Menneisyys
03-12-2008, 01:16 PM
I, being the author of the Windows Mobile Mailer Bible (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=569&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), probably the best source of everything mailing-related, always receive several mailing-related questions. One of the most often asked one concerns mass selection operations to be able to quickly delete or mark (un)read several (or all) messages. The main reason for this is, for example, resetting the “new / unread mail” counter on your main home (on Pocket PC’s, “Today”) screen by quickly deleting or making read mail you know you won’t ever need – without the need to open and/or delete them one by one.
First, let’s take a look at how this is to be done in the two major flavors of Windows Mobile:
1.1 Pocket PC (WM6 Professional / Classic; devices with touch screens)
It’s very easy to mass-select your mails in Pocket PC’s. All you need to do is either:
mass-select the mails you want to mark / delete with the stylus and/or
if you have a built-in thumbboard, press Shift and the up/down arrow keys (its effect is the same as that of the stylus when mass selecting messages) and/or
if you want to mass-select all messages (not just some of them), bring up the on-screen keyboard and press Ctl and, then, A
After this, all mass operations will work as supposed to.
1.2 MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard; devices without touch screens)
Unfortunately, the touchscreen-less MS Smartphone platform works in a pretty much different way. First, let’s start with the built-in messaging:
1.2.1 Messaging
As with the “big brother”, the Pocket PC, there aren’t any menu-based mass selection capabilities built-in in the MS Smartphone version of Messaging either. This can be seen in the following menu shot:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/SP6NoMassSelect.png
As there’s no touch screen and/or on-screen keyboards either, you couldn’t use Ctrl-A without third party tools (more on them later).
1.2.1.1 A quick tip for easier one-by-one deletion
If you want to quickly delete messages (with a single press of the left softkey – warning, the left softkey is only assigned the “Delete” functionality in WM6 and above, NOT in WM5!), do the following: go to Tools / Options / Other / uncheck Warn when deleting messages in the message list:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/SP6NoMassSelect2.png
This makes it far easier to delete mails. This, however, doesn’t help in making a mail read. The latter will always require two button presses per mail (as opposed to – again, only under WM6+ - one, when you delete mail) (Menu / Mark as read).
1.2.2 FlexMail
With the alternative, excellent mailer client, FlexMail, the situation is better as of the current version (FlexMail 4 beta; 03/11/2008).
1.2.2.1 (Un)read flag toggling
In the top-level Folder view, if you just press Action on the folder, you can quickly toggle the read flag of all mail inside:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FolderViewMarkAllAsRead.png
You can also do the same in the folder itself (Menu / Mark):
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FolderViewMarkAllAsRead2.png
In Messaging, you can’t do the same.
1.2.2.2 Mass selection for deletion
It’s, unfortunately, not possible to make a mass-selection with the built-in thumbboard / dialpad; neither with menus. At least Shift + arrow keys / D-pad didn’t work on the HTC Vox’s thumbboard (unlike on Pocket PC’s – the HTC Universal – or external keyboards). Other MS Smartphones (again, with a built-in keyboard) may be better in this respect.
With an external keyboard (probably also with the widely used ThinkOutside / iGo StowAway – I haven’t checked this, only with SOTI’s excellent Pocket Controller, where it does work), this MAY become possible:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FlexMailSelectAllExternalKeyboard.png
Messages selected this way can, then, be quickly deleted / flagged (un)read using the menu.
1.2.2.3 A quick note
FlexMail is indeed way more powerful on the Smartphone than the built-in Messaging; not just because of it being far more featureful, but also because of the button shortcuts. Unlike with Messaging, where all the dialpad (and, when present, the QWERTY thumbboard) keys are used for quick search, by default, dialpad keys (and several QWERTY ones) are assigned a shortcut. There is even an in-built help screen (accessible via 0 or H) showing all these shortcuts:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FlexMailKeyShortcuts.png
As you can see, as with Messaging (where, in WM6+, the left softkey can be used for quick deletion), you can do the same by pressing 7 (or D(elete)). The deletion happens without any confirmation dialog (as opposed to Messaging, unless you configure it not to do so). Note that you can do the same with flagging messages but, then, Menu / Delete won’t delete flagged messages.
1.2.2.4 Mass selection still needed on the MS Smartphone platform? AEBPlus (http://ae.inc.ru/) for the rescue!
However, if you just plan to mass-delete mails, you’ll definitely want to set up the (for this), free (!!!!) AEBPlus. If you’ve read my Button Enhancer Bible (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2246&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), you may already know this excellent utility.
