Import not getting all message content, default sort order, and right-click options.

Since I can't really evaluate Pandora as a Eudora substitute in demo mode, I paid for a license and started working towards importing decades of Eudora. Baby steps, started by importing accounts, contacts, labels, and stationery. Stationery said it worked but the stationery list is still empty. No biggie, I don't use a lot, so on to importing mailboxes.

I picked a small mailbox, 57 messages, 149K. It looked good at first, with the labels all there, but when I started looking at the messages several of them were empty! No apparent rhyme or reason as to which have content and which don't.

Related to importing mailboxes, Is there any way I can change the default sort for all boxes -- especially newly-imported boxes -- to "none"? I know I can turn it off (with 3 clicks) on a box-by-box basis, but it's is going to be a problem going forward since I have some boxes that I DO NOT want the sort order changed on. At least one box I spent hours moving messages from one box to another to get them in the order I want them, so it's not as simple as "just resort." I don't see any way to change it without opening the mailbox, at which point the damage will have been done. And how hard would it be for the click-column-header-to-toggle-sort function to work in Pandora like it does in Eudora, instead of it turning sort on for a column but not turning it off again?

In trying to troubleshoot the empty messages I tried to view source, only to discover missing options in the right-click menu like view source, send to browser, and open or explore attachment. If these options even exist, they'll obviously take several clicks to get to each time. :-(

That's more than enough for one post. I did try searching the forum before asking, but it's always possible I missed something. Thanks!

Presently there is no way to sort messages inside multiple mailboxes in one go. I added it on to-do list, it will be available via Mailbox Summaries Tool (Tools menu).

There is no Send to Browser feature just use Notify Application action (Manual Filters), with corresponding command-line arguments (please see Help/Filters for details). It's similar to what was available in Eudora with following improvements:
1. Browser/viewer is fired up from a separate thread (so your interface can not blocked upon execution).
2. Temporary message file-path can contain Unicode characters.
3. You can specify Internet browser (doesn't have to be default browser/IE).
4. You can pass the entire/raw message or just individual text parts (Plain Text vs. HTML).

Note, you can pick and fire up individual manual filters via Message/Apply Filters menu.

Thanks for your reply. Since I asked several questions at once, I know it would be easy to miss one, about my first attempt to import a mailbox:

I picked a small mailbox, 57 messages, 149K. It looked good at first, with the labels all there, but when I started looking at the messages several of them were empty! No apparent rhyme or reason as to which have content and which don't.

I have 763 mailboxes with over 94K messages (not counting stuff in Trash), so not being able to import is a big problem.

Also, I may not have explained the sorting issue correctly.

I wasn't asking about sorting multiple mailboxes at once. Currently, whenever I open any mailbox, it opens with "sort by date" on. There are times I don't want my mailboxes sorted by date (or anything else), so I'd rather mailboxes open with no sort at all, and then I can sort them however I want (or don't sort them). Are you saying this can't be changed, and mailboxes will always be resorted by date whenever they're opened?

The other sort question was that it seems odd that I can click a column header to sort a column, but (unlike Eudora) I can't then click on the column again to turn sort off. To turn sort off, I instead have to go into the menus (View > Sort By > None).

On right-click actions, you answered about send-to-browser -- can I assume that view source and open/explore attachments also require similar workarounds?

Thanks!

I picked a small mailbox, 57 messages, 149K. It looked good at first, with the labels all there, but when I started looking at the messages several of them were empty! No apparent rhyme or reason as to which have content and which don't.

When you open empty imported message try this please:
- Hit Edit/Format, from the main menu.
- If HTML menu item (under Edit/Format) is checked, hit Plain Text.
- If Plain Text menu item (under Edit/Format) is checked, hit HTML.
Any changes?

Also, I may not have explained the sorting issue correctly.

I wasn't asking about sorting multiple mailboxes at once. Currently, whenever I open any mailbox, it opens with "sort by date" on. There are times I don't want my mailboxes sorted by date (or anything else), so I'd rather mailboxes open with no sort at all, and then I can sort them however I want (or don't sort them). Are you saying this can't be changed, and mailboxes will always be resorted by date whenever they're opened?

