Please do not confuse this release with Netscape Communicator 4.05, 4.06, 4.07 or 4.08 which are recent shipping final releases of Communicator. This is version 4.5, which is an upgrade to 4.08 and earlier.

Among quite a few others, version 4.5 adds the following features over Communicator 4.0x:

• Optional three-pane mail/news interface, with two different 3-pane layout options
• Various browsing enhancements (Smart Browsing, JDK 1.1, JavaScript 1.3, for example)
• New Address Book
• New Newsgroups Button on the Component Toolbar
• Roaming Access for remote user profile access
• Automatic spell check option for outgoing messages when sent
• Overhaul of the Netscape Calendar client
• (Win32) Mail Import utilities for Eudora and Outlook Express
• SmartUpdate uninstall, binary patching, and UI improvements
• Netscape NetWatch RSAC-based parental control (usage is optional)
• (Win32) Optional Quality Feedback Agent to automatically send crash reports directly to Netscape

For 4.5, Windows 95, 98, and NT, Macintosh PPC, and the normal Unix platforms will be supported. Windows 3.x and Macintosh 68K systems will not be supported for 4.5.

Prior to installing, it is strongly recommended that you back up the contents of your ...\Netscape\Users\ directory and subdirectories it contains. If you back up nothing else, back up at least your abook.nab file as described in the release notes. You can either install 4.5 to a different directory, or on top of a 4.0x release (such as 4.07). If you wish to keep a copy of an earlier Communicator in addition to 4.5 then 4.5 must be installed to a different directory. A 128-bit version of the final release of 4.5 will be available, likely sometime in the middle of next week. SmartUpdates to 4.5 from previous versions may not be available for several days.

Prior to installing, please read the Release Notes for this version as well, which contain more extensive information than is practical to put in this post. (Note: the final release notes may not be immediately available.)

Download 4.5 from ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/4.5/english/ If you try this link and it does not work, wait a bit - it may not yet be available on all of the machines that make up ftp.netscape.com. One known good server is ftp://ftp2.netscape.com/pub/communicator/4.5/english/

If you are running Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 in True Color mode, you should install the GetAdmin hotfix from Microsoft or else you may not be able to run Java.

All known security problems in 4.07 (and earlier) and 4.5 beta 2 are fixed in 4.5 final.

When Communicator crashes, it is recommended that you allow the Netscape Quality Feedback Agent that will pop up to send the crash report to Netscape. You can view exactly what is sent before it is transmitted from within the QFA, and it can also be disabled altogether.

A few tips for usage of this release:

• The Newsgroups button on the component (floating/docked) toolbar can be made to either open to open newsgroups in a Messenger window, or open the Message Center. If you wish it to open the Message Center, click Edit | Preferences | Mail and Newsgroups | Window Settings and choose 'Opens the Message Center'
• If using three-pane mode, you can now choose from two different three-pane Messenger layouts. The options appear in Edit | Preferences | Mail and Newsgroups | Window Settings.
• You can now drag and drop newsgroups to reorder the list of subscribed groups.
• Explore the new Preferences windows (click Edit | Preferences) as there are quite a few new options available there.
• You can choose to position replies to messages after the quoted text, as is the tradition in this newsgroup, by setting it under 'Add my reply:' in Edit | Preferences | Mail and Newsgroups | Messages.
• Smart Browsing (the What's Related button) can be disabled via preferences. See the Communicator 4.5 FAQ on Netscape's site for information about privacy questions surrounding this feature.
• To bring up the Subscribe to newsgroups window from three-pane view, right-click the news server name in the left pane and choose 'Subscribe to Newsgroups', or left-click the news server name and click File | Subscribe.
• To resend a displayed message, click Message | Edit to Resend (this was previously under the File menu in Communicator 4.0x).
• It is now possible to use filters in both mail and news.
• You can now compose a message and save it as a template in the Templates folder. To do so, compose the message, and click File | Save As | Template. To use the template, open the Templates folder and double-click the message, edit the recipients and the message body as needed, and send it.
• You can now have more than one personal address book. To add another, open the Address Book and click File | New | Address Book.
• To add a LDAP server, open the Address Book, and click File | New | Directory. This was previously in the Preferences windows in Communicator 4.0x.
• If you are set to use the text composition window but want to use the HTML window for one message only, hold down the CTRL key as you click New Msg or Reply which temporarily switches composition windows.

user_pref("li.server.http.useSimplePut", true);

And restart Netscape.

Please note that follow-ups to this message are set to the netscape.communicator newsgroup - please do not e-mail me directly; please reply to the group instead.
--
Kevin Hecht, Netscape Champion
College of Commerce and Finance, Villanova University

         http://idt.net/~khecht19/