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

<chapter id="usage-mail"> 
  <title>Evolution Mail</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:
     <itemizedlist>
       <listitem>
     <para>
       It can sort and organize your mail in a wide variety of ways with
       folders, searches, and filters.
     </para>
       </listitem>
       <listitem>
     <para>
      It can send and recieve mail in HTML or as plain text, and
      supports file attachments.
     </para>
       </listitem>
       <listitem>
     <para>
       It lets you use a wide variety of mail sources, including
       IMAP, POP3, and local files.
     </para>
       </listitem>
     </itemizedlist>
    </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.  By
       default, the <interface>Inbox</interface> is open when you
       start <application>Evolution</application>, and the first
       time you see your inbox, there's a message in it from Helix
       Code welcoming you to the application.
    </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>.  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 click on the message in the <interface>message
    list</interface>.  That selects the message.  Then click on
    the <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> button in the tool bar.  The
    message now has a line through it, because you've marked it
    for deletion.  If you really want to get rid of it, choose
    <guimenuitem>Expunge</guimenuitem> from the
    <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> menu.  That will delete it
    permanently. If you want to keep it, click
    <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> again, and it will no longer be
    marked as deleted.  At some point in the future, this feature
    will change to something a little less counter-intuitive.
      </para>
 <!-- ==============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="fig/mainwindow-pic" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
    </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>
<!-- ==============End of Figure===================================
-->

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="usage-mail-getnsend-get">
      <title>Getting Mail</title>
      <para>
    To check your email, just click <guibutton>Get
    mail</guibutton> in the toolbar.  If this is the first time
    you've done so, the <interface>mail setup
    assistant</interface> will ask you for the information it
    needs to check your mail (see <xref
    linkend="config-setupassist"> for more information).  Then,
    <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 instead of mail, you probably
    need to change your network settings.  To learn how to
    do that, have a look at <xref
    linkend="config-prefs-mail-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 display it at the
      bottom of the message to which it's attached.  Click on the
      attachment icon or text, and
      <application>Evolution</application> will ask you where you
      want to put the file.  Once you've done that, you can
      open, move, copy, or execute it just like any other, 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>
        Don't worry about security. When someone you don't know
        sends you a program by email, assume it's a really cool
        game.  Mark it executable and run it, no matter what.
      </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 <guibutton>Ctrl-N</guibutton>.  When you do so,
     the <interface>New Message</interface> window will open,
     as shown in <xref linkend="usage-mail-newmsg-fig">.


<!--   ==============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=================================== -->
 <!-- Check the alignment of the following paragraph in the PS and HTMl output, 
as putting the fig inside the paragraph may or may not have fixed an error -->
      </para>
      <para>      
     Enter an address in the <guilabel>To:</guilabel> field, a
     message in the <guilabel>Message:</guilabel> field, and
     press <guibutton>Send</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 quite a bit more to sending mail, though.  In the
    next few sections, you'll see how
    <application>Evolution</application> handles 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 people listed in the
      <guilabel>BCc:</guilabel> are excluded from the
      recipient list, although they will receive the message
      and the list of addresses from the
      <guilabel>To:</guilabel> and <guilabel>Cc:</guilabel>
      fields.  

