&Daniel.Naber;
&Daniel.Naber.mail;
&Scarlett.Clark;
&Scarlett.Clark.mail;
&David.Bryant;
&David.Bryant.mail;
2020-09-125.14.2 (Applications 20.04.2)Using &kmail;The Main WindowThe main window is the window that appears
when &kmail; is started. It is by default divided into three panes:Folder List (on the left)Folder PaneFolder Pane
The Folder List
This pane contains the list of your message folders (other email programs
may call them mailboxes). To select a folder, simply click on
it. The message header information contained in the folder will then appear in the Message List
pane. The folder list can be displayed in both a short view, which takes up only
a small portion of the left side of the screen, and a long view, which takes up the
entire left side of the screen (and can show more folders). You can toggle
between these two views by using the Appearance/Layout tab
in the SettingsConfigure
&kmail;... dialog. The top section of the folder pane provides quick links
to your favorite folders. Drag and drop folders here, or add them via the &RMB; context menu item Add Favorite Folder.
Please see the Folders Section for more details about folders.Message List (on the upper right by default)The Message ListThe Message List
The Message List (Smart Theme)
This pane lists header information (Subject, Sender, and Date)
for the messages in the currently selected folder. Clicking on an item in the Message List
will select that message and display it in the Preview pane; you can also select
more than one message by holding down the &Ctrl; key (or the &Shift; key) when clicking on messages.Change the appearance of your message list by selecting ViewMessage ListTheme. You have several options here.
Classic A simple, backward compatible single row with clickable sort columns.Smart A smart multi-line, multi-item list with status icons, and no sort columns.Smart with Clickable Status A smart multi-line, multi-item list with clickable status icons.Configure... Allows you to customize your own Message List Theme (⪚ add or remove columns from the clickable sort bar.)
If you have chosen the Classic theme, you may sort the messages by clicking on the column that you wish to sort;
if you click on the same column again, the sort order will toggle between ascending/descending. Clicking the &RMB; on the list header shows a pop up menu,
which allows you to show or hide several columns in the list. You can customize the columns visible on the sort bar;
see Configure Appearance of Message List for details.
Preview Pane (in the lower right by default)The Message Preview PaneThe Message Preview Pane
The Preview Pane
This pane displays the currently selected message. Here are some ways to adjust the Preview pane.The top of the Preview pane displays the message headers. Several display options are available. Go to
ViewHeaders
and try them out until you find one you like!Fancy Headers Colorful header with a spam status / attachments notification.Brief Headers Title, and in parentheses: From, CCs (if any), and the date.&kmail; 5.2 An avatar (if available) with Title, From, To, CCs (if any), and spam status
/ attachments on separate lines.Download New Themes... Allows you to download custom themes created by other &kmail; users.Click on the bar located on the left hand side of the pane to toggle between plain text and &HTML; (if the message is coded both ways).
The text on the bar will inform you which view you are in. The SettingsConfigure
&kmail;...Security dialog allows you to select HTML as the default message
display option, if you prefer &HTML; to plain text.If you would like to change the way your attachments appear in your messages, go to ViewAttachments.
These are your options.As Icons, all attachments appear as icons at the bottom of the message.Smart will show attachments as icons, unless the message suggests that they should be displayed inline.
You can suggest that certain attachments should be shown inline in messages you compose by selecting Suggest automatic display
in the composer window via the attachment's properties dialog.Inline shows the contents of the attachments at the bottom of the message.
Attachments that cannot be displayed, ⪚ compressed files, will still be shown as an icon.Hide will not show attachments.In Header Only will suppress inline displays, but list the attachments along with
the message headers.The interactions among the header themes, the attachment views, and the plain text versus &HTML; preferences is rather complex.
For example, if you attach an HTML file to a plain text message, &kmail; will probably interpret your message as being coded in two
different formats, even though this is not really the case. Similarly, &HTML; messages may display embedded images even when you have
selected the "Hide" option for attachments.The structure of each message can be displayed by pressing &Ctrl;&Alt;D. This will open a message structure viewer below the preview pane.
