Configuring mail and news clients to work with KookieJar 6.0

Overview

This document describes how various email and news clients can be configured to work with KookieJar.

Information contained here is based either on my own experience, or on suggestions I have received from users. Note that I do not use all the programs mentioned here (or have them installed), so I cannot guarantee that the configuration procedures will work for you. Also, the exact procedure required may differ from one version of a given program to another; the list below indicates the version for which the procedure described is correct.

If a program is not listed here, then I have probably never seen it or used it, and I will not be able to tell you how to configure it. Please see the "General Principles" section, below. Also, refer to the documentation of your program: it will almost certainly have a Help topic explaining how to use signatures.

If you use an email or news program not listed here, and you have managed to configure it to work with KookieJar, please email me the appropriate instructions in English, so I can include them here.

General principles

Kookie Jar works by saving your signature(s) to a file which you specify in Signature Editor, on the "Locations" tab. This may be a plain text (.txt) file, a rich text format (.rtf) file, or a hypertext (.html) file. To configure your email or news program for Kookie Jar, you have to tell the program to use the file that Kookie Jar generates as "signature". The program will automatically append this file to all messages you send.

The majority of currently available mail and news clients support such an option, but its exact location and name, as well as the configuration procedure, will of course be different for each program. If your mail or news client is not listed here, read the procedures for some of the other programs to see how it "typically" works, and then see if the program you use provides something similar.

If nothing works, do refer to the documentation of your mail or news client, or ask other users. Note that, in most cases, it is futile to ask *me*, because I probably do not use the same program that you do. All I know about various program configurations is contained in this document.

Known, supported email and news clients

Important note

The procedures described below contain examples. Remember that you will need to supply the actual names of files and directories on your computer; they will often not be the same as the example file and directory names.

All examples assume that Kookie Jar is installed in

C:\Program Files\KookieJar\kookiejar.exe

and that your signature is saved as

C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.txt or
C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.rtf or
C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.html

depending on the format(s) you want to use.

Mozilla 1.3, Windows 2000

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

  1. With the "Mail & Newsgroups" window open, select "Edit/Mail & Newsgroup Settings".
  2. For each mail or news account in the left pane, click the "Attach this signature:" checkbox.
  3. Click the "Choose" button to the right of the filename textbox and navigate to the desired signature file to be used with that account.
  4. Click "OK" when done.
Thanks to Emory Smith for the tip!

FORTE AGENT (all versions)

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

  1. From the "Options" menu, choose the "Posting Preferences" command.
  2. Click the "Signatures" tab.
  3. You can add a new signature definition here, or use one of the existing definitions:
    • To add a new signature, click the "Add" button. Enter a name for the new signature (e.g. "KookieJar sig") and click OK.
    • To use one of the already existing signatures, just select it in the "Names" list on the left.
  4. Do not type anything in the "Text" box.
  5. Click the "Browse" button near the bottom right corner. In the "Select signature file" dialog box, navigate to the signature that you configured Kookie Jar to create, e.g. "C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.txt". Select that file and click OK.
  6. The file name you have entered is now displayed in the "Use existing file" edit box.
  7. Forte Agent can store many signatures, and gives you the ability to pick one every time you compose a mail or news message. However, one of these signatures can be marked as "default", which means that Forte Agent will automatically append it to all messages if you do not select any other signature manually.
  8. To make the Kookie Jar signature default, select it in the "Default signature" list on the right.
  9. Click OK to close the Posting Preferences dialog box.

EUDORA PRO

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

Eudora does not allow you to specify the location of the signature file. Instead, you have to figure out where Eudora saves its own signature files, and direct Kookie Jar to save its signatures there.

