May 19, 2001 08:45 PM
10496 Views
If you liked “Windows 98 Plus” more than the ordinary Windows 98 because “Plus” has better Desktop themes, sounds and other similar flashy features, then here is a program you’d really love …IncrediMail.
What is IncrediMail?: IncrediMail is a mail client just like Outlook Express and Eudora. A mail client is used to download mails and messages from your POP server for offline viewing and also for sending messages.
How I came to know about IncrediMail: Whenever I like some program or site I always make it a point to click on the advertisement links (irrespective of whether the link is of any use to me or not) because that is the only way I can thank and support that site or program. So the other day while I was downloading some file using my Download Accelerator Plus (or DAP: used for increasing your downloading speed and to resume your downloads if the file size is too big and cannot be downloaded all at once) I just clicked on one of its advertisements. That advertisement was of IncrediMail ( http://www.incredimail.com.)
IncrediMail is all about making your emails look a lot better and livelier by using animations, attractive backgrounds and even sounds. I liked the idea of making your emails look flashy and so decided to download it.
About IncrediMail (IM): My default mail client is Outlook Express (OE) and so I have basically compared the two (IM and OE) in this review on mine.
In my opinion the place where IncrediMail is better than Outlook Express, Eudora and other mail clients is the backgrounds of your email. I am not saying that these backgrounds are not present in other mail clients, just that they are better than in IncrediMail. There are a few options for choosing your background of emails in Outlook Express like “running birthday, technical” etc. However they aren’t all that exciting and are a limited few. These background options are much better in IncrediMail. You can even add animations and sounds to your emails.
If you feel that you require more backgrounds, animations and sounds then you can download them from their site https://incredimail.com.
In addition to the above features, another thing that I liked in IM is its 3D effects. There are 3D animated cartoons, which notify you about your new mails. There are three mail notifiers in the downloaded program and more can be obtained from the site. The other 3D animation shown at the time of doing other tasks such as deleting messages, sending messages etc just adds a little bit of spice to the process of sending and receiving mails.
Other features common to OE include switching identities, blocking sender etc.
The program downloaded from the net is free of cost, however if you don’t want the link of IncrediMail to be sent along with all your mails you have to buy it. There is an advertising bar at the top but it does not interfere with the working of the program. I haven’t checked out how much IM costs.
I would like to rate this product as 3 and half, but since this feature is not present I have rated it as 4.
Now for the drawbacks: As mentioned by me in the cons, IncrediMail is still not as good as Outlook Express. That is because it isn’t as customizable as Outlook Express.
As I connect to the net using a modem, I am not always connected on the net. So I have given this option in my Outlook Express that on clicking the “send” button, the messages must be saved in my outbox, and later on I can send the messages when I online by clicking “send receive”. This feature of sending messages directly to outbox on clicking “send” is not quite present in IncrediMail. You always have to go to “file” menu and choose the option “send later” in order to save the messages to outbox.
Secondly when you right click at some part in an email in IM there is no “save as” option. So if some friend of yours has sent you some images and instead of attaching the images he/she has pasted them in the message, you cannot directly save only the images on your hard disc. In order to save the images or attachments you have to first save the complete message at some other place like on the desktop or any other folder and then open the message in your Outlook Express. One conclusion that can be drawn is that IM should not be made your default mail client. Let your present mail client handle the work of the default email program.
However the good features are very good and IncrediMail is certainly worth giving a try.
