Let's start with a manual. Eudora Light has no help, unless you count a pathetic little list of shortcut keys. The manufacturer, QUALCOMM, does offer a free manual that you can download, but it is 150 pages long in Word 6.0. My underpowered 486 DX4/100 with 16 MB of RAM couldn't handle the conversion to a format I could read. There is a web site at Sheffield University that carries an online manual, but who wants to rev up Netscape and fight the traffic to England every time you have a question? Not moi. Another complaint has been the lack of a spell checker. Net Nerds are thinkers, not typists, and we have come to rely on spell check. You can get around this gap by composing in your word processor, saving as a .txt file and cutting-and-pasting to Eudora, but I rarely bother and you probably wouldn't either.
Along comes Eudora Pro. Pro comes with an excellent manual and online help. First problem solved. It comes with a spell checker with a customizable dictionary. Second problem solved. This alone is worth the $89.00 list price. But there's more!
The most notable difference between Eudora Light and Eudora Pro is that there are many more buttons on the button bar. This might seem like a minor point, but my right hand is usually glued to my mouse and I'd much rather click on a screen arrow than tap on the keyboard or fiddle around with the menu bar. Another small but important feature is the addition of second signature block. Eudora Light only permits one pre-formatted signature; Pro lets you have two. I can now have one signature for business and another for pleasure. I could also let my husband use the second signature, but I probably won't.
I've become obsessed with Eudora Pro's message filtering. I get a lot of e-mail, and the important stuff (messages from you) gets intertwined with the garbage (messages from Bill Gates.) Eudora Pro eases my workload. I can set up message filters that will automatically read my mail, look for key words and deal with it. I can send all messages that contain the word Microsoft directly into the trash bin. I can make all messages received from you go into the Net Nerds mailbox, receive top priority and be color-coded blue, or red, or any of the seven color-coding options. I'm in dweeb heaven.
Eudora Pro has an elegant way of coping with attachments -- documents stapled on to an e-mail message. In addition to automatically uuencoding/uudecoding messages, Eudora Pro will open an attachment in an associated program just by double-clicking on the file name in the message. This eliminates about 500 steps when you want to view an attachment. Pro also lets you drag-and-drop files from your drive to attach to messages.
Pro comes with it's own TCP/IP stack. If you are using Windows 3.1, you need this piece of software to make the Internet work. Most people use Trumpet Winsock, which is a $25 shareware program. I installed Eudora Pro on my Pentium 90 soundbook with 8 MB of RAM running Windows 95. Since WIN 95 comes with its own TCP/IP stack, I didn't install the Eudora program. I read the installation guide, though, and it is very thorough. It tells you exactly what you need to enter in each box and where to go for the information.
According to the Eudora Pro manual, to run this program you need at least a 286 machine running Windows 3.1. You also need a modem and an account with an Internet service provider. If you are a current Eudora Light user, you can install Eudora Pro on top of the freeware program and all of your settings and mailboxes will be preserved. I made a clean installation, and it went smoothly. I've installed Eudora a dozen times or more, but I played dumb and made a few deliberate mistakes to see what would happen. The configuration program accurately prompted me with the format of the correct response. With only two disks, installation took less than five minutes and configuration about ten minutes more. If you've been using Eudora Light, you won't have to be retrained to use Eudora Pro. The programs work alike, except that there are more features in the Pro version.
Updates to Eudora Pro are available at their web site, http://www.qualcomm.com. This site also has a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list, a table comparing the features of Light and Pro, a secure online order form and a list of stores that carry the product, including several chains in San Antonio. You can have the product literature faxed or mailed to you by sending an e-mail message to eudora-lit@qualcomm.com. You can also order Eudora by calling their toll-free number, 1-800-2eudora. Pro comes with 90 days toll-free technical support. Tell your Mac buddies that there is a version for them and it's available in Japanese as well. Site licenses are available. List price is $89.
I admit to being cheap: software costs are eating me alive. Despite
the rave reviews that members of the Internet SIG have given to Eudora
Pro (my thanks to Peter Weston and Sandy and Al Shapiro) I have been happy
with Eudora Light and probably wouldn't have sprung the bucks for the Pro
version. Now that I've tried it, I'm hooked. This is a solid product from
a well-established company. Netscape is packaging Eudora Light along with
it's Navigator, so the program family has a widespread user base. All of
the online reviews that I have read rate Eudora Pro at the top of the heap.
You can't go wrong.