Just make sure you assign the “Select all” functionality (it’s number 15 in the functionality list) to the button you’d like to use to mass-select items. In the following screenshot, I show it bound to the Volume Up button:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/AEBPlusAssignment.png
and this is the set-up screen, telling AEBPlus to look for single-presses (of course, you may want to use double/triple-presses or long presses instead; then, just select the according mode in the list (http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/AEBPlusAssignment3.png)):
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/AEBPlusAssignment2.png
Note that this will not only work in FlexMail, but also in all the other apps supporting Ctrl-A (Select All); for example, the built-in File Explorer. And, again, this will NOT work in Messaging.
2. Competing consumer smartphone OS’es
The behavior of the MS Smartphone version of Messaging is diametrically opposed to how Symbian S60 and BlackBerry allow for mass / quick selection. These two operating systems are the two major competitors to Windows Mobile; I’m still not counting in iPhone because of the – current – lack of third-party apps and the platform still being comparatively limited to the “Holy Trinity” of consumer smart phone OS’es.
Microsoft should definitely fix this issue in future operating system versions as, again, in this respect, these two competing operating systems are definitely better.
2.1 Symbian S60
2.1.1 Selecting everything
Just go to Options / Mark/Unmark and select Mark All:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/Screenshot0051.png
2.1.2 Selecting only blocks of mails
On Symbian S60 devices with a dedicated Pencil button (like the excellent Nokia N95), you just keep it pressed while moving the D-pad up and down. (On newer devices (N82, N81 etc.) without a pencil key, according to the N81 review from AAS (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N81_Review_Part1.php), you can use # instead of the removed Pencil key. This doesn’t work on the N95.)
Then, just select either Options / Delete (alternatively, just press the C “delete” hardware button) or Mark as (Un)read:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/Screenshot0050.png
2.2 BlackBerry
On BlackBerries, you can just keep the Shift key pressed and roll up/down the trackball for quick (mass) selection. Then, just select Mark (Un)Opened or Delete Messages from the menu. It’s very fast; my only grief is that, while mass-selecting mails, you can’t make this even faster by using the Alt button, unlike in regular mode, where you can utilize it for page jumps instead of line scrolling.
In the default BlackBerry client, it’s not possible to mass-select all the messages at once. However, thanks to the trackball, mass-selecting is VERY fast – much faster than on any competing D-pad-based solution. No wonder I'm recommending (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2516&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) trackballs instead of touchpads ;)
First, let’s take a look at how this is to be done in the two major flavors of Windows Mobile:
1.1 Pocket PC (WM6 Professional / Classic; devices with touch screens)
It’s very easy to mass-select your mails in Pocket PC’s. All you need to do is either:
mass-select the mails you want to mark / delete with the stylus and/or
if you have a built-in thumbboard, press Shift and the up/down arrow keys (its effect is the same as that of the stylus when mass selecting messages) and/or
if you want to mass-select all messages (not just some of them), bring up the on-screen keyboard and press Ctl and, then, A
After this, all mass operations will work as supposed to.
1.2 MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard; devices without touch screens)
Unfortunately, the touchscreen-less MS Smartphone platform works in a pretty much different way. First, let’s start with the built-in messaging:
1.2.1 Messaging
As with the “big brother”, the Pocket PC, there aren’t any menu-based mass selection capabilities built-in in the MS Smartphone version of Messaging either. This can be seen in the following menu shot:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/SP6NoMassSelect.png
As there’s no touch screen and/or on-screen keyboards either, you couldn’t use Ctrl-A without third party tools (more on them later).
1.2.1.1 A quick tip for easier one-by-one deletion
If you want to quickly delete messages (with a single press of the left softkey – warning, the left softkey is only assigned the “Delete” functionality in WM6 and above, NOT in WM5!), do the following: go to Tools / Options / Other / uncheck Warn when deleting messages in the message list:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/SP6NoMassSelect2.png
This makes it far easier to delete mails. This, however, doesn’t help in making a mail read. The latter will always require two button presses per mail (as opposed to – again, only under WM6+ - one, when you delete mail) (Menu / Mark as read).
1.2.2 FlexMail
With the alternative, excellent mailer client, FlexMail, the situation is better as of the current version (FlexMail 4 beta; 03/11/2008).
1.2.2.1 (Un)read flag toggling
In the top-level Folder view, if you just press Action on the folder, you can quickly toggle the read flag of all mail inside:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FolderViewMarkAllAsRead.png
You can also do the same in the folder itself (Menu / Mark):
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FolderViewMarkAllAsRead2.png
In Messaging, you can’t do the same.