Turn the message structure viewer off by pressing the same three keys.You can scroll through the message page-by-page using the &PgUp; and &PgDn; keys, or line-by-line using the
&Up; and &Down; keys; you can also use keyboard shortcuts
to skip through your messages without having to use the mouse.Keyboard ShortcutsThe following keyboard shortcuts are supported by default in the main window. Notice that
many "universal" shortcuts (⪚ &Ctrl;C to
copy selected text to the clipboard, or &Ctrl;F
to open a "Find" dialog) are recognized by &kmail;, but are not documented here.Keyboard ShortcutAction&Space;Scroll down in the current message.→ or NGo to the next message in the current folder and display the message preview.← or PGo to the previous message in the current folder and display the message preview.&Ctrl;&Home;Go to the very first message in the current folder and display the message preview.&Ctrl;&End;Go to the very last message in the current folder and display the message preview.+Go to the next unread message in the current folder.-Go to the previous unread message in the current folder.CCopy this message to another folder.MMove this message to another folder.AReply to all recipients of this message (with quote).RReply to sender with quote.&Shift;RReply to sender without quoting anything.SLaunch the message search dialog.TOpen this message in the composition window.&Enter;View selected message in the full-screen message viewer.VView the raw message, headers and all, as a text file.&Ctrl;LCheck for new messages on the server(s).&Ctrl;NOpen the composition window to write a new message.&Ctrl;+Zoom in on the current message, in increments of 20%.&Ctrl;-Zoom out of the current message, in increments of 20%.&Ctrl;0Reset message Zoom factor to 100% (full size).&Ctrl;&Alt;DToggle message structure display (below the message preview pane).&Ctrl;&Shift;OCreate the tabbing toolbar (appears above the message list).&Ctrl;&Shift;WRemove the currently active tab from the tabbing toolbar.&Alt;↑Go to the previous folder in the folder list (if the folder list has focus).&Alt;↓Go to the next folder in the folder list (if the folder list has focus).&Ctrl;&Home;Focus on the very first folder. Use
&Ctrl;&Space; to actually
enter the folder.&Ctrl;&End;Focus on the very last folder. Use
&Ctrl;&Space; to actually
enter the folder.&Ctrl;&Space;Enter the folder that has focus, &ie; the folder that you navigated
to using &Ctrl;&Home; or
&Ctrl;&End;.&Shift;HToggle between plain text and &HTML; (unless &HTML; has been preferred
via the Settings dialog).&Shift;← &
&Shift;→Select messages sequentially in the message list, starting with the current message.For more keyboard shortcuts, take a look at the SettingsConfigure
Shortcuts... dialog. If you're not happy with the defaults, you can change them!Two mouse actions deserve mention here. First, you can select multiple noncontiguous messages to be processed
all at once (⪚ copied, deleted, or moved) by pressing &Ctrl; and selecting them with the &LMB;. Second, you
can open a message in an external window by double-clicking an item in the message list. If the message is in
the outbox, drafts, or templates folder, it will be opened in a composition window. Otherwise, it will be opened
with the external message viewer, an abbreviated version of &kmail;'s main window without the folder and
message lists, and with shorter menus.The Composer WindowComposer WindowComposer Window
The Composer Window in &HTML; composition mode.
The composer window is used to write new messages, to compose replies, and to forward messages.
It can be opened in several ways. Here are the various options for composing messages.Composing a MessageNew Message...The New Message composer window can be invoked in four different ways:FileNewNew Message...MessageNew Message...Via the New icon on the main toolbar.Via the keyboard shortcut &Ctrl;N.To write your message, fill in the appropriate fields in the
composer window. Use the View menu
to select which header fields are displayed. Any selection you make will remain as the
default when you open a new composer window. These items are available.The Identity drop down box lets you select an identity to use.The Dictionary drop down box lets you choose a dictionary for spell checking.Sent-Mail Folder lets you specify where a local copy of this message will be saved when you send it.Mail Transport lets you select an outgoing mail server.The traditional From:, To:, and Subject: fields. (The Reply To: field will appear only if you have
specified an alternative Reply To address on the Advanced tab
in the SettingsConfigure &kmail;...AccountsIdentities dialog.)Use Fixed Font toggles fixed width fonts on and off.Snippets displays the snippets window, where you may save frequently used bits of verbiage.There are a variety of shortcuts to help
you write messages. The Select... button next to
the To:, CC:, and
BCC: fields opens a list from &kaddressbook; so you can
select one or more recipients.Alternatively, when you start typing an address in the
To:/CC:/BCC:
fields, a popup will appear that suggests similar recently used addresses
and closely matching addresses from &kaddressbook;; if you do not like this automatic
popup, you can disable it by clicking the &RMB; in the field where you're typing, then choosing
a different Text Completion > mode. You can also use this context menu to fine-tune the
order in which suggested completions appear (via Configure Completion...).Whenever you want to add more than one
recipient in one of the fields, use a comma to separate one address
from the next one.
