The Message Composer
When the New Message or Reply or Forward action is selected, the message to be sent is brought up in the Message Composer. This window is where you can type the text of the message, attach files, and specify recipients. The window also provides an interface to spell check the message. In the near future, it will be possible to perform signing and encryption of messages using GnuPG or PGP.
When the message window first opens, you will see the several main sections:
The menu bar
Toolbar
Mail headers
The attachment box
The message body
These will each be covered in depth below:
Menu Bar
This contains all of the available commands for acting on the message, from selecting the headers to display to changing the character set of the message. Some of the menu items are not always available, depending on what state the message is currently in.
- File
The file menu contains commands for manipulating the message as a whole.
File->Include File... — Include a text file in the body of the message; only works for plain text files.
File->Attach File... — Attach any kind of file to the message.
File->Send — Send the message. (Using the method specified in the Preferences dialog)
File->Postpone — Save the message in the Draftbox for later revision and sending. You will be unable to postpone a message that is not currently valid.
File->Print... — Print a hard-copy of the current message out using the command specified in the Preferences window.
File->Close (Ctrl-W) — Close and discard the current message.
A message is considered valid (ready for sending) if it contains only legal email addresses in the To: field.
- Edit
The Edit menu contains commands which are used to modify the body of the message.
Edit->Cut (Ctrl-X) — Cut the selected text to the clipboard.
Edit->Copy (Ctrl-C) — Copy the selected text to the clipboard
Edit->Paste (Ctrl-V) — Paste the contents of the clipboard to the current position of the cursor.
Edit->Select All (Ctrl-A)
Edit->Wrap Body (Ctrl-Z) — Cause all the lines in the message to be wrapped to the specified outgoing mail wrap column.
Edit->Reflow Paragraph (Ctrl-R) — Cause all the lines in the paragraph the cursor is in to be wrapped to the specified outgoing mail wrap column.
Edit->Reflow Message (Ctrl-Shift-R) — Cause all the lines in the message to be wrapped to the specified outgoing mail wrap column.
Edit->Check Spelling (Ctrl-Shift-S) — Start spell checking the current message.
- Show
The Show menu is used to control which headers are displayed in the composer window for editing.
Show->From — Display the From header.
Show->To — Display the To header.
Show->Subject — Display the Subject header.
Show->Cc — Display the Cc header.
Show->Bcc — Display the Bcc header.
Show->Fcc — Display the Fcc header.
Show->Reply To — Display the Reply-To header.
Show->Attachments — Display the Attachments box.
Show->Comments — Display the Comments header.
Show->Keywords — Display the Keywords header.
- Language
The Language menu allows you to set the language to use for the composing the message. Currently, Balsa does not support multiple character sets in a single message. The current language in use is shown at the bottom of the menu, along with the character set in use.
The available languages consist of:
Baltic
Brazillian
Catalan
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portugese
Russian
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Ukranian
- Options
Options->Request Disposition Notification — If checked Balsa will include the Disposition-Notification-To header line with your From address. Please note that the handling of this request depends on the receiving mail program and that it not guaranteed that this notification will be sent back.
Toolbar
The toolbar contains buttons for the most commonly used functions when sending messages, including Send, Attach File..., and Save. As with the menu bar, some buttons are disabled if the message is not correctly setup to be sent.
- Send
Send the current message. Only available if the message is legal to be sent (i.e. proper email addresses)
- Attach
Open a dialog to attach a file to the current message.
- Postpone
Postpone the message to the Draftbox for later revision and sending.
- Check Spelling
Start a spell check on the current message. Balsa can currently use either the standard ispell or the newer aspell to do the spell checking. Settings for this can be found in the Preferences dialog.
Print out the draft of the message, using the print command specified in the Preferences dialog.
- Cancel
Close the composition window without saving or sending the message within.
Headers
The headers area is where the information regarding where the message is being sent to and from, as well as comments and keywords can be entered. All of the available headers are not shown by default, but they can be turned on and off very quickly using the menu.
- From
From is used to indicate the origin of the message, Balsa automatically fills this in for you if you have entered your name and email address in the Preferences window.
- To
The To header is used to indicate the intended recipient of the message; Balsa automatically fills this in for you if you are replying to a message.
- Subject
The Subject header is used to summarize the topic of the message.