1.2.2.2 Mass selection for deletion
It’s, unfortunately, not possible to make a mass-selection with the built-in thumbboard / dialpad; neither with menus. At least Shift + arrow keys / D-pad didn’t work on the HTC Vox’s thumbboard (unlike on Pocket PC’s – the HTC Universal – or external keyboards). Other MS Smartphones (again, with a built-in keyboard) may be better in this respect.
With an external keyboard (probably also with the widely used ThinkOutside / iGo StowAway – I haven’t checked this, only with SOTI’s excellent Pocket Controller, where it does work), this MAY become possible:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FlexMailSelectAllExternalKeyboard.png
Messages selected this way can, then, be quickly deleted / flagged (un)read using the menu.
1.2.2.3 A quick note
FlexMail is indeed way more powerful on the Smartphone than the built-in Messaging; not just because of it being far more featureful, but also because of the button shortcuts. Unlike with Messaging, where all the dialpad (and, when present, the QWERTY thumbboard) keys are used for quick search, by default, dialpad keys (and several QWERTY ones) are assigned a shortcut. There is even an in-built help screen (accessible via 0 or H) showing all these shortcuts:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/FlexMailKeyShortcuts.png
As you can see, as with Messaging (where, in WM6+, the left softkey can be used for quick deletion), you can do the same by pressing 7 (or D(elete)). The deletion happens without any confirmation dialog (as opposed to Messaging, unless you configure it not to do so). Note that you can do the same with flagging messages but, then, Menu / Delete won’t delete flagged messages.
1.2.2.4 Mass selection still needed on the MS Smartphone platform? AEBPlus (http://ae.inc.ru/) for the rescue!
However, if you just plan to mass-delete mails, you’ll definitely want to set up the (for this), free (!!!!) AEBPlus. If you’ve read my Button Enhancer Bible (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2246&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), you may already know this excellent utility.
Just make sure you assign the “Select all” functionality (it’s number 15 in the functionality list) to the button you’d like to use to mass-select items. In the following screenshot, I show it bound to the Volume Up button:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/AEBPlusAssignment.png
and this is the set-up screen, telling AEBPlus to look for single-presses (of course, you may want to use double/triple-presses or long presses instead; then, just select the according mode in the list (http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/AEBPlusAssignment3.png)):
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/AEBPlusAssignment2.png
Note that this will not only work in FlexMail, but also in all the other apps supporting Ctrl-A (Select All); for example, the built-in File Explorer. And, again, this will NOT work in Messaging.
2. Competing consumer smartphone OS’es
The behavior of the MS Smartphone version of Messaging is diametrically opposed to how Symbian S60 and BlackBerry allow for mass / quick selection. These two operating systems are the two major competitors to Windows Mobile; I’m still not counting in iPhone because of the – current – lack of third-party apps and the platform still being comparatively limited to the “Holy Trinity” of consumer smart phone OS’es.
Microsoft should definitely fix this issue in future operating system versions as, again, in this respect, these two competing operating systems are definitely better.
2.1 Symbian S60
2.1.1 Selecting everything
Just go to Options / Mark/Unmark and select Mark All:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/Screenshot0051.png
2.1.2 Selecting only blocks of mails
On Symbian S60 devices with a dedicated Pencil button (like the excellent Nokia N95), you just keep it pressed while moving the D-pad up and down. (On newer devices (N82, N81 etc.) without a pencil key, according to the N81 review from AAS (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N81_Review_Part1.php), you can use # instead of the removed Pencil key. This doesn’t work on the N95.)
Then, just select either Options / Delete (alternatively, just press the C “delete” hardware button) or Mark as (Un)read:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/032008MailerMassselect/Screenshot0050.png
2.2 BlackBerry
On BlackBerries, you can just keep the Shift key pressed and roll up/down the trackball for quick (mass) selection. Then, just select Mark (Un)Opened or Delete Messages from the menu. It’s very fast; my only grief is that, while mass-selecting mails, you can’t make this even faster by using the Alt button, unlike in regular mode, where you can utilize it for page jumps instead of line scrolling.
In the default BlackBerry client, it’s not possible to mass-select all the messages at once. However, thanks to the trackball, mass-selecting is VERY fast – much faster than on any competing D-pad-based solution. No wonder I'm recommending (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2516&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) trackballs instead of touchpads ;)