You may have to specify fully qualified addresses
(&ie; user@example.com) even for local
users, depending on your system configuration.When you are finished with your message, click the Send icon to send the message now,
or click the Queue icon to put the message in the outbox.
If your message is not finished yet, select MessageSave as Draft
to save it for later editing.
If you want to print your message, select MessagePrint Preview
to preview the message, and MessagePrint to print it.MessageSend Later
lets you schedule your emails to be sent at a specific date and time. Please see
Send Later Agent for details.FileNewMessage From TemplateMy Super TemplateComposing a new message from a template is useful when you have created a masterpiece
that you would like to use as a template for future new messages.
Select MessageSave as Template; this will place your new template in
the templates folder. You can revise the template at any time by selecting it from this folder.
Double click on the template's name (or press the shortcut key, T) to open it in a composition window.
You may also select the template via the File menu, as shown above.Signing and Encrypting Messages
If you want to send an encrypted
or digitally signed message, select the
Sign and / or Encrypt icon in the toolbar.
Use the OptionsCryptographic Message
Format > dropdown list to select the format used to encrypt the
message. (The Options menu also lets you sign / encrypt the message.)
You may choose one of five formatting options.
Any&kmail; will use a format which is understood by all recipients of the
message. The preferred format for each recipient can be specified via
&kaddressbook;.Inline OpenPGP (deprecated)This format is deprecated, but is supported for backward compatibility. If you use this format then only the
message text will be signed and/or encrypted. Attachments will
neither be signed nor encrypted. &HTML; messages cannot be signed
with this format. You should only use this format
when necessary, &ie; if you send messages to people who use email clients that cannot
handle the more advanced formats.OpenPGP/&MIME;This format is the successor to the inline OpenPGP format. If you
use this format then the message text and all attachments will be signed
and/or encrypted (at least by default). This is the recommended format if you
use OpenPGP encryption.S/&MIME;This format is an alternative format to OpenPGP/&MIME;. If you
use this format then the message text and all attachments will be signed
and/or encrypted (at least by default). This format is mostly used by
corporations. It relies on an x.509 certificate, not a PGP / GPG key.S/&MIME; opaqueThis format is a variant of the S/&MIME; format. Because it rolls the message, any attachments,
and the digital signature into a single &MIME; object, it is cpu-intensive and should only be
used if necessary.Creating &HTML; MessagesNote that &HTML; messages are often regarded as an annoyance; therefore,
you should use &HTML; messages judiciously. In particular, you should never
send &HTML; messages to mailing list recipients unless &HTML; messages are explicitly
allowed.To create &HTML; messages, you must first enable
the markup tools. To do this, enable Rich Text Editing
in the Options menu, or click on
the Rich Text icon on the &kmail; toolbar.
An additional toolbar with several formatting tools will appear. Via the &HTML; toolbar you can choose
standard text or bulleted / numbered lists. (Use the None
drop-down list at the left edge of the toolbar to control the style of bulleted / numbered lists.)
You can also control the font family, the font size, the font style (bold,
italic, underlined, or strike-through) and the text / background color. And you can specify
the alignment of the text (left aligned, centered, right aligned, or justified) and
insert anchor tags (aka links), horizontal lines, images, tables, and arbitrary &HTML; code
(although support for some of the more advanced &HTML; tags is still incomplete).Adding AttachmentsYou can attach files to your message by using any of these methods.Use the AttachAttach
> dropdown list and ensuing dialog to choose a file;Click the Attach icon and select the file you wish to attach;Drag a file from the desktop or another folder into the
composer window;Drag a message from &kmail;'s message list into the composer
window – that message will then be attached;Select one of the additional options in the
Attach menu; or Select Message Insert Text File ...
or Message Insert Recent Text File >.Once a file is attached to your message, it appears in the attachments
pane at the bottom of the composer window. You can use the
&RMB; on each attachment to View, Open,
Edit, Reload,
Save As..., or Remove the
attachment. (This context menu varies a little, depending on the file type of the
attachment.) Several options (Compress / Encrypt / Sign / Suggest Automatic Display) may
be toggled on or off for each file attached to a message.Use the Properties item in the context menu to
open the Attachment Properties dialog.
