Mail

Manage profiles

The options in Mail group are used through a profile. Each profile has an email address filter, options for email address filter target (email addresses from recipients or send account) and email types (new, reply, forward). When an email is being edited Bells & Whistles selects the first profile with an email address filter matching the addresses and type of the email.

Profiles can be set to be applied to emails as follows:

• never: turns off mail profiles.
• only once: a matching profile will be applied only one time after the email is opened in editor. When this is selected depending on the profiles defined Bells & Whistles can ask you for the email recipients before applying a profile. This is the default option for users that had version 6 or older installed.
• each time the recipients or sender are changed: after making a change to the email recipients (To/CC/BCC) or the sender if a new profile is matching the email then the changes from the previous profile are undone and the new profile is applied. This is the default option for users installing Bells & Whistles version 7 for the first time.

The current profile for which the options are changed can be selected in the dropdown list labeled Profile.

To create, edit or delete a profile use Manage button.

The profile manager window shows the list of profiles currently defined. When Bells & Whistles needs a profile for an email it starts the search from the first entry in this list and continues evaluating each profile until a match is found.

Everyone profile is defined by default with the email address filter set to * and will match every email. The Everyone profile is the last in the list (can't be moved up or removed) and will be used if no other profiles matching the email are found.

To change the order (at least 3 profiles must be defined) select an entry and use Move up or Move down buttons.

A profile is picked if the filter (Email address filter column) matches at least one of the email addresses in the target email (Apply filter to column) and the profile is enabled for the email type (Message type column).

Save as creates a copy of the currently selected profile and inserts it at the beginning of the list. To complete the operation enter a new name (not used by the other profiles) and press Enter key (pressing Esc will cancel).

Profile editor window is opened after clicking Add button to create a new profile or Edit button to change the settings for the currently selected profile in the list.

• Name: profile name.
• Email address filter: besides complete email addresses (support@outlook-apps.com) the filter can contain * (matches any groups of characters including no characters) or ? (matches any character one time) special characters when matching similar email addresses is needed (*@outlook-apps.com will match all the email addresses from outlook-apps.com domain). The email address filter can have multiple entries separated by semicolons. A match is found when at least one of the entries matches one of the email addresses in the target email.
• Apply email address filter on: set from where to get the email addresses when testing the filter:
  • recipients of the newly created message: email addresses from To/CC/BCC fields of the email edited;
  • recipients of the message being replied or forwarded: email addresses from To/CC fields of the original email when a reply of forward email is edited;
  • account of the newly created message: the email address of the account selected in From field;
  • 'send as' email address of the newly created message: the email address set in From field when sending on behalf of another user.
• Message type: select the email type the profile should be applied on.

Profile options

Reply and forward

• Auto number replies with the counter inserted before subject or after subject: add a counter for your replies in subject at the beginning or at the end (RE: [1] meeting or RE: meeting [1]). The counter will be incremented with each subsequent reply in the same thread.
• Set format to: change the email format to plain text (no formatting) or HTML. If you have a signature setup in Outlook and this option is enabled to get the signature in the correct format use the signatures option in Bells & Whistles (see Signature and disclaimer).
• Include a list of original attachments: inserts a list with the attachments names from the original email. To override the default formatting enable Format option, click Font button and set a font, size, style and color.
• Include attachments from the original message: copy the attachments from the original email when creating a reply.
• Automatically put people I reply to in: create a contact in the selected contacts folder (Browse button) after sending a reply. Bells & Whistles will search for duplicates only in the folder selected to create the contacts in.
• Exclude my own Outlook accounts from TO/CC fields when replying to all: automatically remove your own email addresses from the recipients list when replying to all.
• Automatically reply to all: use Reply All instead of Reply when the original email has more than one recipient.
• Include notes in reply or forward messages: if the original email has a Bells & Whistles note it will be included in the reply either inline (the note text is inserted in the email body) or as an attachment (a text file containing the note text).
• After sending a reply or forward from a flagged email the original email can be marked as completed or the flag removed completely by selecting clear the flag option.

Greeting

With Insert greeting option enabled Bells & Whistles will automatically add a greeting (Hi John) at the top of the email. The name is picked up from the recipient of the email or from a contact when available. To customize the greeting use Greeting settings button.

For the introduction text the following options are available in Greeting text section:

• Simple: use one introduction text. If you want to use a different one when sending emails to your contacts enable When sending to contacts use this greeting instead option and input an alternative.
• Random: pick one introduction text at random from a list of options.
• By time period: select an introduction text from a configurable list using the current time when the greeting is added to the email.
• None: don't use an introduction text.

