The latest version of this file can be found at <URL:http://www.vampy-alumni.org/eudora/faqs/faq.html>.
Well, I am coming up on the five year anniversary of the original posting of this FAQ. I hope it has proven to be helpful. I have learned a lot about people and about tech support during that time (as well as quite a bit about Eudora and Qualcomm). I hope I can continue to provide assistance. Thanks especially goes out to Steve Dorner, Andrew Starr, the comp.mail.eudora.mac regulars, and the members of the mailing list.
-Hank Zimmerman
-7 October 2000
NOTE: Even before checking this list, please see the documentation provided with Eudora (found at Qualcomm's FTP site) and the help under the help menu with Eudora.
Eudora is an email program for the Macintosh computer. It is available for the Macintosh and PC operating systems. Eudora is designed by Steve Dorner and produced by Qualcomm. It is available native for the PowerPC chip as well as older 680x0 chips. Eudora can be downloaded at Qualcomm's FTP site, <URL:ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/>
1.a Fat Eudora?
A program designated "Fat" (for example EudoraFAT 1.5.1) means that the program will run native on both the PowerPC as well as the 680x0 chips (in laymen's terms: It will run as fast as possible on any Macintosh). The downside is the size of the program. Typically a FAT program takes up about twice as much space on your hard drive. RAM (memory) requirements are unchanged.
1.b What is the most current version(s)?
The most recent version of Eudora is 5.1.1
Eudora 5.x requires a PowerPC chip and MacOS 8.1 or higher.
Eudora 5.1.1 runs natively under MacOS X.
If you are running System 6, you must run an older version of Eudora. The most recent version of Eudora that runs under System 6 is 1.3.1 This version can be found at Qualcomm's FTP site.
If you are running on a 680x0 chip (not a PowerPC), the latest version of Eudora Light to run on your computer is 3.1.3, and the last Eudora Pro version to run is 4.2.2
1.c What? What is Eudora Light and Eudora Pro?
Note: This information is relevant to versions prior to 4.3.x, when Qualcomm went to a three-mode system, with Paid, Sponsored, and Light. For more information on the three modes, see Qualcomm's site.
Eudora Light (Eudora 1.5.5 and later) is the free-ware version of Eudora. You can download it and start using it. No questions asked (as far as payment in concerned).
Eudora Pro (Eudora 2.1.4 and later) is the commercial version of Eudora. It costs $49 to buy, although some mail-order places have it for about $39.
1.d Well, which is better?
Eudora Pro obviously has features that Eudora Light does not have, such as a spell-checker and filters. If you use email a lot, I would suggest Eudora Pro. If you use email regularly and do not have a need for some of the special features in Eudora Pro, Eudora Light is more than good enough.
It should be noted that Eudora Light is not simply an old version of Eudora that Qualcomm has decided to give to the public. Eudora Light is developed in conjunction with Eudora Pro. The special features of Eudora Pro are simply left out.
(NOTE: From here below I will assume that you are actually up and running Eudora)
2. What should I do before anything?
Play around with Balloon Help! Open a new message. Look at all of the different icons. Open the settings and look at everything, all with balloon help in. You will be amazed at what you learn.
Read the Help under the "Help" menu! Select a topic and read about it.
Read the documentation! It is there for a reason.
3. What can I connect to my server using?
Eudora needs a either a CommToolbox or TCP connection in order to contact your server. This is typically done through MacTCP or, more recently, using OpenTransport. Either of these are included on all Macintosh computers sold today. I will not go into detail into how to set these up. You will need these for all Internet programs that you want to run, not just Eudora.
3.a How do I get Eudora to know my server setup?
(NOTE: this is fairly generic. Your server might require something not listed here).
Under the "Special" menu in Eudora, select "Settings..." (the first time you run Eudora this box will pop up). Select "Personal Information" from the left side of the box. All you need to enter is your POP account (in the form "user@host.server.end") If you do not know this, ask your system administrator. Also enter your return address (might even be the same). You are up and running. Ask your system administrator if there is anything else you need to add).
3.b "Question: I am using OpenTransport v1.0.x and Eudora..."
Older versions of OpenTransport and Eudora did not like each other. This is the older version of OpenTransport's fault. Apple has released v1.1 of OpenTransport with System Update 2.0. This fixes most of the problems. If you are not using this version of OpenTransport, upgrade before anything else.
