Reading and Writing Email with Evolution


Many Internet users read and respond to their email using web-based email services. If you access your mail this way, the preceding chapter on web browsing with Mozilla provided you with the necessary skills to access your email within Linux.

If, on the other hand, you are accustomed to accessing your mail with a standalone mail program such as Microsoft Outlook, or your Internet service provider (ISP) or company has given you a so-called POPmail or IMAP email account that you need to use, this chapter helps you get email up and running.

In Fedora Core 4, dedicated email tools are provided by a full-featured mail and calendar program called Evolution that is in many ways similar to the Microsoft Outlook application popular in many corporate environments.

We're Going to Ignore the Calendar

Evolution has a number of features and capabilities that we won't discuss hereamong them, calendaring features similar to those found in Microsoft Outlook. If you would like to use Evolution as a full replacement for Microsoft Outlook, including calendaring and directory features, visit the Ximian home page at http://www.ximian.com.


Launching Evolution

To launch Evolution, choose Applications, Internet, Email or click the icon that looks like a postage stamp hovering above an envelope in the menubar.

Configuring Evolution

When you start Evolution for the first time, you see the Evolution Setup Assistant dialog box, containing a greeting message. Click the Forward button to continue with Evolution configuration. The Identity configuration dialog box is displayed, as shown in Figure 12.1.

Figure 12.1. In the Identity configuration dialog box, you enter your full name, your email address, an optional organization name, and a reply-to address (if you have another address where replies to your messages should go).


Enter your full name as you want it to appear to others and your email address as supplied by your ISP or network administrator. If you want to associate yourself with a particular organization (often your company name), enter that information in the Organization box.

Click Forward after you finish entering information in the Identity dialog box. The Receiving Mail dialog box is displayed, containing a drop-down list used to choose an email server type. The type of server you select depends on how your mail delivery is configured and the type of service you use to access the Internet:

  • Select POP if you connect to the Internet through an ISP that uses a POP server or your mail is delivered to a host that employs a POP server. Most dial-up Internet users choose this option.

  • Select IMAP if you connect to the Internet through an ISP that uses an IMAP server or your mail is delivered to a host that employs an IMAP server. Most corporate network users choose this option.

  • Select Local delivery if your computer is a server or workstation connected directly to the Internet with its own domain name that is also your email address. Also select this option if you plan to use the fetchmail program to retrieve your mail from POP or IMAP servers, as described in Chapter 23, "Using the Network at the Command Line."

  • The other options, Standard Unix mbox spools, Maildir-format mail directories, and None, are for unusual situations and should not normally be used.

If you select Local delivery, a text box is displayed, into which you should enter the local mail spool path /var/spool/mail/you (replace you with your own login name). This is the location where incoming network mail is stored. Click Forward to continue with configuration.

If you select POP or IMAP, the Receiving Email dialog box changes to include a series of entry boxes designed to enable you to enter details about the mail server from which your mail should be collected, as shown in Figure 12.2.

Figure 12.2. When POP or IMAP delivery is selected, you are asked to provide information about the mail server that hosts your email.


Enter the name of your POP or IMAP server into the box labeled Host and the name of your login account on that server into the box labeled Username. This information should have been provided to you by your ISP, network administrator, or hosting company. Unless you are certain that your mail host does not support secure connections, select Whenever Possible from the Use Secure Connection (SSL) drop-down list.

Leave the authentication type set to Password unless your network administrator, mail host, or ISP instructed you to do otherwise. If you want Evolution to remember your password rather than ask you for a password each time you read your mail, check the Remember password box.

After you enter the necessary information about your IMAP or POP server, click the Forward button to continue with configuration. Whether you select Local Delivery, POP, or IMAP as your delivery type, after clicking Forward, you should see a second Receiving Mail dialog box containing additional options, as shown in Figures 12.3 and 12.4.

Figure 12.3. The second Receiving Mail dialog box in the Evolution Setup Assistant for users who select POP delivery.


Figure 12.4. The second Receiving Mail dialog box in the Evolution Setup Assistant for users who select IMAP delivery.


If you want Evolution to automatically check your email on a periodic basis whenever it is running, check Automatically check for new mail and adjust the timer to reflect the number of minutes you would like Evolution to wait between each mail query. Be sure not to check too often, or you might use more than your fair share of network resources, thereby annoying the administrators responsible for your mail server.

If you use IMAP delivery and want to apply mail filters you create to messages on the server, check the Apply Filters to New Messages box. (If you don't know what filters are or don't plan to use them, leave this setting as it is.)

