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Messages

HTML mail doesn't work properly

When I receive HTML mail, the pictures don't show.

The Bat! does not download images that are not sent with the message.
It is widely considered that this is a good thing. The downloading of images should be the job of a browser and it can become a security problem when that functionality is given to an off-line email reader.
The work-around if you really want to see these images is to double-click on the HTML attachment to view it in its full gory (sic) in your favourite web browser.
It is understood that TB V2 may eventually provide an option that will cover this.

I can't send HTML mail with The Bat!

This is true, but there is a workaround.
You can create an HTML document and attach it to an email message. You can then export the message with the HTML attachment to a .MSG file, change the 'content-type' header from 'multipart/mixed' to 'multipart/alternative', import the message back into the outbox and finally (phew!) send it.
Obviously, this procedure is not for the faint hearted. (My thanks to Oleg Zalyalov for this tip)

Editing messages

How can I auto-complete names when addressing a new message

The Bat! gives you three way to retrieve addresses from the address book.
Address history list

Start typing.
The Bat! completes the address from the address history.

Nicknames

Type an Address Book nickname.
Hit TAB or Down.
The Bat! expands the Nickname autoatically.

Look-up

Start typing. Press Ctrl-Plus
The Bat! completes the name from the Address Book.
Repeat Press Ctrl-Plus to retrieve the next matching name

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.

How can I 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. 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. orbiting\nWhen people do it, we say they are crazy.
Notice the '\n'.
This is a special sequence which represents a newline.

How do I get rid of Re[2]: numbering in the subject?

This is easy to do by adding the %SINGLERE macro to your templates as required.
It doesn't matter where you put this macro within the template. It works the same at the beginning or at the end.

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 dramatically speed up the appearance of the message editor window (but you won't be able to use any spellcheck in The Bat! if you do so).

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.

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
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 be able to read anything :-)

Formatting text

Very powerful message editor.

This is great.
How many times have you wanted to cut out a certain little block of text, but as you drag your mouse down it highlights the entire line?
In this editor, you can just select the text you want.
It's also a free caret editor which means that wherever you click in the message is where you'll start typing.
Automatic line wrapping options
Automatic formatting options
Auto-format will automatically reflow the text within a paragraph

Why do my paragraphs run together when I try to start a new one?

This is because you have auto-format turned on in your editor preferences
Auto-format will automatically reflow the text within a paragraph
A paragraph in The Bat! ends with a completely blank line
If you attempt to type a new paragraph without a preceding blank line then auto-format will join it to the previous paragraph.
If you don't want to leave blank lines then turn off auto-format
Become familiar with the keyboard shortcut to turn auto-format on and off
Ctrl+Shift+F will toggle auto-format on and off
Leave auto-format enabled and press Ctrl+Shift+F to turn it off when you want to control formatting more strictly, for instance when typing a list of things

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 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.

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.

Why is it that some of my unquoted lines change to that of quoted lines when it contains '>' character?

The Bat! supports quote prefixing using either the senders initials, first name, last name or full-name. It does this by assuming that the first few characters preceding the '>' is part of a quote prefix. The default limit for this is arbitrarily set to 20. As a result, if the '>' character occurs within 20 characters of the beginning of a line, the line is coloured as a quoted line (The Bat! assumes that the preceding characters is one of the configured senders name attributes). There are two ways of dealing with this side effect:
a) Indent the offending line by a single character, i.e., precede the start of the line with a space character.
b) Adjust the option 'Quote name limit' to a smaller figure than 20. Very few users quote using the senders full-name. In fact, the majority of users will use the sender initials or just the plain quote prefix. A setting of 3 is therefore adequate for most instances.

When one of my unquoted lines changes colour after typing the '>' character, upon moving to a next line, all characters preceding and including the '>' character is auto inserted. Why?!!

This is again a side effect of the quote prefixing convention of The Bat! as well as its quoted text reflowing engine. Again, to avoid this, use one of the aforementioned options outlined in the previous FAQ.

The tabbing distance in the editor varies. Why is this, and how can I make it constant?

The editor implements a feature called smart tabbing which greatly assists with the creation of tables and similar type formatting. When this feature is enabled, the tabbing will occur in relationship to the words in the line of text above. Each tab will bring the cursor to lie immediately below the first letter of each word in the line.
To disable this feature and make the tabbing constant, go into the editor preferences and disable "'Smart' tabs".

My paragraphs will not reflow dynamically as I insert new text within lines.

You can reflow text by hitting Alt+L when you've finished editing the paragraph, or you can enable 'Auto-format' in the editor preferences.
Note however, that the auto-format feature will reflow text that isn't separated by a double return. As a result, simple lists will be reflowed if each item is separated by a single return. To get around this limitation, either separate each item/paragraph with a double return ( a blank line) or temporarily disable autoformatting by toggling the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-F

If I indent the first line of a paragraph, the next line will be equally indented. How do I disable this?

In the editor preferences disable the option 'Auto-indent'.

Folders

I'm missing some folders (and I didn't delete them). 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.

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.

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.

What's the difference between purging and compressing a folder?

Purging a folder removes the old messages from the message index as configured in your folder properties settings 'Maximum number of messages' and 'Keep messages in the base for (days)'. However the messages aren't permanently deleted from the message base.
Compressing a folder deletes messages from the message base that aren't listed in the message index file. As a result, the messages are permanently deleted and irretrievable via the 'browse deleted messages' option. Compressing will also purge the folder.

How can I make column adjustments to multiple folders at the same time?

The Bat! has a default column setting which is located in each folders properties dialog. For each folder that you wish to use the same column settings, enable this option. You can then pick any of these folders, adjust the column settings as you wish and all others will automagically adopt the same settings.

Are filters broken after moving folders to which filters move messages to?

No. :-) The filters target folders are dynamically adjusted to reflect the changes you made to folder locations, including moving folders across accounts.

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.

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.

How does The Bat! go about killing duplicated messages?

The Bat! will consider two or more messages with the *same message ID's* as duplicated messages. It's extremely unusual for two messages to have the same message ID's so this option may be safely used.

What's the best way to set up The Bat! with Norton Anti Virus?

This tip has been submitted by Geoff Lane - my thanks to him.
Here's the full procedure of how to manually configure NAV and TB to give maximum protection with minimum disruption to mail downloads.
1. Open NAV2001, either from the Start menu or by double-clicking the system tray icon. In NAV2001, click Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click Email Protection, in the Action list select "Delete the attachment" or "Quarantine the attachment".
3. Expand Email Protection, click Advanced, then select Enable Manual Configuration.
4. Click OK, then close NAV2001.
5. In TB, open the account properties sheet, then select Transport.
6. In the User box, type your username at your ISP, followed by a slash, followed by the name of your ISP's POP3 server. For example, if your user name fred and the mail server name is mail.mydomain.com, you should type fred/mail.mydomain.com in the User box.
7. In the Mail Server box, type pop3.norton.antivirus, then click OK.

Why is mail download taking so long?

Q: When I want to download mails from the server, a few mails are downloaded without any problem. Then the hard disk starts to work and goes on working for about 15 minutes. During this time, the progress bar hangs and doesn't show any progress. After that The Bat claims that the download is finished. However, only the first few mails are downloaded. To download the rest of the mails from the server, I have to click on Receive mail" once again - and this time I get the rest in seconds, however many remain.
A: When you first start using The Bat, having used something else, it is likely that you imported your email. This may have created thousands of bat*.tmp files and not cleaned them up. If you delete the files from your temp directory it should "unclog the pipes" nicely.