Configuration

Before you can use CronosII you will need to do some configuration.

The first and most important step is configuring your Accounts. Please see the section called Accounts Everything else should work fine in default configuration.

Don't worry, you may not even need this manual !

To Set up your Email accounts and other preferences, select
Settings -> Preferences.
This opens the Preferences dialog, shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Preferences Dialog

The Tree style menu to the left of the dialog gives you access to the following configuration options:

General Options

The Preferences window opens with a tree style menu of configuration options.

The opening interface gives you the General Options. These are labeled on the dialog and are dealt with sequentially below

Check Mail Timeout

Slide the drag handle to set the time CronosII will wait between checks (and auto mail download) on your mail server.

Caution

For slow connections set this value high as you will tie up resources while checking and downloading

Time till Tag

Dragging this handle will set the time it takes to mark a mail as having been Read.

Quote Character

Enter a character, or string of characters that "Quote" or Identify the original message when you Reply or Forward a mail.

The default is > which is used by many people however almost any ASCII characters will be acceptable.

Maximum Auto Download Size

This sets a maximum file download size (in Kilobytes) for CronosII to auto retrieve from your mail server. Should a message exceed your setting CronosII will ask find out what it can about the message and then ask you if it's OK to download.

The default setting of 0 disables this function.

Auto Empty Garbage ?

Checking this will cause your Garbage Mailbox to be emptied when you finish a CronosII session. This will remove those messages permanently.

Store Sent Mail ?

Selecting this check box will allow CronosII to automatically save a copy of each of your sent mails in the Outbox.

Mail

Setup your accounts and mailboxes here.

Accounts

Before you get started

CronosII enables you to have many different POP (Post Office Protocol) accounts.

Here's how to set up your first account:

  1. Open the Account Configuration Dialog from the Main Window.
    Settings -> Preferences -> Mail / Accounts

  2. The dialog that opens has a large open window with resizable column headers, some task buttons to the right, and some completion functions at the bottom. (It's not as bad as it sounds).

     Select New (on the right)
    A Dialog not unlike a Druid or Wizard opens to steer you onward. You need to decide which type of Email account you wish to set up.

    Currently you are given the choice of "Spool" (a UNIX style mail-spool ) or a POP account.

    Click on either of them to get more information.

  3. For now select
    POP -> NEXT

    For Spool Accounts see the section called About Spool Accounts below.

    The New Account Dialog should open.

    This dialog has 4 tabbed pages where you enter information to configure a functioning account.

    1. Account Name

      Give this account a name. Something to clearly identify it.

    2. Name

      Your local user name will do here

    3. E-mail

      Your E-mail address at that account

  4. Once you have finished entering that..
    Select Protocol
      	

    Here we have to get a little more exact !

    Enter the following as provided by your Internet Service Provider or System Administrator.

    1. User Name

      Enter your user name at your SERVER [e-x-a-c-t-l-y]

    2. Password

      Enter the password you were issued (or have set up)

    3. POP Server:

      Enter the name of the pop server (your incoming mailbox at the server)

      This is often in the format of
      pop.yourisp.domain.region

    4. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

      Enter the name of the out going mail server.

      This often looks like
      mail.yourisp.domain.region

      Check all of this.

    5. Ports

      The default ports set for the POP and SMTP servers should be fine for most people.

      Your ISP or System Administrator should let you know if others are needed. (firewalls , intranets, mail monitoring, or other server level issues may be cause for other ports to be used.)

  5. Mailbox

    Next choose the Mailbox page

    Here you can associate This Account with a Particular Mailbox. If you haven't personalized your mailboxes yet just choose the INBOX

  6. Advanced

    Here are two simple check boxes.

    Keeping the messages on the server is a great way of Temporarily Storing your mail (off-site). However some ISP providers may get cross if you build up huge amounts of storage at the server. (and may charge you accordingly) This function may also be useful for people who work with shared mail.

    By default the new account will be activated (when first you use it) to Deactivate the account unselect the second box.

  7. OK

    All finished ?

