Author Topic: Going through the settings menus  (Read 5644 times)

StR

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Going through the settings menus
« on: August 10, 2015, 07:33:58 am »
I accidentally uninstalled AquaMail, and had to go through the pain of reconfiguring everything from the scratch, because I couldn't recall the password I used for the settings backup 1+ year(s) ago.

Going through the setup process allowed me to take a fresh look at this app.
So, here are some thoughts that I've got in that process.

1. I've experienced this before occasionally: looking for an option that I know exists and couldn't find.
Most recently, I've been hunting for the option that allows to pre-download  the attachments on Wi-Fi. I went through all settings options, and after half an hour, when I went through all the menus, one by one, gave up.
I was expecting it in "Mail receiving", and it is not there... "Mail other", - still not there...

So, I was thinking what would have helped me?
Obviously keyword search.. but that would be too much to expect it implemented here. I wonder if maintaining some sort of "settings map" somewhere on the aquamail website would be much of a hassle? But at least that would be searchable.

This would especially be useful as some of the options are also configurable per account, in addition to the overall settings.


2. It would make sense if there were an option for loading attachments enabled only for "known senders".
While it is not an immediate security problem (as in case of loading linked images in SPAM messages -- those are obvious used for collecting information about "working" addresses), - but it is (1) waste of the bandwidth (yes, it is over wi-fi, but sometimes, when you travel and use the available wi-fi, possibly very slow, it can clog up that connection. Also, there is no reason to waste bandwidth for spam messages, as some people have capped bandwidth from their provider.) and somewhat (2) minimizes the possibility for exploiting a security hole in attachments handlers (should the next one would be discovered.

3. Trying to go through every option, I found it was sometimes difficult to recall, which one was the last one, when exiting to the top level of "settings" menu.
I don't know how difficult it would be to implement, but some sort of shadowing of the last visited option would be helpful.

4. When getting to the account-specific options, it is hard to visit all of them one-by-one: exiting from the deepest level, doesn't bring you to the top options menu (as in the "general" settings), but gets you completely out of those settings.


5. It's great that one can have a variety of options for different folders. Can I ask to add one more: "sync but do not notify about new messages" (or even "show but do not sync") -- only for the purpose of saving messages to that folder.

I have a folder(s) to which I need to save my e-mails on a regular basis. And I do that either in Aquamail or from a different client. If this folder is synced, then after I am saving the message in another client, Aquamail produces notification that there is a new message in that folder.
In a way, it is a functionality similar to that of the "spam" folder: you can move to spam, but you don't receive notifications about new messages in that folder.

... Upon some further thinking, I came up with the idea that might be even better (because it is more universal): to have a check mark in the folders configuration, - next to each folder: "receive notifications" (or "watch this folder").


6. Account setup: -> (manual) -> Outgoing server
There is a check-mark option at the very bottom:
[] Override when on WiFi
I was confused, what it would override...  Then, I finally chose it, and it became clear (and I can see where it might be helpful). But until that it was unclear.


7. This is not related settings, but while I am writing about various small things, let me mention this as well.
Account list view:
The orientation of the symbol of a "check-mark" arrow on the left, next to each account, is somewhat confusing.
A more conventional (or at least frequent) use of those is if it (as an arrow) had two orientations: to the right and to the bottom (or right-bottom). See e.g. how Thunderbird has it implemented. IMHO, it is more intuitive.

8. From the messages list -> triple-dot -> view -> offline list. What does this mean?
I once "clicked" on it, it disappeared, and I didn't see any difference, but couldn't get it back.
It reappeared in a while... I'm still puzzled about what it does.

someone

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Re: Going through the settings menus
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2015, 02:06:39 pm »
I could not agree more. Aquamail is a superb email client extremely dependable and configurable. If I had any criticism it would be precisely this - the complex and confusing settings menu. Or should I say "menus" as one navigates through the account specific menu tree and the general settings menu.  And at times it seems as if the general settings menu is different depending on whether one accesses it from the account list screen or elsewhere.

It is very difficult for me to remember where a setting is to be found. In part this is because of its wonderful configurability which I would *not* want to give up. But a menu tree or search capability would be so helpful!

