.KEYWORD handson
.FLYINGHEAD EMAIL TUTORIAL
.TITLE An introduction to PalmPilot email
.FEATURE
.SPOTLIGHT FIGALT handson-cover.gif
.SUMMARY Do you go through Internet or email withdrawal whenever you’re not tethered to your computer’s monitor? Do you pine away for your email messages whenever you’re on the road? Are you a super-connected Internet email jock who needs to be connected even when you can’t plug in and jack on? If so, PalmPilot email is the way to go. In this extremely valuable article, PowerBoard Hostess Claire Pieterek tells us how PalmPilot email works and reviews a number of powerful software email clients that run on the Palm device. Now you can get your email no matter where you go. That’s a good idea, right? Hmmm…
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 PalmPower exclusive scoop
Our intrepid product investigators have learned that HandStamp Pro, one of the products featured in this article, is getting an upgrade in the next few weeks and will be renamed to HandMail. The new version will support AOL, text attachments, and it’ll have a completely new interface. We’ll cover this upgrade in future issues, but be sure to check the PalmPower News page and this article’s PowerBoard discussion for more information.
.END_SIDEBAR
You’ve got a PalmPilot and you want to keep in touch with all of your laptop-lugging colleagues. What are your email options? Can you get your email on your PalmPilot directly, or do you need to HotSync? What are SMTP and POP3 anyway? This article is an introduction to using email on your PalmPilot.
.H1 Standards explained
Starting with the introduction of the PalmPilot Professional, 3Com included a TCP/IP stack in the operating system. This enabled the PalmPilot to connect to the Internet, and opened up the world of standards-based email to many PalmPilot users.
Internet-based email revolves around three standards: Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol (POP3), and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP4). In very simple terms, SMTP can be equated to the post office in your town that delivers the mail to everyone’s mailbox, while POP and IMAP take the place of the mailbox at your house.
POP3 has been around for nearly twenty years, and is a reliable email client. IMAP4 is a more recent standard that addresses some of the things that POP3 lacks when compared to proprietary email systems. IMAP4 may not be used as widely as POP3, but it offers a number of handy features. While POP3 is intended mainly to move email from the SMTP server to your local machine, IMAP4 offers you more tools to manipulate your mailbox on the server. For example, you can view an email’s header and then decide whether to download it. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages, or search for certain parts of a note.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
For all the details about these standards, visit the Information Sciences Institute RFC page at http://www.rfc-editor.org/isi.html and read the appropriate Requests for Comment (RFCs). A short list includes RFC 821, which discusses SMTP; RFC 1939, which covers POP3; and RFC 2060, which details IMAP4.
.END_SIDEBAR
Most Internet service providers (ISPs) –with the exception of America Online (AOL) –use these standards, as do many corporations. Some firms use proprietary systems, and do not enable or support these features in their mail system installations. If your company’s email is not standards-based, you may need to use a third-party conduit to HotSync your mail onto your PalmPilot.
There may be workarounds you can use, depending on your company’s system. For example, my firm has standardized on Lotus Notes. Since I don’t use any of the calendaring or other groupware features in Notes and my company has chosen not to enable POP3 on the Notes server, I set up an agent (a Notes term for an automated action) to forward copies of all incoming email to my ISP account, where I can pick it up directly.
.H1 Two kinds of email
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to define two kinds of PalmPilot email: HotSync-based and direct.
HotSync-based mail includes products like:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET the built-in Mail program (included in PalmOS 2.0 Pro on the PalmPilot Professional and PalmOS 3.0 on the Palm III)
.BULLET TransAOL (see http://members.aol.com/VinceDeb)
.BULLET Palmeta Mail (see http://www.palmeta.com)
.BULLET the MultiMail Conduit Pack (see http://www.actualsoft.com).
.END_LIST
Direct mail includes four products, all of which are based on the Internet standards mentioned above:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET HandStamp (see http://www.smartcodesoft.com)
.BULLET MultiMail (see http://www.actualsoft.com)
.BULLET MailPilot (see http://www2.wbs.or.jp/~pilotdev/down.htm)
.BULLET Top Gun Postman (see http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/pilot/TGpostman/)
.END_LIST
I will discuss HandStamp and MultiMail in detail, as these are the programs I’ve used the most. These four programs work only on the PalmPilot Professional or Palm III, although there is a version of HandStamp–HandStamp 2.x–that includes its own built-in TCP/IP stack, and runs on the Pilot and PalmPilot Personal. However, HandStamp 2.x isn’t quite as feature-rich as HandStamp Pro.
