Deleting Messages

You can let important messages accumulate in your mailbox. But you should delete messages you do not need (see Figure 13-1 on page 13-2)--especially if they contain sounds, graphic images, or attached files or folders, which can take up a large amount of disk space.

1. Select the message or messages you want to delete in the summary area.

2. Click on the Delete button or press the Back Space key.

Figure 13-1

If you can tell without reading a message that you want to delete it, hold down the Control key while clicking on its summary to select the message without waiting for its contents to appear.

Table 13-1 on page 13-3 summarizes the ways in which you can select messages.

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Note - You may be able to restore a message you deleted with the Undelete command in the Edit menu. See "Mail Buttons and Commands" on page A-17.

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.

Table 13-1

What You Do	What Happens
Drag	Selects the messages you drag across
Shift-click	Adds the message to the selection, or removes it from the selection
Alt-click	Selects all messages between the one you click and the last one you selected
Control-click	Selects a message without opening it

Compacting a Mailbox to Free Disk Space

Deleting a message removes it from the mailbox, but it does not remove the message from the system. To do that, you have to compact your mailbox, as shown in Figure 13-2 on page 13-4.

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Caution - If you do not periodically compact your Active mailbox, messages accumulate and unnecessarily take up disk space. Once you compact, however, messages you have deleted from the mailbox are destroyed permanently--you cannot restore them with the Undelete command.

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1. Open the mailbox you want to compact.

2. Choose Utilities from the Mail menu.

3. Choose Compact from the Utilities menu.

Figure 13-2

Looking Up Mail Addresses

You can look up the addresses of other people and groups on your network with the Addresses panel, as shown in Figure 13-3. This panel lists addresses in a browser.

1. Open a Compose window and click the Addresses button.

2. Click on the type of address for which you are looking.

3. Select an address, or type part of a name and click on Find.

4. Click on the To or cc button to copy the address into your Compose window.

Figure 13-3

You can copy several addresses, one after the other, into a Compose window. Just select an address and click To or cc. The button appends the address to any already in the corresponding Compose window field.

You can use the Find button in the Addresses panel to search for an address based on any text in it, as shown in Figure 13-4 on page 13-6. For instance, if you type greg in the Name field and click on Find, Mail can find addresses like Greg.McLaughlin or gregm@dublin. Click on Find again to find the next occurrence of text in the list.

Figure 13-4

When you select an individual's address, a picture is displayed if your system administrator has set up Mail that way. For groups, and for people who do not have pictures in the system, the panel displays silhouette icons.

Understanding the Types Column

You can look up addresses in one of five lists described in Table 13-2. You select a list from the Types column.

Table 13-2

What You Do	What Happens
Users	List all addresses for everyone on your network
Groups	Lists group addresses available to everyone on the network
Login Names	Lists the user name of each person on the network
Private Users	Lists addresses that you use frequently
Private Groups	Lists group addresses you create

Addresses in Users, Groups, and Login Names are defined by your system administrator. You add the Private Users and Private Groups addresses yourself. See "Creating a Mail Address Book" next and "Creating Your Own Group Address" on page 13-8.

Creating a Mail Address Book

You can keep your own list of addresses in the Private Users list of your Addresses panel (see Figure 13-5). Maintaining such a list for addresses you use frequently saves you the trouble of searching through long lists to find them.

1. Open a Compose window and click the Addresses button.

2. Click on Private Users in the Types column of the Addresses panel.

3. Type an address in the Name field.

4. Click on Add.

Figure 13-5

Once an address is in your Private Users list, you can select it and click on the To or cc button to copy the private address to the Compose window.

To remove an address from your Private Users list, select the address and click on the Remove button.

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Note - If you open a message from someone whose address you want to add to your Private Users list, choose Add Private User from the Utilities menu. The sender's address is automatically added to your list, even if the Addresses panel is not open.

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Creating Your Own Group Address

In addition to the group addresses set up by your system administrator, you can create some for your own use, as shown in Figure 13-6 on page 13-9. You might create an address for sending messages to everyone working on a particular project. When naming a group, do not use a comma or a space. Otherwise, follow the same guidelines as for naming files and folders.

1. Click on the Addresses button in a Compose window.

2. Click on Private Groups in the Types column of the Addresses panel.

3. Type a name for the group address and click on Add.

4. In the Private Groups column, select the group address you just created.

5. Type an address you want assigned to the group and click on Add.

6. Repeat step 5 for each address in the group.

Figure 13-6

The group automatically includes your own address. You can add other addresses by selecting the group, typing an address, and clicking on Add again (see Figure 13-7).