The second part of the greeting usually includes the name of the recipient and it can be configured in Name section:

• Add receiver's name with the following options: first name, full name and last name. Bells & Whistles will search for a contact with the recipient email address and use the name information from the contact if it finds one, otherwise recipient name is used. For emails with multiple recipients the first recipient in the list is used.
• use contact nickname: the contact nickname (when it's set) replaces the name.
• use contact title: the contact title is added before the name.
• if there is no name use this greeting: override the introduction text when no name is available (no contact found and the recipient doesn't include a name).

In Formatting section set the punctuation added after the greeting (if you don't want to use one leave the textbox empty) or override the default text formatting by enabling Format text style option, click Font button and set a font, size, style and color.

By default Bells & Whistles searches for a contact in Contacts folder of the default email account. If you have contacts in multiple folders click Contact folders button and select all the contact folders where to search.

Date and time

When Add date stamp and/or Add time stamp options are enabled the current date/time will be inserted at the bottom of the email (for replies or forwards it will be added above the header of the original email). The location can be changed to the top of the email by enabling the option Place date/time stamp at the beginning of the message. For each option you can choose from various formats using the Format labeled dropdown lists. Each format will show how the date or time will look like.

To override the default text formatting enable Use font style option, click Font button and set a font, size, style and color.

Tracking ID

A tracking ID can help you locate the emails especially in conversations where the subject and/or the recipients change. The tracking ID can be added into subject (Add tracking ID into message subject option) and/or email body (Insert tracking ID into message body option). When replying or forwarding the original email can be linked to the reply/forward with a tracking ID by enabling Add tracking ID to replied or forwarded message subject option. The appearance of the tracking ID in the email body can be customized by enabling Use font style and setting a font, size, style and color after clicking Font button.

The tracking ID starts with # character, can include a prefix when Use prefix option is enabled and ends with a counter (for example #DSD-1000229). When it's inserted in the subject the tracking ID is enclosed in square brackets: [#DSD-1000229]

Signature and disclaimer

Signatures and disclaimers are inserted at the bottom of the emails or above the header of the original email when replying or forwarding an email.

To use a disclaimer enable Insert disclaimer option and click Edit button to set its content. The disclaimer can have a different content for plain text (without formatting) or HTML emails.

For signatures enable Insert signature options and select which signature should be used when the profile is applied. Use Add, Edit and Remove buttons to manage the signatures in the profile. By default, the signatures created in a profile can't be accessed from other profiles. To make the signatures available in all profiles enable Use global signature collection option. If you have a local signature and want to use it in other profiles use Copy to global button to copy it in global signature collection.

If you have one or more signatures already created in Outlook use Import from Outlook button to import them. After setting a signature in Bells & Whistles disable the signatures in Outlook to avoid getting two signatures inserted in the same email.

Message

• add these recipients: adds one or more email addresses in TO, CC or BCC fields. Use semicolons to separate multiple email addresses.
• attach the following files: add the files in the list as attachments to the email.
• use Reply-To address: use this option if you want the replies to be received on a different email address than the account used to send the email.
• request read receipt: receive a notification email after the recipients read your email (if they agree to send one).

Send

To make sure the emails are always sent from an account enable send it from this account option and select the email account. Additionally, to send the emails on behalf of another user enable override from address and set a name and email address (the selected account must have send as permission).

If you want to choose an account before sending an email enable ask me what account to use before sending the email option. After clicking Send button for an email Bells & Whistles will display a popup window with the following options:

Select which account to use in the dropdown list labeled What account would you like to use to send this email?. If you want to send on behalf of another email address enable Override from address option and input the email address (the selected account must have send as permission).

Enable Always use this account when emailing to address option if you want to automatically create a new profile with the filter set to the recipient email address, send it from this account option enabled and the same account selected. This new profile will be inserted at the beginning of the profiles list meaning it will be picked up before the other profiles and you won't be asked again what account to use when sending to the same email address. Always use this account when emailing to domain option creates a similar profile except the filter will be set to match all the email addresses from the same domain.

With create mail merge from each BCC address option enabled Bells & Whistles will send copies of the email to each email address found in BCC field. Check out Easy Mail Merge if you want more options to customize the emails or control how the emails are sent.

Automatically zip the attachment bigger than a given size (in KB) by enabling compress outgoing attachments if bigger than option. Attachments with these file extensions .zip, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .rar, .7z are excluded because the data is already compressed.