4. How do I do such and such when sending a message?
To put a signature: Enter one from under the "Window" menu. To include on regularly, in the settings "Special:Settings:Sending Mail", click on the box that says "Use signature". To use one every now and then, click on the box with "JH" on it in the message box and select it from there.
To attach a file: Use "Message:Attach Document" You will have to work with what format to encode it using. Eudora Light supports AppleSingle, AppleDouble and BinHex. Eudora Pro also supports UUencode.
To send to multiple addresses: Put it in the form "user1@server.com, user2@server2.edu" in either the "To:" field or in the "CC:" field.
To send to multiple addresses without everyone getting a list of who it is to: Put the list of addresses in the "Bcc:" field.
4.a How do I use nicknames?
First read the help file under the help menu. That should give you more than enough information.
Note that a single nickname can hold several email addresses, and even several other nicknames (or even a mix of the two).
4.b How do I send people an email without everyone seeing who got it?
To send to multiple addresses without everyone getting a list of who it is to, put the list of addresses (or nicknames) in the "Bcc:" field.
Eudora v3.0 and later allow for a better way of doing this. Please see the same question in faq3.html. If you get confused, just put the nickname in the Bcc: field.
To save messages, I highly suggest using multiple mailboxes. To create a new one, select "Mailbox:New..." or "Transfer:New..." To transfer a message to a mailbox use the "Transfer" menu.
Note that mailboxes are saved as files in your Eudora Folder (in your system folder). To make a cheap "backup" of some messages, transfer them to a mailbox and copy the mailbox onto a floppy. This can also be used for cleaning up some old mail.
Warning: A Eudora mailbox file consists of two separate files: the actual mailbox and a .toc file. The "John In" mailbox consists of two files: "John In" and "John In.toc". Make sure you get BOTH of these files.
5.a What about the In, Out and Trash mailboxes?
The In, Out, and Trash mailboxes are special. Any in-coming messages are saved in your In mailbox (unless you filter them to other mailboxes).
Any messages you send are saved in the Out mailbox (provided you have the "Special:Settings:Sending Mail:Keep copies of Out-going mail" checked). To keep copies more selectively, selectively check the icon of two pieces of paper in the message box.
Any messages that you delete (by transferring to the Trash, by selecting Delete under the message menu, by hitting the "Delete" key with a message selected) are saved, temporarily, in the Trash mailbox. You can go in and pull messages out of the Trash mailbox much as you can pull files out of the Finder's Trashcan.
When you quit Eudora, the trash is emptied (you can turn this off by unchecking "Empty Trash on Quit" in the settings), or by manually emptying the Trash mailbox ("Special:Empty Trash").
5.b What are filters?
Filters are only built into the commercial version of Eudora (Eudora Pro). Filters go through either in-coming or out-going messages and change (or transfer) the message depending on words found in the message. There are also manual filters, that can be run on messages on demand. Open the filter box ("Window:Filters") and use balloon help to learn more.
Jon Guyer (j-guyer@nwu.edu) wrote the "Disgruntled Postal Worker" AppleScript to add filtering capabilities to Eudora Light. It can be found at SumexAim.
5.c What can I use filters for?
I, personally, sort my in-coming mail. If it is from a mailing list that I am on, it goes into the appropriate mailbox. Otherwise in-coming mail goes into my In mailbox (I consider mailing list mail to be slightly less important and can be looked at later). I filter my out-going mail, as well. Friends to who I send a lot of mail have their own "Out" mailboxes on my computer (such as "Mike Out") and I have Eudora automatically filter any mail *to* Mike to that mailbox.
6. What are Plug-Ins and how do I use them?
Plug-Ins are used to modify Eudora in some way (somewhat the same way that Extensions modify your SYstem insome way). There are two possible places to put Eudora Plug-Ins, either in your Eudora Folder or in the Preferences folder (both are in your system folder). There are rumors of settings showing up twice if you put them in your Eudora Folder, but that is where I keep mine and I have never had trouble with it.
Some Plug-Ins will show up in your Settings with options to choose, and some are invisible.
6.b Where can I find Plug-Ins?
The two best place to find Eudora plug-ins is at the Info-Mac mirror.
7. Where can I get a spell checker?
Any spelling checker that supports the Word Service Suite can be used as a spelling checker. Simply download any spell checker that supports this, and you are set (Select "Add Word Service..." from the Edit menu and select your new program). This is only available in Eudora Pro.
