Graphic E-mail for Windows -- Graphic E-mail is the first of a New breed of mail clients for the Internet and is an excellent example of illustrating just how far 'net applications have come since the early Unix days. No longer do your e-mails have to be limited to text messages; 'Graphic E' adds support for graphics (of course), sound, animation, music, and more. In addition to its extensive multimedia capabilities, this freeware client (a $25 'pro' package is also available) offers a multitude of standard mail features, including an efficient address book, distribution list capabilities, a built-in automatic UUencoder/decoder, a 'launchpad' button (for running up to three of your favorite programs from within Graphic E), a spelling checker (in the pro version), and mailbox compression capabilities. While not quite on the same level as Pegasus Mail or Eudora Pro on a strict text-to-text basis of comparison, Graphic E is more than sufficient as a regular e-mail application. Still, multimedia is where Graphic E really shines. Graphic E offers nine standard templates with a variety of graphical backgrounds, scrolling text, basic text, music clips, sound (WAV) bytes, images, and animation. These default themes include motifs for different occasions, including customizable formal letterheads, three types of postcards, thank you messages, 'I Love You' notes, flame-mail cards (for your least favorite e-mail pal), and E-grams. The cool part of these multimedia capabilities is that only the text of the message has to be sent across the 'net, but the recipient must also use Graphic E in order to get the full effect of the message. Graphic E also includes a Graphic Designer application for developing your own themes. This program allows you to use your own background patterns, music themes, starting and ending WAV sounds, scrolling banners, images, and animation. Overall, Graphic E is a ton of fun for users of all ages, and it offers an exciting alternative to the 'typical' text-based mail client. But with the need for both the sender and receiver to use Graphic E-mail, it may be difficult for Graphic E to establish a strong user base in the near future. Pros: Multimedia mail -- cool! Built-in automatic uuencoding/decoding, solid selection of features Cons: Both the sender and receiver have to use the client in order to get the full effect of the message New: Offline message queuing, outbound dispatch log, bug fixes, more Version Reviewed: 1.1c Date of Review: 6/24/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud apps conference Main Menu