Makes you realize what you've been missing!!
Written: Oct 27 '01 (Updated Oct 30 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Highly customizable, strong set of filters, support for most of the popular mail protocols,
Cons: Lack of customer support.
The Bottom Line: Don't check your mail without it.
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| beerbrain's Full Review: The Bat! |
The Bat! from Ritlabs is a full-featured e-mail client that no seasoned e-mail user should be without. Having support for all the popular mail protocols, multiple accounts, PGP compatibility, user defined filters, a fully-functional address book, mail templates, it has everything a power user could ask for & then some.
Though the interface of The Bat! is a bit unconventional but after you get used to it you realize that it has been well thought out just like everything else in it. A mail ticker, resembling the NASDAQ stock ticker, shows you all the new mails that you've received & clicking on the ticker directly takes you to the particular mail. Of course, if you find the ticker annoying ,you can always turn it off.
Managing multiple e-mail accounts with The Bat! is a breeze. The Bat! supports POP, SMTP & IMAP protocols, so no matter what kind of e-mail account you have The Bat! will manage them for you gracefully. Unlike Outlooks Express, which bundles up e-mails from all the different accounts into a single folder, The Bat! has different folders for different accounts. If you have more than one user on a single computer then each mailbox can also be password protected. You can specify different sets of mail templates & filters for each one of your accounts. You can easily check all your e-mail accounts at the same time or you can check them one by one. Personally I would recommend checking them all at once coz watching The Bat! check multiple accounts at breakneck speeds is a sight for sore eyes.
The Bat! does not support HTML e-mails & as a result you will have to compose all your e-mails in text mode. That is not a bad thing actually, considering the spate of e-mail viruses that seem to be coming out everyday. The text editor that's provided with The Bat! is easily one of the best I've used. The Bat! does have a basic HTML renderer for the HTML mails that you might receive. It presents the HTML emails in readable format without the pictures or the javascript. In short without the support for the HTML emails The Bat is more or less invulnerable to the new breed of e-mail viruses.
The Bat! also features a strong set of user defined filters. The filters can be configured on the basis of the sender's e-mail address, receiver's e-mail address, a string present in the text or the headers or the subject or about anywhere in the e-mail. And based on the filters the mail can be moved to a particular folder, deleted, deleted from the server, replied to, forwarded to a particular e-mail address, sent to the printer, exported to a file & much much more.
If you are a stickler for message headers then you'll just love The Bat!. It lets you customize the e-mail headers to your heart's extent. And if you are really into message headers then you can compose your e-mail with the message headers in a text editor, save the file with a ".msg" extension & import the file into The Bat!, as simple as that.
Now for the only bad part. The customer support for The Bat! is not very good. I've written to Ritlabs & I've yet to receive a single reply from them. However The Bat! does come with a detailed help file that should answer every one of your questions & if not then it has a very helpful user base that is more than willing to help you out with a problem.
In the end The Bat! has everything you can imagine in a mail client & makes you glad to have an e-mail account.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beerbrain
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Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
Exams are on. Be back when the shock wears off!!
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