Unless your network administrator, ISP, or mail host has instructed you to do otherwise, leave any other settings on the second Receiving Mail dialog box as they appear by default. After you adjust the options in the second Receiving Mail dialog box to suit your needs, click Forward to proceed to the Sending Mail configuration dialog box shown in Figure 12.5.

Figure 12.5. The Sending Mail dialog box is used to configure outbound mail service according to your needs.


If your ISP or network administrator has not provided you with the name of an outbound mail server, select Sendmail as your server type now. The Sendmail option generally works well, but because of the increase in SPAM email (unsolicited commercial email) over the past few years, you might find that some companies and service providers now refuse to accept mail from private systems that were sent using Sendmail. There are no additional options to configure for Sendmail delivery.

If your ISP or network administrator has provided you with the name of an outbound mail server, select SMTP as your server type and adjust the items in the rest of the Sending Email dialog box to match the outbound mail server information you've been given:

  • Enter the domain name of the outbound mail server in the Host box.

  • Unless you are positive that your outbound mail server doesn't support secure connections, select Whenever Possible from the Use Secure Connection (SSL) drop-down list.

  • If you have been assigned an account and password to use with your outbound mail server, check the Server Requires Authentication box and enter the name of your account in the Username box. Unless you have been told to do otherwise, leave the authentication type set to PLAIN.

  • If you have been assigned an account and password to use with your outbound mail server and want the password to be remembered rather than having to type a password each time you send an email, check Remember This Password.

After you finish configuring the items in the Sending Mail dialog box, click Forward. The Account Management dialog box is displayed. You should not change the options on the Account Management dialog box if this is your first time using Evolution. Click Forward to proceed to the Timezone configuration dialog box shown in Figure 12.6.

Figure 12.6. The Timezone dialog is used to select your time zone so that outgoing email messages show the correct date and time when they reach their destination.


The Timezone configuration dialog box contains a number of small pink dots. As you move your mouse pointer over each dot, the name of the city or location the dot represents is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box. Click the dot closest to the geographical area where your computer resides to select the correct time zone. If none of the dots represents a location you know to be in your time zone, the drop-down list at the bottom of the display contains a much longer list of place names. Select one that shares your time zone.

After you choose your time zone, click Forward. The Evolution Setup Assistant displays a message indicating that you have successfully configured Evolution. Click Apply to launch and begin using the main Evolution application now.

Visiting Your Mailbox

Now that you have launched and configured Evolution, you'll likely want to go directly to your mailbox to see if you have any email messages. Click on the Mail button on the left side of the Evolution window, then on the Inbox item in the folders list to display your inbox, as shown in Figure 12.7.

Figure 12.7. Click the Mail button, and then on your Inbox, to display your mailbox and the mail it contains.


Need to Download Your Mail?

If you download your emailif you retrieve your mail from a POP server, for exampleyou need to click the Send/Receive button near the top of the Evolution window in order to download any mail that you have waiting. Only then will it appear in your Evolution mailbox.


The main Evolution Mail window has a number of components:

  • The folders list shows the mailboxes you have created in Evolution. By default, only one incoming mailbox, Inbox, is configured. Click on a mailbox in the list to display its contents in the message list.

  • The message list occupies the upper-right portion of the Evolution application window. It lists all of the messages stored in the currently selected mailbox. Click on a message to display it.

  • The currently selected message is shown below the message list. The first message in your new Evolution inbox is titled "Welcome to Evolution!" and is from the Evolution development team. If you have any other incoming messages, they are listed below it in the message list.

Sending a Message in Evolution

Before you begin to read your mail, you should learn how to send a message in Evolution so that you'll be able to reply to messages that you receive. To begin a new message in Evolution, click the New button near the upper left of the Evolution email application. The message composer is displayed, as shown in Figure 12.8.

Figure 12.8. Using the Evolution message composer window, you can create and send new email messages.


Enter the email address of the person for whom this message is destined in the To: box and a subject for this email message in the Subject: box.

After you fill out the header (destination and subject) of your message, click in the message entry area. In the message entry area, you can type the body of your message. Whatever you type here will be read by the other party when you send your message.

Using HTML Formatting in Your Message

If you want to enable HTML (web-style) formatting for the message you're writing, choose Format, HTML from the message composer window's menu bar. The text editing toolbar, shown in Figure 12.9, is activated. This feature enables you to alter the appearance, size, or alignment of parts of your message to suit your tastes.

Figure 12.9. Using the buttons in the text editing toolbar, you can change the appearance, size, or alignment of your text.


The buttons in the text editing toolbar work very much like the formatting buttons you encountered in OpenOffice.org Writer in Chapter 8, "Creating Text Documents with OpenOffice.org Writer." Either select text you want to alter and click buttons to perform the alterations you want to make, or position your cursor, click a button, and enter new text with the property you've selected.

