Eudora 6.1 is a free (sort of) email client that may suit anyone looking for more control over their email. It's a mature package, similar in scope and approach to Microsoft's Outlook. Eudora's main appal is that it's quick, powerful, and isn't targeted by malicious coders -- most viruses use the Windows address book to spread their poison. It's far from perfect though: the interface is ugly, the screen quickly becomes filled with windows, and it's far from intuitive. That said, the software is highly customisable and can be downloaded for free.
Eudora is available in different versions: Sponsored mode is completely free, but ads are placed in the toolbars; Paid mode includes SpamWatch, a spam tool, as well as all of the new features in the latest version 6.1.
Eudora 6.1 is a modest upgrade and isn't really worth paying for if you installed version 6 over a year ago. Version 6.0 added automatic spam protection, an email thread condenser, automated type formatting tools and mailbox organisational shortcuts. Version 6.1 adds new features to SpamWatch (the software's automated spam protection tool), features a Google-powered search engine called WebWords, plus an improved data importer for Microsoft's Outlook and Apple's Mail.
Qualcomm has strengthened Eudora's junk filtering feature, SpamWatch, and also builds on version 6.0's SpamWatch Statistics, allowing you to track exactly how much of your incoming email is junk and how accurately SpamWatch is sorting that mail. SpamWatch gradually 'learns' what's determined 'wanted mail' by rating it based on a 0 to 100 scale. Higher-scoring mail is likely to be junk, while lower-scoring mail is likely to be valid email. The default setting is 50, but you can change the setting to suit your needs. Nifty-looking graphs show how much mail you have received (by day, week, month or year) and how much of it is junk (based on what's in your junk folder).
Eudora's Statistics tool was introduced in version 5 and has now been enhanced to include information about incoming junk mail.
Other key features include Contextual Filing, which allows you to select a word within a message and then file the message in a folder or mailbox of the same name; Format Painter (Windows only) lets you copy fonts and styles from one place to another in an mail; and Dual SMTP Authorisation provides Eudora with more configuration tools to integrate better with an ISP's mail settings. Content Concentrator has also been updated, and although you can view a whole email thread while automatically removing redundant content, a new profile control offers a pull-down menu of three concentration levels: None, Compact or Terse. This allows you to streamline or expand your view of an email thread on the fly. Finally, Mailbox Drawer (MacOS X 10.2 only) provides a quick way to access your list of mailboxes from any mailbox window.
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