path: root/help/C/usage-mail.sgml

    <chapter id="usage-mail"> 
      <title>Evolution Mail: Witty Phrase to Come Later</title>
      <abstract>
    <title> An Overview of the Evolution Mailer</title>
    <para>
          Email is an integral part of life these days, and
          <application>Evolution</application> mail is here to help
          you keep track of it.  <application>Evolution</application>
          email is like other email programs in all the ways you would
          hope: (INSERT GOOD SIMILARITIES).
        </para>
        <para>
          However, <application>Evolution</application> has some
          important differences.  First, it's built to handle very
          large amounts of mail without slowing down or crashing.  We
          had high mail volumes in mind when we designed our <link
          linkend="usage-mail-organize-filters">filtering</link> and
          <link linkend="usage-mail-organize-search">searching</link>
          functions.  There's also the
          <application>Evolution</application> <link
          linkend="usage-mail-organize-vFolders">vFolder</link>, an
          advanced organizational feature not found in other mail
          clients.  If you get a lot of mail, or if you keep every
          message you get in case you need to refer to it later,
          you'll find that feature especially useful.
        </para>
        
    <para>
           You can start reading email by clicking
           <guibutton>Inbox</guibutton> in the shortcut bar.
        </para>
      </abstract>
   
      <sect1 id="usage-mail-getnsend">
    <title>Reading, Getting and Sending Mail</title>
    <sect2 id="usage-mail-getnsend-read">
      <title>Reading a Message</title>
      <para>
            The first time you open your
            <application>Evolution</application>
            <guilabel>Inbox</guilabel>, you will see a window like the
            one in <xref linkend="usage-mail-intro-fig">, with a
            message from Helix Code in the<interface> message
            list</interface>.  A preview of the message is displayed
            below that, in the <interface>view pane</interface>.  If
            you find the<interface> view pane</interface> too small,
            you can double-click on the message in the
            <interface>message list</interface> to have it open in a
            new window.  As is the case with folders, you can
            right-click on messages in the message list and get a 
            menu of possible actions.
          </para>
      <para>
            Go ahead and right-click on the message, and select
            <guimenuitem>Delete Message</guimenuitem> from the menu
            that appears.  The message will move into the
            <guilabel>Trash</guilabel> folder.  If you want to keep
            it, you can open the <guilabel>Trash</guilabel> folder
            and drag the message back to your
            <guilabel>Inbox</guilabel>.  The trash will be
            automatically emptied the next time you quit
            <application>Evolution</application>. (FEATURE
            UNIMPLEMENTED! Text may change to fit featureset)
 
     <!-- ==============Figure=================================== -->
     <!-- MAKE SURE THIS SCREENSHOT HAS THE WELCOME MESSAGE! -->
      <figure id="usage-mail-intro-fig">
          <title>Evolution Mail</title>
          <screenshot>
        <screeninfo>Evolution Mail</screeninfo>
        <graphic fileref="mail-intro-pic" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
        </graphic>
        </screenshot>
      </figure>
   <!-- ==============End of Figure=================================== -->
          </para>
    </sect2>
    
    <sect2 id="usage-mail-getnsend-get">
      <title>Getting Mail</title>
      <para>
            To check your email, just click <guibutton>Send and
            Receive</guibutton> in the toolbar.
            <application>Evolution</application> will download your
            mail for you and send any mail you've marked ready to
            send. New mail will appear in your
            <interface>Inbox</interface> and also in the
            <interface>Today View</interface>.
          </para>
      <para>
             If you get an error message, you probably need to
            change your network preferences.  To do that, you can run
            the setup assistant again, have a look at <xref
            linkend="config-prefs-network">, or ask your system
            administrator.
          </para>

      <sect3 id="usage-mail-getnsend-get-attach">
        <title>Attachments, HTML Mail, and Live Documents</title>
        <para>
              If you receive a file attached to an email,
              <application>Evolution</application> will ask where you
              want to put it.  Once you've downloaded it, you can
              open, move, copy, or execute those files just like any
              others, using <application>Nautilus</application> or
              your favorite shell or file manager.
            </para>
        <para>
               <application>Evolution</application> can also display
               HTML-formatted mail, complete with graphics.  HTML
               formatting will display automatically, although you can
               turn it off if you prefer.
            </para>
        <para>
               It can also display <glossterm>live
               documents</glossterm>, which have scripted or
               executable contents&mdash; for example, a working
               spreadsheet page or a chess game.
            </para>
        <tip id="badidea-attachment">
          <title>Bad Idea</title>
          <para>
                When someone you don't know sends you an attached
                program, go ahead and run it.  Set your preferences to
                always run live documents when you recieve them, too.
                Everybody knows all that virus stuff is just a Windows
                problem.
              </para>
        </tip>
      </sect3>
    </sect2>
    