Figure 13-7

To remove an address from the group, select the address and click on Remove. You cannot remove the last remaining address associated with a group (so if you want to remove your own address, you have to add another one first). But you can remove the entire group by selecting its name in the Private Groups column and clicking on Remove.

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Note - You can create a shorthand address for one person. Just create a group and assign only that person to it. For example, if you send messages frequently to the address sammi_wright@globalvoice.com, you might create the group sammi, add his address to it, remove your own, and then send messages to him using the shorthand address.

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For more information on naming a group address, see "Guidelines for Naming Files and Folders" on page 5-6.

Creating a Mailbox

Instead of letting messages accumulate in your Active mailbox, you can organize them in other mailboxes. You create and manage mailboxes with the Mailboxes panel, as shown in Figure 13-8 on page 13-11.

1. Click on the Mailboxes button in a mailbox window.

2. Type a name for the new mailbox in the Mailboxes panel.

3. Click on New.

Figure 13-8

When you create a mailbox, an empty mailbox window opens for it.

You can also open a mailbox to see its messages (see Figure 13-9 on page 13-12). Or you can delete the mailbox to destroy all the messages in it. If you delete your Active mailbox, Mail creates another, empty Active mailbox the next time you start it.

Figure 13-9

You can select a mailbox in the list by clicking it or by typing the first few characters of its name.

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Note - You can create a mailbox that collects outgoing messages using the Preferences command in the Info menu. See "Mail Buttons and Commands" on page A-17.

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Moving Messages to Another Mailbox

After you create a mailbox, you can move messages to it from your Active mailbox. You can also move messages between any mailboxes you create. See Figure 13-10 on page 13-13.

1. In a mailbox window, select the messages you want to move.

2. Click on the Mailboxes button.

3. In the Mailboxes panel, select the mailbox to which you want to move the messages.

4. Click on Transfer.

Figure 13-10

You can also use Edit menu commands to move selected messages. Choose Cut from the Edit menu. Then click in the summary area of the mailbox window you are moving to and choose Paste.

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Note - After removing messages from a mailbox window, remember to compact the mailbox.

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A Mailbox Is a File Package

Your Active mailbox and any mailboxes you create are actually file packages with an .mbox extension. Mail keeps these file packages in the Mailboxes folder in your home folder.

You do not have to open a file package to read the messages in a mailbox. It is easiest to read and maintain messages in the mailbox window.

For information on selecting several messages to move at once, see Table 13-1 on page 13-3.

Finding Messages

You can find a message by searching for any text in its summary, as shown in Figure 13-11 on page 13-15. You can search for text in the message's subject, message number, date, or sender's address. Any message that is found is highlighted in the summary area.

1. Click in the summary area of the mailbox window.

2. Choose Find from the Edit menu.

3. In the Find panel, type what you want to find.

4. Choose the options you want.

5. Click on Next, Previous, or Find All.

Figure 13-11

To open a message that you find, you have to click on its summary.

You can also open the Find panel by clicking on the Find button if it appears in the Mailbox window. The Find button replaces the Get New Mail button when you have Mail set up to retrieve new messages automatically (see "Tailoring How You Receive New Messages" on page 13-18).

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Note - You can also search for text in a message--either one you received or one you are composing. See "Finding Text" on page 9-9.

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Note - You can use commands in the Sorting menu to sort message summaries in a variety of orders.

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Focusing on a Group of Messages

You can find all messages in a mailbox that have your search text either in their summaries or in the messages. You can then "focus" on those messages, temporarily hiding others so it is easy to find a particular message.

1. Click in the summary area of a mailbox window.

2. Click on the Find button.

3. In the Find panel, type the text you want to find.

4. Select the options you want.

5. Click on Find All.

6. Open the Message menu and choose Focus.

7. When you are finished reviewing the messages resulting from the search, choose Unfocus.

Figure 13-12

As a shortcut, you can hold down the Alt key and click on Find All to have Mail find the messages and then focus on them automatically.

To narrow your search, you can do another Find All search and choose Focus again to display the results of that search in the mailbox window. You can keep selecting messages and choosing Focus as many times as you want.

To see all your messages again, choose Unfocus. Mail also displays all messages the next time you open the mailbox.

You can stop a search before it is complete by holding down the Command key and typing a period (.).

Tailoring How You Receive New Messages

Before messages addressed to you actually reach you, they are collected in a central "post office"--a folder on the network that your system administrator maintains. At first, Mail is set up to check this post office when you click on the Get New Mail button. If you prefer, you can have mail check the post office at a regular interval and deliver new messages to your Active mailbox.