  1. Start Eudora.
  2. From the "Tools" menu, choose the "Signatures" command. A dialog box will be displayed, listing all the signatures you have defined in Eudora.
  3. You can add a new signature definition here, or use one of the existing definitions:
    • To add a new signature, right-click the dialog box, and choose the "Add" command from the context menu. Enter a name for the new signature (e.g. "KookieJar sig") and click OK.
    • To use one of the already existing signatures, select it in the list of existing signatures and press Enter (or double click it with the mouse).
  4. Another dialog box will be displayed, where you edit the actual text of your signature. If you have just created a new signature, the dialog box will be blank.
  5. Do not enter any text in this dialog box. Instead, look at the titlebar: it will display the name of the file where Eudora keeps this particular signature. In our example, the file will be called "Kookie Jar sig.txt". Close the dialog box. If Eudora prompts you to save changes, click OK, it doesn't matter either way. The important thing is to know the filename where this signature is stored.
  6. Close Eudora.
  7. Start Windows Explorer, and navigate to the folder (directory) where Eudora is installed, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Eudora". There will be a number of subfolders here. One should be called "Sigs". Double click that folder to open it.
  8. In the "Sigs" folder, you should now see the file whose name we noted above; in our case, "Kookie jar sig.txt". (Note that by default, Windows Explorer does not display file name extensions, so you may only be seeing "Kookie Jar sig" instead.)
  9. If you have found the file, remember the full name of the path where the file resides, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Eudora\Sigs\Kookie Jar sig.txt". (Even if Windows Explorer does not display the filename extension, it must still be included in the file name.)
  10. Close Windows Explorer.
  11. Start Kookie Jar 6.0.
  12. If you have more than one signature defined in Kookie Jar, select the one you want to use with Eudora.
  13. From the "Signatures" menu, choose the "Edit Signature" command (or press F4).
  14. Click the "Locations" tab.
  15. Make sure the "Plain text format" box is checked (selected). In the edit box below the "Plain text format" checkbox, enter the full path and filename of the Eudora signature, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Eudora\Sigs\Kookie Jar sig.txt".
  16. Leave the other two check boxes unchecked.
  17. Click OK to close the "Edit signature" dialog box. Leave Kookie Jar running, of course!

NETSCAPE MESSEGNGER (Communicator 4.x)

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

  1. Start any component of Netscape Communicator, e.g. the Messenger, or the Navigator, it doesn't matter. You need access to the "Preferences" dialog box, which is accessible from all major components of the Communicator.
  2. From the "Edit" menu, choose the "Preferences" command.
  3. In the "Preferences" dialog box, click the "Mail & Groups" node. (You may need to double-click it so hat it expands, and the nodes below it become visible.)
  4. Under "Mail & Groups", click the "Identity" node.
  5. Near the bottom of the page displayed, there is a "Signature file" edit box, and a "Choose" button next to it. Click the "Choose" button, and navigate to the signature that you configured Kookie Jar to create, e.g. "C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.txt". Select that file and click OK.
  6. Click OK to close the "Preferences" dialog box. Netscape Messenger will use the signature specified for both email and news posting.

PEGASUS MAIL

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

Pegasus does not allow you to specify the location of the signature file. Instead, you have to figure out where Pegasus saves its own signature files, and direct Kookie Jar to save its signatures there.

Pegasus does not have an explicit function to get a signature from an external file, but when you define your signatures in Pegasus's configuration, they are stored as files in the "Mail" folder, under the directory where Pegasus is installed. These are the files with .PMS extension.

For instance, if Pegasus Mail is installed in "C:\Program Files\PMail" folder, you will find the signature files in the subfolder called "C:\Program Files\PMail\Mail".

There may be several .PMS files there; as many as you have defined in Pegasus. Select the .PMS file you want to use and make note of its directory and file name.

  1. Start Kookie Jar 6.0.
  2. If you have more than one signature defined in Kookie Jar, select the one you want to use with Pegasus.
  3. From the "Signatures" menu, choose the "Edit Signature" command (or press F4).
  4. Click the "Locations" tab.
  5. Make sure the "Plain text format" box is checked (selected). In the edit box below the "Plain text format" checkbox, enter the full path and filename of the Eudora signature, e.g. "C:\Program Files\PMail\Mail\KookieJar.pms". Note that you MUST use the ".pms" file extension here!
  6. Leave the other two check boxes unchecked.
  7. Click OK to close the "Edit signature" dialog box. Leave Kookie Jar running, of course!

Note: Pegasus mail allows you to create up to nine sets of signatures; each set consists of three separate .PMS files (called insetsig.pms, localsig.pms and mhssig.pms). You need to look at the .PMS files to figure out which of them Kookie Jar should rewrite with its own signature.

(Thanks to George Davis for the tip!)

THE BAT!

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

The Bat! does not allow you to specify an external file for its signature. Do not use its "Cookie" feature, either.

Instead, for each "account" (email address) declared in The Bat, you can define a number of templates used for sending messages, replies, forwards, etc. These templates are in a way similar to Kookie Jar's own signature templates, but they are much more powerful in The Bat. The Bat! provides a "macro" feature which lets you insert just about anything into a message - including Kookie Jar's signatures, of course!

If you haven't looked at the various macros which The Bat lets you use in message templates, you really owe yourself a favor: look at the documentation and start using them.