- Cc
The "Carbon Copy" header. A comma separated list of recipients other than the main recipient should go here.
- Bcc
The Bcc, or "Blind Carbon Copy" header. Similar to the Cc header, except that email addresses placed in this header will not appear as recipients to readers of the message. Also known as a "silent" carbon copy.
- Fcc
The Fcc header stands for "Folder Carbon Copy", and it is used to specify any folders that you want the message copied to after being sent. It is presented as a drop-down combo box with a list of all available mailboxes, simply select the destination.
- Reply-To
The Reply-To header is for specifying what email address you want any replies to go to.
- Comments
Although not widely used, the Comments header can be used to specify short comments for email's.
- Keywords
Again, not a very widely used header, this can be used to embed general information about the content of the message in the email, to allow for easier searching or filtering at a later date.
Specifying Addresses
Balsa supports many different methods of selecting email addresss. All of the headers that can contain addresses have a small coloured book to the right of them that will open up Balsa's address book.
However, Balsa will also attempt to guess what the headers should contain depending on what context the composition window is opened in, so it may not be neccessary to fill them in most of the time.
 | Also, Balsa supports alias expansion. As you type a name, Balsa will guess the e-mail address from all the entries in the GnomeCard application. To enable this feature, read the section on Alias Expansion. In addtion, the composition window supports drag-and-drop of addresses from the GnomeCard application. |
Attachments
At the base of the message composer window may be a large box displaying attachments; this view can be toggled in the Show menu. They show up as small icons that look like a piece of paper, with the name of the file displayed beneath them.
When there are attachments displayed, it is possible to right-click on the icon to access a menu to manipulate the menu. Currently it is only possible to remove it from the message.
Message Body
Finally, below the attachment list is the main area of the window where the text of the message is displayed. The text editing capabilities are very basic, but it supports cut, copy, and paste so it is possible to write a message in your favorite editor and simply paste it in.
If the message is a reply or forward, the referenced message will be displayed in the body text widget, with the prefix specified in the Preferences dialog.
Spell Checker
Once the spell check has been started, it will take a moment to load the text and spell checking module, and then it will automatically begin checking the message. If it finds any words that are incorrect, the word will be highlighted and a panel will be shown that offers a number of suggestions and available courses of action.
As shown above, the panel consists of a list of two panes, one the left containing a list of suggestions and an entry box, while the right contains several buttons to choose your action. The list on the left is re-generated for each incorrect word, with all the suggestions the spell check program comes up with. You can choose what program you want to use through loadable modules, selectable in the Preferences dialog. The entry box above the list is what will be used to replace the current word, and usually reflects the current selection in the list, but can be edited by hand if you wish to make manual changes.
The buttons on the left control the actions to take for each incorrect word. The buttons include:
- Change
Change the incorrect word with the currently selected suggested word or the user's edited word.
- Change All
Change all occurances of the current incorrect word with the currently selected suggestion.
- Ignore
Ignore the current incorrect word and continue to the next one.
- Ignore All
Ignore all occurrances of the current word, and continue to the next incorrect word.
- Learn
Add the current incorrect word to your personal dictionary. This will cause it to be considered correct for all future spell checks.
- Done
Stop the spell check at the current point, keeping all changes so far and returning to the normal message window interface.
- Cancel
Stop the spell check at the current point, reverting all changes so far, including any words added to your personal dictionary.
Address Book
When composing a message, clicking on any of the coloured book icons next to a destination field (To, Cc, Bcc) will bring up the Balsa address book. It helps you to select recipients for your messages quickly and easily.
The address book provides two panes, the one on the left consisting of all available addresses, while the one on the right contains the intended recipients of your message. Addresses are added to the recipient list by selecting them in the left pane and clicking the arrow button pointing to the right, or by simply double-clicking on the address. This will remove the address from the left pane, so they cannot be added more than once. If you decide that you no longer want to send the message to a particular address, simply select it in the right-hand pane and click the left-arrow button, or double-click it again, to move it back.
If, while selecting people to send your message to, you decide to add someone new to the address book, it is a simple matter to click on the Run GnomeCard button. This will bring up the GnomeCard application, allowing you to easily manipulate your contact list. After any changes have been made using the address book, they can be forced to show up in the left hand pane by clicking on the Re-Import button.