Installation and Configuration

Install Mode
There are two types of installation:
Desktop -or- Portable
The desktop mode is for installation that integrates with the operating system.
You will automatically get the desktop mode if you install on windows with the default install location:
c:\Program Files (x86)\Memecode\Scribe
  You can also elect to install Scribe to a USB drive and use the mail client at whatever machine you happen to be at. Also no installer is written to the operating system registry during a portable install.
When you run the program for the first time Scribe won't find any local storage for email and contacts, so it will prompt you to create them. If you don't have existing folders then you should click "Ok". If you do have an existing installation with mail folders select "Open an existing folder", then use "..." to browse to the location of the folders.

Now you should be able to see a folder tree on the left, a menu along the top and a toolbar beneath. At this point you'll want to start configuring your identity and accounts. To start this process click File ▶ Options. Enter your identity on the first tab and then move on to the accounts tab to configure your mail server settings.
Command Line Options
When you have installed the application there are some command line options you can use the start Scribe with. These are completely optional, and most users will not need to use any command line parameters. This is just for reference sake:

-portable Sets the application to store settings and mail folders in the same folder as the executable.
-desktop Sets the application to store settings and mail folders in the system appropriate location for the current user. This will be in the application data section of the user's home folder. The -o setting can bypass this being used.
-m address[,address]

-t address[,address]
New email, specify the primary addressee of the message
-f filename New email, specify the file which should be sent as the body of the message
-b If present, indicates that the file is binary and should be attached.
-c address[,address] New email, specify Carbon Copy (CC:) recipients of the message
-s subject New email, specify the message subject (must appear in quotes). e.g.:
Scribe.exe -msomeone@domain.com -s"Message Subject" -bd:\temp\body.txt
-n Send any email created with -m, -t, -c and -s immediately.
-p max-pages Prints max-pages of the .eml on the command line, or the whole file if max-pages is 0. The printer used is configured in File ▶ Print Setup. e.g.:
Scribe.exe -p1 d:\temp\message.eml
-noreg [Windows] Don't write anything to the registry. This disables the ability to use Scribe as the default mail client. But it's useful for users putting Scribe on a portable disk for use on public computers.
-send send-now If this value is '0' any .eml file also on the command line is shown in editable form. Otherwise it's sent immediately using the default SMTP server. This is part of the MAPI support under Windows, but works just the same on any other platform.
-noskin Don't load the skinning library.
-nch [Linux] Don't use the KDE crash handler.

Configuration
Once Scribe is running you can at any time open a different set of folders using the File ▶ Open Folders menu. This closes the currently selected folder if any. You can create new folders with the File ▶ Create Folders menu.

Every couple of weeks, depending on usage you should backup the folders (by copying them in your file manager) and compact the folder using File ▶ Compact Folders to remove unused space. Otherwise your folders will just get bigger and bigger, even if you delete things.

Then once you have the folders setup you need to configure the accounts and options. Click File ▶ Options and begin filling out your identification details. The following is a description of the different options:
Identity Tab
Name Enter your name. This is mainly used for the title bar. Your identity used in emailing is enter in the Account settings window.
InScribe: Use the name that you registered the product with.
Accounts Tab
Properties This tab has a list of accounts, which is limited to one item in i.Scribe. Click properties to edit the details of the account.

There is no provision in Scribe for dialing up to the internet. If you need to manually connect to the internet then you should do so before sending or receiving email in Scribe.
Add (InScribe) InScribe: Click this to add a new account.
Delete (InScribe) InScribe: Deletes an existing account.
Default Send Account (InScribe) InScribe: Sets the default send account for all email not associated with an account that has "Only send through this account" set.

The "Default Send Account" should be set to the account with your main SMTP server. This option will not set the default identity used to create email with; to set that use the main window's Identity menu.

You can send using another accounts SMTP server by opening the status panel on the main window, selecting the account, right click and "Send"
General Tab
Quote when replying with ??? This option allows you to quote the contents of the incoming mail when replying. This adds the specified characters to the start of each line. Typically the string "> " if used for quoting.
Append signatures to replies and forwards Automatically adds your signature to the bottom of a reply or forward.
Reply/Forward Format Click the "..." button to edit the format of replies and forwarded email. Click "Reset" to revert your changes to the default configuration. Currently the formatting is duplicated for plain text and HTML email. To put actual HTML tags in the HTML reply/forward template you will have to turn the markup into entities, i.e. instead of <b> put &lt;b&gt;. (One day there will be a HTML editor, and this will be more simple).

