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Features | So you want to be a recording artist | |||||||
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| March 30, 2004 | |
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| One of the great inventions of modern times is the greeting card that plays an electronic melody when opened. But that's nothing compared to the capabilities of electronic mail. With Ecard Xpress, you can compose a work of art with photos, music and text. Instead of tacky vacation postcards, you can send your loved ones a greeting that appeals to all their senses. In this way, the recipient can hear the sound of the ocean, see the quaint seaside café and admire the exotic marketplace in a video. | ||
| The foundation: Hyper Text Markup Language | ||
| "Hyper Text Markup Language" is the language of the WWW, meaning that part of the Internet we associate in everyday activities with terms like "surfing the Internet". Nearly all web sites - be they magazines, information portals or the like - are based on this kind of "programming language". Consequently, the idea behind Ecard Xpress software is very simple: an HTML editor was linked to an e-mail program and the various applications effectively combined. In the HTML file, you can embed images, sounds and videos, and add color and links to the text. In line with current standards, the program accepts two image formats: animated and normal GIFs, and JPEGs. Videos can be played in AVI format and music as MIDI or WAV files. Fortunately, you don't have to write a single line of code to do all this. You can use the editor like a regular word processing program. The integrated mail software enables you to send your cheery message immediately, and naturally also to receive mail. The program is installed in the usual manner: download, double-click on ecardxp.zip, and the rest happens automatically. The first thing you see when the program starts is the interface used to bring your message to multimedia life. A small icon also appears in the task line at the bottom right of the screen. Use the right mouse button on that icon to directly call up three of the Ecard Xpress applications. | ||
| Clearing the mail routes | ||
| If you want to be able to send and receive mail, your first have to configure Ecard Xpress. To do so, select the "Mailbox" button and then "Setup Screen" in the new window. Access the mail setup screen by first clicking on the "Mailbox" button. Click here to set up the mail account. |
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| Only three entries are essential. Click to get an enlarged view of the input mask. In this mask, enter the SMTP address you received from your selected mail provider, your user name and the password. You can leave the default entries in the other fields as they are. Consult the English Help function if you have more detailed questions. After clicking on "Save Settings", return to the mailbox, where you can now check whether you have mail. | ||
| Creative freedom at the press of a button |
| Once everything is functioning properly, it's your creativity that's called for. Use the right mouse button in the task line to open the "Create an ecard" menu. If you can handle a word processing program like Word, you won't have any problem here. Text is entered in the right-hand window and appears on the left as the recipient will see it. Apart from the line of buttons at the top, the right mouse button opens a context-sensitive menu for text alignment. | ||
| You'll find just about everything you need by clicking on the "Ecard Toolbox" button. The window that pops up offers numerous options to enhance an e-mail optically and acoustically. The window stays in the foreground the entire time and helps you do the design work. You can insert images and more where the text cursor is located, or format highlighted text using the "Font" menu. | ||
| Jumping-off point into the Web | ||
| The "Links" menu is the only one that requires a little modification. For example, if you want to send relatives an e-mail address or the location of your homepage, you can enter that information here. Type the required information in the top fields as shown. At the bottom, put in the text that will be visible to the recipient. When he clicks on the link, he will be taken to the web site or can respond to the sender directly. It would be a good idea, however, not to try the patience of a recipient all too much with your multimedia enthusiasm. A full-screen photo with a ten-minute video will probably exceed his capacity. And because a message of this kind is delivered repeatedly if downloading fails, it will clog the recipient's mailbox and put you in the dog house. |
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| All your vacation greetings at one click | ||
| The "Send Email" button is the grand finale. If you've
already collected addresses, just select one from your address book. You can also send a copy of the mail to one or more people. That's what the Cc ("carbon copy") field is for. The information will appear in the header. If you send the same content to ten people, that may seem rather impersonal. But you can cheat a little here. Instead of entering the addresses in Cc, enter them in Bcc (blind carbon copy). In this case, the recipient sees only his own address. After that, just click on "Send message" and your friends back home can get a glimpse of your vacation world. | ||
| The idea behind this program is not exactly revolutionary. The same functions can be found in some HTML editors and also in mail programs. However, Ecard Xpress offers a user-friendly and concise combination of the two. If you want to send more than just the bare facts, meaning also other impressions for the senses, Ecard Xpress will give you fast and convenient results. | ||
| AGFAnet Power Tip Cautious people forbid their e-mail program to read messages in HTML code, so they see a bunch of symbols in place of your carefully designed text. That's a shame, but very understandable in view of the virus problem on the Internet. This is because dangerous JavaScript commands can also hide in HTML, which is itself not really a programming language. Therefore, the first rule is to consider every e-mail a suspect until proven innocent. Ecard Xpress stores images in attachments, in order to access them for display. Even an attached JPEG can be dangerous. However, you should really be paranoid about the endings .vbs (Visual Basic Script), .exe or .bat (batch processing). Alarms should also go off when you receive standard Word documents or .xls files. You should never open these files directly if you don't trust the sender 100%. If you do, save them first and then check them with a virus scanner. In general, the highest safety level should be set in programs like Outlook. The "Zone for restricted sites" option should be checked under "Extras - Options - Security". The settings can be expanded further in the Explorer. The procedure is rather awkward, but there you should go to "Extras - Internet options - Security". Raise the security level for "Restricted sites" there and forbid everything relating to ActiveScripting, for example. A vast amount of information and tips on system security can be found at: http://www.heise.de/ct/antivirus/ | ||
