/usr/share/doc/exmh/html/Intro.html

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<h1 align=center>Quick Intro to Exmh</h1>
<p>
Bugs and comments to Brent Welch, <a href="mailto:Welch@acm.org">Welch@acm.org</a>


<h2>Folder Display </h2>
<p>
Exmh displays three panes of information. The top pane has a label for
each of your MH folders. Each label is highlighted to reflect the
state of the folder. There is one current folder, whose table of
contents is displayed in the second pane. There is one folder that is
the target for <button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_MoveMark">Move</button>
operations. There may be several folders that have unread messages in
them. Select <button -command Help_KeyDisplay>Color Legend</button>
from the Help... menu to display the key of how folder labels are
highlighted. In addition, folders with nested sub-folders have a
shadow-box highlight. 


<h3>Selecting Folders with the Mouse</h3>
<p>
Left click on a folder label to <strong>view</strong> the messages
in it. 
<p>
Right click on a folder label to <strong>move</strong> the current
message(s) to the folder. 
<p>
Shift-Right on a label to <strong>link</strong> the current message(s)
to the folder. 
<p>
Middle click on a label to view the nested folders beneath it. 

<h2>Folder Table of Contents</h2>
<p>
The middle and bottom panes are text windows. Each of these can be
scrolled by using the scrollbar or by dragging the display with the
middle mouse button. 
<p>
The middle pane lists the messages in the current folder, which comes
from the output of the MH <code>scan</code> command. The display
indicates the state of the message: (See 
<button -command Help_KeyDisplay>Color Legend</button> under
Help... to see how these are marked on your display)

<ul>
<li>current message. 
<li>messages marked for delete. 
<li>message marked for movement to another folder. 
<li>unread messages. 
</ul>
<h3>Selecting Messages with the Mouse</h3>
<p>
Left clicking on an entry causes the message to be displayed in the
third, or bottom pane. 
<p>
Right clicking selects a message but does not display it. 
<p>
Dragging a selection with the Left button selects a range of messages.
You can update a selection with Shift-Left. 
<p>
Message operations like <button -command "Msg_Remove">Delete</button>,
<button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_MoveMark">Move</button>, 
<button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_CopyMark advance?">Link</button>, 
<button -command "Ftoc_Unmark">Unmark (Undo)</button>, and 
<button -command "Print">Print</button> will operate on the whole
selected set of messages.

<h2>Message Display</h2>
<p>
The bottom window displays the current message. If you get a MIME message
(i.e., multipart or multimedia) the right button brings up a menu that
lets you manipulate the parts of MIME messages. Press the right button
somewhere over the message part you are interested in. 
<p>
Exmh supports a large number of <a HREF="Keys.html">keyboard shortcuts</a>
so you can keep your hands on the keyboard. 

<h2>Resizing Sub-windows</h2>
<p>
The black diamond to the right of the status line is used to change
the boundary between the internal sub-windows. To get an idea of how
it works, press the first mouse button over the diamond. Drag the horizontal
line up to the top of the window and back down to the bottom. Watch
the status line to see what sub-window boundary you are changing. 

<h2>Command buttons</h2>
<p>
Command buttons are grouped into three sets. The top is for global
operations. The middle set is for folder operations. The bottom set
is for message operations. 

<h3>Global Commands</h3>
<p>
The top set of buttons are for global commands: Log, Help..., Bindings...,
<button -command Preferences_Dialog>Preferences</button>, Aliases and
<button -command Exmh_Done>Quit</button>. 
<p>
Log only appears if you enable logging in your <button -command
Preferences_Dialog>Preferences</button>. The log contains a record of
actions taken, including debugging info.
<p>
Under Help, <button -command Help>Quick Intro</button> gives you this
window. <button -command "Help exmh-faq">FAQ</button> shows the
Frequently-Asked-Questions file.
<p>
You are encouraged to register as an exmh user, too. All this does
is open a mail draft to me in which you can send your pro and con opinions
about exmh. There is no obligation associated with registration. 
<p>
The <button -command Preferences_Dialog>Preferences</button> dialog
gives you some control over exmh features. Within this dialog you can
get more help on setting preferences by clicking the Help button that
is part of that dialog.

