Using Local Mailboxes
If you are using the Local Mailbox system, you will have two Mailboxes, as follows:
- your 'live' Mailbox. This is your normal Mailbox, used as described here. It can only be used when you are logged in to the server, because it is stored there. As soon as you update a Mail in this Mailbox, it will appear as unread in its recipient's Mailbox.
- your 'local' Mailbox. This is stored in your client database, so you don't have to be logged in to the server in order to read and update its contents.
On this page, we describe the sequence that you might follow to read and edit Mail off-line in a typical Hansa installation.
- At the start of the day, launch Hansa and choose the Client Company. This enables you to log in to the server.
- Open your Mailbox by clicking the [Mailbox] button in the Master Control panel.
Urgent Mail can be dealt with now. Non-urgent Mail should be transferred to your Local Mailbox. To do this, select 'Local' from the Modules menu and then 'Local Mail' from the Registers menu (or click the [Local Mailbox] button in the Master Control panel). A new window entitled 'Local Mailbox: Browse' opens. This lists the contents of your Local Mailbox. If this is the first time you have opened your Local Mailbox, the list will be empty.
- Select 'Synchronise' from the Operations menu. The contents of your Mailbox will be transferred to your Local Mailbox. The 'pencil' and 'envelope' icons will be preserved, so that you can see which Mails need attention.
- Log off from the server by quitting Hansa.
- During the day, you can launch Hansa and choose the Local Company. Select 'Local' from the Modules menu and then click the [Local Mailbox] button in the Master Control panel: the 'Local Mailbox: Browse' window opens, showing the Mail that you transferred to your Local Mailbox in step 3 above.
- Read and update Mail in the normal way, as described on the Sending and Receiving Mail page. There is one restriction on updating Mail: changes cannot be inserted into the Mail text, they must be added to the end of the text.
- On returning to the office at the end of the day, you can once again launch Hansa and select the Client Company to log in to the server. Once again, open your Local Mailbox by selecting 'Local' from the Modules menu and then clicking the [Local Mailbox] button. Select 'Synchronise' from the Operations menu. All changed Mail will be transferred from your Local Mailbox to your 'live' Mailbox, and from your 'live' Mailbox to your Local Mailbox. If you updated a Mail in your Local Mailbox during the day at the same time as it was being changed by its recipient in your 'live' Mailbox, all changes will be preserved.
