Selecting your preferred mail client

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NeoOffice includes a few features that interact with your mail client. Because of limitations in NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code and in many Mac OS X mail clients, NeoOffice may not automatically use your default mail client.

Moreover, since a number of Mac mail clients do not support the standard functions for creating attachments programmatically, not all mail clients will work with the email integration and NeoOffice cannot simply ask Mac OS X for your preferred client.

Contents

Functional mail clients

By default, the email functions in NeoOffice 2.x and newer will use Mac OS X Mail (aka Mail.app). If you use Eudora or Entourage, you can select these clients instead in NeoOffice's preferences. Other mail clients may or may not work properly, depending on whether they support the required commands; Mozilla Thunderbird and the Mozilla Suite/SeaMonkey do not support the required functions.

Mail clients known to work with NeoOffice 2.x/3.x

  • Mac OS X Mail (default)
  • Eudora
  • Microsoft Entourage
  • GyazMail (reportedly)

Testing your mail client for compatibility

If your preferred mail client is not on the above list, you can test its compatibility by running the following Terminal command:

open -a Appname filename_to_attach

e.g., for Eudora and a file test.txt on your Desktop, the command is open -a Eudora ~/Desktop/test.txt

If your client opens a new mail message with the document you specified as an attachment, then your client is compatible. If that's the case, let us know and we'll update this list. If your client fails, you might file a bug report with your client's manufacturer (see the report on Thunderbird mentioned below for an example).

Web-based email

If you use a web-based email system (such as Gmail), you cannot use that system directly with NeoOffice (as NeoOffice cannot start your web browser, log you in, and click buttons or links to compose a new email message and attach your document).

However, if the email service supports POP3 or IMAP access from desktop mail clients, as Gmail does, you can use Mac OS X's Mail as an intermediary for mailing documents. Simply configure Mail to access the web-based email system (follow instructions provided by the system; you can choose to turn off checking mail in Mail), and NeoOffice's mail client integration will work as expected. You can send the email from Mail and then quit, and you can continue to read your email in your browser.

Changing your preferred mail client for NeoOffice

If you don't use Mac OS X Mail, follow the steps below to configure NeoOffice to use your preferred client. (If you use Mac OS X Mail, you do not need to do anything.)

  1. Choose Preferences… from the NeoOffice menu
  2. In the left-hand pane, click on disclosure triangle next to Internet to expand that section
  3. Then click on E-mail to activate the mail client pane
  4. In the right-hand pane, click the ... button to bring up an Open dialogue
  5. In the dialogue, navigate to your preferred mail client
  6. Select the application in the Open dialogue and then click the OK button
  7. Click the OK button in the E-mail preference pane to save your choice and close the preferences

You can now use options like Document as E-mail... in the Send sub-menu of the File menu to create a new email in your mail client with the current document as an attachment.

References

If you've filed a bug report on your favorite client and the bug database is public, we can add the url to your report here.


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