    <sect2 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send">
      <title>Writing and Sending Mail</title>
      <para>
             You can start writing a new
             email message by selecting <guimenuitem>New
             Mail</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>File Menu</guimenu>,
             or by pressing <keysym>Ctrl-N</keysym>.  When you do so,
             the <interface>New Message</interface> window will open,
             as shown in <xref linkend="usage-mail-newmsg-fig">.
          </para>

<!--   ==============Figure=================================== -->
       <figure id="usage-mail-newmsg-fig">
         <title>New Message Window</title>
         <screenshot>
          <screeninfo>Evolution Main Window</screeninfo>
          <graphic fileref="newmsg-pic" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
        </graphic>
        </screenshot>
      </figure>
<!-- ==============End of Figure=================================== -->
     
      <para>      
             Enter an address in the <guilabel>To:</guilabel> field, a
             message in the <guilabel>Message:</guilabel> field, and
             press <guibutton>Send and Receive</guibutton>.  That's
             easy.  It may even be too easy, which is why I like to
             queue my messages up to be sent a few minutes later.

         <tip id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-attach-tip">
          <title>Send Now, Send Later</title>
          <para>
                Evolution will send mail immediately unless you tell
                it to do otherwise by selecting <guimenuitem>Send
                Later</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>MENU</guimenu>.
                Then, when you press <guibutton>Send &
                Receive</guibutton>, all your unsent messages will go
                out at once.  I like to use "Send Later" because it
                gives me a chance to change my mind about a message
                before it goes out.  That way, I don't send anything I'll
                regret the next day.
              </para>
          <para>
                To learn more about how you can specify message queue
                and filter behavior, see <xref linkend="config-prefs-mail">.
              </para>
         </tip>
           </para>

      <para>
            There is more to sending mail, though.  In the
            next few sections, we'll go over additional features,
            including mailing lists, attachments, and forwarding.
          </para>

   
      <sect3 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-to">
        <title>Choosing Recipients</title>
        <para>
              If you have created address cards in the contact
          manager, you can also enter nicknames or other portions
          of address data, and
          <application>Evolution</application> will complete the
          address for you. (INSERT description of UI for this
          feature, once it is decided upon). If you enter a name
          or nickname that can go with more than one card,
          Evolution will open a dialog box to ask you which person
          you meant.  (QUESTION: will users be able to drag & drop
          address cards to send email?).  For more information
          about using email together with the contact manager and
          the calendar, see <xref
          linkend="usage-contact-automate"> and <xref
          linkend="usage-calendar-apts-group">.
            </para>
        <para>
              In addition, you can mark recipients in three different
              ways.  The <guilabel>To:</guilabel> field is for the
              primary recipients of the message you are going to send.
              However, it is considered bad form to have more than a
              few email addresses in this section.
            </para>
        <para>
              If you're writing to one person, but want to keep a
              third party up to date, you can use
              <guilabel>Cc:</guilabel>.  Hearkening back to the dark
              ages when people used typewriters and there were no copy
              machines, "Cc" stands for "Carbon Copy."  Use it
              whenever you want to share a message you've written to
              someone else.
              <example>
        <title>Using the Cc: field</title>
        <para>
                   Say, for example, Susan sends an email to a client.
                   She puts her co-worker, Tim, in the in the
                   <guilabel>Cc:</guilabel> field, so that he know
                   what's going on.  The client can see that Tim also
                   recieved the message, and know that they can talk
                   to Tim about the message as well.
                </para>
          </example>
            </para>
        <para>
              If you have a large number of recipients, or if you want
              to send mail to several people without sharing the
              recipient list, you should use
              <guilabel>BCc:</guilabel>. "BCc" stands for "Blind
              Carbon Copy", and means that addresses in the
              <guilabel>BCc:</guilabel> field will receive copies of
              the message, but they will not receive the list of the
              other recipients' addresses, nor will other recipients
              know that they have recieved the message.  When I send a
              generic message to all my friends and I want them to
              think I've written a personalized email to every one of
              them, I put them all in the <guilabel>BCc:</guilabel>
              list.
            </para>
      </sect3>

