Check Mail: highlight vs check mark

[gordon]

Hi,
When I "check mail" (blue rectangle button, lower left), it only
checks the most recent highlighted account.
There is a drop down menu on the "check mail" that checks:
check enabled accounts
check selected accounts

I have 90% of my accounts enabled and selected.
And when I "check mail", it ignores enabled and selected and
it will only check one account. And that account is the one that has
been recently highlighted (single left click).
There is another method to check mail:
double left click on the account will check only one account.
That appears to be working normally.

PP works normally most of the time, but sometimes it gets stuck in this mode.
It happened a few months ago, and now today.
Very intermittent.
Let me know if you want me to try something to debug this.
gordon
PP 4.2

[Jeff]

You didn't say which choice is enabled, but I'm assuming "check selected accounts" based on the behavior you describe.

"Selected" is the same as "highlighted" and so the behavior you describe is expected. "Selected" is not the same as "enabled" as I think you were under that impression, which would make the choice of "check enabled" vs "check selected" rather redundant

This particular feature has been deprecated since v4.0; it's only still available if you enable the relevant PPtweaker option which classifies it as "v3-style". It's primary purpose is/was to allow people who use "message mode" as a way to checkmail the currently viewed account. Example: when in "normal mode," if you change the account using the "view dropdown" above/below the message list, notice that the selected/highlighted account in the Accounts List changes to that account, and any selection/highlight is removed when you select "all accounts" -- that's what makes "check selected accounts" work for message mode as described.

Recommendation: change the setting to the default, "check enabled accounts"

[gordon]

Jeff,
Thanks for the explanation, but that is not what I see.

I have selected "check selected accounts", as you surmised.
I have deselected "view account when it is selected in account list"

For instance, you say:
>if you change the account using the "view dropdown" above/below the message list, notice
> that the selected/highlighted account in the Accounts List changes to that account
When I select an account using the "view dropdown", it does not highlight an account.

When I highlight an account and then "check mail", I get only one account checked, as expected.
And the highlight is then removed automatically as expected.
At this point NOTHING is highlighted.
If I do another "check mail", I only get a check mail for the PREVIOUS highlighted account.
Of course, the "view dropdown" is all accounts.

You say:
>Selected" is not the same as "enabled" as I think you were under that impression,
>which would make the choice of "check enabled" vs "check selected" rather redundant.
Are you saying that there are no redundant command/options in PP?
There are at least 4 ways to open a letter, right?

I know that "check enabled" and "check selected" are not the same.
I prefer "check selected" as it is much easier to manage.
I suspect that most people would be using selected, not enabled for the same reason.
I still think you have an intermittent bug.
I will switch to enabled as a work around.

thanks

[Jeff]

I still maintain that it's working as expected intended.

See these screenshots:

(btw, ignore the deformed graphics on the right, that represents a work in progress)

The first image shows the selected account, "Local1" with a blue highlight. I then pressed the "Check mail" button (with "check selected accounts" enabled). The "Local1" account is STILL highlighted -- and this is where I think you're getting confused -- but because the Account List no longer has the focus, the highlight is no longer blue, it is gray. This is standard Windows behavior; you can see the same behavior with the message list -- select a message, then click on the Account List and you'll see the highlight color for the selected message turn to gray.

So: the account is still selected after your initial pressing of "Check Mail" and that's why, when you press it again, only that account is checked.

btw, if you've changed the background to a similar shade of gray, I can certainly see how it might seem that an account is not selected...

I suspect that most people would be using selected, not enabled for the same reason.

Personally, I can only see it being useful if you use "Message mode." When I only want to check a single account, I right-click on the account. For me, it's easier than selecting the account and then pressing the "check mail" button. And then I can still use the "check mail" button for its default behavior (to check all enabled accounts).

Are you saying that there are no redundant command/options in PP?

Definitely not saying that! But when you have something that offers you a choice of 2 possibilities and they both do the same thing, that would be pretty useless

There are at least 4 ways to open a letter, right?

hm, let's see:
1) Press <enter>
2) Double-click
3) Right-click and "view message"
4) Press the "view message" button (next to the "view" dropdown)
5) View message from Skin Notifier
6) "View Message" toolbar button
7-ish) Right-click and use the "view" submenu (technically, 2 are different, but one of them will be the redundant default behavior)
Once upon a time, spacebar also opened the message, but that was removed (v3.8 ) in anticipation of potentially adding a checkbox and spacebar is traditionally used to toggle the selected checkbox. Alas, there's still no checkbox option, yet(?)

[gordon]

I have installed PP on a win7 laptop and I see that it looks much different from
my old Vista laptop. And it seems to be operating normally now on the win7 laptop
Also, could have been some hardware issue, I am investigating.

For instance, on win7 when I select "view all accounts", it will remove highlights.
On vista, it apparently did not remove highlights. A "check mail" on vista after
"view all accounts" would only check the previously highlighted account.
I could move the highlight around, but could not turn it off.

By the way, I am in "normal mode", if that makes a difference.

thanks

[Jeff]

it looks much different from my old Vista laptop

"much" different? How so?

On vista, it apparently did not remove highlights. A "check mail" on vista after "view all accounts" would only check the previously highlighted account.

What you had mentioned before sounded like things worked as intended, but you just couldn't see the highlight. But this does sound like something else -- unexpected -- is happening.

I could move the highlight around, but could not turn it off.

There are a couple of ways to remove the selection:
1) make sure one item is selected and then ctrl+click it.
2) Click on an area below the last item in the list (but still inside the edges of the list); if your list is full even at full-screen, there's always a couple of pixels at the very bottom of the list that are below the last item.

[gordon]

The gray highlight is very obvious on win7.
On the old laptop I could not see it at all.

I reported that "view all accounts" did not change
the highlight. I see that "view all accounts" needs to be toggled to
remove the gray highlight.
In my confusion, I am not sure I did that test properly.
It probably worked as intended.