You can set how often Mail checks for new messages in the Preferences panel (see Figure 13-13 on page 13-19).

1. Choose Info from the Mail menu.

2. Choose Preferences from the Info menu.

3. Choose General from the pop-up list at the top of the Preferences panel.

4. In the Preferences panel, click on Automatic or Manual.

5. If you clicked on Automatic, use the Minutes field to indicate how frequently Mail should check for new messages.

6. Click on Set.

7. If you clicked on Manual, you must click on the Mailbox window's Get New Mail button when you want to retrieve new messages.

Figure 13-13

When you select Automatic, Mail does not wait for you to retrieve your messages. The next time a mailbox window opens, a Find button is displayed in place of the Get New Mail button. Mail checks the post office at a regular intervals and delivers new messages to your Active mailbox.

If you prefer to control how quickly messages accumulate in your mailbox, you can retrieve new messages yourself.

When you select Manual, Mail no longer delivers messages automatically. Instead, the next time a mailbox window opens, a Get New Mail button is displayed in place of the Find button. To retrieve messages, you must either click on the Get New Mail button or choose New Mail from the Mailbox menu.

When new messages are ready to be retrieved, a fan of letters is displayed in Mail's icon in the dock.

Setting a Sound to Announce New Messages

When new messages arrive, a fan of letters appears in the Mail icon in the dock. You can also choose to have a sound notify you of new messages. If you receive messages automatically, the sound tells you that there are new messages in your Active mailbox. If you check for messages manually, the sound tells you that there are messages for you to retrieve with the Get New Mail button.

When you click the Sound button in the Preferences panel, an Open panel is displayed, as shown in Figure 13-14 on page 13-21.

1. Choose Info from the Mail menu.

2. Choose Preferences from the Info menu.

3. Choose General from the pop-up list at the top of the Preferences panel.

4. In the General Preferences panel, click on Sound and then click on the Set button.

5. In the Open panel, select a sound file.

6. Click on OK in the Open panel.

7. Click on Set in the Preferences panel.

Figure 13-14

You can select a sound file from the /usr/openstep/Library/Sounds folder. You can use any sound file, as long as it has an .snd or .au extension.

If your system makes only one sound, you will get that one, no matter which sound file you select.

You locate and select a sound file in the Open panel just as you open a file from any standard Open panel. For more information, see "Opening a File" on page 5-3.

Creating Headers for Messages You Send

You can create headers of your own that will be displayed in messages you send. You can create up to two headers. You do so using Mail's Expert Preferences, as shown in Figure 13-15 on page 13-22.

1. Choose Info from the Mail menu.

2. Choose Preferences from the Info menu.

3. Choose Expert from the pop-up list at the top of the Preferences panel.

4. Double-click in the Key field and type the name of a header you want to create.

5. Press Tab, type any text you want to appear with the Header in the Value field, and press Return.

Follow these guidelines when typing a name in the Key field:

Mark Custom Headers with "X-" It is common protocol among network users to precede the name of headers you create with an X-, as in X-Quote-Of-The-Day.

Do Not Use Spaces Do not use a space to separate words in a header, or else Mail will not recognize the header and include it in your messages. If a header contains more than one word, separate words with a dash, as in X-Quote-Of-The-Day.

Figure 13-15

If you type a value for the header, the headers are displayed with that value in all messages you send. To send a different value in a message, choose the header in the Send Options panel when you send the message and type another value for it there.

If you leave the Value field empty, you must choose the header from the Send Options panel and type a value for it to include it in a message.

Your headers are displayed at the top of your message in each recipient's mailbox window.

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Note - You open the Send Options panel by choosing Send Options from the Compose menu.

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Tailoring Headers in Messages You Receive

You can choose which headers normally are displayed in messages you receive. You do this in the Headers view of Mail's Preferences panel, shown in Figure 13-16 on page 13-24 and Figure 13-17 on page 13-25.

* To display a header that is normally hidden in messages you receive, remove it from the hidden resources list in the panel.

* To prevent a header from being displayed in your messages, add it to the Hidden Headers list.

Figure 13-16

Figure 13-17

General Preferences

The Preferences panel has options for managing what is displayed in mailbox windows, for hiding Mail after starting it up automatically, and for showing the number of unread messages in the Mail icon. To set these options, choose Preferences from the Info menu and then choose General from the pop-up list at the top of the panel, as shown in Figure 13-18 on page 13-26.

Figure 13-18

Show Message Totals Check this box to have all your mailboxes display the total number of messages in them.

