Comments and suggestions for YZD

[jonathanv81]

Hi,

I've been testing Zimbra Desktop for a bit more than a month (I think) as I am looking for an alternative to Outlook as an offline client for our Zimbra Network Edition server.

Indeed, I am not satisfied by the exclusive use of the web client and some of the users need offline access to their mail when they're on the move.

It is quite good for its connectivity capabilities but I don't think it's ready to be rolled out in an entreprise yet.

Here are some of the flaws/inconsistencies/things I don't like that I have noticed and some suggestions:

- The Inbox folder is always folded on start, I think it should stay as it was before closing the program.

- When there are images included in the mail, they don't appear as attached, with the web client you can right click and save them but you can't do that with Zimbra Desktop so there is no way of getting those pictures

- I think the Donwloads windows should be invisible but I saw there is a fix for that (but it seems everytime you update it gets erased)

- I would like to be able to group by sender / time period (folded by sender and you can unfold just one sender) like in Outlook (and my users too)

- When new mail arrives, sometimes you have to click on Inbox to see the new message appear

- I have seen some printing size problems with some mails on the web client and so I've noticed that in ZD, it's setup to fit to page and there is no way to change that but then some mails come out really small

- It would be good if you could go down in the list of folders when for example moving a message and the folder you want to put it in doesn't appear in the frame but is below.

- I think in the first version I tested you could attach by drag n dropping but that disapeared.

- When there are too much attachments, you can't see the message body or scroll down to see it, so you have to move the reading pane's top bar to see it, it shouldn't show all the attachments

- When you have Desktop and My Documents redirected through GPO, the program will install to the redirected folders root instead of to the local (or locally copied) profile

- You should have the option to copy phone numbers in contacts through a menu, right now it works only with Ctrl+C (useful for IP telephony for example)

- Auto completion doesn't include aliases from the GAL, unlike Web Client

- The dictionnary doesn't seem very good, it doesn't seem to tell you a word is wrong if it has no suggestions for it
I also had a hard time finding out there even was a dictionnary for my language! And I wonder why you don't use the dictionnaries that come as add-ons for Firefox as I know the french one works really well.


These are the most important ones, maybe some have been fixed already, I have updated to the latest beta but haven't retested everything.

Let me know which of them I should report in Bugzilla and I will try to find the time to do so.


Jon

[jmhe]

Very good suggestions. Let me answer two of them I know offhand. We will get back to you with a list of bugs already opened; and list of bugs need to be filed.

- I think in the first version I tested you could attach by drag n dropping but that disapeared.

drag-and-drop still works. you need to drag an attachment into the area between "Subject" and mail body. We have a bug opened on dragging attachment into mail body.

- The dictionnary doesn't seem very good, it doesn't seem to tell you a word is wrong if it has no suggestions for it
I also had a hard time finding out there even was a dictionnary for my language! And I wonder why you don't use the dictionnaries that come as add-ons for Firefox as I know the french one works really well.

Currently we provide a way to install other dictionaries manually: http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...ictionaries.3F

Those dictionaries were taken from Firefox add-ons. Down the road, we will support the same of way of installing dictionaries as FF does.

[jmhe]

- I have seen some printing size problems with some mails on the web client and so I've noticed that in ZD, it's setup to fit to page and there is no way to change that but then some mails come out really small

You can change page setup already:
1) Shift-F6 to bring out status bar
2) Click on the "Gear" menu on status bar
3) Page Setup...
--------------

We will open RFEs for these items:

- The Inbox folder is always folded on start, I think it should stay as it was before closing the program.

