Options
To open window with program options select from the main menu Tools » Options. This window has OK/Cancel/Apply buttons. If you click on Cancel none of the changes will be set. If you click on Apply or OK button you will save changes where OK button will also close this window.
Options are grouped into a few categories:
General
- Send and receive messages at startup - Automatically starts Send and Receive when you run the program.
- Always show Send and Receive window - When you manually run Send and Receive this will determine if Send and Receive window will appear. If the operation completes successfully and this option is unchecked, the window never appears. If there are errors, then Send and Receive window will be shown regardless of this option, to inform you about the error. If you unchecked this option you can still show Send and Receive window by another click to Send and Receive button in the middle of the operation.
- Automatically close Send and Receive window - Closes Send and Receive window automatically if the last operation which displayed it was successful (no errors or warnings). You can choose the time how long the window will be open after operation has finished. If there were errors, the window won't be closed automatically regardless of this option.
- Automatically check for new messages - Determines how often will program automatically run Send and Receive.
- When checking automatically, show errors - When OE Classic checks for messages automatically during a scheduled POP or IMAP synchronize event, if a server is unreliable or unreachable at the moment, an error will be shown in the Send/Receive window. As a consequence, this will stop checking of new messages and additional synchronize events. This option allows you to automatically resume checking of messages in spite of the error and allows you to control how the error will be handled. Always - Every time an error is encountered it will be shown and checking for new messages or synchronization will stop. This is the default option. After (1-5) errors - Allows from 1 to 5 consecutive errors, depending on the selected option. If synchronization goes through without errors, the count is reset back to zero. If the errors continue to happen after the selected number of retries OE Classic will report an error. So for example, if you've set it to report an error after 5 (consecutive) errors, if there are 3 consecutive errors but the 4th time the connection goes through without errors, the count is reset back to zero and it starts all over again. However, if there is 4th and 5th error, then on the 6th attempt it will report an error if it still doesn't connect properly. During the time when the errors are encountered but not shown, a small exclamation triangle icon shows up in the main window status bar indicating the connection error with a number in the parenthesis indicating the number of consecutive errors. For example Error (4) would indicate 4 consecutive errors. If you click with your left mouse button on that area of the status bar, the Send/Receive window will show up and the counter will once again be reset to zero. You can also click on the same status bar area to show Send/Receive window during regular operation to start monitoring the flow of the ongoing operation. Never - If errors are encountered during automatic synchronization, they are never reported so syncing or checking for messages continues to happen, and they are again only shown in the main window status bar with the exclamation triangle icon which can again be clicked to show the Send/Receive window at any given moment.
- Minimize to system tray - Minimizes program to the system notification area (also called tray, the area with small icons in the lower-right corner) instead of taskbar.
- Play sound (When messages arrive) - You can either select an option to have No sound when new messages arrive or to Play sound. To select a sound use Browse button which appears after you select the Play sound option. OE Classic ships with a few sounds or you can use any sound of your choice (MP3 or WAV format).
Read
- Block external content in HTML emails - If checked, the program will show a message in offline mode and search for external content. If none is found, message stays in offline mode. If external content is found, a blocked content bar appears above the message - when clicked it puts program in online mode and downloads external images, scripts etc. If the option is unchecked, the program never shows blocked content bar and is always in online mode (images/other content always download automatically). This option can protect you from spammers who use external images to track if you've read a message or not.
- Show URL preview window before navigating to the URL - If checked, when you click on a web link within an email message, the program will show a Navigating to URL window with the link address and you have to confirm the action by clicking OK button. If unchecked, clicking the link opens a web page immediately, without the intermediate notification window.
- Mark message as read after specified time - Determines how long will the program wait to mark message as read after you highlight it - Never does not mark as read (until you open it in a separate window), Immediately marks it immediately as read after highlighting, XY seconds marks as read after the message has been highlighted for specified number of seconds.
- Message content size - Plain text - Lets you select default font used when displaying received plain-text messages.
- Message content size - HTML zoom - Lets you select default zooming for both received plain-text and HTML text messages. This setting requires Internet Explorer 9 or later (won't work on Windows XP).
Compose
- Message editor fonts - HTML text - Lets you select default font used in message editor when composing HTML message.
- Message editor fonts - Plain text - Lets you select default font used in message editor when composing plain-text message. This font is not reflected in the sent message, as plain-text messages do not embed font information like HTML messages do.
- Include message in reply - If checked, it quotes original message below your message when you reply. If unchecked, the original message is removed from a reply.
- Send messages immediately - If checked, message is sent immediately after the Send button is clicked in the message editor. If unchecked, message is stored in Outbox but not sent until you click Send/Receive button.
- Use default account for replies and forwards - If checked, when you reply or forward a message the account used to reply will be your default account. If unchecked, the account used to reply will be the one where the message was sent to.
