Exploring Ameol The Message Database	< Previous  |  Next >

• Managing the message database
• Purging
• Checking
• The Folder Menu
• Backing Up your Data

There are two commands that you will need to use periodically to manage your database of messages. The first is Purge. This command removes messages from the database. The second is Check. This command checks the integrity of the database and fixes any problems encountered.

By default Ameol will only remove messages that you have marked for deletion. (See the ‘Marking messages’ section.) There are two ways that you can set the purge options for the folders and topics in your message database.

The first way is to click on the folder or topic you want to set in the In Basket. Now go to the Folder menu and select Properties or press Alt + Enter. Select the Purge tab page and choose the options for the select folder or topic. Ameol gives three options for defining which messages will be removed during a purge. The first, Maintain folder size at, will allow you to set the number of messages that you wish to retain. The second, Purge all threads older than, allows you to set the age of messages that are kept and the third, Purge only messages marked for deletion (the default) will allow you to select messages on an individual basis. Ameol also gives you the option to store any purged messages in a backup file.

Clicking the Set to Default button will set the purge options in the current folder or topic to the options that you have set (see ‘General Preferences’ in the Customising Ameol section). The Purge Now button will perform a purge in the current folder or topic.

The second way to set the purge options for your message database is to go to the Settings menu and select Purge Settings. This will show you a list of all the folders and topics in your message database with the purge settings for each. To change the purge settings for any folder or topic simply click on it so that it is highlighted. Now set the options at the bottom of the dialogue box.

Aside from the Purge Now buttons in the ‘Properties’ and ‘Purge Options’ dialogues, you can start a purge by selecting the database, folder or topic you wish to purge in the In Basket. Now go to the Folder menu and select Purge. You will be asked to confirm that you want to start a purge on this folder or database. Click Yes to begin. A message box will be displayed showing you the current progress of the purge. When complete, all of the messages that you marked for deletion will have been removed.

As with the purge command you can decide to check a single folder or the whole database. Select the item you wish to check by clicking on it in the In Basket.

Go to the Folder menu and select Check. Click the Start button to initiate the checking process. You will see a message window with a progress bar that shows any errors that are found during the checking process.

This menu gives you a number of commands that you can use to manage your Ameol message database.

To add folders to your existing database, go to the Folder menu and select New Folder. This will place a new folder in the database. You can see the new folder appear in the In Basket.

When it is first created a new folder will have the title "New Folder". To change its name, type the new name and press RETURN. You can rename a folder at a later date by choosing Rename from the Folder menu.

Using the New Local Topic command you can add topics to the folders that you create. These topics are referred to as local topics and are marked with a ‘LOC’ symbol to distinguish them from newsgroups and conference topics. Local topics will not have messages placed in them by Ameol’s blinks, but you can copy or move messages into them.

For instance you might subscribe to a newsgroup discussing computers in general with all the messages going into the newsgroup topic ‘computers’. For ease of reference, you might copy all the messages about software into a local topic called ‘software’ and those about hardware into a local topic called ‘hardware’.

Also in the Folder menu, you will find commands to Delete or Rename a database, folder or topic (dependent on which is currently highlighted in the In Basket).

The Properties command will give you a tabbed dialogue showing all the properties of the current database, folder or topic. You can also use this dialogue to set properties.

You can use the Mark All Read to mark all of the messages in the current database, folder or topic as having been read and Mark Thread Read to mark a thread of messages in a topic as having been read.

The Keep Folder at Top command will keep the currently selected folder at the top of the tree structure in the In Basket. Normally Ameol will sort the folders in the In Basket in alphabetical order. This command will keep the selected folder at the top regardless of any new folders that are added. When a folder has this property assigned, a tick will appear next to this menu item.

It is important to back up your data on a regular basis.

The easiest way to do this is to use a back up device, such as tape drive, to back up your entire Ameol installation. However, you may wish to separate your message database from the program installation for back up purposes. This will save space on your hard disk if you don’t have a back up device and it will allow you to back up your messages more frequently than the program files.

To save a copy of the message database, go to the File menu and select Export. Choose CIX Scratchpad from the list that appears and then click OK.

In the Export to: field enter the name and location of the file you’d like to export to. If you’ve exported before you can choose a previous filename from the drop down list. Click the folder symbol button if you want to browse for the location. In the From: field choose the entire database (this will be the first item in the list). Now click Save.

To restore your data from a back up, go to the File menu and select Import. From the list of import options choose CIX Scratchpad and click OK. Now enter the file to restore from. You can browse for the file name by clicking the folder button.