They include: (Thanks to Steve Knouse)
- SpellCatcher by Casady & Greene
- Eudora Pro includes Spellswell
ASARI Hirotsugu (asari@math.lfc.edu) writes:
If you have access to the UNIX shell, you can telnet and list the processes with "ps -x" command. Then you should locate the one that says "popper" and "kill" it. You should be able to log in again.
If you don't get things straight, the next resort will be the administrator.
9. "Help! The dot that used to appear next to unread mail is gone in my In mailbox!"
The reasons the "Unread Mail dot" disappears could be the following (in order of most likely - least likely):
1. You accidently clicked and dragged the column headers so now the column is too small to display the dot. Click and drag in the column headers to widen the column so that the dot can be displayed.
2. You chose a font in which the dot character is either larger or missing. In the first case, resize the column; in the second case, choose another font.
3. You are reading your mail with another program before downloading it with Eudora.
4. Someone else is reading your mail while it's on the server.
10. How do I open large messages and text files (>32k) with Eudora?
You need Eudora Pro v3.0 to open text documents larger than 32k. You cannot with v2.1.x or 1.5.x.
10.a Why not?
Versions of Eudora before 3.0 use TextEdit, a set of routines built into every Macintosh computer. TextEdit can only display 32k worth of text in one window. Currently Eudora works around this by segmenting large email files into several messages.
To save several messages as one big file, go to the mailbox index where the messages are. Select all the messages, and then select "Save as..." from the "File" menu. Done!
v3.0 of Eudora uses a different text engine, thereby getting rid of the 32k limit.
11. How do I download only some messages?
There is no way to get around this without v3.x. Eudora will download ALL messages in your POP account unless you have "Leave mail on server" checked on and you have already used Eudora to download the message (if you do this, you download the email one time or the other)
My suggestion: try telnetting to your POP account (at Cornell you can do this) and delete the mail from there.
12. How do I download only the subject of messages?
You cannot do this without v3.x.
13. What should I do before updating to a newer version of Eudora?
In order to update to a newer version of Eudora (1.5.1 to 1.5.4 or Eudora Light to Eudora Pro), you should only need to replace the actual application (and any additional programs such as Spellswell). Do not worry about your Settings, Nicknames, or mailboxes. They should all be fine in your Eudora Folder in your System Folder.
To be ultra-safe, move your Eudora Folder out of your System Folder before installing the newer version and then move it back in before starting Eudora.
14. How do I move from Eudora on the PC to Eudora on the Mac?
Move only the actual mailfiles. Do not worry about the .mbx files. Eudora will rebuild them automatically. The only problem you might run into is the differences between PC's and Macs in regards to soft and hard returns. You will have to convert the DOS text to Mac text. There are several ways of doing this.
15. How do I go from Mac Eudora to PC Eudora?
This has been hit upon several times on the newsgroup, so I think I will just post what has already been said. It is important, however, to remember to compact mailboxes before moving your mailboxes, otherwise deleted messages will show up on the PC side.
R. Shapiro (rshapiro@bbn.com) writes:
Use ascii-mode ftp to transfer your mailbox files from the Mac to the PC. That's it. Ignore the ".toc" files. You'll want to give the transferred DOS files the extension ".mbx", which you can do manually once the files are on the PC.
Kevin O. Lepard (lepard.kevin@mayo.edu) writes:
They key to transferring text files between platforms (which is what a mailbox is: a formatted text file) is understanding how the different ones represent what happens when you press the "return" or "enter" key. On a Mac, that key is represented by a carriage return (CR), under unix, it is a line feed "LF", and on PC's is CR/LF. What you need to do is convert from CR->CRLF on the PC.
The best way to do this on the Mac that I'm aware of is a little utility called CRLF. It's freeware and available from your favorite info-mac mirror, is only about 30K binhexed, and supports drag and drop.
The nicknames files appear to be straight text, too, so those should convert fine. The .toc files don't look like straight text, so you're on your own there, but you shouldn't need to worry about them anyway, since Eudora will create new ones as necessary, anyway (if the PC version behaves the same as the Mac version).
16. I have two accounts and one computer. What should/can I do?
By far the best solution: Splurge and buy Eudora Pro. The most recent version (3.1, final release out in March) was written to handle multiple accounts.
You can open Eudora by opening (double-clicking on) a Eudora Settings file. Normally, a Eudora Folder is created in your System Folder. If the Eudora application is opened, then Eudora looks for a settings file there.
