Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with software and email

Little text manipulation help?

yesno — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:54:34 -0800

I need some help repairing some text files. I don't really understand regular expressions and so on enough. I have two badly formed mbox files.

One is missing the "From " indicator that a new message is about to begin. Instead, there's a "From: ." I need this second "From: " to stay there, as without it the messages all show up as having no sender when I import them into any client. Thus, I need a way to add a "From " to the line above each line where a "From: " occurs. As far as I know the "From " is just some mailer daemon's email that I don't really care about.

The second is the same, but the messages also show up has having a bad date. Currently, there is a field labeled along the lines of "Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 1:11 PM." Properly mbox files seem to look like "Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 12:53:22 -0600." While just changing "sent" to "date" fix that, or do I need some really good regexing?

Need software that does project management, email marketing and advanced analytics

Incy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:26:33 -0800

I am looking for an email management program (like campaign monitor) that also includes email analytics (like google analytics) and project management tools (like basecamp). I am in a small marketing department at a non-profit that relies heavily on email (100K+/month messages sent). My google-fu has failed me so far, I can't find anything that has all three components. Does anyone know of a one stop shop that does this? Also open to a using several programs as long as we can get them to work with each other.

The Perfect Mail Client

tejolote — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:28:57 -0800

I switched to mac recently, and hate applemail. I don't think thunderbird will do everything I want, at least it didn't a few years ago. I want something like Pocomail, easily scriptable and enhanceable, and perfectly reliable (and easy and standard enough for me to fix on me own when there are problems). But Pocomail doesn't have a client for macs.

Also, I am going to have to gamble that whatever I pick will keep being updated and maintained over the years. I have a lot of mail and I really hate to move it around. In fact (I have some mail I've been unable to get to after a year now, but that's another question altogether).

Suggest mail applications for mac, preferably with some of the suggested parameters! Help me get to read (and sort) my vast tracts of mail.

e-mail marketing software?

tangyraspberry — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:47:23 -0800

Can anyone suggest a good software program for e-mail marketing? I represent a small group of photographers and, while I'm not into sending or receiving spam, I do need to find a more efficient way of e-mailing intro. e-mails that invite potential clients to link to the artist's web sites.

Does my dream email software exist?

justkevin — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:21:32 -0800

I've been using Outlook for years, but I'm looking for a better solution to manage my email accounts and massive archive of messages. I have literally hundreds of thousands of email messages going back for years in Outlook. I have a half dozen email accounts which receive 1000+ emails a day (mostly spam, of course). Outlook has been pretty good to me, but I'm wondering if there's a better option. Here are my must-have requirements:

Keep all my existing emails, so a new solution must be able import them somehow;
Support multiple POP and IMAP accounts;
Capability to create rules to manage emails;
I need a robust, flexible spam control system;
Can't be outrageously expensive (Like thousands of dollars)

Here are some things that I really want, but not dealbreakers:

A server based solution so I could access all my emails from laptop, workstation or even on the road. Also, I wouldn't have the headache of migrating emails every time I upgrade (I do have unix servers I could install software on);
Some sort of calendar system as well, like Outlook;
Used MySQL for its database (so I could write my own tools);
Great user interface.

Pimp my newsletter

ukdanae — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:15:07 -0800

Looking for hosted newsletter software that goes beyond Campaign Monitor I'm looking to build a newsletter that goes along with my blog, but have a few very specific requirements that take me out of the typical realm of Campaign Monitor / Constant Contact. I've been canvassing the field for days trying to find what I need, but can't quite find it yet. I was hoping someone with more experience in this area could help out.

I need all the obvious stuff like good reporting, etc., but there are two "killer" features that are proving problematic:

*An RSS-to-email functionality like Feedburner or Feedblitz provides, but integrated together with my newsletter so subscribers will only have to sign up once.

*Unlimited list segmentation for multiple kinds of fields -- i.e. drop down, check boxes, etc., not just plain text fields.

Intellicontact nearly fits the bill but their segmentation options are really weak and won't get the job done (they only have open text fields and checkboxes). I'd like a hosted solution. Price is important (i.e. i can't afford StrongMail), but i'd just be happy to find any provider that can fulfill these requirements.

Thanks for any help!

All in one Comms hub?

tiamat — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:40:47 -0800

One stop communications software? I use my laptop as a secondary moniter. I'd love one peice of software that could run full screen, and moniter or otherwise show the status of a few different services. 1-2 POP3 accounts, 1-2 RSS feeds, an MSN account, etc. Is there one piece of software that could do this? I just want one screen I can glance at and have all my current news and comms displayed simply and at the same time.

