 at 9:21am | IP Logged
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I like the changes in 3.1; the empty trash can features is nice. I like being able to sort my list as well. However I think a web site should try to minimize the number of clicks it takes to get anything done. Unless of course the site is driven by ad revenue and page hit count is required to be high. But in the case of MailBee WebMail I think the click count to accomplish something could be lower thus lowering round trips to the server making dial-up users very happy. Here are some suggestions along those lines.
1. Empty trash can is nice. But don’t force me to go to the Trash Can folder to empty it. Click Trash Can folder link, press Empty Trash then click Inbox folder. That’s three clicks. Can the Empty Trash be a top level menu item so that no matter where I am I can press the empty trash button and be placed back in the folder I was in? If I’m in my Inbox I can press Empty Trash and I’m done. One click and one round trip to the server.
2. Empty trash on logout setting. This keeps me from even clicking on the Empty Trash button altogether. I would makes this an optional setting as some people may not want to do this.
3. No matter which folder I’m in, when I click Get Mail take me back to my Inbox. I think it is safe to assume that if a user is getting their mail they want to see what they received. This again reduces click count.
4. Allow multiple address selection from the address book. Better yet allow me to make groups also.
5. Option to not copy sent mail to the Sent folder. Again this is about less clicks. For users that don’t need this feature why force them to clean up the sent folder.
Now for the issues.
1. “Re:” is continuously prefixed to the subject line on replies. After several replies you end up with “Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Subject”. I think that if “Re:” is already present in the subject line then don’t add it again.
2. My Advanced editor uses double line spacing. When I hit return I get two line feeds. Is this by design?
3. When replying to messages that are text the previous body of the message looses all the line feeds so that it is one giant text blob. The advanced editor maintains the line feeds. This could have something to do with the fact I changed the default to be the Text editor based on your code in the forum.
4. The default styles for the menu bar in the address property screen are a little off and don’t quite look right.
5. Tab order on the New Message forces me to tab through everything to get from field to field. I would love to be able to just tab between the fields themselves and if I need anything else I’ll grab the mouse.
I have also made some changes to the user interface that you might interest you. If you’d like to see them let me know. Being a developer myself I just can’t help myself sometimes. For example, in the folders list each folder tells me how may messages are in the folder – Inbox (10). There is also a line at the bottom of the folder list that states something like “10 messages in folder”. I think this is redundant so I removed the “10 messages in folder” line. Perhaps the number in paranthesis is supposed to indicate the number of new messages but if so it doesn't appear to work. I also made Manage Folders a top level menu item. I moved some other things around as well.
I hope none of this comes off as pretentious, arrogant or me being unhappy with the product. I still think that MailBee WebMail is the best web mail program on the market today for IIS/ASP and my users really like it. Keep up the great work.
Future long time user,
-Craig
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Alex AfterLogic Support
Joined: 19 November 2003
Online Status: Offline Posts: 2206
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Posted: 23 March 2005 at 9:52am | IP Logged
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Many thanks for your valuable suggestions.
As for Empty Trash button on all pages, you can achive this by commenting these lines out in functions_list.inc.asp:
line 18: <% If intIdFolderSelectedType = 4 And global_hide_folders = 0 Then %>
line 22: <% End If %>
Quote:
My Advanced editor uses double line spacing. When I hit return I get two line feeds. Is this by design? |
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Yes, this is by design of Internet Explorer and has nothing to do with WebMail itself. To insert single line break, hit Shift-Enter.
As for other suggestions, we'll consider them for future versions. Thanks again!
Regards,
Alex
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CRitchie Newbie
Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 39
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Posted: 23 March 2005 at 10:59am | IP Logged
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Thanks Alex. I shall make that change tonight for the trash can. You have just saved me a couple hours of research.
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CRitchie Newbie
Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 39
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Posted: 23 March 2005 at 11:02am | IP Logged
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A user just suggested that sorting addresses would be nice for them. Just more food for thought.
I'll try to leave you alone now.
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Alex AfterLogic Support
Joined: 19 November 2003
Online Status: Offline Posts: 2206
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Posted: 23 March 2005 at 11:21am | IP Logged
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Do you mean sorting addresses in Address Book? (because sorting by email address is already possible in mails list)
Regards,
Alex
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CRitchie Newbie
Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 39
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Posted: 23 March 2005 at 2:38pm | IP Logged
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Opps... yeah sorting in the address book. Here is the ultimate address book in my opinion:
Editing:
1. Allow groups.
3. Sort by email, nickname, first name or last name.
2. Separate database fields for first and last name so I can sort on either field.
Address book popup when creating message:
1. Multiple selection of receipients.
2. Sort by email, nickname first name or last name.
3. Show Groups first then individual emails.
Maybe even an option so I can set the default sort order.
For me this would make a great address book.
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Alex AfterLogic Support
Joined: 19 November 2003
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Posted: 24 March 2005 at 9:28am | IP Logged
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Many thanks for the suggestions. In total, they would make enough changes for at least 3 future versions :-).
Regards,
Alex
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CRitchie Newbie
Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 39
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Posted: 24 March 2005 at 9:47am | IP Logged
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Need some help?
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Alex AfterLogic Support
Joined: 19 November 2003
Online Status: Offline Posts: 2206
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Posted: 24 March 2005 at 10:52am | IP Logged
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Yes, as always, any useful suggestions from you are greatly appreciated!
Regards,
Alex
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CRitchie Newbie
Joined: 22 March 2005 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 39
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Posted: 01 April 2005 at 3:11pm | IP Logged
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I've given the address thing a few more thoughts.
It would actually be easier to just include the address book as a mutli-select listbox on the new message page. Have three buttons "To:", "Cc:" and "Bcc:" to direct my selections to the appropriate textbox. Now there are no round trips to the server for the address book. Everything is handled right there on the new message page using a little javascript.
Address Groups would of course be listed at the the top of the list.
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Alex AfterLogic Support
Joined: 19 November 2003
Online Status: Offline Posts: 2206
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Posted: 03 April 2005 at 8:53am | IP Logged
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Thanks for the suggestion. Although having Address Book directly on new message page might make UI too heavy, it can be made as user option or so. We'll think about this.
Regards,
Alex
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