       <sect3 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-reply">
        <title>Replying to Messages</title>
        <para>
               In order to reply to a message, click on it once in the
               message list to select it.  Then press the
               <guibutton>Reply</guibutton> button, or use the
               <keysym>REPLY COMBO</keysym> hot key.  A window like
               the <interface>New Message</interface> window will
               appear, but the subject will already be present&mdash;
               typically, your new message will have the same subject
               as the message to which you are replying, but with Re:
               before it, to mark it as a reply.  In addition, the
               full text of the previous message may be inserted into
               the new message, with the &gt; character before each
               line.  This indicates quoting.  You can intersperse
               your message with the quoted material as shown in <xref
               linkend="usage-mail-getnsend-reply-fig">

<!-- note that this figure should have a reply mail ready to send, with quoted materials and the relevant replies interspersed-->
<!--   ==============Figure=================================== -->
       <figure id="usage-mail-getnsend-reply-fig">
         <title>Reply Message Window</title>
         <screenshot>
          <screeninfo>Evolution Main Window</screeninfo>
          <graphic fileref="replymsg-pic" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
        </graphic>
        </screenshot>
      </figure>
<!-- ==============End of Figure=================================== -->

            </para>

        <para>
              If a message has several recipients, as in the case of
              mailing lists or messages that have been carbon copied,
              you may wish to select one of the items under the
              <guimenuitem>Reply-To</guimenuitem> submenu on the
              <guimenu>MENU</guimenu> menu.  This will allow you to
              choose one or several of the other message recipients in
              addition to the person who originally sent you the
              message.  
              <example>
        <title>Using the Reply-To feature</title>
        <para>
                  Returning to the previous example, the client can
                  decide whether to reply just to Susan, just to Tim,
                  or to both of them by selecting a menu item, rather
                  than by cutting and pasting the email addresses.  If
                  there are large numbers of people in the Cc: fields,
                  this can save substantial amounts of time.
                </para>
          </example>
            </para>
      </sect3>

      
      <sect3 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-fancy">
        <title>Embellishing that email</title>
        <para>
               <application>Evolution</application> allows you to 
                make your email more attractive in a number of ways. You
                can send messages formatted with HTML, attach any sort
                of file to them, and even include live documents, like
                spreadhseets or chess games.  This section will tell
                you how.
            </para>

        
        <sect4 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-html">
          <title>Colors, pictures, and fonts with HTML Mail</title> 
          <para>
                Most email messages are sent as plain text, but they
                can also be sent as HTML, which means they can include
                color, text style, and other formatting information.
                Evolution will read and display HTML properly without
                trouble, and also allows you to send outgoing
                email messages as HTML.  To send an HTML message, just
                use the composition toolbar to add formatting;
                your message text will appear formatted in the composer
                window, and the message will be sent as HTML.
              </para>
          <note>
        <title>A Technical note on HTML Tags</title>
                <para>
          Any text, including HTML tags, entered into the
                  message composition window is assumed to be plain
                  text.  If you enter HTML directly into the
                  composer&mdash; say, <markup
                  role="html">&lt;BR&gt;Bold Text&lt;/BR&gt</markup>,
                  the the composer will assume you meant exactly that,
                  and not "make this text bold," as a HTML composition
                  tool would.  For the technically inclined, that
                  means that when the text <markup
                  role="html">&lt;BR&gt</markup> is sent as HTML, it
                  will be converted to the string
                  <literal>&amp;lt;BR&amp;gt;</literal>.
                </para>
          </note>
          <para>
                Some people do not have HTML-capable mail clients, or
                prefer not to receive HTML-enhanced mail because it
                is slower to download and display.  Some people refer
                to HTML mail as "the root of all evil" and get very
                angry if you send them HTML mail, which is why the
                default in <application>Evolution</application> is
                plain text.  If you have an address book entry for
                someone who does not wish to receive HTML-enhanced
                mail, you can note that preference in their address
                card.  The mailer will automatically strip the HTML
                tags from any messages you send to that address.
              </para>
        </sect4>
      