Show Message Sizes Check this box to have all mailboxes display the size of each message and the total size of messages in the mailbox.

Show Deleted Messages Check this box to open all mailboxes with dimmed summaries of deleted messages showing (messages deleted since you last compacted the mailbox).

Use Fixed Pitch Font for Plain Text Check this box to type all plain text messages using a fixed-width font, such as Courier.

Hide on Auto-Launch If you have used the Workspace Manager to have Mail start up automatically, check this box to have Mail start up hidden.

Show Unread Count in Icon If you do not want to see the number of unread messages displayed in the Mail icon, uncheck this box.

Preferences for All the Messages You Send

You can set options for all messages you send using the Compose view of the Mail Preferences panel, shown in Figure 13-19. Choose Preferences from the Info menu and then choose Compose from the pop-up list at the top of the Preferences panel.

Figure 13-19

Use the panel to choose any of the following options.

Format Press the Format button to choose a format--MIME Mail or Plain Text--for all your compose windows to open in.

Indent New Lines When you check this option, pressing Return in a Compose window indents the next paragraph the same as the previous one. This option is useful for typing UNIX^(R) code.

Emacs Key Bindings Check this option to use Emacs text editor commands in a Compose window. (Emacs commands are popular among UNIX developers.)

Reply in Same Format Check this option to reply to messages in the same format as the original messages. When you click Reply in a Compose window, the window selects the format for you.

Remove Self from Replies Check this option if you do not want to receive replies you send using the Reply All button. If you are "carbon copied" in a message and you click Reply All in a Compose window to reply to that message, Mail does not copy your address from the message's Cc field into your Compose window. For this option to work, Mail must recognize your address in the message as being you. You can make Mail recognize an address if it does not already (see "Other Addresses for Self" on page 13-29).

Reply-To You can have all replies to your messages go to someone other than yourself. Type one or more addresses in the Reply-To field. When anyone uses the Reply button to respond to one of your messages, the To field of his or her Compose window is filled with the addresses you type here. (To also have replies go to you, type your address, too.)

Request Read Receipt Check this option to receive a notification message when each OpenStep recipient reads any message you send.

Archive Outgoing Mail Check this option to collect copies of all messages you send in the Outgoing mailbox. Mail creates this mailbox for you, if it does not already exist. You can instead archive individual messages when you send them (see "Addresses and Some Options for Entering Them" on page 12-11).

Expand Private Groups You can make it easy for recipients of messages you send to a private group address to reply to others in the group. When you check this option, individual addresses in the group, rather than the group address, are listed in each recipient's message. Recipients can then click Reply All to reply to everyone in the group. For information on creating a private group, see "Creating Your Own Group Address" on page 13-8.

Send MIME Alternatives Check this option to send contents of MIME messages in plain text as well as using formatted text. You might do this if you are not sure which formats recipients' computers can display. For information on sending MIME messages, see "Sending a Message" on page 12-8.

Expert Preferences

The Preferences panel has options for how Mail manages messages in the Expert view, shown in Figure 13-20 on page 13-30. Choose Expert from the pop-up list at the top of the panel to type in these fields:

Other Addresses for Self If you are known by addresses that Mail does not recognize as you, type them in this field. For example, Mail already recognizes your user name and your full name in the format Jason_Starr. But it does not recognize addresses used from other networks, like jstarr@blues.com, or ones you create in the Addresses panel, until you type them here.

When you reply to a message sent to an address entered here, Mail can remove you from that reply. For information, see "Remove Self from Replies" on page 13-28.

If you send a message to one of these addresses, To: followed by recipients' addresses is displayed in your mailbox window rather than your address.

System administrators can modify how Mail stores, retrieves, and delivers messages. They can replace the path names in the following fields:

• Mail Dir: The folder where Mail keeps your mailboxes. Normally this is Mailboxes in your home folder.
• Spool Dir: The "post office" folder that collects incoming messages. If your system administrator is using a folder other than the one currently named here, you should specify that folder here instead.
• Mailer: The program Mail uses to deliver mail. You might want to use another program, such as one that tracks statistics.

Line Length This value is the maximum number of characters per line in messages you send in Plain Text format. You might want to change this value to send messages through a gateway to a network that supports fewer than 70 characters per line. For information on sending a plain text message, see "What Is Plain Text Mail?" on page 12-11.

Send Limit You can set a size limit for messages you send. Type the number of kilobytes in this field. If you compose a message that is larger than this size, a panel tells you so when you click on Deliver in the Compose window. To send the message anyway, click on Deliver Anyway in the panel.

Figure 13-20