      <example id="ex-mail-bcc">
         <title>Using the BCc: field</title>
         <para>
           Let's say Tim sends an email to a client, and wants
           his supervisor to know what he wrote.  He doesn't,
           however, want the client to start writing his
           supervisor about the project&mdash; it's Tim's job
           to deal with the client.  So Tim puts his
           supervisor's email address in the
           <guilabel>BCc:</guilabel> field.  That way, the
           client has one contact, and the boss stays in the
           loop.
       </para>
     </example>
    </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.  A window like the
       <interface>New Message</interface> window will appear, but
       the subject will already be present&mdash; 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 is inserted into the new
       message, either in italics (for HTML display) or with the
       &gt; character (in plain text mode) 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. If there are large numbers of people in the
      <guilabel>Cc:</guilabel> or <guilabel>To:</guilabel>
      fields, this can save substantial amounts of time.  In
      addition, Reply-To makes it very easy to keep off-topic
      conversation away from mailing lists and newsgroups.
      <example>
        <title>Using the Reply-To feature</title>
        <para>
          Returning again to the email Susan sent to Tim and
          their client, you'll note that the Reply-To feature
          allows the client to decide whether to reply just to
          Susan, or to both Tim and Susan by selecting
          a menu item, rather than by cutting and pasting the
          email addresses. 
        </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>
          You can't use the composer window to create web pages,
          at least not if you plan to hand-code them with HTML.
          If you enter HTML directly into the composer&mdash; say,
          <markup role="html">&lt;B&gt;Bold
          Text&lt;/B&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 very technically
          inclined, that means that when the text <markup
          role="html">&lt;B&gt</markup> is sent as HTML, it will
          be converted to the string
          <literal>&amp;lt;B&amp;gt;</literal>.  Real gearheads
          should wonder how I got all that stuff straight, given
          that I'm writing this in SGML.
        </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.
        <emphasis>Some</emphasis> 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 choose to send HTML mail, but 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 <guimenuitem>Menu
        Item</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Menu</guimenu>
        menu.  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>Live Documents</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, this feature has not 
        yet been implimented.
      </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
      <glossterm>inline</glossterm> instead of attached, select
      <guimenuitem>Forward Inline </guimenuitem> from the
      <guimenu>Message</guimenu> menu.  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</guibutton>.
    </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>
    <application>Evolution</application> keeps mail, as well as
    address cards and calendars, in folders.  Some, like
    <guilabel>Inbox</guilabel>, <guilabel>Outbox</guilabel>, and
    <guilabel>Drafts</guilabel> have already been created for
    you. If you like, you can create new folders by selecting
    <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu> and then
    <guimenuitem>Folder</guimenuitem> from the
    <guimenu>File</guimenu> menu.  You must specify both the name
    and the type of the folder; a folder can hold mail, calendars,
    or address cards, but you can't mix them up.  Some people
    don't like that. Too bad.
      </para>
      <para>
        The new folders will appear in the <interface>folder
    view</interface>, and you can drag them wherever you want to
    relocate them.  You can drag messages around too.  If you
    create filters with the <interface>filter
    assistant</interface>, you can have mail moved to a folder
    automatically.  An email message can be in only one folder at
    a time, just like real mail in real folders.
      </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 through just the message
    subjects, just the message body, or both body and subjet.
      </para>
      <para>
    To create a search, enter the word or phrase you're
    looking for in the form field below the toolbar, and
    choose a search type:
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Body or subject contains:</guilabel> This
          will search message subjects and the messages
          themselves for the word or phrase you've entered in
          the search field.
       </para>
     </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Body contains:</guilabel> This will search
           only in message text, not the subject lines.
       </para>
     </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Subject contains:</guilabel> This will
          show you messages where the search text is in the
          subject line.  It will not search in the message body.
       </para>
     </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Body does not contain:</guilabel> This
          finds every email message that does not have the
          search text in the message body.  It will still show
          messages that have the search text in the subject
          line, if it is not also in the body.
       </para>
     </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Subject does not contain:</guilabel>This
          finds every mail whose subject does not
          contain the search text.
       </para>
     </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

        Then, press <keycap>Enter</keycap>.
        <application>Evolution</application> will show your search
        results in 

      </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-filters">
      <title>Staying organized: Mail Filters in Evolution</title>
      <para>
    Filters sort your email for you.  People who subscribe to
    multiple mailing lists, or who often need to refer to messages
    they have sent, find filters especially helpful to seperate
    personal from list-related mail, but they're good for anybody
    who gets more than a few messages a day.  To create a filter,
    go to your <interface>Inbox</interface>.  Then select
    <guimenuitem>Filter Assistant</guimenuitem> from the
    <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> menu. This will bring up a window
    which will guide you through filter creation.  The
    <interface>filter assistant</interface> is shown in <xref
    linkend="usage-mail-filters-fig-new">


       <figure id="usage-mail-filters-fig-new">
     <title>Creating a new Filter</title>
     <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>Creating a new Filter</screeninfo>
      <graphic fileref="fig/filter-new-fig" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
    </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>

