[G4] How do I Reply to a Post?

[Al Poulin]

Jim:

Several months ago, I quit the digest mode for this list and the others 
that have the ".themacintoshguy.com" server address.  That is because 
the digests stopped coming out daily, even if there was only one item 
for the day.  It seemed the digests would collect items over a period 
of days until some numerical threshold came about, and some of the 
items were therefore many days old before I saw them.

OK, for the lowendmac and other e-lists where I still enjoy the digest 
mode, there are three things to accomplish.  Depending on the specific 
mail client that I use, today OS X Mail, and several months ago, 
Outlook Express, the specific button pushing and procedure is 
different.  With Mail, the process is a bit more clumsy than with 
Outlook Express.

Highlight only the individual message to which you reply.  Then hit the 
Reply button.

Ensure that your "From" address is the same as the address you used to 
subscribe to the list.  If you have more than one e-mail account, a 
different account name may appear in your From line.

Change the Subject line that results from your highlighting action to 
read something different than the title of the list.  Usually, I just 
copy and paste the specific subject of the poster's message.  If the 
subject is changing within the thread, it is usually appropriate to 
insert a new subject title, ending the new title with the old subject 
in parentheses.

And, like I am doing in this reply, you have the option of putting the 
poster's e-mail address in the Cc: line to ensure that the person 
receives your reply quicker than waiting for the digest.

In OS X Mail, the problem with this process is that when I hit Reply, 
the incoming digest message window disappears.  So, when I want to 
continue reading the digest, I have to go back to the Inbox to reopen 
it.  Or, if I want to adjust my treatment of my reply text by getting 
something that I had deleted, I have to reopen the digest.

On Feb 15, 2005, at 3:10 PM, Jim Thornton wrote:

> I've made a few posts to this list, but I don't know how to reply to an
> existing post/thread. I receive the digest version, so it doesn't seem
> likely that I'd just hit "reply" to continue the thread of an 
> individual
> message within a digest. Further, the "Message-ID" seems to contain 
> the ISP
> of the poster of that message, so I wouldn't expect that to be the way 
> to
> reply to the entire list. I'm stumped. Thanks for any help you can 
> give.

Hope this helps, try it.

Al Poulin
Anger, hate, and revenge are for the devil, forgiveness is for God, 
proactive self-defense is for the rest of us.