<h3>Message Commands</h3>
<p>
The bottom set of buttons are for message operations: 

<dl>
  <dd><button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_CopyMark advance?">Link</button>
  <dt>link a message into the target folder and go to the next message. 

  <dd><button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_MoveMark">Move</button>
  <dt>move a message to the target folder and go to the next message. 

  <dd><button -command "Msg_Remove">Delete</button>
  <dt>mark the current message for deletion and go to the next message. 

  <dd><button -command "Ftoc_Next show">Next</button>
  <dt>move to the next message. This will chain to the next folder
      with unread messages if you are at the end of the current folder. 

  <dd><button -command "Ftoc_Prev show">Prev</button>
  <dt>move to the previous message. 

  <dd><button -command "Msg_Compose">Comp</button>
  <dt>compose a mail message. In the drafts folder, this opens the
      current message as the draft. 

  <dd>Reply...
  <dt>a menu of reply choices. There are two choices by default, and
      instructions for adding more.  
      <dl>
        <dt><button -command "Msg_Reply -nocc to -nocc cc">Reply to
            sender</button>
        <dd>reply to the current message (-nocc cc -nocc to)
	
	<dt><button -command "Msg_Reply -cc to -cc cc">Reply
	    all</button>
	<dd>reply to the current message (-cc cc -cc to). 
      </dl>

  <dt><button -command "Msg_Forward">Forward</button>
  <dd>forward the current message. 

  <dt>More...
  <dd>a menu with more message operations: 
      <dl>
        <dt><button -command "Print">Print</button>
	<dd>print the current message. 

	<dt><button -command "Ftoc_Unmark">Unmark</button>
	<dd>cancel a <button -command "Msg_Move
	    Ftoc_MoveMark">Move</button> or 
	    <button -command "Msg_Remove">Delete</button> mark. 

	<dt><button -command "Msg_Clip">Clip</button>
	<dd>make a new window containing the current message. 

	<dt><button -command "Msg_ShowUnseen">First Unseen</button>
	<dd>show the first unseen message. 

	<dt><button -command "Msg_BurstDigest">Burst Digest</button>
	<dd>use the MH burst command to explode a digest into messages.

	<dt><button -command "Msg_Dist
	    Msg_DistSetup">Redistribute</button> 
	<dd>use the MH dist command to remail a message. 
      </dl>
</dl>
And many more. <a HREF="reference.html">Look here</a> for details. 
<h4>UNDO</h4>
<p>
The <button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_MoveMark">Move</button>, 
<button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_CopyMark advance?">Link</button>, and
<button -command "Msg_Remove">Delete</button> operations mark a
message with a pending operation. The way to undo this mark is to
reselect the message(s) and select the 
<button -command "Ftoc_Unmark">Unmark</button> operation from the
More... menu.

<h3>Folder Commands</h3>
<p>
The middle set of buttons are for folder commands: 
<p>
<dl>
  <dt><button -command "Folder_New">New</button>
  <dd>brings up a dialog that lets you create new folders. (A Delete
      folder operation is under the More... menu.) 

  <dt>Search...
  <dd>a menu with Search options.  More info may be found <a
      href="#search">below</a> 

  <dt><button -command "busy Flist_FindSeqs 1 ; Inc_PresortFinish">Flist</button>
  <dd>refreshes the display of folder buttons. This counts up all the
      unseen messages in all folders. 

  <dt><button -command "Folder_Commit">Commit</button>
  <dd>causes pending <button -command "Msg_Remove">Delete</button> and
     <button -command "Msg_Move Ftoc_MoveMark">Move</button>
     operations to occur. This command is also bound to keystroke
     &lt;Return&gt;. 
</dl>

<h4>Incorporating Mail</h4>
<p>
The <button -command "Inc">Inc</button> button will incorporate new
mail from your spool file into your mail folders. Exmh knows about
three styles of Inc, which you choose via the 
<button -command Preferences_Dialog>Preferences</button> dialog.