Sort key (Date, Subject etc) and order (ascending, descending) are always stored/preserved, for every individual mailbox. Date is just default key for newly created mailboxes. Please make sure you have a full Read/Write access for your main data folder (and all sub-folders). Perhaps you can create and assign brand new data folder to test that:
1. Save your work and hit View/Mailboxes from the main menu.
2. Right-click on first root-item and choose Change.
3. Select your new main data folder and hit OK.
Pandora will restart. Open any mailbox, change sorting key, close and open that mailbox.

The other sort question was that it seems odd that I can click a column header to sort a column, but (unlike Eudora) I can't then click on the column again to turn sort off. To turn sort off, I instead have to go into the menus (View > Sort By > None).

That is correct. The only reason for that is so that you don't have to click twice when switching from Descending to Ascending.
There were few requests over the years for more traditional auto-switch Asc/Des with the single click. All 3 sorting "philosophies" should be available so that will be somewhere under Settings/Mailboxes.

On right-click actions, you answered about send-to-browser -- can I assume that view source and open/explore attachments also require similar workarounds?

No. Right-click on any attachment for options (Open, Save as, Explore, Properties etc).
Note, attachments are displayed on the list (not as hyper-links).

Admin wrote:

I picked a small mailbox, 57 messages, 149K. It looked good at first, with the labels all there, but when I started looking at the messages several of them were empty! No apparent rhyme or reason as to which have content and which don't.

When you open empty imported message try this please:
- Hit Edit/Format, from the main menu.
- If HTML menu item (under Edit/Format) is checked, hit Plain Text.
- If Plain Text menu item (under Edit/Format) is checked, hit HTML.
Any changes?

No, and when I managed to send one to the browser to view source there were only two lines of header, nothing more.

But I think I know what happened. That was my first mailbox import and when it sat on the same message for a long time I figured it had hung and cancelled the import. I'll try importing that box again, but if a relatively small box like that takes that long I hate to think how long importing the rest of my mail will take :-(.

Admin wrote:

Also, I may not have explained the sorting issue correctly.

I wasn't asking about sorting multiple mailboxes at once. Currently, whenever I open any mailbox, it opens with "sort by date" on. There are times I don't want my mailboxes sorted by date (or anything else), so I'd rather mailboxes open with no sort at all, and then I can sort them however I want (or don't sort them). Are you saying this can't be changed, and mailboxes will always be resorted by date whenever they're opened?

Sort key (Date, Subject etc) and order (ascending, descending) are always stored/preserved, for every individual mailbox. Date is just default key for newly created mailboxes. Please make sure you have a full Read/Write access for your main data folder (and all sub-folders). Perhaps you can create and assign brand new data folder to test that:
1. Save your work and hit View/Mailboxes from the main menu.
2. Right-click on first root-item and choose Change.
3. Select your new main data folder and hit OK.
Pandora will restart. Open any mailbox, change sorting key, close and open that mailbox.

OK, but I still don't think that addresses the problem of opening a newly-imported mailbox for the first time without having the order of the messages changed. Once a box has been sorted by date (or anything else) the damage will have been done, and turning sort off won't fix anything.

Admin wrote:

The other sort question was that it seems odd that I can click a column header to sort a column, but (unlike Eudora) I can't then click on the column again to turn sort off. To turn sort off, I instead have to go into the menus (View > Sort By > None).

That is correct. The only reason for that is so that you don't have to click twice when switching from Descending to Ascending.
There were few requests over the years for more traditional auto-switch Asc/Des with the single click. All 3 sorting "philosophies" should be available so that will be somewhere under Settings/Mailboxes.

I can't find that setting. As it is now, if I click on a column header it sorts ascending, and further clicks on that column header do nothing (it just stays ascending).

Admin wrote:

On right-click actions, you answered about send-to-browser -- can I assume that view source and open/explore attachments also require similar workarounds?

No. Right-click on any attachment for options (Open, Save as, Explore, Properties etc).
Note, attachments are displayed on the list (not as hyper-links).

OK, so only view source needs the workaround?

Thanks for your patience. I'm still working out how much is me still learning new software and how many things will continue to take more clicks (or workarounds) than Eudora, and how many of those are worth Pandora doing a better job displaying messages.