New sonic.net webmail application

[enoch]

Not a big fan of the new Webmail so far:

The forced hotkey functionality is probably the worst aspect of the UI, having to use the keyboard to select multiple messages, rather then the standard web radio button is a bummer, paticularly when on a foreign machine (i.e.kiosk, someones MacBook, a phone, some filthy keyboard somewhere, multitasking aka drinking a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, etc.) you know, when your away from your regular machine, or got your spare tenticle busy...thus why your using the webmail in the first place. The UI should be all selectable via pointer. I can use hotkeys with my full featured client, dont want to learn a new set for a web based mail system that will likely be changed/discontinued in a few years anyhow.

Regardless of settings, no full images are displayed, no functional option to "Allways alow from sender" is a bummer. IE 9, IE 10, Chrome all fail in displaying images on W7 OSX10.6-10.7.5 (haven't used Firefox since Sonic last stopped supporting it with ATMAIL, and it was a bummer to give up that browser for a corporate one).
Either way, images do not load at all, or are partially loaded in preview (top down). MAC OSX10.7.5 and W7U/P have reprodueced this regularly. I'd be happy to provide HW specs if that's helpful, but I doubt display chipsets have something to do with it. Flash? JAVA? Something else?

Sure I can clear cache and reload and relog back in to mail, each time I want to view an image on a single message... however, but...

Blocked remembered passwords on IE9, IE10, Firefox, Chrome, Safari? Not sure whats up with this, but I've tried multiple browsers to make autocomplete function with webmial, and it's ain't functioning. Not sure why. Thoughts?

So far, I liked one other members suggestion of going back to PINE...it would look neet in Putty I'm sure to the Millenium Gen folks passing by. Pretty funny, but I can relate in a weird way. Perhaps enable IMAP for Sonic mail on Gmail? Or move my MX record so I can check my domain mail in a working webmail app in a browser? Or point to "gulp" Gmail? Or perhaps just let my old sonic email go by the wayside, or just use a client and my phone...hmmm that may actually work. Just forget about webmail alltogether, and slowly move to a corporate mail system...bleh!

Sorry Sonic, new webmail is not my thing...I actually prefer the ATMAIL to the new beta. o.O

Ditto to the users reporting the "theme" aka interface skin being hard to read. Any chance we can develop our own?

Please fire recomendations, or a prior post I may have missed with solutions. I'm all (Spock) ears.

[thulsa_doom]

Not a big fan of the new Webmail so far:

We're already pretty far down the road to meeting you on most of these points, though as Rodrigo mentioned we haven't rolled out the revised version yet.

The forced hotkey functionality is probably the worst aspect of the UI, having to use the keyboard to select multiple messages, rather then the standard web radio button is a bummer, paticularly when on a foreign machine (i.e.kiosk, someones MacBook, a phone, some filthy keyboard somewhere, multitasking aka drinking a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, etc.) you know, when your away from your regular machine, or got your spare tenticle busy...thus why your using the webmail in the first place. The UI should be all selectable via pointer. I can use hotkeys with my full featured client, dont want to learn a new set for a web based mail system that will likely be changed/discontinued in a few years anyhow.

rc_checkboxes.png (17.13 KiB) Viewed 6979 times

Checkboxes in the work-in-progress revised interface (taken from my desktop browser, not final version, subject to change, your mileage may vary, five yards of disclaimers, etc.).

Regardless of settings, no full images are displayed, no functional option to "Allways alow from sender" is a bummer. IE 9, IE 10, Chrome all fail in displaying images on W7 OSX10.6-10.7.5 (haven't used Firefox since Sonic last stopped supporting it with ATMAIL, and it was a bummer to give up that browser for a corporate one).
Either way, images do not load at all, or are partially loaded in preview (top down). MAC OSX10.7.5 and W7U/P have reprodueced this regularly. I'd be happy to provide HW specs if that's helpful, but I doubt display chipsets have something to do with it. Flash? JAVA? Something else?

Sure I can clear cache and reload and relog back in to mail, each time I want to view an image on a single message... however, but...

I'm not clear on what you mean by this one. Once I tell webmail to display images, I've been getting them through fine, ranging from Twitter and Kickstarter notifications to Graymail reports to a random communique from Noritake (15% off all casual collections? yay!). Using Iron 23.0.1300.0 and IE 8.

Blocked remembered passwords on IE9, IE10, Firefox, Chrome, Safari? Not sure whats up with this, but I've tried multiple browsers to make autocomplete function with webmial, and it's ain't functioning. Not sure why. Thoughts?

Expect a "Keep me logged in" checkbox on the next revision of the new webmail interface. You'll find that browser autocomplete is explicitly disabled in the HTML for security reasons.

So far, I liked one other members suggestion of going back to PINE...it would look neet in Putty I'm sure to the Millenium Gen folks passing by. Pretty funny, but I can relate in a weird way. Perhaps enable IMAP for Sonic mail on Gmail? Or move my MX record so I can check my domain mail in a working webmail app in a browser? Or point to "gulp" Gmail? Or perhaps just let my old sonic email go by the wayside, or just use a client and my phone...hmmm that may actually work. Just forget about webmail alltogether, and slowly move to a corporate mail system...bleh!

Personally my preference is for us to just make the new webmail better so people don't have so many of these issues with it. We've got folks working on that.

Sorry Sonic, new webmail is not my thing...I actually prefer the ATMAIL to the new beta. o.O

And that's why it's important that we get (and act on) your feedback. Thanks!

