Writing and Sending Mail
You can start writing a new email message by selecting File->New-> Mail Message, or by pressing the Compose button in the Inbox toolbar. When you do so, the New Message window will open, as shown in Figure 3-2.
Enter an address in the To: field. If you wish enter a subject in the Subject: and a message in the big empty box at the bottom of the window. Once you have revised your message, press Send.
Saving Messages for Later
Evolution will send mail immediately unless you tell it to do otherwise by selecting File->Send Later. This will add your messages to the Outbox queue. Then, when you press Send in another message, or Get Mail in the main mail window, all your unsent messages will go out at once. You might want to use "Send Later" becuase it gives you a chance to change your mind about a message before you send it.
To learn more about how you can specify message queue and filter behavior, see the section called Mail Settings in Chapter 9.
You can also choose to save messages as drafts or as text files. Your options are:
Choose File->Save Draft to store your messages in the drafts folder for later revision.
If you'd like to have the message sent later, you can choose Send Later. That way, the message will be added to the queue, and you can send a batch of messages all at once.
If you prefer to save your message as a text file, choose Save As and then choose a file name.
Advanced Mail Composition
In the next few sections, you'll see how Evolution handles advanced email features, including large recipient lists, attachments, and forwarding.
Attachments
To attach a file to your email:
Push the attach button in the composer toolbar
Select the file you want to attach
Press OK
You can drag a file from your desktop into the composer window to attach it as well.
To hide the display of files you've attached to the message, select View->Hide Attachments; to show them again, choose Show Attachments.
When you send the message, a copy of the attached file will go with it. Be aware that big attachments can take a long time to download.
When receiving a message that has an attached image, Evolution gives you the choice whether to view it or not. You can choose to have it always shown, load images only if the sender is in your addressbook, or never load images.
Types of Recipients
Evolution, like most email programs, recognizes three types of addressee: primary recipients, secondary recipients, and hidden ("blind") recipients.
The simplest way to direct a message is to put the email address or addresses in the To: field, which denotes primary recipients. To send mail to more than one or two people, you can use the the Cc: field.
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.
Bcc: is a little more complex. You use it like Cc:, but people on the Bcc: list are hidden from the other recipients of the message. Use it to send mail to large groups of people, especially if they don't know each other or if privacy is a concern.
Example 3-1. Using the Cc: field
When Susan sends an email to a client, she puts her co-worker, Tim, in the in the Cc: field, so that he know what's going on. The client can see that Tim also received the message, and knows that he can talk to Tim about the message as well.
Example 3-2. Using the Bcc: field
Tim is sending an email announcement to all of his company's clients, some of whom are in competition with each other, and all of whom value their privacy. He needs to use the Bcc: field here. If he puts every address from his address book's "Clients" category into the To: or Cc: fields, he'll make the company's entire client list public. But putting his "Clients" addressbook into the Bcc: section, that will cause them to be hidden from the competition. It seems insignificant, but it can make a huge difference in some situations.
Choosing Recipients Quickly
If you have created address cards in the contact manager, you can also enter nicknames or other portions of address data, and Evolution will offer a drop down list of possible address completions from your address book. 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. Also, Evolution will add a domain to any unqualified addresses. By default, this is your domain, but you can choose which one mail preferences dialog.
Alternately, you can click on the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: buttons to get a list — potentially a very long one — of the email addresses in your contact manager. Select addresses and click on the arrows to move them into the appropriate address columns.
For more information about using email together with the contact manager and the calendar, see the section called Address Book Tools in Chapter 5 and the section called Scheduling With the Evolution Calendar in Chapter 6.
Replying to Messages
To reply to a message, press the Reply: button while it is selected, or choose Reply to Sender: from the message's right-click menu. That will open the message composer. The To: and Subject: fields will already be filled, although you can alter them if you wish. In addition, the full text of the old message is inserted into the new message, either grey (for HTML display) or with the > character before each line (in plain text mode), to indicate that it's part of the previous message. People often intersperse their message with the quoted material as shown in Figure 3-3.
If you're reading a message with several recipients, you may wish to use Reply to All instead of Reply. If there are large numbers of people in the Cc: or To: fields, this can save substantial amounts of time.
Example 3-3. Using the Reply to All feature
Susan sends an email to a client and sends copies to Tim and to an internal company mailing list of co-workers. If Tim wants to make a comment for all of them to read, he uses Reply to All, but if he just wants to tell Susan that he agrees with her, he uses Reply. Note that his reply will not reach anyone that Susan put on her Bcc list, since that list is not shared with anyone.
If you're subscribed to a mailing list, and want your reply to go just to the list, rather than to the sender, choose Reply to List instead of Reply or Reply to All.
What is a Mailing List?: Mailing Lists are one of the most popular tools for group collaboration on the Internet. Here's how they work:
The mail management program lets individuals subscribe to or unsubscribe from the list at will, without requiring the message writers to remember the addresses of every recipient.
