95016 - Options | File Sent Message is nonsensical

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[Blake Ross]

There's a (new?) submenu in mail compose, Options > File Sent Message. I have no
idea what this does.  The fact that the menu is named "Options" doesn't help me...

Comment 1

[jglick]

All the things in the Mail Compose, Options menu are things you can do to or 
change regarding the current mail message. Such as change the message priority, 
message formatting, wrapping, etc.

File Sent Message. What it does is a "File Carbon Copy". It will place a copy of 
the message in a specified folder. For instance, you're sending a message, and 
just for this particular message, you want to place a copy of this message in 
your "XYZ Project" folder.  Its separate from the "Sent" mail folder. So if the 
user has a copy of messages going to a "Sent" folder, when an FCC is specified, 
a copy goes in the FCC folder and the Send folder. Its a nice way to place a 
copy of a sent message in a specified folder on a per message basis.

When we talked about this feature, folks thought "File Carbon Copy" (a term 
obtained from when secretaries used to place an additional copy of a typed 
letter in a client's folder) might not be clear. So "File Sent Message" was 
suggested. I agree this wording probably isn't much better. Some people might 
even understand "Fcc" better than "File Sent Message".  

Options: 
1. Change wording to "File Carbon Copy". At least this has a meaning in a typist 
world. (Just like Cc and Bcc do).

2. Take File Sent Message out of the Options menu. Make it a menu choice in the 
addressing area along with "To, Cc, Bcc, etc."  Maybe grouping it with these 
other items will help users understand the feature better?  If "Fcc" was 
selected, a dialog allowing them to choose a folder would open.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Comment 2

[Håkan Waara]

Don't mix Fcc with Bcc and friends, Fcc is strictly local as opposed to being
some way of sending out the email of the network.

There is also a fourth option:

4. Remove this feature completely, how often does one really use this? Is it
worth making other users confused for?   It's easy enough to just go to your
Sent folder and copy from there if you really want another copy.

Comment 3

[Blake Ross]

Yeah, someone explained this to me yesterday.  The reason I was confused was
because I thought File was a noun in that context, i.e. "File Sent" Message. 
(Okay, maybe that's odd, but I was an AOL user for awhile, and after you send
e-mail you get a message saying "File Sent" :-)  This assumption is further
validated by the name of the menu (Options) and the fact that the menu doesn't
seem to do anything right there, but instead takes effect after you send the
message (?)

Comment 4

[robinf]

I also think "File Sent Message" is confusing. I like Jennifer's suggestion #2.
I don't think it's confusing to add FCC to the addressing area even though the
FCC operation is local. I think it's convenient to find it grouped with the
other addressing choices.

Comment 5

[jglick]

I think the feature is useful and would like to see us keep it. Blake, you have 
any thoughts on how we might make this feature more clear?

Comment 6

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

This smells like it belongs in the `File' menu. After all, that's where you go 
if you want to save the message as its own file, which is not much different 
from saving the message in a particular mail folder.

Comment 7

[scottputterman]

moving to future as a bug for varada who I'm about to reassign to.  If agreement
can be reached on a better way of presenting this and someone else can fix it,
then feel free to move to a non-future milestone.

Comment 8

[jglick]

How about "Save a Copy To --->"? The flyout containing the available accts/folders.

Comment 9

[jglick]

Or "File Message Copy --->"

Comment 10

[Blake Ross]

Yeah.  Even just the addition of a "to" would clarify that File is a verb here,
and help this situation greatly.

Comment 11

[robinf]

------- Additional Comment #8 From [e-mail] 2001-12-28 10:16 -------

How about "Save a Copy To --->"? The flyout containing the available accts/folders.


I like "Save a Copy To" and list this command in the File menu instead of the
Options menu.

Comment 12

[jglick]

We already have in the File menu "Save as --> File, Draft or Template.

This is actually a different feature. Its a per message action (like return 
receipt (to be added shorty), or priority) that occurs, not when requested (like 
the File menu items mentioned above), but on actual sending of the message. Its 
sending out an additional copy and saving it to a specified folder. 

How about "Send a copy to-->" in the Options menu?

Comment 13

[robinf]

Thanks for clarifying. "Send a Copy To" in the Options menu sounds good.

Comment 14

[jglick]

If everyone is ok with this wording change, I'd like to ask Stephend if he might 
be interested/able to fixing this.

Comment 15

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Fix coming up. 

Comment 16

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Attachment: Fix

Comment 17

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Comment on attachment 69517 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix

whoops, I need to change the accesskey.  What should that be, now?

Comment 18

[jglick]

Please use "d" (Sen_d_ a Copy To).

Thanks so much for fixing. :-)

Comment 19

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Attachment: Final fix

Comment 20

[jglick]

Looks good. Thanks. r=jen.

Comment 21

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Fixed.  It'll show up in tomorrow's builds.

Comment 22

[laurel]

OK using mar18 commercial trunk build: win98, mac OS 9.2, linux rh6.2
Access key present and works.