MailAssistant v1.4 - Speaking email notifier
Speech assistant for previewing and reading emails
	(Christmas Edition)
Santa reads emails to you and sings a Christmas song
--------------------------------------------------
		(Evaluation Copy)
Email : mailassistant@pppindia.com
Website : http://www.pppindia.com/intl/mailassistant
----------------------------------------------
For Help go to Start-->Programs-->MailAssistant
----------------------------------------------
Also see "Installation notes" from the MailAssistant program group

MailAssistant - 
* reads out email messages in natural human voice.
* notifies you of new emails 
* reads clipboard 
* reads any text from webpages, documents etc 

MailAssistant is an innovative email notification sofware that 
reads out email messages aloud and notifies you of new messages 
as they arrive. You can quickly preview the sender's address,
subject, size and abstract of each message and optionally save or
delete the messages before downloading from your email accounts.
You can also use MailAssistant to read webpages, documents and
even clipboard with natural-sounding, understandable voice. 
Periodically checks emails, supports unlimited pop3 acocunts,
runs in system tray, proxy support for lan users and
comes with an adorable and customizable animation wizard.

MailAssistant Features:
-----------------------

* MailAssistant can be scheduled to check your account at a user-defined 
interval, and to read each message aloud so that you will be able to 
quickly react to critical email messages. 

* Reads out the abstract of each message in a natural-sounding,
understandable voice. 

* Quickly view the abstract of each message without downloading 
the entire message.

* Save the abstract of large messages and delete them without 
  downloading. 

* Supports unlimited POP3 accounts.

* Runs as an icon in system tray.

* You can read contents of the ClipBoard quickly by right-clicking 
on the system tray icon. Or by just pressing the "Pause" key.
Copy any text from webpages, documents into
clipboard and MailAssistant will read it for you.

* MailAssistant comes with a TextReader to read out text files 
running several pages. So MailAssistant not only reads email messages
but also text files in your hard disk and in the clipboard.

* Launch your favourite email client directly from MailAssistant

* Can work behind any proxy/firewall (SOCKS) server that enables 
its use even in a corporate environment.

* Replace the existing animated character at any time with some 
other character.

* Option to launch MailAssistant in Windows Startup.

* You can also use MailAssistant without the speech capability
to preview messages in your mailbox.


Minimum System Requirements:
----------------------------

* Pentium with 16 MB of RAM
* Operating system - Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000
* Microsoft Java Virtual Machine* (JVM) / IE 5
* Atleast one POP3 account
* Sound card / speaker (if you want speech capability)
 
Note: You must have IE 5 installed with Java Virtual Machine to 
run MailAssistant. If you don't like to install IE5, just 
install the Microsoft JVM alone from 
http://mskyus.www.conxion.com/msdownload/java/vm/3167/MSJavx86.exe
Or see the (install.txt) "Installation notes" from the 
MailAssistant program group.
If you have Windows Me or Windows 2000, then the JVM is already 
installed in your system. 


Installation:
-------------
Run the setup program maspeak.exe. This will automatically
install MailAssistant and creates icons in program group
and desktop.

Start MailAssistant by clicking the icon in the program
group or by double clicking the icon in the desktop.

You will see the MailAssistant settings window along with
the animated character - Merlin or Santa for Christmas Edition
Minimize or close the window to make the program to sit
in the system tray.

Setting Up Email Accounts in MailAssistant
------------------------------------------

When you run MailAssistant, the Settings window will be opened.

You can also access the Settings window by (single) clicking
the MailAssistant icon in system tray.

From the menu, choose "Setup" and click "POP accounts"
Then Click "Add". 
Fill up your POP3 account information.
If you have more than one pop3 account, then select the one
which you want it to be the default by clicking the 
"Set as default" button.

Close/Minimize the MailAssistant window to minimize the program
into the system tray.

MailAssistant Configuration
---------------------------
When you right click the MailAssistant icon in the system tray
you will see the following options:-

CheckMail Window
TextReader
Settings
Read ClipBoard
Exit
About

CheckMail Window (right click MailAssistant icon in system tray)
----------------
You can see all your message headers in this screen alongwith
the list of pop3 accounts, if you have setup more than one 
pop3 account.

From this screen you can quickly preview the entire message,
delete one or more messages from the server, or see the abstract
of a particular message.

Note: 
When you doube click the pop3 account, MailAssistant will
retrieve all message headers from the pop3 server afresh.


Listen to your email messages with MailAssistant
------------------------------------------------
A cartoon character will automatically pop up and read out 
the message header (message number, From address, Subject 
and message size) then the abstract of the message as soon as 
a message arrives in your email account. By default it will 
read the first 5 lines of the message.

You can start/stop MailAssistant from the checking the
pop3 server for messages using the Start and Stop buttons.
Stop button is to totally stop MailAssistant from checking
for email whereas "Disconnect" option is to stop the email
checking for the specified/selected email account. 
Disconnect button will not disconnect your dialup connection.