        <sect4 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-attach">
          <title>Attachments</title>
          <para>
                If you want to attach a file to your email message,
                you can do so by <!--describe process here-->.  If
                your recipients can read HTML mail, you can put an
                image inside the mail by dragging the file into the
                composer window, or by selecting (INSERT DESCRIPTION
                HERE) (IS THIS CORRECT?).  Still, unless you know what
                email client the recipient is using, it's best to send
                a message or attachment in the simplest manner
                possible.
              </para>
        </sect4>
        <sect4 id="usage-mail-getnsend-send-live">
          <title></title>
          <para>
                Later versions of <application>Evolution</application>
                will allow you to enliven your email with almost any
                sort of document, and even with entire
                applications. At this point, however, I don't know how
                that will work.
              </para>
        </sect4>
      </sect3>
       
      <sect3 id="usage-getnsend-fwd">
        <title>Forwarding Mail</title>      
        <para>
              <guilabel>Forward</guilabel> is useful if you have
          received a message and you think someone else would like
          to see it, or if you get a message intended for someone
          else.  You can forward a message as an attachment to a
          new message (the default way of forwarding) or you can send it
          <glossterm>inline</glossterm> as a quoted portion of the
          message you are sending.  Attachment forwarding is best
          if you want to send the entire message you received,
          unaltered.  Inline forwarding is best if you want to
          send portions of a message, or if you have a large
          number of comments on different sections of the message
          you are forwarding.  Remember to note from whom the
          message came, and where, if at all, you have removed or
          altered content.
            </para>
        <para>
              To forward a message, first make sure it is selected by
              clicking it once in the message list.  Then, press
              <guibutton>Forward</guibutton> on the toolbar, or select
              SOMETHING.  To forward a message inline instead of as an
              attachment, DO SOMETHING ELSE.  Choose an addressee as
              you would when sending a new message; the subject will
              already be entered, but you can alter it.  Enter your
              comments on the message in the <interface>composition
              frame</interface>, and press <guibutton>Send and
              Receive</guibutton>.  To forward it
              <glossterm>inline</glossterm> instead of attached,
              select <guimenuitem>Forward Inline</guimenuitem> from
              the <guimenu>Message</guimenu> menu.
            </para>
      </sect3>
      <sect3 id="usage-mail-getnsend-ettiquette">
        <title>Seven Tips for Email Usage</title>
        <para>
              I started with ten, but four were "Don't send
              <glossterm>spam</glossterm>."
              <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
          <para>
                    Always begin and close with a salutation. Say
                    "please" and "thank you", just like you do in real
                    life. You can keep your pleasantries short, but be pleasant!
                  </para>
        </listitem>
          
        <listitem>
          <para>
                    ALL CAPS MEANS YOU'RE SHOUTING!
                  </para>
        </listitem>
          
        <listitem>
          <para>
                     Never write anything in email you wouldn't say in
                     public.  Old messages have a nasty habit of
                     resurfacing when you least expect them to.
                  </para>
        </listitem>
          
        <listitem>
          <para>
                   Check your spelling and use complete sentences.
                  </para>
        </listitem>
         
        <listitem>
          <para>
                    Don't send nasty emails (flames).  If you get one,
            don't write back.
                  </para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>
                     Don't send spam or forward chain mail.  If you
                     must, verify any rumors, and make sure the
                     message doesn't have multiple layers of email
                     quotation symbols (&gt;) indicating multiple
                     layers of careless inline forwarding.
                  </para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>
                     When you reply or forward, include just enough of
             the previous message to provide context. Not too
             much, not too little.
                   </para>
        </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
            </para>
        <para> Happy mailing! </para>
      </sect3>
    </sect2>
      </sect1>

      <sect1 id="usage-mail-organize">
    <title>Organizing Your Mail</title>
    <para>
          Even if you only get a few email messages a day, you
          probably want to sort and organize them.  When you get a
          hundred a day and you want to refer to a message you
          received six weeks ago, you need to sort and organize them,
          and <application>Evolution</application> has the tools to
          help you do it.  
        </para>
    
    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-folders">
      <title>Getting Organized with Folders</title>
      <para>
            You can create new folders by selecting
            <guimenuitem>ITEM</guimenuitem> from the
            <guimenu>MENU</guimenu>, or by pressing
            <keysym>COMBO</keysym>.  (Will there be a dialog box to
            determine name and location? Must wait for feature to
            describe) The new folders will appear in the
            <interface>tree view</interface>, and you can drag them
            wherever you want to relocate them.  You can move messages
            into them by dragging, or by selecting them and choosing
            <guimenuitem>ITEM</guimenuitem> from the
            <guimenu>MENU</guimenu>.  An email message can be in only
            one folder at a time, just like real mail in real folders.
            This is also the case for folders of address cards and calendar
            information.
          </para>
    </sect2>    

