Outclass 1.2.4.0 Release Notes

Outclass: Version 1.2.4.0 RELEASE NOTES

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IMPORTANT! READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT BEFORE USING OUTCLASS 1.2.4.0

Especially if you're using Outlook 2000 or Upgrading

Now that I have your attention. Please read this guide carefully. It contains the answers to almost every question I've ever been asked. If you're thinking of asking me a question, please check and double-check to make sure it is not answered here first! Thanks!

Terms

To help make things clearer, the following terms are used:

Bucket: A bucket is a somehwat nebulous term referring to what type of message a particular message is. Outclass creates two buckets for you by default: Spam and Allowed. Messages that Outclass thinks are spam are assigned to the Spam bucket. Messages it believes are Allowed are assigned to the Allowed bucket.
Classify: The act of determining which bucket a message belongs to, such as spam, allowed, etc.
Handle: Once a message has been classified, Outclass will handle it. This means it will move it to the appropriate folder based upon the classification. For example, spam is handled by moving it to the Junk folder.
Corpus: The corpus is the database kept by the POPFile engine where it records what it has learned from the way you have classified your messages. When the corpus is updated, entries are added to it that help it improve its accuracy.

New Outclass Column

This column shows how a message was classified. It is shown by default for all inboxes that you are monitoring, but only if you are using Outlook 2002. If you are using Outlook 2000 or want to see the column for other folders under Outlook 2002, you need to manually enable it for any folder in which you wish to view it.

To do that, you need to right-click the column header of the folder in which you wish to enable the Outclass column and select Field Chooser.

In the Field Chooser palette that comes up, select User-defined fields in Foldername (Foldername will be the name of the folder you're adding the column to).

You should see an Outclass entry listed. If you do not, don't worry. Just click the New... button. If Outclass is already listed, skip to the next step. Otherwise, create a new Outclass item as shown to the right. The Type and Format should both be Text.

Drag the Outclass header from the Field Chooser box to the Outlook folder header bar. Close the Field Chooser -- you're done. Repeat for any folders that you want the Outclass column to show up in.

Training Mode

THERE IS NO MORE TRAINING MODE DIALOG! Instead, training mode works as follows:
When a new message arrives, it is classified into a certain bucket, but it is NOT MOVED TO THE CORRESPONDING FOLDER. In other words, ALL mail will remain in your Inbox. This allows you to verify that messages are being classified correctly before turning off training mode. If a message is classified incorrectly, simply "Mark" it as the appropriate type and it will be reclassified. The classification in the Outclass column will update immeidately. Once you are happy that spam is being identified as spam, etc., you can turn off training mode and any new messages you receive will automatically classified and handled according to the rules you've set up in the Options.

Also, the Classify Now button behaves differently when Training Mode is enabled. If a message is unclassified, the first click of Classify Now will classify it, but it will not be handled. The second click of Classify Now, or selecting Classify Now when a message has already been classified will handle it.

One notable exception to the new Training Mode behavior is Hotmail. A message cannot be modified in-place with Outlook 2002's Hotmail support and therefore classification cannot be saved within the message's meta data. Therefore, even if Training Mode is enabled, messages in a Hotmail account will always be classified and handled.

The Outclass Toolbar

Click this button to access Outclass options. Exploring the options is a very important part of configuring Outclass for best operation. More on options later.

Click this button to manually classify and handle a message. See Training Mode above for information regarding the operation of Classify Now in Training Mode. If a message has already been classified and is already in its proper destination folder (i.e., has already been handled correctly), clicking this button will do nothing.

This button allows you to safely view a message you suspect might be spam. Spam can sometimes contain what is known as a "web bug." The effect of web bugs is that by simply viewing a message in Outlook, you end up confirming your address as a valid address to spammers. This gets you added to more spam lists and then you get more spam. Always use SafeView to view a message you suspect is spam. It will look ugly (you'll see the raw HTML instead of fancy graphics and text), but you won't trigger any web bugs.

If a message was incorrectly classified as Spam, select it and click this button to reclassify it as Allowed. When you click this button, the selected messages are reclassified and the corpus is updated. This button is the exact same one as the one that appears under the Reclassify menu. You can hide this button by setting the appropriate setting in the Outclass Options.

If a message was incorrectly classified as Allowed, select it and click this button to reclassify it as Spam. When you click this button, the selected messages are reclassified and the corpus is updated. This button is the exact same one as the one that appears under the Reclassify menu. You can hide this button by setting the appropriate setting in the Outclass Options.