Other configurations in MailAssistant 
-------------------------------------

You can access the MailAssistant Settings window either
by a single click over the MailAssistant tray icon or by
right clicking the icon and selecting "Settings"

Pull down the "Setup" menu and you will see the following
options:-

POP Accounts - To add, view/modify or delete email accounts.

File/Path - To set the path to your favourite email client
		and to set/change the cartoon character files.

Interval/Messages/Other - 
	To specify the number of lines of the
	message that should be retrieved or read out.
	This setting is applied when you click the 
	"Abstract" button Or when you double click a 
	particular message from the checkmail window.

	Time Interval - To specify the time interval
	for checking emails.

	Pitch - To increase/decrease the pitch
		Affects the nature of voice of the cartoon character.
		Higher the value, the more feminine and younger it
		sounds. Maximum is 450, Minimum value is 50

	Load on Windows Startup - Enable this if you want the 
			MailAssistant program to load automatically
			on Windows startup.

Update Multimedia & Speech - Necessary only when there is an update
to the multimedia component of MailAssistant. If you have downloaded
a non-multimedia version of MailAssistant, then use this option
to update the multimedia component.

Clear - This option clears the messages that are displayed in the
status window.
	
TextReader in MailAssistant
---------------------------
Apart from reading out the email messages, cartoon character in
MailAssistant can also read any text file, either fully or 
the select text.
Right click the tray icon and select "TextReader"
Click File and Open any text file from your harddisk.
Then Click "Read" and select "Full text" if you want to read
out the entire text and "Selected text" if have blocked/highlighted
any text.

Read ClipBoard
--------------
The cartoon character in MailAssistant can also read
any text contents in the clipboard.
Right click the tray icon and select "Read ClipBoard"


Launch your favourite Mail client from MailAssistant
----------------------------------------------------
From the Setup menu click "File Path"
Click Browse and select the executable file of the email client.
Or you can ask the MailAssistant to search for the executable file
by clicking the "Find" button and selecting the email client
you would like to use.

NOTE:
-----
Always launch your email client from MailAssistant through
the CheckMail Window (by clicking the "Launch EmailClient")
button AND not directly from windows program group/shortcut.
This is to avoid the pop3 account lock error.


Change the cartoon character that reads your messages
-----------------------------------------------------
First Download and install the cartoon character file(s)
from the links given below.

http://agent.microsoft.com/agent2/chars/merlin.exe (Merlin the Wizard)
http://agent.microsoft.com/agent2/chars/peedy.exe (Peedy the parrot)
http://agent.microsoft.com/agent2/chars/genie.exe (Genie)
http://www.msagentring.org/download.asp?char=santa (Santa)
http://www.pppindia.com/software/mailassistant/bill.exe (Bill)
http://www.msagentring.org/download.asp?char=birdie (Birdie)
http://www.msagentring.org/download.asp?char=max (Max the dog)


Visit MailAssistant website for exciting new animated 3D characters 
that are available for download. To resume broken downloads, 
use GetAgain. Download GetAgain from http://www.pppindia.com/intl/getagain/software/getagain10.exe
or from http://www.pppindia.com/intl/getagain 

By default the cartoon character file (.acs extension) will be 
installed in \WINDOWS\MSAGENT\chars folder
Right click the tray icon and select "Settings". 
Or left click to access the "Settings" window.
From the Setup menu click "File Path"
Under "Character File" option click "Browse"
Specify the character file you have installed.

Close MailAssistant
------------------
Right click the MailAssistant tray icon and select "Exit". 

How to temporarily Stop MailAssistant program from reading 
out the text or email messages ?

Just right click the cartoon character that is speaking and click hide.

Shareware & Registration
-----------------------
Shareware is a marketing practice allowing the consumer to 
try before buying. If the user continues to use the program, 
he or she is encouraged to pay the registration fee. 
MailAssistant is Shareware. 

Registration fee is US$20

If you are using MailAssistant for more than 30 days you should
register. See License Agreement (license.txt)

Visit MailAssistant website at
http://www.pppindia.com/intl/mailassistant for the registration
information and Online ordering.


Want more features in MailAssistant ?
-----------------------------------
If you feel a specific feature is not included in this version
then email us, we will include it in the next version.
Contact us :
-----------
Support email : support@pppindia.com
Enquiries : mailassistant@pppindia.com
Website : http://www.pppindia.com/intl/mailassistant

For MailAssistant distribution, marketing, OEM arrangements
contact: pbabu@pppindia.com, B.Parameshwar Babu, Developer

MailAssistant,  Copyright  1999-2000 PPP Infotech Ltd., 
All rights reserved. 
Microsoft Agent Technology(TM) is from Microsoft Corporation.
The characters "Genie", "Merlin", "Peedy" are 
Copyright  Microsoft Corporation. 
All brand names and registered trademarks acknowledged. 
