PC Win: MSMAIL.INI Entries in [Custom Commands]

• Microsoft Mail for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, and 3.2

This article lists and explains all the entries in the Microsoft Mail for Windows private profile, MSMAIL.INI, that are contained in the [Custom Commands] section.

[Custom Commands]

This section may contain any number of entries of complicated form. Each entry specifies a custom command that is installed into one of the Mail menus at run time. This section may appear both in the usual location, the MSMAIL.INI in your Windows directory, and in SHARED.INI in the directory pointer to by the SharedExtensionsDir entry of MSMAIL.INI. Here are a synopsis and a couple of examples of the [Custom Commands] entry format; a description of each subfield follows. Each entry must occupy a single line. Many sub fields are optional.

tag=version;menu;name;position;DLL name;command;event map;status text;help file;help context;

IC3=3.2;File;&Empty Wastebasket;13;EMPTYWB.DLL;1;;Purge messages from the wastebasket

IC4=3.2;Help;&Out of Office;10;OOF.DLL;3;;Out of Office Email Notification

   tag            Identifies the command to someone reading the INI
                  file, but serves no other purpose.

   version        Identifies the version of Mail with which the
                  command is compatible; 3.2 is the current version.

   menu           Names the menu to which the custom command should be
                  added, such as File or Help.

   name           The command name that is to appear on the menu. As
                  usual, you may include an ampersand (&) just before
                  the letter that is to serve as an ALT-key
                  accelerator.

   position       The zero-relative position within its menu at which
                  the command should appear. -1 places the command at
                  the end of the menu.

   DLL name       Name or path of the DLL in which the custom command
                  resides.

   command        Command string passed as one of the parameters to
                  the DLL entry point for the command.

   event map      Sequence of up to 16 digits. Each can be 0 or 1,
                  indicating that the DLL should be called for a
                  specific event. Currently 3 events are defined; the
                  rest are reserved and must be zero:

                  The first digit means Mail start-up.
                  The second digit means Mail exit.
                  The third digit means the arrival of a new message.

   status text    Text to be displayed in the Mail status bar when the
                  user cursors to the command in the menu.

   help file      Windows Help file to be invoked when the user
                  presses F1 while the command is selected. Passed to
                  the Windows Help program.

   help context   Passed to the Windows Help program along with the
                  Help file name. Use -1 (Help file index) if there is
                  no specific entry in the Help file for this command.