Knowledge Base
Problems sending emails from PingPlotter’s file menu
Question
I'm trying to send an email via the PingPlotter File -> Send Email option, but I'm getting errors. (General MAPI failure, MAPI Error, etc).
Solution
It sounds like you probably don't have an email client installed on your machine (you probably use web mail, right?).
PingPlotter uses Windows Simple MAPI to send emails. Normally, when you're trying to send an email like this (with data or an image attached), you need to add additional text / explanation to the email, so opening the email in your email client is a great way to 'finish off' this email.
If you don't have an email client installed on your machine, this menu option won't work, though. This might happen if you're using a web email client like Gmail or Yahoo Mail.
Errors like this don't mean you can't send an email, it just means you'll need to create the email manually.
To create an email manually
- Save off the image (File -> Save Image...) you want to send to someone.
- If you want to send the .pp2 file, save that as well (File -> Save Sample Set...).
- Create an email in your email client or webmail interface.
- Manually attach these files to the email you just created.
- Explain why you're sending this data, then send!
If you often send these emails, most webmail systems will also allow you to use an email client (like the free email client Thunderbird), so you can install an email client (one that supports simple MAPI, which is most of them) and configure it to send emails through your mail provider. In most cases, though, it's easier to just save the files off and manually attach them rather than to install an email client just for this purpose.
Additional Notes
If you're trying to get alert emails working, the alert notification system uses a different email mechanism than the File -> Send Email command (the alert system is designed to work unattended, while the File -> Send Email command is built to be able to send data and images to someone interactively).
For details on configuring alert emails, see the Getting Started Guide on that topic.