P.S. Just "discovered" the faq at
http://www.aqua-mail.com/?page_id=227
Which I will now go through.....

StR

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Re: Going through the settings menus
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2015, 04:16:58 am »

Additional thoughts:

1. Various IMAP Push options appear in several different places in the settings, both general and per account.
While I understand the logic behind how they were arranged, let me offer two use cases where a user can be confused.

i) I have things configured and Push disabled (for whatever reasons). Now, I am adding a new account where Push is possible and desired. While all the account settings are pretty much clear, it can be confusing where I'd need to enable it:
1) Settings -> Mail Receiving -> IMAP push
2) [Account] -> Options and Folders -> Account options -> IMAP Push
3) [Account] -> Options and Folders -> IMAP options -> IMAP Push session duration
4) [Account] -> Options and Folders -> Folders -> [Folder Name] => (if configured to be synced, e.g. Inbox, Drafts, ... ): "Use IMAP Push".

 As I said, once I know what needs to be changed, the logic is clear. But to figure it out, you'd have to check all the options.
And there are several other place that in principle could have some relevant options, e.g.
Settings -> Mail Other -> ...
[Account] -> Special settings -> ... (e.g. "Mail receiving")

ii) I did not have Push enabled in (1-2 above), and then while configuring some folder, as in (4) above, for the particular folder, I enable "Use IMAP Push":
would that enable the other 3 options 1)-3)?   -- I haven't checked, but my intuition (consistent with [but not obviously following from] what is written in "How do I enable IMAP Push" in FAQ) tells me: "no".
(If it did, then the next question would've been: "if I disabled it now, would it disable the other options back?")
But the answer is not obvious for most new users who are not familiar yet with all the settings.


In comparison, the brief explanation under (2) tells that "when the app setting is 'on'", which suggests that I need to enable that one myself. It is not obvious in ii) and iii).
======

If I may, I'd suggest that (3) and (2) are combined:
 - off
 - 30 min
 - 1 hour
 - 2 hours

I don't have a good suggestion at the moment how to resolve other concerns.
Maybe you can provide an explanation line under the option (4), e.g.
``when enabled under "Account -> Options" ''

And under the option (2), - add a line
"need to enable for each folder in folder configuration"... Or maybe that should enable it for all accounts configured to be synced automatically? (Maybe it does?-- I don't know.)


2. There are two options in the "Folders" configuration that assign the folder to be "archive".
Here is what is not obvious here: what does it do?
The FAQ ( http://www.aqua-mail.com/?page_id=227 ) has a section "Archiving messages". It is helpful but only somewhat. It references Gmail "archive". So, if one goes to learn what Gmail means by an "archive" ( https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6576?hl=en ), it is possible to extrapolate that a similar behavior can be assumed. But as you know, a standard Unix account doesn't have that concept (although Berkeley "mail" and "pine/alpine" had an option to save messages from "INBOX" to "mbox" folder/file with the similar idea).

But until I've gone through that discovery and done thinking after reading Gmail's support notes, I was confused. But I understand that it comes from my ignorance (despite my long and rather intimate experience with various flavors of Unix). So, maybe at least adding some short description of what "archive" means (for both Google and especially non-Google accounts) would be helpful.


Kostya, you can probably tell that I'd have very limited steak in the changes resulting from my suggestions (if you choose to do so): I learned about these things, and I am hoping not to forget when and if I'd need to configure things again. The main reason I spent this time and energy carefully describing and formulating my thoughts is to improve the user experience for your great app, and hopefully help you by providing a view from a viewpoint of a person who is not involved in the project as you are. (Sometimes it can be hard to realize which things are not obvious for new users, as many things seem to be obvious.)
I don't want you to feel any pressure, and you don't need to defend any of your choices. Just think about them when you get a few minutes, and I just hope you'd find this helpful.

 

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Going through the settings menus
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2015, 03:42:29 pm »
I feel that the default settings are reasonable. Not perfect, but reasonable.

- Re: signature and other per-account options -- there is help panel telling users about long pressing.

