Claris Emailer

E-mail made even easier

E-mail made even easier. Claris Emailer is a commercial program to enable you to send and receive electronic mail. While this may seem to be a simple task, with the variety of online systems available and the demand for more power in a email type program some applications I have seen have become almost too complicated to use. Claris Emailer, while with a few minor problems, seems to accomplish the task.

Configuring
Configuring the program was done with a straightforward series of question screens. Be prepared with your E-mail account(s) information and it should not pose a problem. The best feature, in my opinion, is the ability to send/receive mail in multiple accounts. This means that you can handle a mail account on America Online, CompuServe, eWorld, RadioMail or the Internet. You can do this by having the software dial into your online service, sending/receiving mail, then hanging up and going on to the next. The procedure I used was to be logged into the Internet with a TCP connection and then retrieving mail using a TCP link to AOL, eWorld, and of course my two Internet mail accounts. One stop emailing! I do not have an account on CompuServe or RadioMail so I was not able to test them out over the Internet but I do believe CompuServe will work this way. As for RadioMail...it is new to me.

Sending Mail
Email can be sent using a New message or replying to a previous message. It uses an E-mail form and is easy to fill out, with the ability to use the tab key between blanks making it a more natural process. An address book can be used and allows the entry of a person's real name instead of a sometimes cryptic and long email address. You can send an e-mail message to up 250 people at once (Provided that your e-mail provider allows that many!). A file attachment can be added to the message by using a dialog box to select it or if you have drag & drop in your system, by just dragging the file into the attachment box.

Receiving Mail
Mail is checked based on a frequency you set up in the schedule area. It can also be received manually by using a check mail now option. Mail received is deposited in your In Box. You have the option of having an icon blink in your application menu and/or an alert sound. While the alert sound was pleasant and a minor item, I was surprised at not being able to select another sound instead.

You can then have the mail sorted and acted upon by Emailer by using the Mail Action option. This feature lets you selectively delete mail, forward to another account, file it away in a Folder in the Filing Cabinet, Auto Reply to the message (useful in a variety of ways) and more. For example if you receive a lot of requests for a piece of information you can set up a Mail Action to search all incoming messages for that type of request and to reply to the person with the information automatically even if you are not there to do it! The only feature I would have liked to see is if a message is received and auto-filed to a folder, it is marked as read instead of unread until I actually read it. You can also receive file attachments to you messages. Emailer takes care of the problem of converting them into a usable form. You can even drag the file off of the document to where you want it.

Address Book
The address book was able to import my old address book in from Eudora with no problems. According to the documentation it will handle AOL, Compuserve, eWorld, Information Manager, Navigator and others.
If you receive mail from someone not in your book and wish to add them, it can be done from the e-mail message itself with one click.
You can store multiple addresses for one person. I tried that but found it easier to add the person as another entry. That way I could use a nickname for the second e-mail account. For example, I used a friends company's name for his work e-mail and his name for his home e-mail.

You can search the address book using what is called an auto-sensing filter, which means as you type it automatically shows all records that contain that text.

Conclusion
I was impressed with the quality of the product. Everything seemed very natural to use. I was also impressed that the program had keyboard equivalents for everything I tried, making it easier for PowerBook owners and more natural when you are already typing. I was disappointed to find that Balloon Help was not available and messages that got filed in a folder automatically are not marked as Unread. Never less if you are looking for a new e-mail program you may want to give it a try. There is a 30 day trial version available.

Requirements
You need an Account with an online service, AOL,eWorld, Compuserve, RadioMail or the internet (any SMTP/POP3 mail Server)
Macintosh or Power Macintosh with 68020 or higher
System 7.0 or later
1.5mb available memory 4mb recommended

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