The Settings menu

The Settings menu allows you to select database options, replace the "Home" tab main image, select your MMS options, configure your Internet services and change screen languages.

Database Settings

Only under very unusual circumstances should you need to go into the Database Settings menu (for example, to rename the database if you're running two copies of FrontlineSMS on the same machine). It is recommended that only system administrators make any changes to the database.

Home Tab Logo Settings

If you want to customise the "Home" screen in FrontlineSMS to display your own logo or organisation name, you can replace the main "\o/" image with one of your own, or remove it altogether. When you start FrontlineSMS for the first time, there is no image displayed. To display the default "\o/" logo, select "Use default". Because of the smaller screen sizes on some of the lower-cost netbooks and laptops, you may need to remove the image altogether in order to see the whole screen.

E-mail Settings

FrontlineSMS is able to turn incoming text messages into emails (see the 'Email' Keyword Action on the Keywords help page). In order for FrontlineSMS to do this, it needs access to a registered email account. This is set up in the Email Settings screen (you may have to refer to your email provider to obtain the necessary settings).

MMS Settings

From version 1.6.15, FrontlineSMS comes with a new Multimedia Messages (MMS) compatibility. For now, you can receive MMS sent to an e-mail address (MMS sent to the connected device is not supported yet). To do so, just configure your e-mail accounts, and the fetching frequency (see below), and FrontlineSMS will look for MMS in your inbox.

Read more about MMS on the Multimedia Messages help page.

Every carrier formats MMS email content differently, so although MMS from most networks should work without trouble, some may not. If you are finding messages are not processed, or contain incorrect information, please forward the offending emails to us and we will endeavour to add support in the next release.

SMS Internet Service Settings

Although FrontlineSMS was originally developed to allow group text messaging in places where there wasn't internet access, more recent versions allow messages to be sent through the internet if and when it is available. Messages sent this way are generally much faster and cheaper than sending through an attached mobile phone or modem, but you do need to set up an account and buy messages up-front using a credit card. Check the Internet Services help page to learn more about Internet Services in FrontlineSMS.

Language

FrontlineSMS currently comes with language support for English, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Khmer, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili and Chinese. Selecting one of these languages from the Language menu will turn all menu's and screen messages from the default English into the chosen language. Languages such as Chinese will only display correctly if your computer supports the additional character sets required. If the typeface displays as square blocks on the screen then your computer does not have the correct font. Refer to your Windows user manual for details.

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