So what about the built-in Mail program?
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I’ve never used–or even looked at–the built-in Mail program. In early 1997, I started using HandStamp 2.x on my Pilot 5000. I then transferred it to my PalmPilot Professional last May, before HandStamp Pro was released. When HandStamp Pro came out, I upgraded. And, Actual Software’s competitive upgrade rebate enticed me to pony up for a copy of MultiMail Pro. So, I’ve never felt the need to check out the built-in mailer, primarily because I like the convenience of carrying my entire email setup, modem and all, with me wherever I go.
We’ll talk more about HotSync-based email and direct email below.
.H1 What if I don’t have a PalmPilot Professional or Palm III?
If you have a Pilot or PalmPilot Personal, you have a couple of alternatives. You just don’t have as many choices for email as you would if you had a PalmPilot Professional or Palm III. Your options are twofold: You can use a service called PilotMail (see http://www.pilotmail.net). With this service, you do a modem HotSync to PilotMail’s server, and your email is put into the Memo Pad. You can also use HandStamp 2.x, which is similar to HandStamp Pro (discussed in more detail below), but offers fewer features. Confusingly enough, both HandStamp 2.x and HandStamp Pro are sold in the same package at retail.
.H1 What if I have a Mac?
In the PalmPilot world, as in much of the rest of computing life, Macintosh users are pretty much left out in terms of email. Direct mail programs should work just fine, since they don’t rely upon the HotSync drivers. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, "A PalmPilot is a PalmPilot is a PalmPilot". However, HotSync-based mailers definitely lack native Mac support. One bright spot on the horizon: Actual Software will release the MultiMail Conduit for Mac soon.
.H1 HotSync-based mail
HotSync-based mail provides a conduit between your PalmPilot and the email application on your PC. Think of a conduit as a "pipeline" to get data to and from your PalmPilot through the HotSync process.
The built-in Mail, MultiMail Conduit and Palmeta Mail offer many options for getting your mail to your PalmPilot. The built-in Mail package supports any MAPI or VIM compliant client, and runs only on Windows 3.1, 95, or NT. Palmeta syncs your mail to the Memo Pad, and supports any MAPI-enabled system. Like the built-in Mail program, Palmeta also runs only on Windows-based desktop systems. MultiMail Conduit does not require MAPI, and a Mac version will be available early this summer. Table A compares these three HotSync-based mail programs.
AOL users are currently limited to TransAOL, although there are rumors that Catamount Software (see http://www.catamount.com) will be rewriting Aloha, a direct mail product that links AOL to the Newton, for the PalmPilot.
.BEGIN_TAB_TABLE Table A You can HotSync to your desktop email client
.TAB_TABLE_HEADER Desktop Email Client Built-in Mail MultiMail Conduit Palmeta Mail
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Any MAPI client X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Any VIM client X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Built-in Mail X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW ccMail 2.5, 6.0, 7.0 X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Eudora Lite 3.0.1 or later X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Eudora Pro 3.0.1 or later X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Eudora* X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Exchange 4.0 X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW GroupWise 5.x X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Lotus Notes 4.x X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Microsoft Mail 3.5 for W3.1 X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW MultiMail Discovery X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW MultiMail Pro X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Netscape Communicator 4.0 X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Netscape Navigator* X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Outlook 97 X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Outlook Express* X X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Pegasus* X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Windows Messaging* X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW *No version number listed
.END_TAB_TABLE
.H1 Direct mail
If you want to send and receive your Internet email on your PalmPilot Professional or Palm III without performing a HotSync, the two most widely used programs are MultiMail and HandStamp.
MultiMail offers connectivity to both kinds of standards-based post office–IMAP4 and POP3. HandStamp comes in two versions. As mentioned above, Pilot and PalmPilot Personal users can use HandStamp 2.x, because it includes its own built-in TCP/IP stack. HandStamp Pro requires a PalmPilot Professional or Palm III, because it uses the TCP/IP stack built into PalmOS 2.0.x Pro and PalmOS 3.0. HandStamp supports only POP3.
.H1 Features
As you might expect, both MultiMail Pro and HandStamp Pro have a number of features in common, as well as some differences, as shown in Table B.
