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How Do I
Address Book
Copy
a contact to another address book group? It seems to move it instead of copying it.
To place the same contact into multiple address book groups, do the
following:
- Right-click on the contact
- Select 'Properties'
- Click the ellipsis button (...) next to the 'Groups' field on the 'General' tab.
- Put a checkmark in the box of each group you want this contact to appear in.
The nice thing about this feature, is that you only have to change one contact's
entry, and all the rest will be automatically updated. However, if the contact has
different entries depending on which group they are in, then you will need to create a
new/separate contact entry for that group.
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What
is the optimal dimensions for a photo to be used in the address book?
120 x 144 JPEG.
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Backing up/moving The Bat
How should I
back up The Bat! to move to a new machine or a reformatted hard drive?
First, copy the entire C:\Program Files\The Bat! folder (or
whatever folder you put it in) to your backup medium. Next open the registry by running
regedit.exe. Navigate down the folders in regedit to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RIT\The
Bat!. While this key is highlighted, select Registry from the menu, then Export Registry
File. Give it a name, and save it to the backup medium as well.
On the new machine or reformatted hard drive, reinstall The Bat!
However, when you get the the section that asks you to set up an account, exit the
installation. Now copy over the new install of The Bat with the backup you made. Then
double-click the registry key you exported, and answer YES to the question about
installing the key.
Start The Bat! normally, and you should have your original set-up
back.
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I'm missing some
folders. How do I get them back?
With the account selected that is missing folders, simultaneously
press the CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-L keys. This will force The Bat! to search for all folders.
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I want to move The
Bat! to another folder or drive.
Close The Bat!, then move the The Bat! folder to the new directory
or drive, then open the registry by running regedit.exe, and navigate down to
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\RIT\The Bat!\Users Depot and change the path (and drive if
necessary) to the new location. Then navigate up to the The Bat! key and also change the
attachments path.
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Dates and
Sorting
How come some messages only show the time
received and others show the time and date?
To easily distinguish between messages received on
the current day as opposed to ones say, yesterday, they only show the time
in the received column. Don't worry though, your messages will be properly
sorted.
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Discussion/Mailing Lists
Set up a discussion list like the
one you had for TBUDL using The Bat!?
The Bat can be configured by way of filters and macro enhanced
templates to emulate a list server. Depending upon how complex you wish to get, TB does
this job very well.
Click here to find out everything
you need to know in a step-by-step process.
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Exporting
Can
The Bat!! export *all* messages from a (sub)folder to *one* text file?
Tools | Export | Unix Mailboxes. This exports into a single text
file.
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I've
exported messages to .MSG, how do I get Outlook Express to read them?
Rename *.msg to *.eml and open it in OE.
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Folders
Reorganize my folders?
There are three ways to do this depending on what exactly you want
to do.
- Alphabetically / by # of new messages / by # of total messages: To reorganize
your folders to any of these three sorts, just click the header at the top of the
respective column. e.g. to sort by # of new messages, click the header 'New'.
- Move a folder within the same hierarchy: Click on the folder to move and while
still holding down the mouse button, also hold down the ALT key. Drag the folder to its
new location.
Move a folder to within another folder (make it a subfolder):
Click on the folder to move and while still holding down the mouse button, also hold down
the CTRL and ALT keys. Drag the folder on top of the folder you want it to reside in.
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Fonts
How come I can't use my favorite font in The Bat!?
Currently, The Bat! only supports fixed width fonts (like Courier
New). This is an item on the wish list, and possibly support for non-fixed width fonts
will appear in version 2.
For now, you can go here to look at some fixed-width fonts that you
might like:
http://home.bsu.edu/prn/monofont/index.html
http://www.microsoft.com/truetype/free.htm
However, the below fix might work for you until support is added,
but be forewarned that this is not a supported action:
If you absolutely need variable-width fonts, you
can go and manually edit your registry, in particular, these sections of it:
HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\RIT\The Bat!\Editor\Font
HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\RIT\The Bat!\Rich Text
If you manually edit the name of the font to be used, The Bat! will obey... But be
advised, that if, for example, you enter "Arial", you'll hardly manage to read
anything :-)
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Importing
Can
I import messages into The Bat! from Forte Agent?
In Agent, mark the messages to be exported and choose "Save
messages as.." Be sure to mark the following options:
[x] save raw message
(x) UNIX message file
(x) all fields
In TheBat, choose the folder where you want the messages imported, and do "Tools /
Import Messages / From UNIX mailboxes" <german> (oder "Werkzeuge /
Nachrichten importieren / UNIX Mailboxen" wenn du deine Fledermaus deutsch
bedienst)</german>
There are two drawbacks:
- You have to do it for each folder in agent
- You lose the date information in 'sent' messages, because they
lack a 'Date:' header field
If you have many folders with 'sent' messages, download this Perl script that creates a 'Date:' header field (the
date information is there, but not where TheBat expects it.)
