IBM Corp’s Lotus Development Corp has announced Release 7 of its cc:Mail for Windows product., which comes with enhancements including a redesigned user interface that is claimed to follow the Lotus Notes model, and to be more closely integrated with the Windows 95 desktop. The new interface is also claimed to allow users to mix font sizes and colors, and centre text within a message. Lotus has also added support for version 2.0 of Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology, allowing users to embed live data from ther applications in their mail messages. According to a spokesman, the company has gone with that, rather than the newer ActiveX, since OLE is a tried and tested technology, and ActiveX is more of a future one . However, Lotus has not ruled out support for both ActiveX and Java, and in fact has a prototype of a cc:Mail client written entirely in Java – not too major a job, since the original cc:Mail was written in the C++ programming language on which Java is based. A commercial release of a Java-based client is at least a couple of years away, however. Although Lotus is looking at both Java and ActiveX, it currently favors the former due to its broader cross-platform capabilities. Other new features are said to include message threading (to allow users to identify different messages with a common theme); nested folders, allowing users to store messages in a logical order by hierarchical categories; a preview pane designed to let users scan messages and act on them without actually opening them; messaging sorting, custom views and collapsible headers to allow users to organize their mailbox; a new set of rules, including nested rules for Boolean operations; and delegation, whereby it is possible to specify that another user takes charge of a mailbox. Automatic synchrononization of mailboxes has also been added – a feature aimed particularly at mobile users – as well as the ability to transfer any part of a mailbox to a laptop from a remote location. Again for mobile users, eight different connectivity methods are supported:asychronous; wireless; NetWare/ TCP/IP; X.25; ISDN; PABX; and direct connectivity. Lotus has also incorporated calendaring and scheduling capabilities from Lotus Organizer, and Lotus Forms functionality allowing users to automatically route forms such as expense reports. Finally, the company has implemented Microsoft’s Messaging API, MAPI, allowing Release 7 users to access cc:Mail post offices, as well as other MAPI-compliant message stores, and it also says that it is planning support for version 3 of the Post Office Protocol to help migration from LAN-based mail networks to an Internet/intranet wide area messaging backbone. Release 7 is to be sold as a standalone e-mail client, as well as in the cc:Mail Release 6 Systems Pack. It requires Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 or higher (a version for Windows 3.1 is planned for launch in Q4) and is to cost $55 per user in volume.