The first field contains the attachment's &MIME; type. Just like the Name
field, it is automatically filled with an appropriate value. Sometimes the
&MIME; type may be wrong. You can then type in any &MIME; type or
choose from the list of common &MIME; types. You can also select an encoding
method for your file from the list of encoding options (normally, the default
value works fine). Check the Suggest automatic display option
if you want to suggest to the recipient the automatic (inline) display of this attachment.
Whether this works, or not, depends on the recipient's email client,
and on his settings.You can also attach public crypto keys to the message by choosing the appropriate options in the
Attach menu. GnuPG
keys and x.509 certificates are (usually) handled as file attachments.Checking the Spelling of your Message&kmail; can automatically check the spelling of your message
and underline unknown words in red. If there are too many
unknown words &kmail; will disable its checking. To select the language
used when checking, select ViewDictionary. You can disable
automatic spell checking in the Options menu.If you need to write mails in different languages, enable the Dictionary
drop down box with ViewDictionary
from the menu. Using this drop down box allows you to change the spell checker's language with one mouse click.
To check the spelling of your message via a dialog, select
ToolsSpelling.... &kmail; uses
&sonnet; to check spelling; &sonnet; is the &kde; frontend to the
Aspell, Hspell,
Enchant, and HUNSPELL spell
checking programs. Note that you may need to configure the spell checker using
SettingsSpellchecker....Setting Up the Text Snippets Tool
When editing in the composer window you can insert frequently used bits of text as snippets. To configure mail snippets, select ViewSnippets from the menubar. A new panel will appear on the right side of the composer window.
To add a new snippet to the Snippet Panel, right click on the panel, then click Add Snippet
in the context menu. A snippet editor dialog will appear, in which new text can be added and the snippet can be given a name. A
Shortcut can also be associated with the snippet.
Snippets can be grouped together by creating groups and adding snippets to a particular group.
Use the &RMB; context menu to add, edit, or remove snippets of text from the saved collection.
The Snippets tool enables insertion of variable text in predefined places any time you insert a snippet
in a file. To do this, Snippets provides its own variables mechanism. You can insert variables in the snippet
text itself by using separators ( $ ) to enclose the variable names. For example: $variablename$, $invoicenumber$, $weekno$.
The variable separator can be changed to another character by changing snippetDelimiter in the
[SnippetPart] section in the Text Snippet configuration file, which can be found at ~./config/kmailsnippetrc.
snippetDelimiter=$
Using the Built-in TranslatorThe &kmail; 2 composer provides a built-in translator that can be accessed by selecting
ToolsTranslator from the
menu bar. A new panel will appear at the bottom of the composer window. To translate a section of text, first enter the text you would like translated in the
box labeled Drag text that you want to translate.. Select the language in
which it is written in the From: drop down box. Select the language you
would like to translate to in the To: drop down box, then click the
Translate button. After being translated by Google Translate, a free online service,
your translated text will appear in the next box. If you need to translate in the other direction
you can just click the Invert button.
To clear all text, click the Clear button. Message FoldersFolder Setup ExampleFolder Setup Example
&kmail;'s default folders.
Message Folders are used to organize your email messages. When you
first start &kmail; the Local Folders containing inbox,
outbox, sent-mail,
trash, drafts and templates
folders are created. Each of these folders has a special function.inbox:Where &kmail; by default puts your new messages when you tell it to check your
mail. &IMAP; accounts will not use this inbox. The &IMAP; inbox is located on the &IMAP; server.outbox:Where messages are put while they are waiting to be delivered.
You must not just drag and drop messages here to send them; use the Send
icon in the composer window instead.sent-mail:By default, a copy of every message you send is saved in this folder.trash:By default, all messages that you have designated as trash are moved into this folder.drafts:Contains messages you started to write but then saved to this
folder with MessageSave as Draft.templates:This folder holds your templates created via MessageSave as Template
from the composer window. Please see New Composer Templates for details.Creating and Using FoldersOrganize your emails (⪚ mailing lists, bills and receipts, &etc;) by creating new folders. To create a new folder, select
FolderAdd Folder..., or Add Folder... from
the &RMB; context menu. A dialog will pop up. Enter the name of the new folder in the text box. You can fully customize each folder
(&ie; views, replies, &etc;) by selecting the folder you wish to modify in the folders pane and then choosing Folder
Properties from the &RMB; context menu.