Signatures can contain commands that are executed when the signature is added to an email. Otherwise they are plain text, in utf-8 format. These commands are formatted in XML and are inserted amongst the text of the signature. The following commands are available:
  • Print a random paragraph from the file specified:
    <random-line filename="filename.ext">
  • Insert the file specified:
    <include-file filename="filename.ext">
  • Set the cursor position:
    <cursor>
Default To/Cc/Bcc This changes the default addressing mode for reply all messages.
Populate recipients from clipboard If this option if switched on Scribe checks the clipboard when a new email is created. If a string with a '@' symbol less than 100 characters long is present it assumes its an email address and puts it in the recipient's field by default. This is really useful for emailing to an address without a hyperlink. Copy the address to the clipboard, hit new mail... and off you go. Sometimes you'll have an email address in the clipboard that's not who you want to send to, in which case you have to delete the recipient. Or turn off the option.
Minimize to tray icon This just hides the main window while minimized, so the window doesn't clutter the start bar.
Check default email client on startup Win32 supports a default email client for mailto: URL's. If this option is set then Scribe will monitor that setting on startup and prompt you if it doesn't point to Scribe.
Confirm item delete Switches on confirmation dialogs for deleting items.
New Email Sound If this points to a wav file then that sound will be played when new email arrives.
Popup notifcation when new mail arrives When new mail arrives you can optionally have a small window listing the items display itself.
Mark mail read after Automatically marks email read after 'x' number of seconds. Where zero will mark the item read immediately.
Automatically delete executable attachments This option tells Scribe to remove attachments that contain native executable code. Commonly the only time you receive this in an email is when you receive a virus. This option allows you to head it off at the pass and never have to worry about it again. Esp. useful option for people that know enough to be dangerous (i.e. can save and execute an attachment) but not know it's a virus. If you call someone else for tech support that means you!
New mail icon in the system tray should blink This option makes the new mail icon blick in the system trak. So you'll notice it sooner.
Connection Tab
SOCKS5 server/username/password If you access the internet through a firewall running socks5 then set this to the address of the firewall, otherwise leave it blank. The username/password is only required for authenticated access. Use if required.
Check for dialup connection before receive If you use a dialup connection to the internet this option will stop Scribe from automatically checking email while there is no dialup. If you access the mail server over a LAN or broadband connection this switch this off.
Download mail on startup This option will make Scribe check mail as soon as it has loaded.
HTTP Proxy This is your HTTP proxy in the form:
<server>[:<port>]
(Or blank if you have direct internet access). The shared calendaring and PopOverHttp protocols use this field.
Default receive action InScribe: Specify what the "receive mail" button does.
Appearance Tab
Editor Font Select the font to use in the preview pane and the mail compose/view window.
Wrap lines at ?? Wraps the text in the mail window at a specific column or at the edge of the window if no value is supplied. Replies are wrapped to the column value specified or the default of 76 if nothing is specified.
Default Alternative This sets the preferred alternative part of the email to view, either text or HTML.
Interface Language This overrides the operating system's language setting.
Interface Font Size This adjusts the size of the main font used by Scribe.
Use Glyph Substitution when displaying text When displaying international charsets it's often the case that the character to be displayed is not actually in the font being used. So by switching this option on Scribe will find the character in another font and use that instead. This has the effect of displaying more accents and strange characters at the cost of more memory usage and a small speed hit when a new character is needed. Some systems, like Windows 95, 98 and NT don't have great fonts and will display characters out of alignment, and some computers are too old and slow to do this sort of thing. So you have the option to turn it off. Btw Windows XP does Glyph Sub. by default so you can't turn it off under XP.
Show unread in bold Shows the message as bold in the main list view when still unread.
Preview first lines of email Shows the first few lines of an email in the main window's list. The text is in a smaller font coloured blue. Often you can tell the basic content of the message from the first few lines and decide whether to read the email or discard it.
Show text on toolbars Puts little text labels under the toolbar buttons.
Draw grid Draws a grid in the main windows's item list.
Date format Choose a format you want to see your dates in. Under windows "auto" uses the system settings. Under other OS's that don't have a system setting for this auto does "d/m/yyyy" which is the default in my country ;) However all the other settings override any default.
Other Tab
Connection log file format Sets the type of data to store when logging the data transfered between the client and the mail server. Usually "bytes only" is ok. But sometimes when non- ascii data is being transfered the "hex dump" format is useful.
Log file If you need to see the client/server dialog that Scribe goes through when connected to a server then set this to a file name (it doesn't have to exist by default). Then as Scribe sends and receives information it will write a copy to this file. However nowadays the status window contains a visual log of the transaction so it's easier to see whats going on. So this option is not really needed anymore.
Account connection debug logging If you're having connection issues this will log lots of information during the online phase, which may help to diagnose connection related issues. Between sessions you should delete the Scribe.txt file as it accumulates a lot of information, and if left unchecked would balloon out to many MB's.
SSL connection debug logging This adds an extra layer of logging in the SSL code. The output goes into the system log (available though the console and also 'scribe.txt' in the same folder as the options).
Spell Check This turns on the spell checker. Dictionaries will be installed on demand, however an internet connection is required to download the new dictionary. Once installed the spell check will work offline.
Language This section lets you set the dictionary used for spell checking. On Windows and Linux dictionaries will be installed on demand if you have an internet connection. On Mac the native spell check is used, and any available dictionaries are listed here.
Dictionary (unused?)
Check online for new versions Allows you to update the software every so often to the latest build.
Every Sets the frequency to check for new builds.
Check for beta releases too If selected then you will also be notified of beta releases.
Don't adjust dates to the local time zone Scribe attempts to display dates in the current time zone. If this is a problem or you don't like that, then you can switch it off here.
Don't show Emoji Turns of Emoji display. When viewing text or HTML email that contains Emoji unicode Scribe by default will insert image representations of those characters. If this is causing problems then you can switch it off here.
Use Growl Turns on support for Growl notifications.
Resize image attachments Turns on support for resizing images before sending as attachments. Files will be turned into JPEGs using the following quality and size restrictions. Requires the libjpeg component to be installed.
The settings for each account:
Identity
Name Enter a descriptive name for the account.
Identity Name (InScribe) InScribe: Enter a name to associated with this account.
Email Address (InScribe) InScribe: Enter the email to associated with this account.
Reply To (InScribe) InScribe: Enter the account specific reply to addres -or- leave blank to use the email address above.
Only Send Through This Account (InScribe) The "Only Send Through This Account" option forces replies to email received on this account to go through the Send server settings for this account as well. Otherwise they will be sent through the default outgoing server.
Signature XML (InScribe) Enter an account specific signature.
Send
Server Configure your outgoing SMTP server host name.
Port Enter a non default port for your SMTP server if needed. Leave blank for the default port.
Domain The optional domain is used to sign on to the SMTP server. In most cases leaving it blank is ok. But some SMTP servers are finicky about it, so in that case you should enter the domain of your connection, which is usually the part of your email address after the '@' sign.
Authenticate If your SMTP server requires authentication, switch on Authenticate
Username Enter your Username if required.
Password Enter your Password if required.
Authentication Type If the default auth type doesn't work you can override it here.
Preferred charsets for sending If you want to override the default charset used in sending, you can configure one or two on the send tab. Scribe searches through the available charsets when encoding an outgoing message looking for charsets that can encode all the characters in the message. The prefered charset just forces this process to look at the specified charsets first before checking through the list of all installed charsets. Thus if the message can be displayed in one of your prefered charsets it will be encoded in that rather than one of the other charsets available.