Or for that matter, can anyone suggest a suitable and easy to use development language. I'm horribly out of shape when it comes to coding, but I've got some free time on my hands...

I'm currently using the custom google homepage for this purpose, but I dislike the massive amount of wasted whitespace. There's too much space between the elements and too little detail within each section.

Simple email list maker

Tuffy — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 23:11:28 -0800

What's a small, free program to store a bunch of email addresses, label them according to categories, generate lists to mail different categories and eliminate duplicate addresses from the lists?

email marketing software

finnstones — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:45:28 -0800

what is best email marketing software to use when price is a big factor and only functionality i seek is tracking opens ?

Free email autoresponder?

krisjohn — Wed, 31 May 2006 15:52:57 -0800

Looking for (free) email autoresponder software, the kind that tries to answer questions by matching keywords from an email to answers in a knowledgebase. Can anyone point me to some?

Help me help my Mom get off of AOL!

Sprout the Vulgarian — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 07:47:18 -0800

Help me convince my mother to switch from aol to gmail. My mother is a brilliant English teacher, but she is somewhat technology-averse. She has been using an aol address forever (since they got internet in the '90s while I was in college), and she has never liked the whole aol interface, with all those bells and whistles and horribleness. However, she doesn't like the idea of switching, and notifying people, and learning a new program.

I have already registered a gmail account for her. Here's where I would really like guidance:

1. What email program should I get her set up with? Obviously, she'll be able to use the browser-based gmail interface, but I think she would prefer to use a software program where she can read and compose off-line. I'd like something easy-to-use and familiar to her. I use Thunderbird, but I think she'd hate it, and I'm leaning toward Outlook. Suggestions?

2. What is the fastest, easiest way for her to transition, contacts-wise? I expect to import her contacts into the new program, and maybe set up a forwarding filter and/or automated reply on AOL. I have zero experience with the AOL interface, so I don't know what I'm walking into. Anyone who's aided in such a transition, I'd love advice on this.

3. How do I talk her through general AOL withdrawal? She is afraid of change in the computer realm, but she does know that this is a good move to make. I would appreciate any tips from folks who've helped encourage friends/family make a switch like this.

Need help finding a bulk email solution.

afroblanca — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:39:57 -0800

I need to send out bulk emails to an opt-in-only list of over 200,000 people. Can you help me find good software to do this with? Thus far, I've been using an SMTP server called MDaemon in combination with a bulk emailing program. I have tried two bulk emailing programs - E-Campaign and GroupMail Pro.

For some reason, I keep having this problem where the bulk emailing program will randomly stop sending out emails, and the SMTP server's UI becomes unresponsive.

The computer that I'm using is a brand new, very powerful machine with lots of RAM.

I'm starting to give up on the software that we've been using. Do you have any reccomendations?

(Oh, and I should mention that the software needs to be relatively inexpensive. All told, I'd like to spend $500 or less. As much as I'd love to use Port25 or LSoft, that's just not an option for me.)

My email is currently printed on punch cards

Nelson — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 07:25:53 -0800

I want to upgrade my email software for the first time in 10 years. I currently use Postfix + Procmail + Spamassassin + Emacs VM + Gmail. What should I switch to? I'm a Unix hacker who does all his real work on Linux, but uses Windows and Macs for UI instead of X Windows. I run my own mail server on my own hardware. At the moment I use Postfix to receive my mail with procmail and spamassassin to filter it and deliver to local .mbox files. Then I log into my server and use Emacs VM (in a vt100) to read my mail. Sometimes I use Gmail to search a copy of my mail.

I'd like to upgrade. I'm tired of not being able to deal well with HTML and fancy attachments. I'm sick of Emacs Unicode breakage. VM is old and clunky. It's been 10 years, I think probably there's something better now.

I'm actually fairly happy with the mail delivery and sorting, mostly I want a better mail client as an alternative to VM. And I'd like to have local search capability. I've just played with using DoveCot as an IMAP server with Thunderbird as an email client, and so far so good. Is this a good setup? What do the cool kids use?

I have a few cranky requirements. Free software only. Primary mail files have to be plain text, not locked away in some funky database. And I have to be able to read my mail from multiple clients; server-side IMAP is perfect for me. Gmail is cool but I want more control.

Please recommend a free spam filter for Outlook Express

pieoverdone — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:06:29 -0800

What is a decent, free spam filter for Outlook Express? Suggestions that I use another mail client are not necessary.

My friend can't send .mac emails to my gmail address.

billysumday — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:30:10 -0800

My friend cannot send emails from his .mac address to my .gmail address. We can send emails back and forth routing to/from different addresses, so it's not our accounts individually. Anybody else have this problem?