- Request a read receipt for all sent messages - If checked, when you compose a new message a checkbox in message editor Tools menu called Request Read Receipt will be checked by default - so a message will send a read receipt which will notify the recipient that you are asking a confirmation that message has been received. Note that this is not reliable way of getting a notification back as most email programs will simply ignore this request. If you do not want to request read receipt for some messages, you can easily uncheck this checkbox in message editor Tools menu. This option therefore controls whether or not this checkbox will be checked initially when you open message editor.
- Automatically put people in my Address Book when replying - If checked, when you reply to a message the contact will be added to your address book. However, note that it won't be added immediately but only when you actually send the message. In the message editor Tools menu there is checkbox called Add Sender to Address Book and this checkbox is a mirror image of this Options checkbox. So, if Options checkbox is checked, the message editor checkbox will be checked too. This gives you opportunity to override the add sender to address book, by manually unchecking the message editor checkbox if you don't want to add contact to address book for a particular reply but generally want to add it most of the time. If the situation is reversed, then you might want to uncheck the Options checkbox and only manually use message editor checkbox, when you need some contacts occasionally added in your address book but not most of the time.
- From list format selection - You can customize the display of account list in the message editor "From" list by using this option. A drop-down box offers a few commonly used templates which you can simply select and which are copied to the editable box when selected. Advanced users can further customize the text in the editable box to their preference. To customize the text, use any text and insert a few predefined tags in a specific positions which will be replaced with the appropriate account text. Each of these tags is optional and can be used or not. These available tags are:
- #displayname# - Replaced with account "Display name"
- #email# - Replaced with account "E-mail address"
- #accountname# - Replaced with Account name
- #default# - Placeholder for the "(default)" text if account is default (blank if it isn't)
- Reply and Forward templates - Using Browse button you can select a template (basic formatting and layout of an email message) which will be used when creating a reply or forward message. The program offers a few predefined templates and if you are familiar with HTML you can create your own as well.
Spelling
- Always check spelling before sending - When you click Send button in the Message Editor, program will start the spell checker. Clicking OK in the spell checker window will end spell checking and send the message, and clicking Cancel will stop spell checking and return to the Message Editor, without sending.
- Ignore words in UPPERCASE - Spell checker will ignore words entirely in uppercase, which are commonly acronyms and may not be part of a spelling dictionary.
- Ignore words with numbers - Spell checker will ignore words containing numbers, which may be codes or passwords and may not be part of the spelling dictionary.
- Add - This button downloads and installs a selected spell checker dictionary.
- Remove - This button removes installed spell checker dictionary.
Send
- Default email sending format - Offers a choice of your preferred default format for new emails (or reply/forward email) - HTML or Plain text.
- Reply to messages in the same format (HTML or Plain text) in which they were sent - If received message is in HTML format, when you click Reply, your reply will be too in HTML format. If message is in Plain text format when you reply, your reply will also be in Plain text format. This option ignores the above option of default format selection, so it is an exception to it. If you always want to use your preferred format regardless of the received message format, then you can uncheck this option.
- Set default message direction right-to-left - When composing new messages this option automatically activates right-to-left typing direction, for right-to-left scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew or Persian.
Layout
- Show components (set of checkboxes) - Checkboxes state determines which of the program components will be displayed within the main window - you can choose from Contacts, Folder bar, Folder list, Toolbar and Status bar.
- Preview pane position - Allows you to hide preview pane or move it to the bottom or right side.
- Preview pane show header - Shows or hides header line above preview pane.
- Toolbars - Drop down menu - Select which toolbar you want to edit.
- Toolbars - Customize Toolbar - Open toolbar editor for the selected drop down menu item to customize toolbar buttons, text and size.
- Font item (Contact list/Folder list/Message list) - Selecting a font item from the drop-down menu and checking the Customize item checkbox allows customization of the font which the program uses to display selected list as well as line spacing for the selected list.
Signatures
Each signature can be in text or HTML format. To switch between the two, click the icon left of the signature name. While in HTML format you can use HTML tags to add formatting to your signature. In text format, HTML tags will be ignored and inserted as regular text.
- All outgoing messages - Add default signature to every message you create except replies and forwards.
- Replies and Forwards - Add default signature to replies and forwards.
- New - Clicking on this button creates a new signature. Signature is shown in text control below.
- Remove - Deletes selected signature from the list and from text control.
- Rename - Renames selected signature in the list. Signature text is left unchanged.
- Set as Default - Sets a default signature used for some functions like adding signature to all outgoing messages. The signature which is set as default will be used in such options. First added signature is automatically set as default and you can change it using this button.
- Move Up - Moves a signature one position up the list.
- Move Down - Moves a signature one position down the list.
- Sort - Sorts signature names alphabetically. If separators are being used, they will be taken into account when sorting and only the content between the separators will be sorted.
