To start Ximian Evolution, do either of the following:
Select Programs->Evolution from your menu panel.
Type evolution at the command line.
The first time you run the program, it will create a directory called evolution in your home directory, where it will store all of its local data. Then, it will open a first-run assistant to help you set up mail accounts and import data from other applications.
Using the first-run assistant will take approximately two to five minutes.
The Identity window is the first of four steps in the assistant. The identity step will ask you to enter your basic personal information. You can define multiple identities later on with the Tools->Mail Settings tool.
Full Name — Your full name (Example: John Doe).
Email Address — Your email address (Example: john@doe.com)
Organization — The company where you work (optional).
Signature file — If you'd like to use an email signature, select your signature file here. Normally, the signature will be the contents of the .signature file in your home directory.
The Recieving Email step lets you configure receving email people have sent you.
Server Type — There are numerous types of servers from which Ximian Evolution can fetch your mail:
POP — Downloads your email to your hard disk for permanent storage.
IMAPv4 — Keeps the email on your server so you can access your email from any computer that supports IMAPv4 and have everything be the same. For more information about how to use IMAP mail, see the section called Subscription Management in Chapter 3.
Unix mail spool file — If you run a mail server on your desktop computer, choose this optino.
Standard Unix .mbox file — If you want Ximian Evolution to read mail from a specific file, or if you download mail with another application, choose this option.
Qmail maildir format files — If you download your mail using qmail, you'll want to use this.
None — How do you have None? figure out!
Email Server — This is the address of the server you're downloading from.
Username — The username that you login to your email. That is often the part before the @ in your email.
Authentication Type — Chances are you are using Password. Ask your administrator for more details. You can have Ximian Evolution check by clicking Check for supported types.
Remember Password — If you prefer to not enter your password every time you check email, press this button.
The Sending Email step lets you configure sending email.
Server Type — There are numerous server types that Ximian Evolution supports for sending your mail.
SMTP — Downloads mail into your mailbox file.
Sendmail — Uses another program to download your mail to your mailbox files.
Host — If you chose SMTP, enter the server's name or IP address here.
Server requires authentication — If your server requires you to enter a password to send mail, check this box.
Authentication Type — Chances are you are using Password. If you're not sure, ask your system administrator or ISP, or have Ximian Evolution check for you by clicking Check for supported types.
Username — The account name you use when you login to check your email. Normally, this is the part of your email address before the '@' character.
Remember Password — If you prefer to not enter your password every time you check email, press this button.
If Ximian Evolution finds mail or address files from another application, it will offer to import them. If you're not sure which file format your mail program uses, ask your system administrator.
Ximian Evolution can import the following types of files:
The most common addressbook format.
Email file format used by Outlook Express 4.
The email box format used by Mozilla, Netscape, Ximian Evolution, Eudora, and many other email clients.
Outlook 2000 Users: Outlook 2000 uses a proprietary format that Ximian Evolution cannot import directly. To import files from Outlook 2000, do the following:
While using Windows, import the files into Mozilla Mail (or another mailer, such as Netscape or Eudora, that uses the standard mbox format).
Copy the files to the system or partition you use for Ximian Evolution.
Use the Ximian Evolution import tool to import the files. Read the FAQ at the Ximian website for more information.
Netscape Users: Before importing mail from Netscape, make sure you select File->Compact All Folders. If you don't, Ximian Evolution will import and undelete the messages in your Trash folders.
Exporting Files From Ximian Evolution: Ximian Evolution uses standard file types for all its information, so you should have no trouble taking your information elsewhere if you want.
For mail, that's mbox, for calendar, iCal, and for the address book, vCards in a .db3 database.