- When there are images included in the mail, they don't appear as attached, with the web client you can right click and save them but you can't do that with Zimbra Desktop so there is no way of getting those pictures

- When there are too much attachments, you can't see the message body or scroll down to see it, so you have to move the reading pane's top bar to see it, it shouldn't show all the attachments

- Auto completion doesn't include aliases from the GAL, unlike Web Client

----------

We already have bugs/RFEs opened for these:


- I would like to be able to group by sender / time period (folded by sender and you can unfold just one sender) like in Outlook (and my users too)
Bug 7972 – Mail sort using FROM column for conversation view

- The dictionnary doesn't seem very good, it doesn't seem to tell you a word is wrong if it has no suggestions for it
I also had a hard time finding out there even was a dictionnary for my language! And I wonder why you don't use the dictionnaries that come as add-ons for Firefox as I know the french one works really well.
Bug 35874 – provide same way of installing/switching dictionaries as FF does

- I think in the first version I tested you could attach by drag n dropping but that disapeared.
Bug 35581 – Support drag and drop attachment into mail body

-----------

Can you elaborate these? (more details on the use cases)

- When new mail arrives, sometimes you have to click on Inbox to see the new message appear

- It would be good if you could go down in the list of folders when for example moving a message and the folder you want to put it in doesn't appear in the frame but is below.

- When you have Desktop and My Documents redirected through GPO, the program will install to the redirected folders root instead of to the local (or locally copied) profile

-----------

We can't commit these right now. We are evaluating how to improve overall experience of auto-update.

- You should have the option to copy phone numbers in contacts through a menu, right now it works only with Ctrl+C (useful for IP telephony for example)

- I think the Donwloads windows should be invisible but I saw there is a fix for that (but it seems everytime you update it gets erased)

[jonathanv81]

You can change page setup already:
1) Shift-F6 to bring out status bar
2) Click on the "Gear" menu on status bar
3) Page Setup...

Good to know, not really obvious but serves.

- I would like to be able to group by sender / time period (folded by sender and you can unfold just one sender) like in Outlook (and my users too)
Bug 7972 – Mail sort using FROM column for conversation view

Sorting by sender (or by subject) does work but Outlook groups the messages in a "folder" (+ sign) so it's easy to find a sender and expand the messages from that sender as opposed to scrolling through all the messages from every sender.
Maybe that's a lot to ask... I think it would be good if at least when you have a message selected, when you change sorting order (by sender or subject), you stay on the same message, so you get a message from a person, you select it, click sender column and see the other messages from that person right away, not having to go through all the other sender by alphabetical order.

- I think in the first version I tested you could attach by drag n dropping but that disapeared.
Bug 35581 – Support drag and drop attachment into mail body

I've noticed after your first answer that indeed, on my private computer at home, I have the area to drop an attachment between the subject field and the mail body, but on my work computer it really has disappeared (and dragging and attachment there doesn't work), I don't know why. They're the same version (build 1513) so I don't know if it's a bug or an option I've changed... I include a screenshot for you to see : ZD-NoAttach.png

- When new mail arrives, sometimes you have to click on Inbox to see the new message appear

Well, I receive a new message notification in the tray and I have Zimbra open in the inbox at that moment and the new message doesn't show up, I'll have to click on the Inbox folder to reload it.

- It would be good if you could go down in the list of folders when for example moving a message and the folder you want to put it in doesn't appear in the frame but is below.

I mean that when you're dragging a message, you could go to the bottom of the folders list and it would scroll down the list of folders to see the next folders, maybe you could have an area with an arrow for that...

- When you have Desktop and My Documents redirected through GPO, the program will install to the redirected folders root instead of to the local (or locally copied) profile

You can redirect a user's Desktop and My Documents folders to a share on a server through Group Policies, which means you have the profile (commonly) in "C:\Documents and Settings\User\" but when you go to My Documents, you actually get to "\\Server\UserData\User\My Documents\" (for example), instead of "C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents".

Zimbra Desktop should install to "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Zimbra", but with redirected folders enabled, it tries to install to "\\Server\UserData\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Zimbra" while only My Documents and the Desktop should go there.
I guess you should change the detection of the profile folder which seems based on either My Documents or Desktop location.


Thanks for your answers, tell me if you need more information or tests done for any of those problems.

[jmhe]

Regarding this particular point, we actually already have a button next to "Sent By" that can hide the header section, including hiding all the attachments.

- When there are too much attachments, you can't see the message body or scroll down to see it, so you have to move the reading pane's top bar to see it, it shouldn't show all the attachments

Jon