    Your new POP account should be ready to use. You just repeat the above steps for as many POP accounts as you have, or add later.

About Spool Accounts

The process involved in configuring a spool account is much the same as that used to set up a POP account: See the section called Accounts

Navigate to the accounts setup dialog:

Setting ->  Preferences ->  Accounts  -> New

The Account Type Dialog opens: Select Spool then Next.

The New Accounts Dialog Opens: This is just the same as that used in the section called Accounts

The difference here is that you are asking cronos to download mail from your local network spool account. Many (most ?) UNIX style environments build you a mailbox somewhere under the
 /var/spool/mail/username 
or similar directory when a new User Account is created. .

The most common Mail server on these systems is Sendmail.

Now, given that your system is like this, the following entries need to be made on the Protocol page of the New Account Dialog:

  • File:

    Navigate to your mail box under the /var directory...(use the button to the right)

    Select Your-mail-box.

  • SMTP

    Enter your local mail server application name. (try Sendmail.as a default)

  • Port

    The default setting of 25 will work fine for most people on Sendmail. I'm not sure about other mail handlers and your Sendmail.port may have been moved by your distribution or system administrator. Either way this should be documented somewhere. Resist the temptation to play with the Sendmail.configuration scripts. (for now)

On the remaining two pages associate a mailbox with this account and choose optionally to keep the mail on the server (advised) and to activate the account (or it won't work).

Select OK and then Apply from the remainingPreferences dialog.

Close the Preferencesdialog and you should be ready to go.

Tip: You can also use the spool account to check for mail from other compliant Mail Handlers. eg. Pine and Netscape (some small problems).

This works for me though it is NOT an “official” use of Cronos, it can be very handy.

Proceed as above and Navigate to the appropriate Mail /directory/file under your HOME directory and keep Sendmail.as the Server

Edit an Account

To edit an Account select (from the Main Window)
Settings -> Preferences -> Accounts
Next select the account you wish to Edit or Delete from the list of accounts you have set up previously.

Then to Delete select the delete garbage bin to the right.

Your Own Mailboxes

Like most other Email clients CronosII allows you to configure your own mailbox structure.

You can not readily remove the following default Mailboxes:

The Inbox , The Outbox, The Garbage or the Drafts Mailbox. This is because CronosII refers to them internally when carrying out its general functions.

Note: You may however add sub-directories to these mailboxes if you find that useful.

For instance your own "matched" directories under the In and Out boxes may help keep things organised.

Interface

Here we configure Fonts and Colours

Fonts

Selecting this from the Tree Menu allows configuration of the font style for the following items:

1. Message Body2. Unread Messages3. Read Messages4. Printing

By clicking the Font Icon on the right hand side of the dialog a Font selection Dialog will open. Choose the font you wish to apply to your chosen function. (the text field will accept text entry and show a sample). You may also set the style and many other attributes from this dialog.

Once done check OK at the bottom of the Font Select dialog. Then click apply, OK or continue configuration from the preferences dialog.

Note: This dialog is actually a GNOME Utility and has its own Manual available from the gnome help system.

Help System  -> Gnome Documents -> gfontsel

You may also want to read the Gnome Users Guide
Gnome Help System -> Index -> Users Guide

Message Colours

CronosII allows you to choose your own colours for some different sections within a message.

Select Colors from the Menu and you will be given the option of coloring the Reply and forward elements of your mail and the general text color.

The square button beneath the feature shows you the current color. Click this to open the Gnome Color Selector

This is useful in long and multi-contributor E-mail (such as you often find on mailing lists). When used in conjunction with Prepended Characters It can help make text format E-mail very easy to read and comprehend.

This Utility has its own manual page which is available from the gnome help system.

Advanced

Currently only one function is configurable from here:

Net Timeout

Here you set the time CronosII will wait for a response from your server as it asks it various things.

Enter the time in seconds or use the arrow buttons to set how long CronosII will try getting responses from your ISP. The default should be fine for most people but if you have a dirty or slow connection you could try increasing this time for increased reliability. .