- Signature type - Drop-down box which offers a choice. Text - signature text is typed into signature editor on the bottom of the window, File - signature text is loaded from file, Separator - used for separator lines (to better organize signatures) and has no associated text.
- Signature editor - This is a text control which allows you to input your signature text. As you select different signatures this control also updates its contents and shows appropriate signature text. This editor appears only if Text type of signature is selected. It offers 2 types of signatures - Plain text and HTML text. If you fill only one of these - only that one will be used. If you fill both, HTML will be preferred if message is in HTML format, otherwise if message is in plain text format, then the plain text signature will be used instead. Note that if you fill only the Plain text signature and leave the HTML text blank, that means only plain text signature can be used, so if your email message is in HTML format, the signature will be converted into HTML - URLs will become clickable links, new lines will be converted to line breaks and so on. However, if you only add HTML signature and leave plain text one empty, then the program only has one signature format to work with and if you use HTML email message format, it will show up OK, but if your email message is in plain text, the HTML signature cannot be converted into plain text format without losing the information such as HTML colors, formatting etc. So it will just insert it as raw HTML text instead so you will see HTML tags instead. Thus, if you combine two message formats (plain text and HTML), you should then create a signature in both formats, one for each format. You can then manually strip out the information from the signature which may not be available in plain text (like colors, bold, anchor text etc.). For example, you may create HTML links in HTML signatures with anchor text (clickable text, which could be different than the hyperlink) or bold text and colors, and as all of this HTML formatting is not available in plain text so you may want to convert it yourself to a plain text version, stripping out bold, colors, anchor text and so on. If you don't need the fancy formatting of the HTML signature or you don't understand the things explained earlier, you can get around by simply creating a single signature format - plain text - and that format will work for both HTML and plain text email message types as it can be displayed or converted in both formats.
Newsgroups
- Latest headers to get - When you click on a newsgroup and there are new headers available, this option will limit how many of these new headers will be downloaded. If, for example, limit is set to 1000 and there are 1500 new headers, then only the latest 1000 will be downloaded. Increasing the limit may cause lengthy header downloads so keep this value at reasonable level.
Maintenance
- Empty deleted items on exit - If you have messages in Deleted Items folder, this folder will be emptied when you exit the program.
- Only messages older than - Controls whether all messages will be deleted from Deleted Items (Any Date) or only the ones older than specified number of days while newer are preserved until specified number of days pass.
Advanced
- Email validator level - Offers a choice of 3 validation levels when entering emails (into address book, message compose, account wizard/properties). For most users - Strict level is recommended! Strict - Will report error for any email which is likely in invalid format, e.g. it will only allow format like john@example.com. Loose - Will tolerate less common emails without the top level domain such as john@domain. Minimal - Will only check for existence of @ character and something before and something after.
- Enable scripting (JavaScript, VBScript) - Enable execution of JavaScript and/or VBScript for incoming messages. Disabling it may speed up message loading, may disable tracking or may enhance security but if you use stationery you may want to leave it enabled as some stationery requires JavaScript for animations. This option toggles support for JavaScript for both MSHTML/Trident/Internet Explorer mode (IE7 (legacy) and IE-Edge (legacy) browser engine) and Chromium mode (Edge Chromium browser engine). VBScript is not supported in the Edge Chromium browser engine so it won't be executed in it at all.
- Enable ActiveX (not recommended) - Enable execution of ActiveX, required to correctly show some older stationery in incoming messages. It is recommended to have this option disabled, as ActiveX is an old technology and may make your computer vulnerable if enabled. If a stationery email uses ActiveX, it should be rewritten to work without the use of ActiveX and use JavaScript instead or modern HTML tags. This option only affects MSHTML/Trident/Internet Explorer mode as Edge Chromium doesn't support ActiveX, so it has no effect on it.
- Message permanent delete warning - Allows suppressing a warning for permanent message delete. Messages are permanently deleted when using SHIFT+DELETE key combination or when they are deleted from the "Deleted Items" folder. Both of these delete operations cannot be undone so by default the warning is shown to a user.
- Empty "Deleted Items" warning - Allows suppressing a warning for emptying "Deleted Items" folder. This operation cannot be undone so by default the warning is shown to a user.
- Empty "Junk Email" warning - Allows suppressing a warning for emptying "Junk Email" folder. This operation cannot be undone so by default the warning is shown to a user.
- Browser engine - Offers a choice of browser engine used to render HTML email content. Supported options are MSHTML/Trident/Internet Explorer (legacy and obsolete) modes which are - IE7 (legacy Internet Explorer 7 mode) and IE-Edge (legacy Internet Explorer 11 "Edge" mode) and modern and recommended Edge Chromium mode. Edge Chromium web browser must be installed to use the Edge Chromium mode (however, Edge Chromium mode does support graceful degradation to MSHTML mode if the browser is not installed, so the Edge Chromium option can be selected at all times). Minimum requirement for Edge Chromium is Windows 7 (or newer).