<ul>
  <li>"inbox" <button -command "Inc">Inc</button> moves new messages
      into your inbox folder.
  <li>"presort" <button -command "Inc">Inc</button> will run the MH
      filtering hook, slocal, for you if there are messages in your
      spool file. 
  <li>"multidrop" <button -command "Inc">Inc</button> moves new
      messages into "dropboxes" by means of the standard slocal and
      ~/.maildelivery filtering, and then <button 
      -command "Inc">Inc</button>'s from these dropboxes into
      folders. For this to work, you need to list your dropbox names
      in a ~/.xmhcheck file. Dropbox names can be hostnames (no
      slashes...) in which case POP is used. 
  <li>Select "none" for <button -command "Inc">Inc</button> if you
      have an external agent that presorts mail for you. In this case,
      "background flist" will highlight folders that have new mail in them. 
</ul>
<h3><a name="search">Searching</a></h3>
<p>
Exmh provides several search mechanisms under the Search... menu. The
Search Message command searches for a string in the current message.
The Search Table of Contents searches the folder table of contents
for a string. The Glimpse search engine can search all your mail folders.

<h4>Pick</h4>
<p>
Pick provides an interface to the MH pick command. The dialog initially
displays entry widgets labeled Subject, From, To, Cc, Before, and After.
You can enter a pattern for any of these, and pick selects messages
that satisfy the logical AND of these pattern specifications. Note
that the Before and After patterns are date-specific, and pick understands
many forms of date patterns. Read the MH man page for pick for the
complete story. You can build up more complex logical search expressions
by clicking the Or button. 
<p>
The Messages entry lets you limit pick to a specific set of messages.
In particular, you can specify a sequence name (e.g., "unseen"), and
have pick find all messages with that sequence identifier. 
<p>
After the pick completes, a range of messages is selected that satisfies
the search. If you choose "Add to Sel", then the picked messages will
be added to the currently selected set. Choose this <em>before</em>
the Pick. Otherwise a new selection is made. 
<p>
If you choose "New FTOC", then the selected messages will replace the
current list of messages displayed in the folder table of contents.
"Mark Seen" will remove messages from the unseen sequence. 
<p>
Pick uses the MH <code>pick</code> program, which runs a bit slowly,
so have patience. BUG: if you have projected a New FTOC, a subsequent
pick will only select messages still on the display. You need to
rescan the folder to start over. Sigh. 

<h3>Miscellaneous Folder Operations</h3>
<p>
The More... menu has more folder operations: 

<dl>
  <dt><button -command "busy Scan_FolderForce">Rescan folder</button>
  <dd>forces a rescan of the folder contents. Exmh maintains a cache
      of the scan output that could get confused. The Rescan button
      forces a full scan. To optimistically rescan the current folder,
      click on its label in the top pane instead.  

  <dt>Sort folder...
  <dd>sorts the current folder by
      <button -command "busy Folder_Sort -datefield date">Date</button>, 
      <button -command "busy Folder_Sort -datefield subject -limit 0">Subject</button>, or
      <button -command "busy Folder_Sort -datefield from">Sender</button>.


  <dt><button -command "busy Folder_Pack">Pack folders</button>
  <dd>renumbers messages in the current folder to eliminate any gaps
      in the number sequence. 

  <dt><button -command "busy Flist_Refresh">Find all folders</button>
  <dd>recurses through the directory structure looking for all MH
      folder directories. 

  <dt><button -command Folder_Delete>Delete folder</button>
  <dd>lets you delete a folder. 

</dl>
<p>
There are more entries here. <a HREF="reference.html">Look here</a>
for details. 

<h2><a HREF="index.html">Main Help Index</a></h2>


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exmh 1:2.8.0-4 / usr / share / doc / exmh / html / Intro.html