If the charset you want to send with is not in the list then it's not available for outgoing messages.
SSL Chose which type of security layer to use on the connection. None, STARTTLS or direct SSL. Note: Any connection requiring SSL may cause Scribe to request a download of the SSL libraries if they are not present in your system. This will appear as a red bar in the main window with an "Install" button.
Receive
Mail Box Type Set the mail box type to the protocol that you use to receive mail. Usually this is POP3, which you should try if you're not sure. The IMAP4 support comes in 2 flavours, "fetch" which retrieves email from the server in much the same way that POP3 does. It doesn't allow managing of mail on the server. And full IMAP which is for managing your mail on the server, while being able to read it locally via caching. The "Calendar" protocol is a deprecated method of connecting to the MemeCode Groupware Server. For users stuck behind a HTTP only firewall there is a protocol for accessing POP over HTTP. On windows you can also fetch mail from a MAPI source. There is no support for MAPI on non-Windows platforms (complain to Microsoft not me).
Server Enter in the address of your server. Most servers are similar to:
mail.isp.com
Port You can specify a non-default port here. Otherwise leave blank for the default port.
Username Enter your User Name.
Password Enter your Password. If you don't enter a password then each time you run Scribe you will be asked to enter the password once, and then it will remain in memory until Scribe exits.

When you open the settings pane again the password will appear as "(Password saved)". This is to protect it from other applications which can read the contents of the field.
Leave on server Means that new email will be downloaded but not deleted from the server. All email currently on the server is stored as a list of unique identifiers in the Scribe options file. That way scribe can track the old mail on the server and download ones it hasn't seen yet. If the options file goes missing all mail will be considered "new" and be downloaded at the next connection.
Delete After This option if selected will delete email on the server after a set number of days.
Delete after download is larger than ?? KB's. This setting allows you to delete large email off the server after they have been downloaded. Leaving space for new email. While keeping smaller emails on the server as well.
Check every Defines how many minutes between an automatic check for new email.
Don't download email larger than ?? KB's Limits the size of incoming email. If some email is larger than this it will remain on the server until you do something about it using the "Preview on Server" feature.
Destination folder Configures a non-default inbox for this account. If this is blank then by default the email goes into the /Inbox folder specified in the sub folder locations dialog.
Authentication Type Allows you to request a non-default authentication type.
SSL Allows you to chose which type of security layer to use on the connection. None, STARTTLS or SSL from the start.
Use secure authentication (Not implemented at the moment)

Uninstalling
How you uninstalling Scribe is dependent on which method you used to install it. If you used the zip file to install Scribe with then you can just delete the directory containing Scribe and you're done.

If you used the self contained install exe then go into Scribe's entry in the Start Menu and select "uninstall".

Only a few unavoidable settings are left in the registry and no dll's or other files are put into system directories. If you want to keep your folders and email then don't delete the folders.mail file in Scribe's directory.

The registry settings left behind are:

These are unavoidable for system intergration and don't impact system performance after you remove Scribe. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto can be set to something else by changing Control Panel ▶ Internet Options ▶ Programs ▶ Email.
© 1999-2018 Matthew Allen