.BEGIN_TAB_TABLE B Comparative Email Features
.TAB_TABLE_HEADER Email Features MultiMail Pro HandStamp Pro
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Configurable timeout X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Download unread messages only X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Filtering Will be supported in next version X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW IMAP4 support X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Maximum message size 60Kb (user-configurable) 50Kb
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Number of mailboxes 4 5
.TAB_TABLE_ROW POP3 support X X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW POP3 unique ID download (UIDL) Will be supported in next version X
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Viewable text attachments X
.END_TAB_TABLE
POP3 unique ID download is an Enhanced SMTP feature that allows you to preview the email headers and select which items you want to download during the current session. HandStamp Pro offers this feature, but MultiMail Pro does not currently support this for POP3, although this is standard for IMAP4.
A really handy feature HandStamp offers is the ability to create filters and automatically direct incoming email into folders you create, just like you would on your PC. MultiMail provides folders, but doesn’t yet offer filtering.
.H1 A brief tour of HandStamp Pro and MultiMail Pro
By now you should have a good feel for the features and differences between the programs. But how are they to use? The best way to tell is to download the product demos from the individual software publishers. But even before that, you can take a short guided tour right here.
As shown in Figure A, HandStamp’s opening screen is rather sparse, while MultiMail offers convenient buttons at the bottom, as shown in Figure B. HandStamp provides "command-letter" shortcuts in place of the buttons.
.FIG A While HandStamp’s opening screen is virtually empty, it does offer a lot of function inside.
.FIG B MultiMail’s opening screen provides handy buttons.
As Figure C shows, HandStamp’s Mail menu contains the same functionality that MultiMail assigns to buttons on the opening screen. As Figure D shows, MultiMail’s Mail menu allows you to delete or purge email.
.FIG C HandStamp’s Mail menu contains all the main mail functions.
.FIG D MultiMail’s Mail menu contains message deletion functions.
HandStamp’s Options menu, shown in Figure E, offers separate configuration screens for each email option, like POP3 and SMTP. MultiMail’s Options menu, shown in Figure F, nests the SMTP, POP/IMAP, and other configuration options under "Mail Server". The Preferences item is used to configure things like deletion confirmation and maximum message size.
.FIG E HandStamp’s Options menu is chock-full of interesting features.
.FIG F MultiMail’s Options menu opens up to a number of useful configuration dialogs.
When it comes to setting up your POP3 accounts, the two programs have quite similar interfaces. As Figure G shows, HandStamp lets you configure up to five POP3 accounts. MultiMail, shown in Figure H, can handle up to four POP3 or IMAP4 accounts. Note that your mailbox name and password may not be the same as your ISP user ID and password, which you configure in Preferences the preferences dialog. You often get to choose your mailbox name, while your ISP will usually assign you a user ID and password. Remember to include the correct SMTP server name for your ISP and your mailbox name when configuring. For help in correctly configuring HandStamp’s Preferences, including sample scripts for quite a few large ISPs, see http://www.smartcodesoft.com/support/support.html
.FIG G You can have up to five mailboxes in HandStamp Pro.
.FIG H You can choose to use IMAP4 or POP3 in MultiMail.
In Internet email, your mail resides on a post office server, called the SMTP (for Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server. In order to get your mail, you must tell your mail client about your SMTP server.
As Figure I shows, HandStamp provides a separate preference screen for SMTP configuration. You can select the mailbox to configure at the top of the screen. MultiMail, shown in Figure J, uses a sub-screen underneath the Mail Server window for each mailbox configured. Don’t forget to substitute the name of your ISP’s SMTP server and your email address here.
.FIG I HandStamp has a separate SMTP preferences screen.
.FIG J MultiMail pops up a useful SMTP configuration interface.
Signatures are common and useful devices in Internet email. They’re intended to provide some summary contact information at the very end of each email message. Of course, some people get carried away with all sorts of weird and wacky ASCII art, but usually signatures are pretty prosaic things.
HandStamp, as you can see in Figure K, uses the same signature for all mailboxes. Figure L shows MultiMail, which lets you have a different signature for each mailbox. This works because the signature screen is a child of the SMTP configuration screen.
.FIG K You can configure HandStamp to append a signature to every message.
.FIG L MultiMail allows a unique signature for each mailbox.
.H1 And the winner is