You can create your own, separate, settings file. Drag a COPY of the setting file (Eudora Settings) from the Eudora Folder in your System Folder. Put it in a folder. Double click on those settings and change all of the settings from inside Eudora. You can create mailboxes that will be saved in the folder with your new Eudora Settings.
Now, whenever you want to check mail on one account you can either open the Eudora application or double-click on the settings inside your System Folder. To check the other, double-click on the other settings file.
You can also have another Eudora Settings file in your Eudora Folder in your System Folder, simply renamed something else. That way, both settings will share mailboxes, signatures and the like.
17. I have one account and two computers. What should/can I do?
Easy solution: Use a floppy disk to check your mail on one of the computers.. Put a Eudora Folder onto the floppy, and open the setting file to check your mail. On the other computer, you can run Eudora normally and transfer messages from the floppy to your hard drive.
Dull solution: Check "Leave mail on server" in the Eudora Settings on both computers. Eudora will automatically download email onto both computers. Effective, but you end up downloading two copies of each thing of mail.
Experimental solution (I have not tried this): Enrico Cantu (ecantu@uh.edu) writes: Decide which computer you want to be the "home" machine, then make that the machine you download your mail from the server. On the other machine, don't use a floppy. The mail is already on the server in a secure location--leave the mail on the server from the second computer. Any mail that you don't want downloaded for archive, etc. can be deleted from the server with the "net trash can" from that second machine.
18. Can I dial up one ISP and check e-mail at another?
Yes. There is no reason why you cannot. Simply enter the POP account and SMTP server information into the Settings.
The exception to this are when the server with your POP/SMTP account have set up a firewall for security purposes. In some cases, legitimate users may be able to get around firewalls; contact your ISP or MIS department.
19. How can I check my AOL account with Eudora?
You cannot. AOL uses a propriatary system for getting mail that does not conform to Internet standards for POP and SMTP.
20. How can I use Eudora with AE scripting?
A few places to look are Qualcomm's FTP site, <URL:http://www.scriptweb.com/> and <URL:http://www.vampy-alumni.org/eudora/mac/scripts.html> If anyone has other resources to be added here, let me know.
21. How can I get "Command-clickable" URL's in Eudora?
Jonathan E. Guyer (j-guyer@nwu.edu) writes:
Install the ICeTEe extension that comes with Internet Config, available everywhere. You'll get command-clickable URLs in any application that uses the Macs internal TextEdit routines, including Eudora.
Eudora v3.x automatically handles URL's.
22. How do I send messages to newsgroups from Eudora?
You cannot. In order to post newsgroup messages from a TCP/IP connection, you need a news reader program such as NewsWatcher. In order to send newsgroup messages from Eudora, your server must be running a "mail to news gateway". You need to talk to your internet service provider about setting this up. You can also check out the web page at <URL:http://students.cs.byu.edu/~don/mail2news.html>
23. How do I auto-reply to messages if I am on vacation?
For more information on this subject, see <URL:http://www.vampy-alumni.org/eudora/computers/vacation.html>
24. Why do my mailto: forms on my web page sometimes come as messages, other times as attachments?
This is not a Eudora problem. Netscape 2.x sends these as attachments. Netscape 1.x and other browsers send them as regular messages. InFORMer can process these nicely whether they are messages in a Eudora mailbox or attached files.
25. How do you reply to the "From:" address instead of the "Reply-To:" address?
You cannot other than by replying to the message and pasting the "From:" address into the "To:" field. Send a message to eudora-suggest@qualcomm.com and tell them you want an easier way in the future.
26. How do you archive mailboxes for later use?
Eudora mailboxes are simply files, much like a word proccessing file for your word processor. By default, however, Eudora only looks for mailboxes in the same place as your Eudora Settigns file (typically found in the Eudora Folder in your System Folder).
To archive mailboxes:
27. Why does this error occur: "Quit now: More than 100 sub-folders in the Eudora Folder"?
The MacOS (all versions) limit a program to how many menu items they can have. Due to this problem, Eudora cannot have more than 100 folders in its Eudora Folder. The limit is based upon the number of folders in your Eudora Folder (in your Mail Folder in v4.x) and not on the number of mailboxes. To get around this limit, re-arrange your mailboxes so they use less than 100 folders. Another suggestion I have is to move the mailboxes in and out of the Eudora Folder as you need them. Eudora Pro users can also store the mailboxes outside the Eudora Folder and, as they need them, open them using the "Other..." menu item from the Mailbox menu.