[kdever]

Is there an easier way to reply to a message without having to hit return to make space to enter?

Also, how do I add a signature? I need to include a HIPPA statement to my emails.

Thanks.

[rodrigo]

Is there an easier way to reply to a message without having to hit return to make space to enter?

Set Settings -> Preferences -> Composing Messages -> Main Options -> When Replying to "start new message above the quote"

Also, how do I add a signature? I need to include a HIPPA statement to my emails.

If it wasn't added during initial account setup, you can modify your identity settings, particularly the signature, here: Settings -> Identities -> [Your Identity]

[rodrigo]

@shirhall: Thank you for following up and providing more information! It's really appreciated and helps us to address issues and make changes in response to them. Not sure if you're still following this thread, but... I suppose others could also help provide this information if they're having the same or similar issues.

Do you happen to know what resolution the monitor is set to? I can set a 19" monitor to anything from 800x600 to 1440x900 to 1280x1024. We've been testing on 1024x768.

2) Sorry, I must be misunderstanding. Originally I thought you'd asked for a way to view messages with one click, the preview pane (which is on by default) does just that - you click on the message in the list, you see the contents in the preview pane. It's not somewhere you 'go' so much as something that is already there. Is that not what you're asking for?

If you click on the message, it is highlighted and you can move it wherever you want.

What expectation is not being met when you click the message? What is happening instead?

4) Is the problem the actual height of the header, or the fact that it remains when scrolling through the message list?

[catalpa]

Hate the horizontal scroll. Is this seriously the best thing you could come up with?! The preferences interface fits to the screen width, but there is nothing in the preferences to extend that capability to the interface in mail functions mode. If you can't fix this, please keep an alternate application available. I won't use it if I have to be scrolling back and forth all the time to see both the right margin of my messages and my folders list. Flashing back to the 90s.

[rodrigo]

It's already fixed in the version we're hoping to deploy soon.

[shirhall]

@rodrigo
I'm ba-a-a-ck. Answers to your queries as follows:

1. My monitor is set at 1024x768, same as yours.

2. Whatever pane comes up upon login is where I have to double click to view a message in the beta. The default first pane in Squirrel mail allows one to view a message with one click. Simple.

3. I stated "In Squirrel Mail, if you click on the box to the left of the message, the message is flagged and one can move it wherever one wants" from the "Move" box. Simple. It seems more complex in the beta, unless I'm missing something.

4. The height problem is with the logo header and the option bar below it. Squirrel Mail has narrow bars on top, allowing maximum space in which to view an email. Most of us don't need or want a bloated Sonic logo header. We know who our ISP is, and we like our simple, elegant Squirrel Mail. As Will Rogers famously said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

[rodrigo]

@shirhall:

2) It's sounding like the 'preview pane' isn't showing up for you. Is the following settings checked or unchecked? Settings -> Preferences -> Mailbox View -> Main Options -> Show preview pane.

If not, check it, save the settings, and go back to the mail view, you should now be able to click once and see the message in the pane below. If it is, and you're still not seeing it, the pane was probably resized to be very small. Just underneath the list of messages, you should see a handle click and hold and drag it upward to open the preview pane larger. I'll consider the ability to resize the preview pane to an unusable and non-obvious size a bug and will fix that.

Once it's working, if that sort of split view doesn't suit you, that's understandable, and I think that it's not out of the question to add the behavior to: When the preview pane is closed, click once on the email subject to view the email. Clicking anywhere else on the row or using the checkbox selects the message.

3) Selection is even easier with the new version of the beta. You have a few options for selecting messages - You can click a message row to select a single message, you can click a message checkbox to add a message to your selection. You can ctrl+click (or cmd+click if on a mac) a message row to add a message to your selection, you can select one message then shift+click another message to select messages in a range.

To move selected messages, click and drag them from the message list to the appropriate folder in the folders list (exactly as you'd move files on your computer). You can also select messages, then right click on the message list. Move to... is a context menu from which you can select the folder to move the messages to.

I'll see about tacking in a button that replicates the context menu.

4) I must not be seeing what you're seeing - there may be something causing the display to be different on your computer, but here is what's being displayed on mine. The following are screenshots, taken at 1024x768, comparing the interfaces of Squirrelmail and the new beta webmail. In all cases, the screenshots were taken with Windows 7 on a 1024x768 screen.

Mailbox View http://sonic.net/images/webmail/topbar_comparison.png
Message View http://sonic.net/images/webmail/topbar_comparison_2.png

In the mailbox view, the new beta webmail's header is smaller. If we also count the bar below the message list, they're equal. If the preview pane is turned off, both show 19 rows of email messages.

In the message view, squirrelmail's header seems smaller (blue line), until you look at where the message actually begins. Again, the new beta webmail's overall header is a bit smaller.

If what you're seeing is different, can you please provide screenshots of what it is you're seeing? It's imperative we be on the same page about what's being displayed in order to address your concerns.

Thank you!

[jhs]

I just tried the new one on my iPad, and it is still not as convenient and quick to use as Atmail. I still get a lot of spam in my inbox. And I have to select and delete EACH ONE in the new mail app. In Atmail I can checkbox all the spam on the page and delete in one fell swoop! Nice! Much easier than the new mail app.

Deleting spam in my inbox is the ONLY reason I use any kind of Sonic mail anyway!