See Properties of Folders for details.To move messages from one folder into another, select the message(s) you want to move and press the M key or select
MessageMove Message To... >. A list of folders will appear; select the folder
into which you wish to move the message from that list. Messages can also be moved by dragging them from the Message list to a folder in the Folder
list, or by using a context menu invoked with the &RMB;.If you have folders that are frequently accessed, you can add them to your favorite folders pane (above the list of folders). Add them with the &RMB;
context menu option Add to Favorite Folders.You can create a virtual folder with search parameters by going to ToolsFind Messages..., or by using keyboard shortcut S. Enter your search parameters into the dialog. Name
your search with the Search folder name: textbox, ⪚ emails with the word Blog. Click the Search button. Now select
the Open Search Folder button. A results folder will open, positioned at the bottom of the Folder pane.
(By default, each new search is named "Last Search". You can save particular search parameters by assigning a special name as described above.)Creating filters to automatically move messages to specified folders is a great way to organize messages by mailing list, sender, subject &etc;
Please see Filters for details.If you receive emails from a trusted source (⪚ a Blog you signed up for) that is formatted in &HTML;
and you would like to enable &HTML; view for those emails only, you can create a new folder, set up a
filter to place all email from the Blog in the new folder,
select the folder, and then choose FolderMessage Default Format >Prefer &HTML; to Plain Text.Some common folder actions areFolderMove All Messages to TrashMove all the messages in the selected folder to the trash folder.FolderArchive FolderCreate an archive of the folder. See Archive Folder for details.FolderDelete FolderRemove a folder with all its messages and sub-folders.FolderRemove Duplicate MessagesSearch the currently selected folder for duplicates and delete them.Folder PropertiesFolder Properties ExampleFolder Properties Example
The Folder Properties Dialog
The Properties of Folder dialog lets you specify its properties. Note that some properties are only
available for the folders you create and not for default folders like inbox &etc; The six default folders cannot be renamed.General tabIf you want to rename a folder, change the entry in the Name: field.Act on new/unread mail in this folder is enabled by default on new folders. It enables notifications about new mail that arrives in the folder. Uncheck this option on folders like SPAM and trash for which you do not desire notifications.Check Keep replies in this folder if you want
replies to these messages to be stored in this folder rather than in the default configured sent-mail folder.Check Hide this folder in the folder selection dialog if you do not want this folder to be shown in folder selection dialogs,
such as the Jump to Folder and Move Message to dialogs.New folders use the default identity. If you wish to associate a folder with a different identity, uncheck
Use default identity and select a different one
from the Sender identity drop down menu. See Identities configuration for
information on Identities. Replies to messages that were sent directly to you will still default to the message's To address if a
matching identity is found.View tabThe Use custom icons option lets you choose icons that are different from the defaults in the folder list.With the Show column drop down list you can set the visible columns in the header pane to Default, Sender, or Receiver. This may be useful
if you use a custom folder to save some of your own sent messages.In the Message List section you can select and configure an Aggregation and Theme
for this folder that differs from the default configured in &kmail;s settings. For more details see the
Message List tab on the Appearance page.The Message Default Format section lets you choose between plain and &HTML; displays for messages in this folder.Retrieval tabIf you have an account that does not receive much mail and you don't want &kmail; to query the server too often, you can uncheck Use options from parent folder or account to set
a longer interval in the Automatically synchronize after: spin box.In Retrieval Options you can change the Always retrieve full messages option to Retrieve message
bodies on demand if you have a slow connection. You can also set how long the message will be retained locally via the spin box.
Templates tabOn this tab you can define folder-specific templates for your custom folders.
For more details see the
Standard Templates tab on the Composer page.
Expiry tabYou can set up automatic cleanup or deletion of emails. Check the box if you would like to automatically expire
read or unread messages respectively. Set the number of days in the spin box. If you do not want to delete the messages permanently, you can
assign a folder to keep them in via the Move expired messages to: text box / folder selection dialog. Once you have reviewed
the messages and want to delete them permanently,
you can go to the folder expiry options of the folder you chose to move them to and set the option Delete expired messages
permanently, then click the Save Settings and Expire Now button.