    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-search">
      <title>Searching for Messages</title>
      <para>
            Because <application>Evolution</application> automatically
            creates an index of every email you send or receive, it
            can search through your old messages and present you with
            results very quickly.  You can search for messages by
            author, subject, keyword, or headers. (INSERT descriptons
            of what those terms mean)
          </para>
          <para>
            (INSERT the way one creates a search and so forth)
          </para>
    </sect2>
    
    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-vFolders">
      <title>Getting Really Organized with Virtual Folders</title>
      <para>
            If you find yourself performing a search frequently, you
            can save it as a virtual folder. Virtual folders, or
            vFolders, are an advanced way of viewing your email
            messages within <application>Evolution</application>.  If
            you get a lot of mail or often forget where you put
            messages, vFolders can help you stay on top of things.
          </para>
          <para>
            A vFolder looks and acts a lot like a folder, but it's
            actually a saved search that you can access in most of the
            same ways you would a regular folder.  The one important
            differences between them is that a conventional folder
            actually contains messages, but a vFolder is a view of
            messages that may be in several different folders.  This
            means that while a message may fall into several vFolders,
            it can be in only one conventional folder.  Also, it means
            that you cannot remove a message from a vFolder unless you
            delete it, and you cannot add a message to a vFolder
            unless you change the vFolder's search criteria.
          </para>
      <para>
            As messages that meet the vFolder criteria arrive or are
            deleted, <application>Evolution</application> will
            automatically place them in and and remove them from the
            vFolder contents list.  When you delete a message, it gets
            erased from the folder it actually exists in as well as
            any vFolders which include it.
          </para>
      <para>
            That's pretty complicated.  But it can be useful. For
            example, if I have a folder for all the email from one
            person, and another folder for all the email on a given
            topic, I feel organized. But when the person sends me
            mail about the topic, my whole email filing universe
            becomes chaotic.  I need vFolders to save the day for me.
          </para>
      <para>
            That sounds silly, but imagine a business trying to keep
        track of mail from hundreds of vendors and clients, or a
        university with overlapping and changing groups of
        faculty, staff, administrators and students.  The larger
        the system, the less you can afford that sort of
        confusion.  vFolders make for better organization because
        they can accept overlapping groups in a way that regular
        folders and filing systems can't.
          </para>

      <example id="usage-mail-organize-vFolders-ex">
        <title>Using Folders, Searches, and vFolders</title>
        <para>
           To organize my mail box, I can set up a vFolder
           for emails from my friend Vince, by doing (INSERT
           PROCESS HERE).  Then, whenever I want to see the
           messages Vince has sent me, I open the vFolder, and
           every message he's sent me shows up, no matter where
           I've actually filed it.  If I want, I can also create a
           vFolder containing any message from my list of
           co-workers which also has the name of the project in
           it.  That way, when Vince sends me mail about the
           project, I can see that message both in the "Vince"
           vFolder and in the "Project" vFolder.  That's because
           when I open up the "Vince" folder, I'm really
           performing a search for all the mail from Vince, and
           when I open the "Project" folder I'm really performing
           a search for all the mail about the project.

              (INSERT SCREENSHOT HERE)

        </para>
      </example>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-filters">
      <title>Staying organized: Mail Filters in Evolution</title>
      <para>
            Filters sort your email for you as it arrives in your
            Inbox, so you don't have to sort them all yourself.
            People who subscribe to multiple mailing lists find
            filters especially helpful to sort personal from
            list-related mail.  To create a filter, go to your
            <interface>Inbox</interface>.  Then select BLAH BLAH BLAH.
            This will open the <interface>filters</interface> window.
          </para>

          <para> 
            The <interface>filters</interface> window contains the
            following items: <!--DESCRIBE INTERFACE--> 
          </para>
      
      <note>
        <title>Two Notable Filter Features</title>
        <para>
              <itemizedlist>
        <listitem><para>Any email that does not meet filter
                action criteria remains in the Inbox. </para>
                </listitem>
        
        <listitem><para>If you move a folder, your filters
                will follow it.  </para></listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
            </para>
      </note>
    </sect2>
      </sect1>
    </chapter>
<!-- ================ END OF MAILER CHAPTER ============= -->