      </para>

      <para> The <interface>filter assistant</interface> window
    contains a window listing rules, and an option to create a
    new rule.  To start filtering your mail, click
    <guibutton>Add</guibutton> to add a filtering rule.
    You'll decide when it should take place: 
      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
           <para>
         <guilabel>When mail arrives:</guilabel> Select
         this option to have messages filtered as they
         arrive.
           </para>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
           <para>
         <guilabel>When mail is sent:</guilabel> Select
         this option to filter your outgoing mail.  You
         can use this feature to keep your
         <interface>Outbox</interface> as organized as
         your <interface>Inbox</interface>.
         </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
      </para>

      <para>
       Then, the filter assistant will ask you which emails it should act
       upon.  You can set criteria to include words or phrases in the
       subject, To:, Cc: or body of the message. (FIXME: WHAT ELSE?)
       Once you've decided which messages to filter, the assistant will
       ask you the sort of action you wish to take.  More details and
       screenshots should follow here.
      </para>


      <note>
    <title>Two Notable Filter Features</title>
    <para>
      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem><para>Any incoming 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>



    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-vFolders">
      <title>Getting Really Organized with Virtual Folders</title>
      <para>
    If you find that filters aren't flexible enough for you, or
    end up performing the same search again and again, you should
    consider 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 is really a hybrid of all the other organizational
    tools: it looks like a folder, it acts like a search, and you
    set it up like a filter.  Once you've set it up, you'll be
    able to open it and read the messages in it as though it were
    a normal mail folder.  It's not a folder, though, because when
    you open a vFolder, <application>Evolution</application>
    performs a search for you.  It's not a regular search, though,
    because you can build a vFolder with a very complicated set of
    criteria with multiple inclusions and exclusions, as though
    you were setting up a filter.
      </para>

<!-- potentially useful, but doesn't fit at the moment:
     <para>
       An important difference between a folder and a virtual folder
    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 in which it actually exists, 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
    <emphasis>feel</emphasis> organized.  But when the person
    sends me mail about the topic, my whole email filing universe
    becomes chaotic, and 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 the sort of confusion that stems from an
    organizational system that's not flexible enough.  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>
      <para>
     To create a vFolder, select <guimenuitem>VFolder
     Assistant</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Tools</guimenu>
     menu in the <interface>main window</interface>.  This
     will bring up a dialog box that looks suspiciously like
     the Filter Assistant (for more information on filters, see
     <xref linkend="usage-mail-organize-filters">), and which
     presents you with a list of vFolders you have previously
     created. If you have already created vFolders, you can
     click on them in the frame labelled <guilabel>Select Rule
     Type</guilabel>, and edit or remove them.  If you have
     not created any, there will be only one available option:
     click <guibutton>Add</guibutton> to add a new vFolder.
      </para>
      <para>
     You'll be prompted to create a filtering rule. To do so,
     select one of the base rules, and click
     <guibutton>Next</guibutton> to customize it.  Your options are:
    <itemizedlist>
     <listitem>
        <para>
           For matching messages: you may select one or more
           search criteria; the vFolder you create will
           contain messages that match all of
           them.
         </para>
       </listitem>
       <listitem>
         <para>
        Messages from a certain person: you enter an email
        address, and the vFolder will contain any messages
        from that address.
         </para>
       </listitem>
       <listitem>
         <para>
           Messages to a certain address: any messages sent
           directly to this address will be in the vFolder you create.
          </para>
       </listitem>
       <listitem>
         <para>
        Messages with a given subject: enter a subject,
        and the vFolder will contain messages with that
        subject.
         </para>
       </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    as is shown in <xref linkend="usage-mail-vfolder-fig-createrule">

       <figure id="usage-mail-vfolder-fig-createrule">
     <title>Selecting a vFolder Rule</title>
     <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>Selecting a vFolder Rule</screeninfo>
      <graphic fileref="fig/vfolder-createrule-fig" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
    </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>
      </para>
      <para>

    Once you click <guibutton>Next</guibutton>, you'll
    customize the vFolder rule.  This process is somewhat
    complicated, but promises to get much more simple in
    future versions of <application>Evolution</application>.
    As it stands now, try clicking different things to have
    the sentence in the bottom frame make sense.

      </para>
    </sect2>

  </sect1>
</chapter>