To recap: often, when replying to an incoming email, the formatting that you have specified in your template goes out of the window and you see random font changes accompanied, often, by double-spacing.

In the article referenced above we suggested that you use an external template file. This does help but it doesn't fix the problem in 100% of cases. Although the current fix doesn't require that you set up your templates in that way, the other advantages we talked about in the article do still apply, so you might still find it worthwhile.

After researching the problem in conjunction with FrontRange we now have a fuller understanding of what's going on.

The following explanation does assume a degree of famiarity with HTML.

A template is just HTML code and the problem is that unless each <P> tag is given explicit settings to specify how it should look then it can default to the style that it inherits from the incoming email....or indeed something random of its own choosing.

So, to fix the errant behaviour you have to tell each and every paragraph exactly what it should do so that it has no room to manoeuver.

We've changed our templates so that each paragraph starts with:

<P style EQUALS "font-family: 'verdana'; font-size: '10pt'; margin: '0px' ">

(you should replace the word 'EQUALS' with an equals sign =)

This sets the font, the text size and the margin (the latter deals with the double-spacing issue).

GoldMine goes part way there by putting a lot of <FONT> tags into a template but you'll find that using inline style commands, as above, cuts down on the number of tags required and thus makes the whole thing a bit more readable; and besides, you need the inline style in order to set the margin.

To clarify, the inline styling removes the need for any <FONT> tags and so these should be removed, along with their </FONT> partners.

One thing we also tried was putting the paragraph styling into a <STYLE> section in the header and found that this did not cure the problem; only inline styling has the desired effect.

GoldMine 9 brings improvements in that any NEW templates created in 9 SHOULD force all the right attributes by using even more <FONT> tags than previous versions. That won't fix existing templates though and also doesn't deal with the double-spacing issue.

However, if you set the style of each paragraph by hand as above then you have complete control.

A quick way of seeing the wood for the trees is to copy the code into the form at:

http://www.sqlinform.com/online.phtml

Many thanks to Chad Smith at www.thegoldmineblog.com for finding this.

Here are a some SQL scripts which can be run from within GoldMine to flag up offending users.

No. 1: how many emails are in people's inboxes, largest number first:

select userid, count(userid) from mailbox where folder='x-gm-inbox' group by userid order by count(userid) desc

No. 2: how many emails, by month received, by user, largest number first:

select cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid as usermonth,
count(cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid)
from mailbox where folder='x-gm-inbox'
group by cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid
order by count(cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid) desc

No. 3: similar to 2, but in date order, oldest first:

select cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid as usermonth,
count(cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid)
from mailbox where folder='x-gm-inbox'
group by cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid
order by cast(datepart(year, maildate) as varchar(4))+'-'+right('00'+cast(datepart(month, maildate) as varchar(2)),2)+' '+userid

No. 4: how many emails are in people's trashes, largest number first:

select userid, count(userid) from mailbox where folder='x-gm-trash' group by userid order by count(userid) desc

Mention was made in the original post of a way to stop any formatting in a message that you're replying to upsetting the layout of your own template, causing double spacing, random font changes and other undesireable effects.

The suggestion was to turn off the 'include original message when replying' switch in Options and to insert the 'quote text for reply/fwd' field into the template instead. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in GMPE 8.5.2 (it will again in v9) and, besides, sometimes you might want to forward an email and preserve its original layout.

The solution is simple. Take the HTML content of your template and save it as a text file. Now delete everything in the template and, from the 'Insert Field' drop-down add the 'Cursor Position' field first and then, next to it rather than on a new line, add the 'Include a text file' field. In the dialogue box that appears simply point to the file you saved earlier.

This arrangement seems to solve all of the formatting problems that people have reported and you can turn the 'include original message when replying' switch back on again.

GoldMine templates can be temperamental, and some people have had problems even when writing new emails as well as replies. As far as we can tell, keeping your templates as separate text files cures all of these oddities.

There are other advantages as well: if you want to change someone's template you only have to edit their template file rather than logging in as them and calling up the template. Also, you can very easily use Dreamweaver, or similar, to create the layout that you want.

These are provided by the Customer Care team at FrontRange. We can help you to get these, but you might find it easier to to obtain them directly.

Phone 0118 938 7400 and ask for Customer Care. You will need your contract number (also called your HDA number, also called your customer ID) handy when you speak to them. You'll find this on your licence notification and, if you're on GMPE, you'll find it on the GoldMine splash screen and in Help>About GoldMine.

The address of the support site is www.frontrange.com/support/login.aspx

Program updates can now be downloaded directly from the support site without having to go through the Net Update process.

GISMO is a bit tricky though, and takes a small amount of fiddling about to get it to work.

1. First of all, log into a Citrix session and install GISMO for that user, following the standard instructions.
2. Next, go into regedit and under HKCU\software look for the following two keys:

GoldMine\GoldMine Link for Microsoft Outlook, and
Microoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\GMOAI.GMOutlookAddIn

3. Export both of these keys.
4. Now log into another Citrix session as a different user.
5. Go into regedit and import both of the above keys.
6. Go into the 'GoldMine\GoldMine Link for Microsoft Outlook' key and blank out the values for GMUserName and GMPassword.

(You could of course modify the exported keys themselves instead, before importing them, using Notepad).

7. Exit regedit and open Outlook. The link will attempt to load but you'll see an error saying that it can't connect to GoldMine. This is hardly surprising, given that you've just blanked out the user credentials!
8. In Outlook go to Tools>Options>GoldMine Link. In there you can enter the GoldMine username and password for this user.

The reason that you can't do this directly in regedit is that the password will be encrypted when it's put into the key.

9. Repeat this process for all users who need the link.

There are some things to remember though in order to get them to behave properly.

1. Because GoldMine uses components of Internet Explorer in order to render HTML, you must go into IE and set the default font to the one that you'd like to use in your templates.

2. A lot of formatting problems can be overcome by inserting the <<CURSOR>> tag at the top of your template. You can find it in the 'insert field' drop-down on the template toolbar or you can literally type it in as above. Make this the very first thing in your template and format it as you'd like your text to appear.

3. Use the formatting buttons to correctly format all of the other parts of the template.

4. Make the template 'reply-friendly'. If you find that replies default to double-spaced lines then try the following:

In your user options, under the 'composing' tab of the email settings, untick 'include original message when replying'.

Next, so that the original message does still appear after all, go to your template and at the end insert the field 'Quote text for reply/fwd' from the drop-down. You can use this in a general purpose template for new and reply emails because it's just ignored in the former.

5. Local graphics files can be inserted into the template by using the toolbar buttons, but any such file will arrive at the recipient as an attachment (although it will show in the correct place in the email). Rather than doing this, whereby you send a new copy of your company logo each time, it's better to simply reference a file that's sitting in a quiet corner of your website. Some familiarity with HTML is needed for this, but you can get to the code behind the template by pressing the (H) button on the template toolbar.

If you don't do this, and the number of emails in your inbox comes to exceed a few hundred, then new emails won't show up. They are there, but GoldMine can't display them.

The cure is simple - just file some of the backlog.

Failing to periodically empty the email trash can also lead to the same problem, so make sure that you regularly clear this out.