  1. Start The Bat!
  2. Select your account in the account list.
  3. From the "Account" menu, choose the "Properties" command.
  4. In the "Properties" dialog box, select the "Templates" node. (You may have to double-click the "Template" node so that it expands and shows a list of templates underneath.)
  5. For each template you want to add the KookieJar signature to (e.g. the "New message" or "Reply" template), open that template by clicking it, and in the editor window add a line such as the following:
         %PUT="C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.txt"
    The "%PUT" macro tells The Bat! to insert a file. The filename is, obviously, given within the double quotes.

One disadvantage of this is that you have to repeat the procedure for all message templates in all accounts with which you want to use Kookie Jar's signatures. But with Kookie Jar 6.0's multiple signature support, you could even have a different signature inserted in each message template (although it is not necessary; you can use the same file for all of them).

GRAVITY newsreader

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

  1. From the "View" menu, select the "Global Options" command.
  2. Click the "Signature" tab.
  3. Enter the path and filename of the Kookie Jar signature file in the "User file" field, e.g. "C:\Program Files\KookieJar\signatures\sig.txt".

XNEWS newsreader

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT

  1. Select, in sequence:
    "Special" menu, then "Setup XNews", then Servers --> Custom --> Signature File.
  2. Enter the full path to the signature file which KookieJar creates, e.g.
    "C:\Program Files\KookieJar6\signatures\mysignature.txt"

(Note for Polish-speaking users and all those using a non-Western code page in Windows: XNews will not convert the contents of the signature to the proper codepage. Therefore, your taglines and template text should be encoded using the appropriate ISO standard code page, e.g. iso-8859-2 for Central European languages. The same applies to the CD titles database, if it includes non-Western characters.)

MS OUTLOOK 97, 2000

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT, RTF, HTML

Outlook does not allow you to specify the location of the signature file. Instead, you have to figure out where Outlook saves its own signature files, and direct Kookie Jar to save its signatures there.

First, try to create a signature in Outlook manually (that is, as if you weren't going to use Kookie at all). Outlook will save your signature in a folder called
c:\windows\application data\microsoft\stationery
(or similar; the exact name may depend on the version of Windows and version of MS Outlook you are using.)

In that folder you will find three files with the same name but different extensions. These are three versions of the same signature: one for plain-text messages, one for HTML messages and one for RTF messages. When you have found those files, take note of their names.

In Kookie Jar, click F4 to open the "Edit signature" dialog box. CLick the "Locations" tab. Make sure ALL THREE format selection checkboxes are checked, and enter the names of MS Outlook signature files in the corresponding edit boxes, for plain text, RTF and HTML format signatures, respectively.

In other words, instead of telling Outlook to use the signature created by Kookie Jar (which we cannot do), we are telling KookieJar to insert itself into Outlook's data (the roundabout way). I cannot be sure of the exact location of the "Stationery" folder,, but you should be able to find the files that Outlook creates without much trouble.

Here is another description of the procedure. This will work with MS Outlook 2000.

In Outlook, click "Tools" tab, then "Options". Click "Mail Format" tab. Under "Signature" section, click "Signature Picker". Click "New" and give the new signature a unique name, e.g. XXXX. Click "Start with a Blank Signature" radio button then the "Next" button. Click on "Finish", then "OK" and "OK" again to get back to Outlook.

Depending on what mail format you are using (TXT, HTML or RTF), Outlook has now created a blank signature file. Where this file has been created depends on what Outlook you are using (97 or 2000) and what operating system (95, 98 or 2000). Do a system-wide search for e.g. XXXX.*

In my case, (HTML; Outlook 2000; Windows 2000), the new signature file is located at: "C:\Documents and Settings\John Doe\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures\XXXX.htm

This is the file that KJ needs to know the "Location" of.

OUTLOOK EXPRESS

Can work with Kookie Jar: YES
Signature formats supported: TEXT (RTF?)

First setup KookieJar to generate a *.txt file (I had problems with *.rtf, but only tried it for five minutes will work on it later after all I am at work on a Sunday and need to get this other stuff done:-) ). Note the location of the text file.

Start Outlook Express and go to the Tools menu and choose Options. This will bring up a multi-tabbed dialog box. Choose the Signature tab and configure as shown. You can configure multiple signatures that you can select from when composing a message. I have this one set to automatically include the default signature when starting a new email. For each signature you can hand type one or select a file as shown in the step 2 graphic. This is the file you set up in the Kookiejar program.

I am running this in win2k and so far no problems. I suspect that in NT, win2k and XP that you will have to store the signature file in a folder that is available to all users, otherwise you will need admin rights to get to it.

(Thanks to Scott Snider for the description!)

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