The Bat! v7 - 8 Review

[tarekma7]

This is a very good professional reply from Grr in giveaway topic the bat

I will post it here as member shared reviews

Its been one of my best experience using any new email-client & I'm very impressed.

I have downloaded the 32-bit Professional version and installed. It is version 8.0.10. All this on Win7-sp1 machine.

Features I like the best are
1. On-the fly encryption
2. Speed of sending/receivingbulk messages, even those having PDF attachments.
3. The Bat! Voyager to carry and use entire email client on a USB for portability
4. Very low use of RAM and CPU
5. Maintenance features such as Purging, Duplicate Removal, Integrety check and Compact
6. Image Download Manager to create rules to allow/deny image(S) from a sender, URL, folder or subject.
7. Auto backup of everything but attachments.
8. End-to-end Encryption
9. Message Parking to prevent accidential deletion, purge or move.
10. QR Code Generator
11. Smart Sorting Office for both Common and Account specific is very helpful and comes with wide variety of options.

Based on my limited use I have noted following points. Hope it helps others and the Developer.

Good points:
1. Small setup file & Small foot print - just 90 MB disk space used
2. Quickest installation from start to end. Took about a minute with fewer clicks.
3. On-the fly encryption protects all - Emails, Address book as well as Configuration files
4. Interface is simple. Easy to find items. 
5. Ability to individually Refresh selected folders.
6. Allows to set the location of mail file either while setup or from Options->Preferences->System
7. One can use Regular expressions to control images in Image Download Manager
8. Ability to create hot-keys even when other applications are active.
9. Ability to create user-specific view modes.
10. Specific view mode can be set for an account as desired.

Suggestions for the developer:
1. Prevent complete reinstallation, backing of Data and then importing Data should one need to remove on-the fly encryption. Add an option to actually do this rather than have a user perform the tasks. A simple Wizard could be added to help/guide the user.
2. No option to minimize Smart Bat. If one has multiple windows open, Smart Bat can be easily lost and hard to find. Please add a minimize option.
3. In save option format please add save in word format. Similar to the one available in MS Office.

Errors/issues encountered
1. Program terminates when I don't enter any master password for on-the fly encryption and just click OK. A proper error should be shown.
2. No Help is provided for Image Download Manager. Upon doing an F1 error thrown - Missing context help topic 11030.
3. Under Scheduler, the Automatic backup task has value for Starts Column as 09-Jul-01,19:30:00, Mon and Ends Column value as 01-Jan-00,00:00:00, Fri. This is erroneous and needs to be corrected.
4. No Help is provided for Inbox Analyzer. Upon doing an F1 error thrown - Missing context help topic 63100.
5. Unable to find a way in the user Interface to Set Access Password as mentioned in the Help.
6. No Help is provided for Please Enter the Registration Key. Upon doing an F1/Help button error thrown - Missing context help topic 14220
7. No Help is provided for The Bat! Master Password. Upon doing an F1/Help button error thrown - Missing context help topic 2003
8. For the entire Account->Properties setting, help is not contextual. If help is pressed at Account->Properties->Options, Help opens at Account.

Thanks,
Grr

[grr]

Thanks Tarek  :blush:

[batman]

That was a great read Grr. More reviews please. ;)

[baziroll]

great review Grr.

[covalio]

Thanks tarekma7 for the review. Good job!