Not Everyone Appreciates HTML Mail!

Although most users at web-based mail services such as Yahoo! mail or Hotmail are able to receive HTML formatting in their email, many other email users across the Internet are not able (or don't want) to receive HTML-formatted messages.

Because not everyone is prepared to receive HTML-formatted messages, some people consider it annoying to receive them. Before you send these specially formatted messages, make sure your intended recipient does not object to receiving HTML mail.


You Can Send Smiley Faces to Your Friends

While using HTML mode, you can insert emoticons (smiling, frowning, or other small faces) into your message by choosing Insert, Smiley, and then choosing the face you want from the pop-up smiley menu.


Attaching a File to Your Message

It is often helpful to be able to attach files to your messages to share your work with others across the Internet. To attach a file to an outbound message in the Evolution message composer, click the Attach button. The Attach File(s) dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 12.10.

Figure 12.10. When you click Attach in the composer window, the Attach File(s) dialog box appears to enable you to select a file to attach to your email message.


Browse to the file you want to attach, click the file's name in the files list, and click OK. The file is attached to the email message and a notice is displayed giving the number of files that have been attached to the message, as shown in Figure 12.11.

Figure 12.11. The composer window lists the number of files that have been attached to the message.


Can an Attached File Be Removed?

If you change your mind about a file you've attached and want to remove it again, click on Show Attachment Bar. When the attachments are displayed (each attachment will be displayed with its own icon) right-click the file's icon and choose Remove from the pop-up context menu that appears. The file and the icon that represents it are removed from your message.


Sending Your Message

After you've finished composing your message, addressed it, given it a subject, and attached any files you want to send along with it, you are ready to send the message across the network to your intended recipient.

To send your message, click the Send button at the upper left of the composer window. After a brief (sometimes imperceptible) pause, the composer window disappears. Your message is away! The recipient should be able to access your message immediately, should he or she choose to do so.

Viewing, Replying To, and Forwarding Messages

To view or read a message shown in the message list, simply click on it. The message will be displayed in the area below the message list, as shown in Figure 12.12.

Figure 12.12. Click on a message in the message list to display it.


To reply to a message you're viewing, click the Reply button at the top of the Evolution mail window. A new message composer window is opened with the To: and Subject: boxes already filled out to reflect the fact that you are sending a reply.

Enter your message just as you did when composing a new email. Click the Send button in the composer window when you are ready to send your reply.

To forward a message you're viewing to another user, click the Forward button at the top of the Evolution mail window. A new message composer window is opened containing the contents of the message and a small header indicating that it's been forwarded. Enter a destination address in the To: box and click the Send button in the composer window to send your reply.

Accessing an Attachment

Incoming messages with attached files are marked with a paper clip icon in their index entry. At the bottom of the displayed message, an attachment icon and the attached file's name also appear, as shown in Figure 12.13.

Figure 12.13. Attachments in email messages are indicated in the index by a paper clip icon and in the message body by an icon and filename at the bottom of the message.


To access the attachment, click the down arrow next to the attached file icon. A pop-up menu appears asking whether you want to save the file or open it in one of several applications.

If you want to save the file to your account, click Save As. Use the file dialog that appears to name and save the file as desired.

The other actions listed in the pop-up menu include various applications that can be used to open the attached file for viewing or for editing. If you select one of these options, the application you select is launched, and the attached file is automatically loaded for you.

Printing and Deleting

To print a message, click the Print button, which looks like a printer and is located near the right side of the Evolution toolbar. The Print Message dialog box appears, with options to preview what Evolution will print or to print several copies of the message. Click the Print button in the dialog box to send the message to the printer.

To delete a message, right click on its entry in the message list and choose Delete from the context menu that appears. The message is marked for deletion, removed from view in the message list, and placed in a separate folder called Trash that holds all deleted messages. To purge (irreversibly erase) messages that have been marked for deletion and stored in the Trash folder, choose Actions, Empty Trash. A warning is displayed asking you to confirm your request before the messages in the Trash folder are deleted forever.

If you have marked a message for deletion but want to restore it so that it won't be deleted next time you empty the Trash folder, click the Trash in the folders list. A view of the Trash folder containing recently deleted messages appears, as shown in Figure 12.14. In the Trash folder, right-click any message and choose Undelete to restore it to the Inbox.

Figure 12.14. Deleted messages are kept in the Trash folder until you empty it.


Exiting Evolution

To exit Evolution, choose File, Quit or click the Close button at the extreme upper right of the application window.



    SAMS Teach Yourself Red Hat(r) Fedora(tm) 4 Linux(r) All in One
    Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Handbook
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