Open previously created archives. You have two possibilities. "Open Archive..." shows you a file dialog, where you can open archives. "Open recent" remembers the last 5 open archives. Only one archive can be open at the same time.
The internal viewer and the Filemaker database have a similar interface. There are two main layouts. The "Record" layout and the "List" one. The "Record" layout shows one record or mail. The upper part of the layout shows the main information of a mail like the Originator, the Receiver, Date, Mailbox and Subject. The "Body" tab contains the message body of a mail. The "Attachment" tab shows the attachments, if available. The "Header" tab contains the more esoteric parts of the header and is included for completeness. Click on the tab sheet with the darker color to make it active. The last layout viewed before closing, the position and the size of the window will be saved to the preferences.
Change between main layouts by clicking on the View icon.
At the bottom of the "Attachment" tab, there is a button with a menu to export the attachments of the current mail.
"Export" saves the currently selected attachment. "Export all" doesn't need a selection to save all attachments. If "Reveal in Finder" has a checkmark, the attachment is shown in the Finder.
When an attachment is double clicked it is exported to the Desktop and opened with the associated application. Also an attachment can be dragged and dropped to the Desktop.
The "List" layout contains the following fields: Originator, Receiver, Date, Subject, Mailbox and Message Body. The width of the columns can be adjusted and will be saved to the preferences. The Message Body is shown at the bottom. The height can be adjusted and the Message Body can be completely hidden. The Filemaker browser has fixed field widths and does not show the Message Body.
Searching can be started by clicking on the "Search" button or from the menu. Now you can enter your search criteria. The search from the screenshot searches for mails with
Originator like "support" and Date > 1.1.2006
The search criteria are combined with a logical "and" (all search criteria have to be fulfilled at the same time). The search in text fields works as a "like" (searching for "support" finds all mails, where "support" is at the beginning, the middle or the end of the field). For dates you need to enter a comparison operator like >, < or = and a valid date.
Clicking on the "Search" button or the menu again executes the search. If no records are found, then all records are selected. Search in the "List" layout works similarly.
When text is entered in the Search Field a search for Originator, Receiver, Subject, Body or all of these fields can be done. The search is started after a return is entered. The search field can be changed in the drop down menu.
Ordering is done with the menu Browse/Order by, which has the following entries:
Select one menu entry and the current selection of mails is reordered. Any new search also has this order. You can also re-order in List view by clicking on one of the headers. The search order is saved to the preferences.
The Filemaker browser relies on the inbuilt searching capabilities of Filemaker.
You can reply to a selected mail in three variations. "Reply to" replies with the selected text of the message body to the author of the mail. "Reply to all" replies with the selected text of the message body to the author and the CCs. "Forward" creates a quoted mail without a recipicient. The mail is created in the currently selected mail application. Because the Mozilla and Netscape are not AppleScriptable, only a new mail with recipient and subject can be created. The message body of a mail cannot be set.
Note: This functionality is only partly available in the Filemaker browser and uses the Internet preferences to select the mail application.
The selected mail can be deleted with "Delete Record ...". When Ctrl is pressed, the mail is deleted without asking.
"Delete found Records ..." deletes all currently found mails. Before deleting the user is asked, if this really is intended.
"Show All" selects all records in the archive. This undos any search and restores dropped mails.
"Drop Record" drops the current mail from the search result. The record is not deleted. The mail can be made visible again with a "Select all" or another search.
The menu items of File/Database give you the possiblity to get information about your database and its problems and do simply trouble shooting.