Survey results: Default preferences

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Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9226
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Survey results: Default preferences

Post by Jeff »

Thanks to everyone that took the survey regarding default preferences! And especially thanks for all the comments.

I thought that everyone would like to see the results and what is planned on changing (or not) because of them. It's important to note that ALL of these options can be changed in v4 (and v5), and I will point you in the right direction if this interests you.

Code: Select all

1)   What should be the default keyboard shortcut for check mail?  

52%	Ctrl + M (current)
35%	F5 (currently used by Normal view mode)
12%	Other (specify)


2)   Should the new Desktop Alert be the default INSTEAD of the Tray icon balloon tip (aka Windows notification)?

58%	No (prefer tray icon balloon tip)
42%	Yes (prefer desktop alert)

	
3)   The Message List currently uses default font: Tahoma/8-point.  Should the default font size be bigger?   

69%	Font size is good
31%	Font size should be larger (Tahoma/10-point)
	
	
4)   If you are viewing a message and reply to it, should the view-message window be automatically closed by default?   

50%	Yes (close view-message)
50%	No (keep view-message open)
	

5)   Currently, if you BCC yourself, the copy you receive will be hidden and marked as read (preventing a new mail notification).  Should the message be hidden by default or is marked-as-read sufficient?

65%	No - do not hide message
35%	Yes - hide message

	
6)   What should the default syntax for the voice notifier be?

48%	New message, on %act% . From %from% . %subject% [current default]
18%	New message from %from% . %subject%
16%	New message from %from%
12%	Other
6%	New message - %subject%

1) Check Mail - Ctrl+M

Comments:
The reason I gave 'F5' as the alternative is because F5 is commonly used as the "refresh" keyboard shortcut. All the major webbrowsers use F5 for refresh, Thunderbird uses F5 to get new messages for the current account; so it's a pretty common shortcut.

How it will affect v5.0:
Based on the results, I will leave the default as Ctrl+M. However, don't be surprised if this is re-evaluated again in the future :D

How to change it in v4/v5:
main menu: Tools / PPtweaker; "Shortcuts" page; Find and select "check mail" in the list; Set focus to the "press new shortcut key" field; press what you want on the keyboard (e.g. F5; if the key is already in use, it will tell you and you'll have to re-assign the other key first); press the "Assign" key



2) Windows notification (aka tray icon balloon tip)

Comments:
My personal preference among the three popup notifications is the skin notifier, but I decided not to provide that as a choice as it really is more suitable as an optional plugin than included with the default installation. When I first updated the desktop alert for v5 to have a different look, I was seriously considering making it the default; but after thinking about it, I started having second thoughts (most people prefer familiarity).

How it will affect v5.0:
The results were very close (58% for Windows notification; 42% for Desktop alert). I think that using the Windows notification that most new users will already be familiar with is the best choice. No change.

How to change it in v4/v5:
main menu: Tools / Options; "Notification" page. When I receive new email = "Display desktop alert" (and you probably want to disable "display tray icon balloon tip")

Note that in v5, you'll have several choices for the color style of the Desktop Alert (theme, dark, light, classic) -- right-click on the alert window to access these options.



3) Message list font (tahoma/8)

Comments:
This is just affirmation that I probably need glasses.

How it will affect v5.0:
No change.

How to change it in v4/v5:
main menu: Messages / Select font (or right-click on the list header)

Wouldn't it be nice if the "select font" window remained opened after it applied the font so you could easily select a different font...



4) Close view-message when replying

Comments:
This was a perfect 50/50 split. There are 2 types of people -- people who like to look at a single message and then return to the message list to see what message the want to open next; and there's the person that likes to use the next/previous/next-unread buttons from within the view-message to navigate to the next message. Closing the view-message for that latter-type person would be 10x more annoying than making the former-type person close the view-message window. I've considered making the default use behavior based on the "delete" action (ie. if you've opted that pressing "delete" will close the window, you probably want reply to close the window, too), but for now --

How it will affect v5.0:
No change.

How to change it in v4/v5:
main menu: Tools / PPTweaker; "Misc" page; Enable "Close view message window when I compose (reply, forward, etc.)" [4th from the bottom]



5) Hide BCC (don't)

Comments:
Our first (and only) controversial default! 65% say the current behavior of hiding messages that you BCC to yourself should not be hidden; and several comments said that it shouldn't even mark as read.

Through v4, POP Peeper did not provide a way to save "sent" messages (to your IMAP's 'Sent' folder; it would save it locally) so sending yourself a BCC was a way to mitigate that. However, as many comments pointed out, it's nice to see your BCC to know that your message has been successfully sent. v5 adds the ability to save your Sent messages to the IMAP sent folder so the need to BCC purely for an online backup is not as necessary.

How it will affect v5.0:
It will change, one way or another, but I'm deciding on the exact course. The "mark hidden" will be removed. Further, I'm deciding whether the rule will be disabled by default.

How to change it in v4/v5:
Note: Requires POP Peeper Pro
Note: Even if the v5 default eventually changes to the way you want it, it most likely will not override your existing settings if/when you upgrade to v5

main menu: Tools / AntiJunk -> Main interface
Select the "Rules" page on the left
Find "BCC" in the list
-> If you want to disable it, simply uncheck it here and press OK to save (you're done)
If you want to modify how it works, edit it by double-clicking it
Change the actions at the bottom, e.g. uncheck the "hide" option



6) Voice notifier syntax

Comments:
People seem to prefer more information. v5 will allow you to select any of the choices (via drop-down list) mentioned in the survey without having to type it; it will also act as a "most recently used" list so it will remember the custom syntax you provide.

How it will affect v5.0:
No change to the default syntax.

How to change it in v4/v5:
Note: requires the Plus Pack

main menu: Tools / Voice notifier -> settings; select the "Notification" page and change the syntax




-------

There were a lot of great comments and suggestions left. Some of the suggestions are already possible, I'll try to respond to some (but not all) in the following post.
User avatar
Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9226
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Re: Survey results: Default preferences

Post by Jeff »

Here's a response to some of the comments (The original comments will be paraphrased):
I decided not to comment on suggestions unless they already exist or have a practical work-around. I do appreciate the suggestions and I have recorded them for consideration!

Q: Delete messages from the tray icon (so don't have to open main interface)
A: I recommend using the skin notifier for this, which has the option to include a "delete" button on certain skins (the standard "bubble" skins have this capability).

Q: Helpful to have blog post on v5 information
A: I have posted information on the major features of v5 on the blog. However, I do plan on writing up a complete summary of features soon.

Q: View deleted messages (trash)
A: There are 2 ways to view deleted messages:
- Locally: you must first enable the "save deleted messages" option under Tools / Options / Storage (this will only save messages you delete *from now on*). Then, you can either use Sent Mail Viewer (part of the Plus Pack) to view these messages (menu: View / Mailbox -> Deleted); or you can view the files in Explorer (menu: View / Explore -> Deleted), which can then be opened via POP Peeper.
- Online (IMAP): Pro and/or the Plus Pack allows you to access folders such as the trash folder.

Q: Modeless view-message window
A: Already done for v5 :)

Q: Allow HTML from certain senders (but specifically entire message)
A: In v4, if PP retrieves just the "preview" it will get just the "plain text" format (if it exists, else it gets the "html"). In v5, preview gets both the plain and html sections. As for getting the entire message for specific senders -- this is possible using rules. I happen to subscribe to the same service mentioned in the request, so I will create a rule for that and test it out. More to come.
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