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Can
I import folders and addressbooks from Pegasus?
- Download Mail System Converter (filename mailconv.zip) from http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~stephenk/pegasus.htm
or send a message to listserv@sol.ftp.com with subject "MAILCONV" (without
quotes) (NB: the latter way wasn't checked by me...)
- Install the program
- Using it, convert your Pegasus mailboxes to Eudora format (which is the
same as Unix mailbox format) and your Pegasus Addressbooks to "Eudora V2
Nicknames" format
- Launch The Bat! and import the resulting folders as Unix mailboxes and the
resulting Addressbooks as "Eudora Addressbooks".
- Enjoy.
Problems: due to a longstanding bug in The Bat! (still present in
1.31) concerning Quoted Printable in headers, only the purely 7-bit header fields
(like Subject: ones) will be imported properly; those that have 8-bit symbols in it will
be imported too, but all the blanks in them will be interpreted as underscores by The Bat!
There is no workaround to this problem.
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Kludges and headers
What exactly are "Kludges"?
It's FIDO slang for message headers.
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Macros
Are macros recursive?
Yes! For example, you can do this:
%SUBJECT="Replying to your message dated %ODATE, at %OTIME"
This will create a reply with a subject looking like this:
"Replying to your message dated June 10, 1999, at 1200"
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How
do I add The Bat! version on such and such platform version to the bottom of all my
messages?
Add this macro to the bottom of the message template:
Using The Bat! %THEBATVERSION under %WINDOWSPLATFORMNAME
%WINDOWSMAJORVERSION.%WINDOWSMINORVERSION Build %WINDOWSBUILDNUMBER %WINDOWSCSDVERSION on
a Pentium 266 with 64MB.
Of course, change the actual computer information to that of your
own computer.
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What
are the language IDs for the %Language macro?
AM
EA
BR
CT
CZ
DA
FI
FR
FC
GE
IT |
American English
Australian English
British English
Catalan
Czech
Danish
Finnish
French
French Canadian
German
Italian |
NO
NN
NL
PB
PT
PL
SP
SW
RU
HU |
Norsk Bokmal
Norsk Nynorsk
Dutch
Portuguese Brazil
Portuguese Iberian
Polish
Spanish
Swedish
Russian
Hungarian |
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Mailto: (browser)
Create a mailto link?
Some forms of mailto :
A good majority of e-mail client software have problems if you put spaces between the
words that you specify for the subject or message body etc. For example:
mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?subject=Hi Leif
Some e-mail clients would drop the 'Leif'. Click here to see if
yours supports it.
That's why I use an underscore character "_" to delimit my text. In a URL, it
becomes invisible as the URL is underlined anyway.
mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?subject=Hi_Leif
This is the same mailto as a hyperlink. Notice the underscore is almost invisible.
mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?subject=Hi_Leif
Another way to set up spaces is to use "%20" between the
words. The problem with this is that not all e-mail client software will recognize this
and may confuse the person who clicks on it. TB does support this convention. An example
would be:
mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?subject=Hi%20Leif
You aren't limited to just specifying a subject header, you can have it show up in the
body as well. e.g. mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?body=Hi%20Leif
You can also specify the TO header like this: mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?TO=Hi_Leif
You can also write it like this, but I don't know why you'd do that:
mailto:?TO=ldgregory@pcwize.com
The correct short form version is:
mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com
Here's the way to specify the Carbon Copy (CC) field:
mailto:ldgregory@pcwize.com?CC=Hi_Leif
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Make
The Bat! the default mailer for Netscape?
- Download nsproto.exe (1.1 MB)
- Install and execute
- Make new protocol
- Application: c:\program files\the bat!\thebat.exe
- Template: mailto:%a
- Save as: mailto
- Register
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Make
The Bat! the default mailer for Opera?
- Go to Opera Preferences / Mail under external mail application.
- Enter this string: "C:\Program Files\The Bat!\thebat.exe" mailto:
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Messages
Error "Message base garbage
detected" Broken data is saved to C:\Program Files\The
Bat!\Mail\info\inbox\badxxxx.tmp. Please contact your technical support about repairing
the message base!
Go here to download the repair utility:
http://www.ritlabs.com/ftp/pub/the_bat/beta/mbrepair.zip
Note: This doctor does not fix message bases with a password.
Unzip the program from the .zip file. Calling it in a DOS box without parameters gives you
this:
Usage: MBREPAIR <BrokenMsgBase.MSB> <RepairedUnixMBox>
So, to repair a broken .MSB file copy it to a working folder and call:
MBREPAIR broken.MSB repaired.MSG
If that worked, goto The Bat!, delete the broken folder and recreate it, then Use Tools |
Import | From Unix to recover your mails.
