[PLUG] Using Mozilla for e-mail

[Lennon Day-Reynolds]

Rich Shepard wrote:

>On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, Richard C. Steffens wrote:
>
>  
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>>I'm trying to use Mozilla as an e-mail client on my laptop. The window 
>>for adding a new card to the address book has no scroll bar, and is 
>>taller than 600 pixels. Unfortunately, the control buttons for 
>>performing the addition are at the bottom of the window. I have looked 
>>for a setting in preferences, but don't find anything that will let me 
>>change the size of the window, or in some other way allow me to see 
>>everything displayed in it.
>>    
>>
>
>  I ran into this problem with some X application on my notebook. Never did
>figure out what to do about it.
>
One solution I've found is to use a "small screen" window manager like 
'ion' or 'matchbox', as they at least force the window to fit within the 
current screen dimensions. Unfortunately, if the application hard-codes 
the window dimensions and widget placement, rather than using some sort 
of dynamic layout manager, you'll still be out of luck.

Another option (if you have another machine with X and a larger display 
available on the network) would be to run the offending app there, then 
resize the window manually to be within the constraints of your smaller 
screen. Mozilla, at least, does a fairly good job of "remembering" 
window sizes and placement between sessions, so as long as the same 
profile folder is being used, you should be able to switch back to the 
smaller display and still have the re-sized windows.

>
>  
>
>>I'll be trying other e-mail tools, but since I already know how Netscape 
>>works, I thought it would be easier to stick with the familiar for the 
>>time being.
>>    
>>
>
>  pine fits very well in all window sizes and resolutions; it works very
>well with ispell.
>
There are even other GUI mail clients that work well on smaller screens 
-- Balsa is certainly one of my favorites, but Sylpheed or KMail can be 
fine, as well. In general, I've found any of the Mozilla applications 
fairly frustrating to use on low-resolution displays; it seems that 
compactness of the basic widgets just wasn't a priority in the 
development of the standard themes. (Of course, you can always just 
download one of the "compact" themes -- I'm somewhat partial to 'Lo-Fi', 
myself.)

>
>Rich
>
>
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