E-MAIL NOTIFIER

Outlook Express is designed to collect mail, of course. Personally I'm not familiar with the other term--can you explain what you mean by an 'email notifier?' Do you mean something that will run independently and tell you if you have any mail, without actually checking it with OE?

Mozilla is similar to the AOL client, in that it is a web browser with a built in email application.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/3016

When Mozilla is running, go to Window > Mail & Newsgroups. When the mail client has opened, go to File > Preferences and click on "Notifications". Here, you can add a custom .wav file instead of the standard tone.

Place an alias of "Mozilla Messenger" in your System Folder > Start up Items to have it start automatically at boot up, fetch your mail and play the notification sound.

Hi Ian

One of the delights of using a microsoft product?

My Apple-created email program makes whatever noise I choose when mail arrives.

Thankfully there are other email programs available - no one is forcing you to use OE.

I believe that Outlook Express has some sound options as well--assigning sounds to different events, that type of thing. But I've never explored them personally. Not sure how they work or what if anything is available.

Yes, that's a good point too. So Ian, when you say your Outlook Express is 'provided by the cable company,' that's notexactly how it works. Your cable company is providing you with an email address. You have a choice of many different programs that can be used to collect mail sent to that address--as folks here have pointed out. HTH

So, keeping the IE/OE e-mail address would make life a lot easier and who couldn't use that?

Again to clarify: your email address isn't associated with Interner Explorer, Outlook Express, or your old computer. It is issued by the cable company and it doesn't change if you get a new computer. You will be able to check the same email address using software on the new computer. Your new computer will have the OS X programs Mail and Safari (browser). You'll configure Mail to pick up messages from your existing email address.

I like to use this analogy: Having an email address is like having a post office box. Your email messages do not come directly to your computer; they are loaded into your post office box (the post office box is located on the mail servers of your internet provider) and wait there until they are collected in some way. Collection can take place with a variety of programs--Outlook Express, OS X Mail, etc. These programs remove the messages from the post office box and load them onto your own computer for further handling.

I don't know much about AOL, as I haven't really used it since version 1.0 or so. I would think there is an OS X version of AOL but I don't know for sure.

As for the Excite account, this is a 'webmail' account, isn't it? That is, you check your messages by visiting a web page and logging in, right? You should be able to do this from any computer as well--that's what webmail is designed to do. Not sure what particular feature wouldn't be supported on certain computers. . . can you explain a bit more? I'm still not exactly sure what you're referring to when you talk about 'email notifiers.' You're meaning a program to collect mail, right? As stated, you will certainly be able to do this on your new computer.

Ian -

I believe the new iBook runs Tiger 10.4 (whatever that means).....

Tiger is the latest Mac operating system. One thing it means is that you will have to give up Outlook Express as you have known it. Microsoft does not make OE for Mac OS X 10.4. You will, however, be able to retain Internet Explorer, downloading IE version 5.2.3.

It may be that Microsoft has an 'office' package which has an Outlook feature but I'm not familiar with it. Anyway, you'll find the internet browser Safari, which will come with your new iBook, totally satisfactory.

Your iBook will also come with Mail, Apple's email application. As noted above, sound features are probably available.

By the way, the fractured English, "You've Got Mail" has never appealed to me. {:-)

Schadow

Hi Shadow

In the UK, AOL says "You Have mail" with the seductive voice of Joanna Lumley - nothing fractured about it here.

Hi Ian

Just to emphasise -- the software used for Mail has nothing at all ever in the entire world got anything to do with your ISP, mail account, cable company, supermarket or wife's hairdresser. IT IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU - YOU CHOOSE.

There is only one exception to my knowlege and that is AOL - it uses it's own mail reader - but if I understand things correctly, Mail will also work with an AOL account - I don't know for sure, perhaps others could confirm this.

On this computer, one copy of Claris eMailer works with 7 different email accounts with 3 different email providers. It's my computer, I'll use the software I want to use.

Similarly, Browsers are your choice - no-one else's (unless you are trying to access the FEMA site in the US!)

Customizing Mail notification sounds in Mac OS X10.4:

You need an audio file in .AIFF format. To use this sound file only in your user account, simply place it in ~your user name/Library/Sounds.

To make the mail notification sound file available for all users place it in: System/Library/Sounds (you must be logged in as Admin to do this and have the appropriate password).

Start Mail and go to Preferences > General > New Mail Sound and choose your sound file. Click OK.

Setting up personalized new mail sounds:

You can set a custom sound for new mail from a particular person, for example, your spouse, boss, daughter in college etc. Follow the instructions for the .AIFF file as above, then:

Start Mail and go to Preferences > Rules > Add Rule:

Set up as: "If any of the following conditions are met"

Now, in order from left to right and then top to bottom set the multiple choice buttons as follows:

Set first button to "From", Set second button to "Contains".

Type the email address of the person that you wish to hear the special audio file play for, in the text input box to the right of the "contains" button.

Set the third button to "Play Sound" and at the fourth button choose the sound you wish to hear. Click OK and you are done.

More rules and sounds can be added if you wish, for other email addresses.

Hi, Donna -

In the UK, AOL says "You Have mail" with the seductive voice of Joanna Lumley - nothing fractured about it here.

Thank God there's some place intent on preserving the language. I hope the UK has not adopted our "for free!" I can feel the rumble of my old, deceased English teacher spinning in her grave every time I hear that one.

Schadow

Well, it is possible to launch Outlook Express separately from IE. Somewhere on the hard drive of your computer is a folder that contains the Outlook Express program--it has a yellow envelope as the icon. If you clicked on this icon, it would also launch Outlook Express. You could create an alias/shortcut of the Outlook Express icon, place it on your desktop, and launch your email that way. Launching it from the button in Internet Explorer is just a convenience, not a necessity. Were you still using your old computer, you would have choices about the programs and steps you used to bring in email messages. You're used to the series of steps involving Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. . . but it's definitely not the only way. As Donna indicated, it's a matter of choice--not something that's dictated by your cable company.

But I gather you'll be using a new computer soon. As others have indicated, Outlook Express as you know it is no longer available for OS X. With a new computer, you'll definitely have a different routine for bringing in email messages.

Yes, your email address ends with your cable company's name. So does mine. This is true for most email addresses, since they are provided and hosted by an internet company of some sort. Referring to my analogy above, the cable company has set up the computer equivalent of a post office box for each of its customers.

What will happen on your new computer is that you will configure another program (probably OS X Mail) to collect the messages from this post office box. If you have never done this before, you'll need to gather some information from your cable company--you'll need to know the names of their email servers (POP/incoming and SMTP/outgoing). If that doesn't sound familiar to you, don't worry. Your cable company tech support can provide this info. There may also be a web page where you can look up this information. It is used when setting up an email program. Setting up email programs involves the same basic steps and information on any computer and you can use a variety of email programs. HTH

Hi Schadow

Unfortunate I think the war is lost. Trendy marketeers are teaching our children nothng but slang, nd txtng is not helping either.

"for free" is heared fairly often often , but the one thing that really gets my goat is "pre-order"

Whoever came up with that impossible word should be pre-hung up and left to pre-dry out before being pre-eaten by ravens .