Messages that are deleted cannot be restored, so be careful with this setting.Mailing List tabIf you are going to use the folder for a mailing list open the
Mailing List Folder Properties dialog with
FolderMailing List Management from the menu. Then you should
check Folder holds a mailing list to associate this folder
with the mailing list. Next you should click on Detect Automatically. &kmail; will then try
to guess some information about the mailing list from the currently selected
message. If &kmail; could not determine some addresses then you can add
the missing information manually. To do this first select the
Address type for which you want to add an address.
You can choose among five options.Post to ListThis address is used for sending messages to the mailing list. This is usually an email address.Subscribe to ListThis address is used for subscribing to the mailing list. This can be an email address or the address of a web page.Unsubscribe From ListThis address is used for unsubscribing from the mailing list. This can be an email address or the address of a web page.List ArchivesThis is the address of the archive of the mailing list. This is usually the address of a web page.List HelpThis address is used for requesting help for this mailing list. This is usually an email address.After selecting the appropriate Address type,
enter the email address or the address of the web page and then click on
Add. With Remove you can remove
addresses.When all the addresses have been added, you can execute an action, ⪚
go to the list archives, by selecting the appropriate
Address type and then clicking on
Invoke Handler. If there is an email address and an
address of a web page for the desired action, you will have to select
the Preferred handler prior to clicking on
Invoke Handler. Select KMail if you
want to send a message to the email address and select
Browser if you want to go to the web page.You can also send a new message to the
mailing list via MessageNew
Message to Mailing-List... (instead of Invoke Handler).Shortcut tabYou can define a keyboard shortcut to access the folder.Maintenance tabThis tab shows an overview about the folder type and its size,
the number of read and unread messages in the folder and allows you to enable
text indexing.Quota tab (&IMAP; only)
This tab will show you how much space has been allocated to your &IMAP; account by the server,
and also how much of the allocated space you are currently using.
Access Control tab (&IMAP; only)Here you can manage the access control lists (&acl;s) of &IMAP; folders.The &IMAP; server must have user level &acl; configured and enabled for this tab to be visible.The currently active &acl; is shown in the list. It consists of pairs of User Ids and the
Permissions granted to users identified by that User Id.
Note that a single User Id might refer to more than one user. Depending on the &IMAP;
server and its configuration, there may be User Ids that correspond to groups of users, anonymous users, or any user.
Consult the manual of your specific &IMAP; server implementation for more information. &acl;s are settable per-folder.As with everything else when using disconnected &IMAP;, you need to sync with the server for
the changes to be transferred to the server.&IMAP; &acl;s define a lot of fine-grained permissions that you can grant or deny other users. For the sake of clarity,
&kmail; will present them as the following five categories that you can choose from (see
for the details if you already know &IMAP; &acl;s).NoneGrants the users identified by User Id no rights at all. This is also the
default for users not explicitly (or implicitly, as a group) listed in the &acl;. These users will not see this folder in the list of
&IMAP; folders presented to them by their mail clients.ReadGrants the users identified by User Id reading rights for this folder. This also
includes the ability for their mail clients to mark mails as read and store this information on the server.
Every user has their own list of read mail, so none of your unread mails will suddenly be marked as
read just because someone else has already read them.These users will see this folder in the list of &IMAP; folders presented to them by their mail clients.Use this to create a shared folder that others can read, but not modify.If you were the editor of a company's news letter, you could create a folder for the purpose of
distributing the news letter, grant everyone reading rights, and save the letter to this folder instead
of sending it out by email to a catch-all address.Append(also known as Post)Grants the users identified by User Id reading (see above) and posting rights for this folder.Use this to create a shared folder that others can read and post messages to, but cannot otherwise modify.If you wanted to create a company-wide discussion forum, instead of using a web-based form or a separate company-private usenet server,
you could create a bunch of folders (one per topic), and grant everyone reading and posting rights. Instead of posting to an &nntp;
server or writing their messages into a web form, people would just write emails and store them in the folder suiting the topic of the message.WriteGrants the users identified by User Id reading, posting (see above), and writing rights for this folder.The right to write to a folder includes deleting of messages, creating subfolders, and storing other attributes than
read/unread on the server (⪚ answered).Use this to create a shared folder that everyone has (almost, see ) the same rights for.In the example, you could assign write rights to a group of people
acting as moderators, who would then be able to remove off-topic posts, and create sub-topic folders for high-traffic folders.AllGrants the users identified by User Id reading, posting, writing (see above),
as well as administration rights, &ie; the right to modify the &acl; of this folder.This is the default set of rights for the owner of a folder. summarizes the &IMAP; &acl; rights associated with each permission level.