This menu allows you to correct the classification of a misclassified or unclassified message. All buckets are listed under this menu as opposed to the main toolbar where bucket buttons can be selectively enabled. If a message was incorrectly classified into a particular bucket, select it and click the appropriate bucket button under this menu to reclassify it. When you click this button, the selected messages are reclassified and the corpus is updated.

Outclass Options

The first page of the options is your list of Inboxes and Buckets.

The Inbox list, at the top, shows all of the Inboxes you are currently monitoring. Only mail that arrives into a monitored Inbox is classified and handled by Outclass. Inbox is a figurative name. It does not necessarily need to point to a folder named Inbox. You can monitor any folder. When a new item is added to the monitored folder, it is automatically classified and handled according to the rules you've defined for that Inbox.

Add/Edit/Delete are self-explanatory. Use Set as Default to select one Inbox as your default Inbox. There is really no special meaning for the Default inbox except that it is the one that is automatically selected if you enable the "Automatically go to Default Inbox" option on the Settings tab. See the documentation for the Settings tab for more information.

The Bucket list, at the bottom, shows all of the buckets that you have defined. You can create as many buckets as you like without affecting accuracy to any appreciable degree. By default, Outclass will create the Allowed and Spam buckets for you.

Adding/Editing an Inbox

Adding a new Inbox is one of the most complicated things you'll do with Outclass. But with the great flexibility of the Inbox dialog also comes great power. There are basically three steps to setting up an Inbox:

Select the Inbox you want to monitor.
Click the select Inbox button and select the folder you want to monitor or use the Create button to create it. When new messages arrive, or are placed, in the selected folder they will be automatically classified and handled.
Select a bucket from the list on the right.
All of your buckets are listed here. You must select each one and choose what to do when a message is classified into that bucket.
Choose an action to perform when a message is classified as a certain bucket. This is how you define the Handler for a bucket.

Clear as mud?
Say this sentence to yourself:
If a message arrives in ________ and is classified as __________, handle it by doing _________.

For example, let's set up a new Inbox to monitor email deliverd to Personal Folders:Inbox. First, click the Add... button below the Inboxes to bring up the New Inbox dialog. Now click the "Select Inbox" button and select the Inbox folder under Personal Folders.

Now, select the Allowed bucket from the bucket list on the right of the New Inbox dialog. The area at the bottom of the dialog is enabled. Select the Move the message to radio button. Click the Select Destination Folder... button. Select the same folder that you selected to monitor. I know this doesn't make much sense. Why would we want to move the message to the folder it came from? Well, the answer is that the Reclassify option also uses these rules. By selecting the folder here, you are telling the Reclassify option that messages that are classified into the Allowed bucket belong in the Inbox folder. So if a message is incorrectly classified as spam and you choose Mark as Allowed, it will automatically be moved back to the Inbox. Make sense?

Now we also want to be notified when we receive email that is allowed. So select the Show an Icon in the System Tray option and also, since we're feeling frisky, let's set a sound. Click the Play a Sound option and then use the Browse button to locate your favorite WAV file.

Now, select the Spam bucket from the bucket list on the right. Notice that the action area of the dialog changes. Select the action you wish to take when a message is classified into the Spam bucket. Let's move our Spam to the Junk folder. So select the Move the message to option, click the Select Destination Folder... button and select your Junk folder (or create it).
When we receive spam, we don't want to know about it. So make sure the Show an Icon in the System Tray and Play a Sound boxes are unchecked. Note for Outlook 2002 Users: You must also disable the Microsoft New Mail notification feature. You can do this from Tools | Options | E-mail Options | Advanced E-mail Options. (Since there is no way to disable the option in Outlook 2000, Outclass will automatically kill the icon for Outlook 2000 if the System Tray icon is enabled for any Outclass handler).

Using Inbox monitors, you can define a multitude of actions, through a matrix of Inbox, Bucket, and Handler. Just because Spam that comes into one folder is moved to the Junk folder, it doesn't mean that Spam that comes into another folder needs to be. You can have it deleted immediately instead. You can even use the Handler functionality to move a message that arrives in an Inbox on one account to a folder in another account. You can also get very convoluted and implement Inbox chaining where a message is moved from one monitored inbox to another monitored inbox which might move it to another monitored inbox, and so on. Keep in mind that there is no protection built against you doing stupid stuff. If you set up a circular loop, you'll likely cause a crash or at least a lockup. So be careful if you decide to use Inbox chaining.

Adding/Editing a Bucket

When you add a bucket, you add an additional "type" of message that Outclass can learn to identify. There are four parts to a bucket.

One is the bucket name. This is the name that shows up in the Outclass column in your message lists and is also used as the short name for the bucket wherever required (such as in the New/Edit Inbox dialog).