Using iCal with an exchange server

thebwit — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 05:20:16 -0800

Is there a way in Mac OS X to use iCal with an exchange server? Entourage for the Mac isn't all that wonderful compared to the built in Mail app and I like the ability to use the ldap server to look up names without an extra step. The only thing the Mail app is missing is integration with the calendaring events like Entourage has. Any help?

iPaq Advice

Hands of Manos — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 15:15:07 -0800

I recently got an Ipaq for an early xmas present. It's neat and all...but I really don't like that you cannot use an alternate web browser or email client. Does anyone know if Mozilla has their web browser ready for the Ipaq yet? Or an email client? Or does anyone have any software advice for Ipaq?

Thanks!

Simple Pop Email client recommendation.

Mitheral — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 14:19:00 -0800

Simple Pop Email client recommendation. [MI] Pegusus Mail often has my father completely completely confused and trying to support this over the phone is driving me batty. An interface like gmail/hotmail in a pop/imap client would be ideal. It needs to handle attachments in a simple consistant manner. Inbound filtering a bonus but not required. This is on WinXP. Outlook (Express) not an option nor is Mac/Linux. I'd also like to stay away from a multiuse application like Netscape.

Mail Duplicates

bonaldi — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 22:03:26 -0800

Tidying my email: Over the years I've developed hundreds of different folders for messages. They're currently all in Mail.app's MBOX format. I want to sort them into one big gmail-style archive folder, and get rid of the many, many duplicates.

Is there any way to automate searching for the duplicates?

How do I get email in MH format into Entourage on OS X?

tommasz — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 14:54:28 -0800

I've got a bunch of email in MH format that I would like to get into Entourage on OS X. Anything around that does this directlly or indirectly? [mi] I've got a bash script that will do the conversion to mbox format (which Entourage will import) directory-by-directory but I've got a lot of email folders. The script also expects a bunch of things that are normal for a Linux install but aren't normal for OS X. It's been a while since I've done any bassh scripting but that's always a possibility. I was hoping for something that would do all the directories in a batch mode. Am I looking at a bash scripting session, or what?

Gmail and Windows. I want to be notified when new mail comes in.

vraxoin — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 08:16:01 -0800

gmail: i've been using it for a few weeks now and have made it my primary e-mail repository. The only thing it lacks for me, though, is the ability to be notified (on the Windows desktop) when new mail comes in. Anyone aware of software to handle this task?

WinXP Pro Email Client question

romakimmy — Sat, 24 Apr 2004 07:34:43 -0800

Which WinXP Pro Email Client will play nice with close to 800 megs of emails? [more inside] I realise email clients have been previously discussed here and elsewhere. But I'm finding no info through Google-fu on the most robust email clients for handling this obscene amount of mail.

My collegue has around 800 megs of emails, dating from around 2000, none of which are deletable due to the nature of the business. Up until now he has always used (don't gag) Outlook Express.

Today we are discovering that Outlook Express doesn't like this large amount of data and the "Find" function subsequently refuses to work, no matter how few emails it has to search through. Various attempts to patch, upgrade, roll back, refresh installation etc. did sweet fuck all. (I haven't yet futzed about with uninstalling OE, though, as it looks to be a huge pain in the ass, to be saved as a desparate measure)

Installing Outlook 2000 seemed like our salvation until it too froze in protest (subsequent skimming of Google results enlightened me to the fact that Outlook is vaguely connected to OE?)

So it's back to square one. Ideally we would archive a large portion of emails, which I know Outlook does, but since it's not playing nice at the moment...Thoughts?

Outlook Express

sgt.serenity — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 10:37:45 -0800

Outlook Express must DIE ! As you can tell , i'm not too please with OE at the moment , i downloaded a patch for it which then resulted in me losing my addresses and the complete inability to use it as an outgoing mail program.

I've been told i must reinstall XP pro entirely to fix this.

I'd rather not , i'd rather post here and see if people can suggest an alternative to outlook express that i can install on my computer without a complete bloomin reboot.

honestly , i'll use anything .

What's the best software for bulk email?

muckster — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 15:08:57 -0800

A client wants to send bulk email. What's the best software? Is there a way to get address lists of people who might be interested in the product (shrink film), or do you just buy lists wholesale somewhere? Will I be lost to the Dark Side and land in the spammer's circle of hell if I set this up for them?

Email to Fax

specialk420 — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 08:25:47 -0800

doe anyone have any experience with email to fax server packages? if so any suggestions on open source? - win2k based would be ok too.