&acl; Rights Summary&acl; rightLookupxxxxReadxxxxStore SeenxxxxInsertxxxPostxxxWrite FlagsxxCreatexxDeletexxAdministerx
Message FiltersThe Filter DialogThe Filter Dialog
The Filter Creation Dialog
After using &kmail; for a while, you may find that you have trouble
sorting out the new messages in your inbox when they arrive. Filters allow you
to automatically perform certain actions on incoming messages and to manually
perform actions on selected messages in a folder.Filters consist of filter criteria, whose rules are used
to determine whether this filter should be applied to a given
message, and a list of filter actions, which describe what is to be
done with, or to, the message if the search pattern matches.Filters are considered one after the other,
starting with the first filter in the list. The first one whose
pattern matches the given message is applied; you can request that
the remaining filters also be processed, but the default is to stop
processing at the first matching filter. Usually, filters are used on incoming messages, but they can
also be applied to sent messages or to an arbitrary message or group
of messages. To selectively filter messages, select the messages you
want to filter in the message list and either type &Ctrl;J or select
MessageApply
Filter. This will apply the filters (the ones that
have been marked for manual filtering in the advanced filter dialog) to those messages.Fast Filter CreationThere are two methods for creating a filter; the quick method is
to use MessageCreate
Filter and select a criterion from the submenu. This will open the filter dialog
and present you with a new filter which has the first rule of the
search pattern and the first action (as Move into Folder)
preset. In most cases, all you have to do is select the folder where the message
should be moved, but you can, of course, edit the filter as you
like.When creating a filter on mailing list messages, this method
will try to find a criterion that
uniquely identifies messages from the list. If it succeeds, the guessed
name of the list is presented in the
MessageCreate
FilterFilter on
Mailing-List... menu entry.The second method is to manually construct a filter from scratch
by calling the filter dialog through
SettingsConfigure
Filters.... The filter dialog is described in
detail in the following subsection.The Filter DialogThis dialog allows you to manage and edit your list of
filters.You can reach it either via
MessageCreate
Filter or
SettingsConfigure
Filters....The dialog is divided into three main sections on the General
and Advanced tabs.Available FiltersThis group contains the list of filters and some action
buttons to modify the filters, namely: create new filters; move them up or
down the list; copy one of them; delete them; or rename them. If you select
a filter from the list, its properties are shown in the right-hand half
of the dialog.Filter CriteriaIn
this group you can edit the pattern that messages must match before the
filter is applied to them. You can select whether all of the
defined rules must match, or whether a single match
is enough. See Search Patterns
below for a detailed description of each search rule type. You can click on + to get an
additional (initially empty) rule if you want to define more complex
patterns, and on − to remove the selected
rule. Clear clears the pattern, &ie;, it removes
all but one rule from the screen and resets it.Filter ActionsIn
this group you can edit the list of actions that are applied to all
messages that match the defined filter criteria. See Filter Actions below for a detailed
description of each action type. You can click on + to get a new,
empty action (if you want to define more than one action), and on
− to remove the selected
action. Clear clears the list, &ie; it
removes all but one action and resets that one.Advanced OptionsIn this group you can define a few advanced options
that allow you to fine tune your filtering.Using the first row of check boxes, you can toggle when the
filter is applied: the Apply this filter to incoming messages
option means that the filter is applied to messages when you receive
them (&ie; on Check Mail).
The filter can be applied to all messages, to all but online IMAP accounts, or
to particular incoming email accounts.The Apply this filter to sent
messages option means that the filter is applied to
messages when you send them, and the Apply this filter on manual
filtering option controls whether to apply this filter when
filtering is specifically selected (&ie; via
MessageApply
Filters.)If Apply this filter to sent messages is checked
the filter will be triggered after the message is sent and it will
only affect the local copy of the message. If the recipient's copy
also needs to be modified, please use Apply this filter before
sending messages.
