The purpose of Account Central shouldn't be to make things harder, or
make extra steps for people. The purpose is to use the right pane for
something useful when an Account Level item is selected instead of
leaving it blank as it used to. Especially if less experienced users end
up with the account level selected by
accident (or curiosity), we show them something useful. I know Acct
Central currently isn't very attractive, but we are working on it (we
have our visual design guy looking at it as we speak). I also hope that
the value offered of Acct Central will increase overtime.
I would like to see it so that no one gets the Account Central page
first when they startup. (As I mentioned above, it shouldn't get in
anyone's way, but if users do end up here, there is useful stuff
available instead of a blank pane.) The Inbox for the default account
should be selected at startup.
If the default account is IMAP, "Log onto this account at startup" is
turned on when the account is created. If "Log onto..." is turned off
(mostly likely because the user was using a previous Moz version) and
this IMAP account is the default, the Inbox is still selected at
startup. 4. x works this way. Going to your Inbox directly when you
startup mail is the expected behavior. When additional IMAP accounts are
added, "Log onto this account at statup" is not turned on by default (to
avoid the user getting hit with multiple dialogs by default).
If a POP account is the first account setup (hence the default), I would
also like to see the "Log onto this account at startup" on by default.
Not only for consistency with the IMAP account, but because it is more
likely that a user does want to retrieve new messages when they startup
mail. Users can turn this off if they so desire. But if folks are
against that, select the Inbox of the default POP account at startup,
but don't get new mail. Additional POP accounts do not have "Log
onto..." turned on by default.
Agree that "Check for new mail at startup" sounds more understandable.
I think having a checkbox on the AccountCentral page that says "Next
time, take me to the Inbox directly" or something similar just adds
complexity. By default, we should take users to their Inbox of the
default account directly. We shouldn't force the Account Central page on
anyone.
Jen
bhuvan wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I would like list developments that have happened in the area of
> "Login at startup" and other issues that have surfaced since the
> landing of that feature work.
>
> We fixed several bugs (14301, 60668, 67327 ) to make user startup
> experience much better and to provide the flexibility of getting new
> messages for multiple accounts. A checkbox in each (POP and IMAP)
> server panel with pref "Log onto this account at startup of mail"
> allowed users to select one or more accounts for which he/she wishes
> to get new messages for. This is turned 'off' by default. Part of this
> discussion is also to invite people's ideas on the default state of
> this pref given the type the account (POP or IMAP). Also, a point to
> note here is that all those accounts created prior to this feature
> will never this pref. So, logically "login at startup" is turned 'off'
> for those accounts too.
>
> Prior to effecting the above change, we always selected default
> account Inbox (twisty open server and select Inbox, if needed) and
> downloaded messages for that account (POP or IMAP). So, with the
> advent pref "Log onto this account at startup", we needed to obey that
> pref and stop getting new messages for default accounts unless
> otherwise chosen by the user. So, if the user selects to not to login
> at startup onto the default account, today the account name is
> selected (to avoid server query particularly in case of IMAP) and
> AccountCentral page is displayed on the right-hand side. So, all those
> users who never had this pref turned 'on' (remember, as explained in
> the above paragraph, all those who have had mail accounts prior to
> this login pref, logically had this option unchecked). So. a segment
> of people started getting AccountCentral page on the right-hand side
> as the default account name is selected in the folder pane on the
> left-hand side. I agree that it is confusing to those who are not
> aware of login at start pref. One solution here is that user can go
> to the server settings of the default account and select to login at
> startup, then Inbox for default account is selected (causing the
> thread pane and message pane to appear instead of AccountCentral on
> the right) and new messages are fetched at the next startup. However,
> it is not very obvious for a novice user. So, as suggested in bug
> (66460 ), having a checkbox on the AccountCentral page that says "Next
> time, take me to the Inbox directly" or something similar would help
> people get to the inbox directly and get new messages in subsequent
> sessions.
>
> So, with so many scenarios in front of us, we have couple of choices
> to make about the startup behavior wrt to following issues.
>
> 1. Login at startup pref : Possibly rename/rephrase it to "Check
> for new mail at startup" to make it more clear and close to the
> actions we would like to perform.
>
> 2. Pref behavior :
>
Pref POP (default POP(non IMAP (default IMAP (non
state \ account) default account) default
Account account) account)
Type
(state)
"on" Select the Login if Select the Inbox. Login and
Inbox, login needed and This will hence cause
if needed either get automatically get new
(i.e., if new messages cause the login messages.
password is here OR just (brings up
not run Biff password dialog if
remembered) like we did needed) and gets
and run Biff for default new messages.
so that we get Known and expected
an indication behavior.
on the account
level if there
are new
messages to
download.
"off" Just select No action Select Account No action
the Inbox. needed here. folder. needed
AccountCentral is here.
displayed on the
right. As
mentioned earlier,
we can have a
checkbox that will
give user a choice
to go to Inbox
directly. If the
user decides to
check that box
'on', then pref to
'check mail at
startup' will be
automatically
turned 'on'.
>
> 3. Pref default value : From all the discussions that have been
> going on in the newsgroups and bugs, here are the set of default
> values.
>
Pref \Account POP (default POP (non IMAP (default IMAP (non
type account) default) account default)
Check new mail off off on off
at startup
>
> 4. Any suggestions wrt AccountCentral, with or without the check box I
> have mentioned, are welcome (bug 66376).
>
> The goal is to provide a good startup experience with mail
> application. Some of the ideas mentioned above are collected from the
> bugs and the previous and news articles. Thanks to all those who have
> participating in these issues. It will be nice to hear feedback from
> all of you on these issues. Please feel free to correct any of the
> above or to propose something better.
>
> thanks
> bhuvan
