IntroductionWhat is Evolution, and What Can It Do for Me?
Information is useless unless it's organized and accessible;
it's hardly even worth the name if you can't look at it and be
informed.
Evolution's goal is to make the
tasks of storing, organizing, and retrieving your personal
information easier, so you can work and communicate with
others. That is, it's a highly evolved groupware program, an integral
part of the Internet-connected desktop.
Without all the hot air, that means it's a tool to help you
get your work done.
Because it's part of the GNOME project,
Evolution is Free Software. The
program and its source code are released under the terms of
the GNU General
Public License (GPL), and the
documentation falls under the Free Documentation
License (FDL). For more information about
the GPL and the FDL, visit the Free Software Foundation's
website at http://www.fsf.org.
This is a Beta releaseEvolution is now on the home
stretch to version 1.0. Please help prepare for the 1.0
release by reporting bugs to us at bugzilla.ximian.com. There
are detailed bug reporting instructions in .
Please send comments on the guide to
aaron@ximian.com. The first person to send
some good suggestions gets a free Ximian t-shirt.
Evolution can help you work in a
group by handling email, address and other contact
information, and one or more calendars. It can do that on one
or several computers, connected directly or over a network,
for one person or for large groups.
The Evolution project has four
central goals:
The application must be both powerful and easy
to use. In other words, it needs a familiar
and intuitive interface that users can customize to their
liking, and users should have access to shortcuts for
complex tasks.
Evolution must meet and
exceed the standards set by other groupware products.
It must include support for major network protocols so that it can
integrate seamlessly with existing hardware and network
environments.
The project must support open standards and be open to
expansion, so that it can become a development platform
as well as an application. From the simplest scripting
to the most complex network and component programming,
Evolution must offer
developers an environment for cutting-edge application
development.
Data must be safe: Evolution
must not lose mail, corrupt mailbox files or other data,
execute arbitrary scripts, or delete files from
your hard disk.
Evolution is designed to make most
daily tasks faster. For example, it takes only one or two
clicks to enter an appointment or an address card sent to you
by email, or to send email to a contact or appointment.
Evolution makes displays faster and
more efficient, so searches are faster and memory usage is
lower. People who get lots of mail will appreciate advanced
features like
Virtual Folders, which let you save searches as though
they were ordinary mail folders.
About This Book
This book is divided into two parts, with several
appendices. The first part is a guided
tour— it will explain how to use
Evolution. If you are new to
Evolution or to groupware in
general, this section is for you. The second section, covering
configuration, is targeted at
more advanced users, but anyone who wants to change the way
Evolution looks or acts can benefit
from reading it.
Typographical conventions
Some kinds of words are marked off with special typography:
ApplicationsCommands typed at the command lineLabels for interface items Menu selections look like this:
MenuSubmenuMenu ItemButtons you can
clickAnything you type
inText
output from a computerWords
that are defined in the .Example Tip
Tips and bits of extra information will look like
this.
Example Example
This is what an example looks like.
Example Warning
This is what a warning looks like.
Quick Reference for Common Tasks
You might want to copy this section and tape it to the wall
next to your computer: it's a very short summary of most of
the things you'll want to do with
Evolution.
Opening or Creating AnythingCreate a new folderFileNewFolder or
CtrlShift FCreate a new Shortcut in the Evolution BarFileNewEvolution Bar Shortcut or
CtrlShiftSCreate a new email message:
Use
FileNewMail
Message or
CtrlShift MCreate a new AppointmentFileNewAppointment or
CtrlShiftAEnter a new ContactFileNewContact or
CtrlShiftCCreate a new TaskFileNewTask or
CtrlShiftTMail Tasks
Here are the most frequent email tasks, and shortcuts for
navigating your mailbox with the keyboard instead of the
mouse:
Navigating the Message List with the Keyboard
Press N to jump to the next unread
message. P goes to the previous
unread message. Use the arrow keys to move up
and down along the list of all message.
Display the next page of a message in the preview pane
Press the space bar.
Reply to a Message
To reply to the sender of the message only:
click Reply in the
toolbar, or press
CtrlR
To reply to the sender and all the other visible
recipients of the message, click Reply to
All or select the message and press
ShiftCtrlRForward a Message
Select the message or messages you want to forward,
and click Forward in the
toolbar, or press
CtrlFOpen a Message in a New Window
Double-click the message you want to view, or select
it and press
CtrlOCreate Filters and Virtual Folders
Right-click on a message and select "Create Rule..."
menu items. You can also create filters and virtual
folders in the Tools menu.
Address BookNew Appointments Fast
Double-click in a blank space to create a new contact.
Contact Manager
Here are the most frequent tasks that are done in the Contact Manager,
with the shortcuts so that you can use these tasks without having to use
your mouse:
Edit a Contact
You can edit a contact two ways:
Click once on the person's address card and you can
edit the person's properties all in the same window.
Double-click on the contact's card and alter their details.
Deleting a Contact
Right click on a contact and click Delete
or select a contact and press the Delete
on the toolbar.
Email a Contact
Right click on a contact and select
Send message to contact.
tle='2000-12-09 07:15:01 +0800'>2000-12-09