Yes, it's not perfect either, but putting all per-account settings / options / etc. into the "app settings" screen hierarchy would make it even "heavier".

So there is a help panel telling about "long press" in the account list.

But hey, who's going to pay attention to a large, bright panel?

For what it's worth, I think it's quite difficult to access server and folder settings in K9 Mail...

And then take a look at Gmail -- you go into its settings, tap "add account" (or was it "remove") and it tells that it will now launch you into the system settings / accounts screen.

And it's like "oh, what is this now, how do I work it"?

- Re: rich text format. I wouldn't think that everyone is interested in this.

Personally, I usually send plain text messages and don't use formatting. I can't be alone in this.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who expect Word- (or Outlook-) -like capabilities with tables, lists, large images.

Their motto is "Give me Calibri at 11pt or give me death!".

Those are often same people who send messages with 3 lines of content, 10 lines of signature, and 20 lines of disclaimer ("this communication is intended for communication only with the intended recipient.... blah blah...)

But this crowd will never be happy no matter what.

- Re: attachment display. If you are talking about "attachments above text":

Yes, some users are unhappy about "attachments to the side" being no more. But before, some were unhappy about how "having to swipe to the side is confusing and non-intuitive".

- Re: language change

This is very much a "niche" feature.
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/

StR

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Re: Going through the settings menus
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2015, 09:05:09 pm »
I feel that the default settings are reasonable. Not perfect, but reasonable.

I totally agree, and consider that being one of the strengths (if not one of the major strengths) of this app.
It is impossible create universally perfect settings.

I am not the "main-stream" user, and I have some "niche" geeky needs. But even with those, the process of going through all settings and changing very few was a reminder of how pleasantly surprised I was by Kostya's choice when I first installed this app 2+ years ago.


- Re: rich text format. I wouldn't think that everyone is interested in this.

Personally, I usually send plain text messages and don't use formatting. I can't be alone in this.
You are not alone!

The way I found Aquamail in the first place was through the recommendation of a friend, - because this app was able to send plain-text messages. The stock program (Motorola-Verizon?) didn't mention anything in the configs, and I still am not 100% sure how it sends messages (does it sometimes send HTML?).
On average, I have 1-3 messages per year that I send from Thunderbird, and temporarily enable HTML. This happens when one of the not-very-thoughtful coworker sends some complex information, such as a table in the body, instead of an attachment, and for the productivity reasons I need to preserve that (typically while forwarding that message to the right person). Everything else goes in plain-text (as long as I have control over it, which might exclude Gmail web interface, but I seldom use that.)


On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who expect Word- (or Outlook-) -like capabilities with tables, lists, large images.

Their motto is "Give me Calibri at 11pt or give me death!".

Those are often same people who send messages with 3 lines of content, 10 lines of signature, and 20 lines of disclaimer ("this communication is intended for communication only with the intended recipient.... blah blah...)

I have no mercy for them.  :D
I don't remember if it was in some movie or just a part of folklore: "I would kill everybody who threatens the world's peace!"
(did this phrase just trigger attention of the special agencies?)

- Re: attachment display. If you are talking about "attachments above text":

Yes, some users are unhappy about "attachments to the side" being no more. But before, some were unhappy about how "having to swipe to the side is confusing and non-intuitive".

That was predictable.
Humans are very conservative in their habits and preferences (even if those are very liberal ones). Many (most?) people have a change anxiety.
Any feature that has been around for some time, unless it was unanimously hated from the Day 1 [but I wouldn't be surprised if even those are liked by someone], has earned its proponents.

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Going through the settings menus
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2015, 10:40:55 pm »
"because this app was able to send plain-text messages"

And it even does "format=flowed" on them :)

"The stock program (Motorola-Verizon?) didn't mention anything in the configs, and I still am not 100% sure how it sends messages (does it sometimes send HTML?)."

Haven't used a Motorola since the original Milestone, but I believe at least some "stock" mail apps send plain text encoded as base-64 :(

"Humans are very conservative in their habits and preferences"
"Any feature that has been around for some time"

Yes. I'm now getting half a dozen messages a day about "the terrible new way of displaying attachments"....
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/