I’ve tried eM Client now for a few weeks and I’m sad to say that it won’t work out for me. I really like the layout and many of the features compared to most clients I’ve tried (up to a half dozen now), but the big problem is that eM Client is not user friendly to anyone who has to deal with multiple languages. There are two main issues that were brought up by others in Forum posts over three years ago and that you seem to have brushed off an ignored – a shame as you have restricted your business to english-only email writers!
Many programs identify the language automatically (all MS office products including Outlook; Google products, Open Office, Thunderbird with add-ins, etc…) and it seems a fairly trivial thing to add…yet we still have to go to the tools menu to select the language for spell checking. I know, seems like a small thing, but when you write many emails a day in a few different languages, it adds up enough that the whole user experience is ruined. Most people who write in multiple languages alternate between the two constantly and this added time makes to client inefficient. Many have mentioned this in posts over the past few years, so it seems massively short-sighted to ignore it.
Grammar check does not exist – and certainly not for multiple languages. Again, grammar checkers exist in a vast variety of programs and would seem trivial to add in. From reading a number of Forum posts…I think its clear that many many people could indeed benefit from grammar checking ! In my own case, I would rarely use the grammar check in english, but it is very handy when I write in other languages where I am competent, but still make enough mistakes to warrant a check. Again, with automatic recognition of languages, an auto-switch for grammar would be easy.
I was so sure there were good clients out there that would work for me, but sadly I have to return to Outlook despite its many many faults. Both Google and Outlook auto-recognize languages and deal with grammar…but nobody else that I have tried does this well. Why do you all just give up the international business market to those guys? Its like you don’t even want to try to play in the same league as them even if other aspects of your product are very nice. And those of us who use clients for work are actually willing to PAY for the product!
Sadly, I’m going to have to return back to Outlook (every time I think I’m out…they pull me back in). I’d love to give eM another go…but will have to wait until they fix these two problems!
Hi Alexis, sorry you feel this way, just to follow up with you, we’re considering all these options to eM Client, however it is not as easy as it might seem, consider how big the companies as Microsoft and Google are and there’s plenty of developers taking care of these products. eM Client in contrast to these companies is a bit smaller, however we do have high hopes for making the best solution on the market.
Currently we have the option to switch between dictionaries used for auto correction with switching the input on your keyboard, I understand you don’t like this option, but we’ve created this solution on a premise that most languages still contain special characters that can’t be found on other keyboards, and typing is easier when switching the keyboard, that can be done with a quick keyboard shortcut (alt+shift).
Grammar check is a feature that is not so easy to implement and we’re currently focused on other features that we’ve promised to include in upcoming releases, such as conversation view, delayed send, and many others…
Please note that development of new features is a very time consuming process and it really isn’t our ignorance that is holding us back not including this feature in the application.
If you come back to eM Client, please make sure to let us know if you come across any other issues or questions about the application, we’ll be happy to help.
Hi Paul,
I appreciate that your team is small relative to MS and others and that coding is probably much harder than I assume (having done very little myself). However, open software has some of these things implemented and so would seem like a more manageable task to build on the efforts of others?
I think you guys are actually very wrong about switching keyboards — while it may be true for a few languages (chinese, greek, russian, arabic) that changing is important, for most of us it is much easier to use the same keyboard. English uses a QWERTY whereas French uses an AZERTY…and the layout is different enough that it would be very confusing to change keyboards without a separate physical board (and nobody does this…especially if they travel for work). Furthermore, for me, typing on an AZERTY is 1/3 as fast as a QWERTY…so I would never change. It does mean that accents are harder to add…but guess what - if spell check and grammar check are implemented, I can let the software do that for me after the email is written! This is one reason why I have been so insistent on the importance of this feature - and also understand that if you do not really have experience writting in multiple languages every day then you would also not realize how important it is to others.
As is, I appreciate your software and would really like to use it, but it just won’t work for me. My efficiency drops dramatically compared to Outlook even if I’m not a big fan of other aspects. If you do get around to adding those two features, do let me know and I’d love to give it another go.
Hi, you can usually also setup a QWERTY layout for your other languages, but that’s up to your preference.
Thank you for your feedback regarding the application, we’ll consider improving these options in future releases, however we don’t believe that opening our software to other developers is the way to go, lot of add-ons can actually cause issues if they’re not properly developed and guaranteeing the application’s compatibility with others and all the standards that have to be followed during email communication, can become a lot more complicated and we want to make sure our users do not come across any issues that could potentially harm their data etc.
Agreed – but its nice to see the keys you are typing.
I didn’t mean to suggest that you open up your software to others – mainly just that the programming for some of those other features has been done and could maybe accelerate your own efforts in that direction? This may be a bit naive…
I’m afraid this is not exactly that easy, as I previously mentioned, please keep in mind, new feature development is a very time consuming process, and it is not possible to use the features created by other developers, in hopes we can create an application that follows the very strict standards and avoid potentially harmful bugs, we need to follow the direction we’ve set with the application.
I’m sorry this is currently not an available option, but we’re currently working on an upcoming release of eM Client 7 that will include many of new useful features, hopefully we’ll be able to show that we’re really working on the product and making sure it is the best possible solution for organizing your email.
! In my own case, I would rarely use the grammar check in english, but it is very handy when I write in other languages where I am competent, but still make enough mistakes to warrant a check. Again, with automatic recognition of languages, an auto-switch for grammar would be easy.