side border theme 
Mokum Mail Mokum Mail - Tutorial








by Diana Bender

Click here for a printer friendly version.

Basic Simple Side Border Stationery Theme

The side border stationery is just about the simplest and most basic theme that you can create in Mokum Mail. There are many variations which you will be able to do once you understand this elementary tutorial. You may want to print this out and study it before beginning or read all the way through before you start!

Graphic Needed

This tutorial assumes that you have a jpg graphic which is 1024px in width and of any reasonable height. The optimum height to show up well when the email is received is 360px. The jpg should be designed with a side border and should be seamless.

We will be working with an original graphic jpg I created which is 1024px by 400px, because it happens to be one of my favorites. :-)

If you wish, you can download my graphic to use in your tutorial. Click HERE for the file.

It will look like this...only bigger.



Put the jpg file in a convenient folder and name it "blueplaidbttrfly".

Let's Create Now!

Open up Mokum Mail and click on the "Create Stationery" button at the right of the main window.

Click on the THEME button and you will get something like this:



Settings Instructions

See the screen shot just below the following list for the corresponding numbers in the instructions:

  1. To import your background, click on the " FILE" button in the "Stationery image" line. Browse to the folder where you saved the jpg file and choose "blueplaidbttrfly.jpg".

  2. Be sure that you check the "both " box in the "placement" line. This tiles the jpg so that there is complete coverage.

  3. In the "margins" line set the "left" margin so that the text will start to the right of the picture on the left border. This will vary depending on the width of the left picture, and you may need to experiment. In this case the setting is 290px. The right border should be about 50px and the top border about 10px.

  4. Check the "scroll" box in the "margins" line. This permits the background and the text to work together. This is NOT a scrolling background.

  5. In the "move background" line choose "None".

  6. Choose "yes" for the "show scroll bar" so that when you write a long note it won't disappear off the bottom of the page.

  7. Pick your scroll bar colors.

  8. Pick your font styles, font size, and font colors.

  9. You can either set a midi now (which will be saved with your theme) or you can add one to individual emails at the time when you write them.

  10. Select a "Mail Me" picture.

  11. Choose "L, C or R" for left/center/right placement of your "mail me" picture.


Anything I haven't mentioned specifically can be left in the default position.

Now the dialog window should look something like this:



If you haven't done so already, now would be a good time to observe your results by clicking on the "VIEW" button at the bottom of the "Theme" dialog window.

It should look like this:



After viewing, click the "DONE" button.

Saving Our Theme

STEP 12. If you are pleased with the results, save your work by clicking the "SAVE" button at the top of the "Theme" window, and you will see a pop up box to name your theme. Name it "Blue plaid butterfly" and then click OK. Your Theme will be saved and a thumbnail image will be created.



Click OK again and you will be in the Quick Reply window.

Sending Our Message

After clicking on that last OK we have arrived here.

  1. If you don't have a midi included in your theme, you can add one now.
  2. Write your message in the main body.
  3. Enter the recipient's name and email address.
  4. Click on the send button




That's all there is to it. You have made your first simple theme and can now experiment with the various settings and features to get exactly the look you want.

One Final Tip

One last TIP for all themes and tutorials. If you want to permanently save a theme with a particular 'message', or a creation that has tables added to it, click on the EXPORT button and save your creation either before or after you have sent out the original message. Be sure to browse to the correct folder where you want to save it. You can accept the default name or substitute another name (recommended) as you wish.

Please click on the INFO button for more information on the differences in saving as eml, html or mmf file.

Finally...

This size is best suited to monitor settings of 800 x 600 but it also works quite well with settings of 1024 x 768.


Written by Diana Bender.
Diana's Stationery: http://www.threebac.com/dianasstationery/



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