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Formatting text
When I add or delete words in a paragraph, the lines
don't automatically wrap to keep the paragraph formatted. How do I format the paragraph
again?
Place your cursor somewhere inside the paragraph and press Alt-L,
Alt-C, Alt-R, Alt-J for Left Justify, Centered, Right Justified, Justified respectively.
In the current version (1.46), if you place the cursor inside the paragraph with the
mouse, you must hit one of the arrow keys at least once to get the whole paragraph to
reformat, otherwise it will only format the one line your cursor is on.
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How do I turn
off the reading confirmation?
If you mean incoming mail:
Check your settings under Folder/Properties/Confirmation. Uncheck everything and choose
Action: Ignore.
If you mean outgoing mail:
Account/Properties/Templates/New Message. Uncheck the new choices on the bottom/right.
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Is
it possible to edit/change the headers of a message?
Export the message (MSG format or UNIX mailbox), edit the headers in
any editor, then import it back.
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I
tried to delete a message, but it won't let me.
There is a column in the message pane which has a blue box with a
white 'P' in it. This is used to "Park" a message so you don't accidentally
delete or move it. Click on the park icon next to the message you are trying to delete.
When it is gone, then delete your message normally.
Another case of this is in the outbox where the "park"
function is actually a "Draft" function. This icon looks like an hourglass on
top of a piece of paper. First click on the draft icon next to the message. When it
disappears, delete the message as normal.
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Make
it so my sig gets cut off when someone replies to my message.
You need to put the following text (without the quotes)-- in your
message templates --directly above the part of your sig that you want to be automatically
removed when someone replies to you:
"-- "
That is a <dash><dash><space>. The space must
follow the two dashes or it will not work. Please remember than all text
below the "-- " will be removed after a reply, so don't put any of the text
macros like %TEXT or %QUOTES below it. Also note that you can not put any
other text on the same line as the "-- " because it wont format the trailing
space correctly.
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Create
multi-lined sigs-cookies
If you'd like to create a sig such as this:
When planets run around in circles, we say they are
orbiting.
When people do it, we say they are crazy.
Then your cookie line needs to look like this:
When planets run around in circles, we say they are
orbiting\nWhen people do it, we say they are crazy.
Notice the \n which is for a newline.
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PGP
Error
"This version of PGP requires an Administration Preferences file..."
When I try to sign or encrypt a message, I get the
following error:
This version of PGP requires an Administration Preferences file. This file is either
corrupt or not present on your computer. Please contact your Security Administrator.
PGP is trying to open a file called pgp_admin.prf. You must create this (empty)
file and save it in your PGP directory. Then it will work without any error message.
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Printing
Print
messages to a file as opposed to actually printing it out on paper?
- Under Windows, click the START button | Settings | Printers | Add
printer
- Manufacturer : Generic
- Brand : Generic/Text only
- Associate port: FILE
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Print
a range of pages? The option is grayed out!
The option is grayed out only if the message consists of a single
page. If the message is two pages long or more, it wouldn't be grayed.
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Searching
How do you re-dock the Quicksearch toolbar?
- Move your floating Quicksearch toolbar - roughly to the position the top toolbar.
Then CLOSE DOWN The Bat.
- Run Regedit
- Browse down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RIT\The Bat!\Toolbars\tbSearch
- Double click on DockedTo - and change the "+" entry to
"MsgDock"
- Close down Regedit
- Restart TheBat - and the Quicksearch toolbar should be located at the top of the
folder list.
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S/MIME
How do I get and install a
certificate?
Here's a nicely done step-by-step
tutorial written by Ulrich Peters. This certainly works with certificates acquired through
Thawte, but the steps should be similar for other certificate issuing
authorities.
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Spell Checking
How
can I turn off automatic spell-checking?
In the message editor window, go to 'Spell Checker' and uncheck
'Automatic checking'.
One more suggestion: Delete the 'speller' directory from "C:\Program Files\The
Bat!" or whatever directory you've installed The Bat! into... This will speed up dramatically
the appearance of the message editor window (but you won't be able to use any
spellcheck in The Bat! if you do so).
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How does it
work / What is CSAPI?
CSAPI stands for "Common Speller API".
The CSAPI is intended for use by all Microsoft applications, which include spell-checking.
CSAPI is currently provided by many vendors and is used by Microsoft Office family and
many other applications. The CSAPI engine is not shipped inside The Bat! installation
package, but if you have Microsoft Office installed, The Bat! does automatically detect
the presence of CSAPI and uses it. The major advantage of CSAPI is good support of
multiple languages. Available CSAPI dictionaries are displayed in "Language"
submenu of "Spell Checker" menu below a horizontal splitting line. The absence
of a splitting line in "Language" submenu indicates that no CSAPI engine is
installed on your computer.
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Threading
Delete all messages in a
thread
Ctrl-Shift-Del
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