The second part is the button label. This is the text that appears on the button in the Reclassify menu. If you select to show the button for the bucket on the main toolbar, the text is also used there. To define a shortcut key for the bucket (like Alt+A for Mark as Allowed), use an & prefix. For example, if the button label is Mark as &Allowed, it will be shown in the Outclass toolbar and Reclassify menu as Mark as Allowed which will then allow you to activate the button by typing Alt+A on the keyboard.

The third part is the button image. A default image is shown and will be used unless you specify another one. Outclass ships with several images you can use for your buckets or you can create your own. If you create your own, it must meet the following criteria: It must be 16 pixels by 16 pixels and must be an 8-bit (256 color) bitmap (.BMP) file. Whatever color is at the 0,0 location will be used as the background mask for transparency.

The fourth and final part is the selection of whether or not to display the button on the main toolbar. If you check the Show This Button on the Main Toolbar, the button for the bucket will be shown on the main Outclass toolbar to the left of the Reclassify button. If the box is unchecked, it will be shown under the Reclassify menu only. The button will always show up under the Reclassify menu regardless of this setting.

General Settings

General Outclass settings are available on the second tab, which is labeled Settings. The following options are available:

Automatically go to my Default Inbox when I launch Outlook
Select this option to automatically go to your default inbox when Outlook is launched. See the Inbox and Buckets tab for information on setting the default Inbox.
This option is pretty much useful only for people whose mail is primarily stored on an IMAP server. This will enable you to have Outlook startup with your IMAP Inbox open by default.
Classify Unread messages when Outlook starts
If you receive a lot of email when Outlook is closed, the next time you start up Outlook, it may fail to notify Outclass of any messages that were received while Outlook was closed. If you find that happening to you, enable this option. With this option enabled, when Outlook is started, Outclass will automatically classify all Unread messages that are unclassified in all of your monitored Inboxes.
Enable Training Mode
This option is selected by default for new installations. In Training Mode, any new messages that arrive in your Inboxes are classified, but they are not handled. See Training Mode above for more information.
Automatically add 'Outclass' column to monitored inboxes
This option will automatically add the Outclass column to all monitored Inboxes (if it doesn't already exist) when starting Outlook. This feature does not work under Outlook 2000 and checking it will have no effect. To add the column to non-Inbox folders or to Outlook 2000 folders, see the Outclass Column help above.
Re-enable disabled dialog boxes
Check this option to enable any miscellaneous dialog boxes where you may have checked the Do not show this message again option.

Whitelist and Mangets

The Whitelist and Magnets tab provides a way for you to hard-code message classifications based on the Sender, the Recipient, or the Subject. You can also import your Contacts into a whitelist.

To add a new item to your whitelist, select the the part of the message to look at: From, To, or Subject. (Note: To will look at the To and CC fields -- it also looks at the BCC field, but it would be very odd if the BCC ever contained anything on a received message). In the matches box, enter the text you wish to match. You should use regular expression syntax for defining wildcards. In the always classify it as box, select the bucket you want messages that match the rule to go into.

You may desire to import your entire address book into a particular bucket, such as 'Allowed' (unless you hate everyone in your address book, in which case you might want them all classified as spam). You can import them quickly by using the Import from Contacts button as opposed to entering each one manually. Before you click the button, select the bucket you wish all of your contacts' messages to go into. Then click the Import button. You may see the following dialog box:

If you see the above box, you should probably check the Allow access for checkbox and select 1 minute or you will be prompted for every contact. Up to three Email addresses for each contact are imported.

Miscellaneous Features

Start up with Outclass disabled
You can start Outlook with Outclass disabled by holding down the Shift key as you launch Outlook. Press the Shift key before you launch Outlook and keep it held down as Outlook launches until you are prompted to disable Outclass. When you disable Outclass, it is only disabled for a single session. If you exit and restart Outlook, Outclass will again be enabled.

Issues and Troubleshooting

When I classify an unclassified message, nothing happens or I see 0 Message(s) Classified
This is by design. Only messages that are in folders that are involved in the classification and handling process can be classified or handled. In other words, if the folder the message is in is not a monitored Inbox and none of the Handlers in any monitored Inbox move messages into the folder, classification will not work for that folder. The reason for this is quite simple -- what would Outclass do with the message? It hasn't been told how to handle the message, so it doesn't know what to do with it, so it ignores it.