Someone sends a message to a single address, like <evolution@ximian.com>. That address belongs to a program that distributes the message to a list of recipients. Mailing list servers can also let network administrators control mail flow, list membership, and even moderate the content of mailing lists.
Searching and Replacing with the Composer
You are probably familiar with search and replace features in any sort of text-editing software, and if you come from a Linux or Unix background, you may know what Find Regex does. If you aren't among the lucky who already know, here's a quick rundown of the automated text searching features that the message composer makes available to you.
- Find
Enter a word or phrase, and Evolution will find it in your message.
- Find Regex
Find a regex, also called a regular expression, in your composer window.
- Find Again
Select this item to repeat the last search you performed.
- Replace
Find a word or phrase, and replace it with something else.
For all of these menu items, you can choose whether or not to Search Backwards in the document from the point where your cursor is. For all but the regular expression search (which doesn't need it), you are offered a check box to determine whether the search is to be Case Sensitive when it determines a match.
Embellish your email with HTML
Normally, you can't set text styles or insert pictures in emails, which is why you've probably seen people use far too many exclamation points for emphasis, or use emoticons to convey their feelings. However, most newer email programs can display images and text styles as well as basic alignment and paragraph formatting. They do this with HTML, just like web pages do.
HTML Mail is not a Default Setting: 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 Evolution sends plain text unless you explicitly ask for HTML. To send HTML mail, you will need to select Format-> HTML. Alternately, you can set your default mail format preferences in the mail configuration dialog. See the section called Other Mail Preferences in Chapter 9 for more information.
HTML formatting tools are located in the toolbar just above the space where you'll actually compose the message, and they also appear in the Insert and Format menus.
The icons in the toolbar are explained in tool-tips, which appear when you hold your mouse over the buttons. The buttons fall into four categories:
- Headers and lists
At the left edge of the toolbar, you can choose Normal for a default text style or Header 1 through Header 6 for varying sizes of header from large (1) to tiny (6). Other styles include preformat, to use the HTML tag for preformatted blocks of text, and three types of List Item for the highly organized.
- Text style
Use these buttons to determine the way your letters look. If you have text selected, the style will apply to the selected text. If you do not have text selected, the style will apply to whatever you type next. The buttons are:
Push B for bold text
Push I for italics
Push U to underline
Push S for a strikethrough.
- Alignment
Located next to the text style buttons, these three paragraph icons should be familiar to users of most word processing software. The leftmost button will make your text aligned to the left, the center button, centered, and the right hand button, aligned on the right side.
- Indentation rules
The button with the arrow pointing left will reduce a paragraph's indentation, and the right arrow will increase its indentation.
- Color Selection
At the far right is the color section tool. The colored box displays the current text color; to choose a new one, click the arrow button just to the right. If you have text selected, the color will apply to the selected text. If you do not have text selected, the color will apply to whatever you type next.
The Insert gives you three opinions which let you spruce up your email to make it more interesting:
- Insert Link
Lets you link some text to a website. Use this tool to put hyperlinks in your HTML messages. If you don't want special link text, you can just enter the address directly, and Evolution will recognize it as a link.
- Insert Image
Lets you put an image alongside text.
- Insert Rule
Inserts a horizontal line into the text to help divide two sections.
Select the text you want to link from
Right click on text and select Link
Enter the address you wish to link to in the URL field.
Press OK.
To add an image to your HTML message:
Click Insert->Image
Click Browse
Select the image you want
Press OK
Press Insert
A Technical note on HTML Tags: The composer is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor for HTML. That means that if you enter HTML directly into the composer— say, <B>Bold Text</B>, the the composer will assume you meant exactly that string of characters, and not "make this text bold," as an HTML composition tool or text editor would.
Forwarding Mail
The post office forwards your mail for you when you change addresses, and you can forward a letter if it comes to you by mistake. The email Forward button works in much the same way. It's particularly useful if you have received a message and you think someone else would like to see it. You can forward a message as an attachment to a new message (this is the default) or you can send it inline as a quoted portion of the message you are sending. Attachment forwarding is best if you want to send the full, unaltered message on to someone else. 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.
To forward a message you are reading, press Forward on the toolbar, or select Message->Forward. If you prefer to forward the message inline instead of attached, select Message->Forward Inline from the 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 composition frame, and press Send.
Seven Tips for Email Courtesy
Don't send spam or forward chain mail. If you must, watch out for hoaxes and urban legends, and make sure the message doesn't have multiple layers of greater-than signs, (>) indicating multiple layers of careless in-line forwarding.
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!
WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS MEANS YOU'RE SHOUTING! Don't write a whole message in capital letters. It hurts people's ears.
Check your spelling and use complete sentences.
Don't send nasty emails (flames). If you get one, don't write back.
When you reply or forward, include just enough of the previous message to provide context: not too much, not too little.
Don't send spam.
Happy mailing!