• Part ONE of the lesson will be to unpack the message and change the text to your own.
• Part TWO of the lesson will be to adapt the message using your own graphics etc.

You can, of course, unpack to any folder BUT Mokum Mail already has built in an UNPACK folder in ../MM_Data/MM_Unpacked/ which makes it easy.

This window will open to the last place you used so if it does not open to the correct folder, then browse to it.

*NOTE* It is HIGHLY advised to Create a NEW sub-folder (In your Unpack folder) for each message you unpack. This keeps the HTM file and all images and sound files etc together. You can also name that folder to a description or name that is best suited for you to know what it is.


You will find yourself sometimes quickly unpacking a message just to grab a couple items from it....in which case you could find things loose in that Unpack folder as well.

Once you click on the Unpack, you could get this message from Mokum Mail asking if you first want to clean out the folder! IF you say YES, MM will delete to your recycle bin any loose files in the folder. It will NOT delete any sub-folders or their contents.

Once you have that new folder created, and have or have not cleaned the loose items from the Unpack folder, Mokum Mail will do his thing!! Once finished you will see the Explorer window open up showing you all the files that just unpacked to that folder.

NEXT... Re-Using the message with changes to the TEXT only.

Click on CREATE STATIONERY and then on the SCRIPT Button. Browse to your Unpack folder and open the sub-folder where you just unpacked your message. You will highlight the HTM file and click SELECT.

You will see that the complete HTM file has now been imported into the Editor.

Clicking on VIEW MESSAGE IN BROWSER will show you that it appears as it did when you first viewed it and decided to Unpack it! Now for obvious reasons, you will most likely want to change the text of the message to your own. Simply Highlight the Original message TEXT and start typing your own.

Additionally, if someone has used a ' mail me ' image linking to their E-mail address, you will want to look for, and change that to your own. NOTE: Where I have highlighted in pink shows you where you would insert your own email address if someone has used a Mail Me image. Highlighted in blue is where you would insert the file path IF you wanted to change that Mail Me image.

Now that we have changed things, take a final look by Viewing in the Browser to be sure all is as you want. You will see that the Basics of the message have remained the same, but we have now changed the text to reflect who we are sending it to...

Select your addressee, fill in your subject field and you are ready to click SEND!

PART TWO....Using the 2nd message we Unpacked but changing the images and etc.

Sometimes you will like the Style and Scripting of a message BUT you want to change the Background file and other Image and/or Sound files to those of your own. You may even want to search for the color #'s used for the scroll bar and borders etc and change those to colors matching your own images. This, of course, will take more time to do, but once you know how, it is simple.

Here we go!!

Just as we did with the first message....While in the Preview (Plain Text) window click on the UNPACK button, browse to your Unpack folder, make a new sub-folder and Unpack the message.

Since we will be changing the images etc, make note of the SIZE in pixels of the Images used for the MAIN 3 pictures in the slide show. The stationery background and transition background (within the slide show) are not as important since these are simple seamless files.


Importing the Message back into the Editor and Making Changes...

Click on CREATE STATIONERY , and then on the SCRIPT button. Browse to the folder with our 2nd message, highlight and Select the HTM file. Now we have this message in our Editor. With this slide show message, we will change the Stationery Background, the Transition Background Image, 3 Picture Images, the Midi file and the Message Text. You are also welcome to change the Color #'s for the Border and Scroll Bar etc if you would like.

In the pictures I have marked where some of these areas are. In this first picture you will see where to change the BACKGROUND Image and the MIDI file. To replace these with your own, highlight the file path BETWEEN the QUOTES, then click on the ' Insert Any Full File Name ' button shown by the arrow and browse to where your replacement file is and select it.

Scrolling down a bit further you will see where to change the 3 Slide Show Pictures and the Transition Picture. Also note in this next screen cap where to change your Message Text and also where to change the individual captions of the Main Images. IF you do NOT want a caption, delete the text that is there.

At this point if you want to search for the font and/or colors to change things, go to it! When you have completed all your changes, Click ' View in Browser ' and it should reflect your change.