The Outclass-POPFile Perl process has been terminated. Please restart Outlook.
This message indicates that you have most likely installed an incompatible version of POPFile. Outclass 1.2.4.0 requires POPFile 0.19.0. If you do have an earlier version of POPFile installed, you will see this message guaranteed. If you have a newer version of POPFile installed, you may or may not see this message, but if you do, that would be a likely place to start your investigation.
Another cause of this problem is not having chosen to install the Perl libraries when you installed POPFile or having a conflicting version of Perl installed on your computer. Please ensure that you install POPFile's Perl option when installing POPFile.

Icon backgrounds are not transparent or all icons are the same on the Outclass toolbar
Thanks to help from Marcus S., I finally know the solution to this problem. However, the fix is somewhat complicated. There are two strings that are loaded to the Clipboard to identify the button image and its mask. In English, these are "Toolbar Button Face" and "Toolbar Button Mask." However, Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom decided to translate these for every language they support. So if you are using a German version of Outlook, the strings are "Oberfläche der Symbolleisten-Schaltfläche" and "Maske der Symbolleisten-Schaltfläche" -- nice, isn't it?

So in order for me to fix the issue for the particular language version of Outlook that you are using, I need to know what those strings are for your language version. You can help me determine what they should be. If you are encountering this problem and you are using Outlook 2000 (not 2002/XP), or have access to an Outlook 2000 installation in your language, contact me and I will give you instructions on how to help me extract the strings I need.

The Outclass toolbar has disappeared or is empty and you're running Outlook 2002 or higher
Outlook has disabled Outclass. Do the following:

Launch Outlook 2002
Go to the Help menu and select About Microsoft Outlook
Click the Disabled Items button
Select Outclass in the list
Click Enable
Close Outlook 2002 and restart it

I'll never understand why Microsoft hid that "feature" in the About dialog.

Messages aren't being classified on startup
Given the new underpinnings of Outclass, this should be a rare occurrence.

However, should it occur for you, there is a built-in startup delay in Outclass of 10 seconds. This is intended to allow Outlook enough time to load and initialize itself before Outclass starts looking at messages. If you find that messages are still not being classified properly, you can try increasing this delay. Doing so is not currently supported from the GUI interface, so you will have to use the registry editor to increase the value of the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Vargon Software\Outclass\SleepOnStart

The default value is 10. Set this value to the number of seconds you want Outclass to delay on startup before attempting to classify new messages. Note that this setting will only affect Outlook how long Outclass delays before classification when Outlook is started -- not at any other time -- and will only have an effect if the Check Unread Messages at Startup option is enabled.

Customizing the Outclass interface
It is not currently possible to customize the Outclass interface using Outlook's built-in toolbar customization tools. This is due to a design decision in creating Outclass. All Outclass buttons are temporary and are recreated each time you start Outlook. If you do customize the buttons using Outlook's capabilities, the customizations will be lost the next time you start Outlook.
At present, you can customize some of which buttons appear via the buckets dialog. More such customizations will be added in future versions.

Outclass is provided as-is. Use Outclass at your own risk. I am not responsible for anything, including, but not limited to, the spontaneous combustion of your computer.

Outclass was created by A. Gandhi (vargon@vargon.com)

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	Click this button to access Outclass options. Exploring the options is a very important part of configuring Outclass for best operation. More on options later.
	Click this button to manually classify and handle a message. See Training Mode above for information regarding the operation of Classify Now in Training Mode. If a message has already been classified and is already in its proper destination folder (i.e., has already been handled correctly), clicking this button will do nothing.
	This button allows you to safely view a message you suspect might be spam. Spam can sometimes contain what is known as a "web bug." The effect of web bugs is that by simply viewing a message in Outlook, you end up confirming your address as a valid address to spammers. This gets you added to more spam lists and then you get more spam. Always use SafeView to view a message you suspect is spam. It will look ugly (you'll see the raw HTML instead of fancy graphics and text), but you won't trigger any web bugs.
	If a message was incorrectly classified as Spam, select it and click this button to reclassify it as Allowed. When you click this button, the selected messages are reclassified and the corpus is updated. This button is the exact same one as the one that appears under the Reclassify menu. You can hide this button by setting the appropriate setting in the Outclass Options.
	If a message was incorrectly classified as Allowed, select it and click this button to reclassify it as Spam. When you click this button, the selected messages are reclassified and the corpus is updated. This button is the exact same one as the one that appears under the Reclassify menu. You can hide this button by setting the appropriate setting in the Outclass Options.
	This menu allows you to correct the classification of a misclassified or unclassified message. All buckets are listed under this menu as opposed to the main toolbar where bucket buttons can be selectively enabled. If a message was incorrectly classified into a particular bucket, select it and click the appropriate bucket button under this menu to reclassify it. When you click this button, the selected messages are reclassified and the corpus is updated.