The If this filter matches, stop processing here
check box controls whether or not the filters after
the current filter will be processed when the current filter matches.If the Add this filter to the Apply Filter menu
check box is selected, this filter will be inserted
in the MessageApply
Filter submenu. You can then apply this
single filter to a message or a set of messages. If you select this option,
you may optionally select a keyboard shortcut and insert a special icon
to invoke this filter from the toolbar.Another way of applying filters is to use the
MessageApply
Filters menu option, which applies all
the filters – one after another – until they are all used or one of the
filters that matches specifies the If this filter matches, stop
processing here option.Filters are automatically named unless you explicitly
rename them using the Rename... button.
The dialog assumes that it should continue auto-naming the filter
as long as the filter name starts with <.
If you apply filter changes, via
OK or Apply, only the valid
filters are actually copied to the internal filter manager.Similarly, empty rules and actions are removed from the pattern
and action lists, respectively, before the filter is saved.Search PatternsThe most common use of filters is to filter on the sender of
messages. This can be done by choosing From. A
good bet for a mailing list would be
All Recipients, but there are other criteria
a filter can search for (note that all patterns are interpreted
case-insensitively).Complete MessageSearches the whole message (&ie; headers, body and attachments,
if any).Body of MessageSearches the body of the message (&ie; the whole message except the headers).Anywhere in HeadersSearches all the headers in the message.All RecipientsSearches the To and CC header fields of the message.Size in BytesSets upper or lower bounds on the message's size.Age in DaysSets upper or lower bounds on the message's age.Message StatusSets restrictions on the status of the message (Important / Read / Unread / &etc;
see MessageMark Message >).Message TagChecks for tagged messages. See MessageMark Message >.EncryptedChecks for encrypted messages.Any other value (From, To, Date, &etc;)Searches the header field with that name.The list of possible rules depends on what you selected in the first
drop down box. The available rules are:RuleAvailable forDescriptioncontains/does not containall textual search itemsMatches if the searched item contains (or does not contain) the given
text.equals/does not equalmost textual search itemsMatches if the searched item is equal to (or not equal to) the given
text.starts with/does not start withmost textual search itemsMatches if the searched item begins with (or does not begin with) the given
text.ends with/does not end withmost textual search itemsMatches if the searched item ends with (or does not end with) the given
text.matches regular expr./does not match reg. expr.all textual search itemsMatches if a part of the searched item matches the given regular
expression (or does not match it). If the regular expression editor is
installed then you can edit the regular expression by clicking on the Edit... button.has an attachment/has no attachmentComplete MessageMatches if the message has an attachment (or does not have an attachment).is equal to/is not equal tonumerical search itemsMatches if the value of the search item is equal to (or not equal to)
the specified value.is less thannumerical search itemsMatches if the value of the search item is less than
the specified value.is greater thannumerical search itemsMatches if the value of the search item is greater than
the specified value.is less than or equal tonumerical search itemsMatches if the value of the search item is less than or equal to
the specified value.is greater than or equal tonumerical search itemsMatches if the value of the search item is greater than or equal to
the specified value.is/is notMessage StatusMatches if the message has (or does not have) the specified status.is after/is before or equal toDate headerMatches if the message was sent after (not after) the specified date.is before/is after or equal toDate headerMatches if the message was sent before (not before) the specified date.Filter ActionThe most common use of filters is to divert some incoming messages to
particular folders; this can be done by choosing Move into
Folder. Here is a list of all possible actions.Move Into FolderThis will move the message into another folder, and remove it from
its current folder.Copy Into FolderThis will copy the message to another folder, and leave the message in the current folder.Set Identity ToThis will set the identity that will be used when you reply to this
message.Mark AsThis allows you to mark the message as read or important (flagged), but
also as forwarded, replied, &etc;Add TagThis will add a tag to the message. You may choose from a list of
all the tags that have been defined.Send Fake MDNThis will send a faked message disposition notification (&ie; a read
receipt) to the sender of the message.Set Transport ToThis will set the method of transport (⪚ &SMTP;)
that will be used when you reply to the message. You may choose from a list of all your outgoing email accounts.Set Reply-To ToThis will modify the Reply-To field of this
message. This can be useful for mailing lists that automatically set a Reply-To
address you do not wish to use.Forward ToThis will forward the message inline (&ie; as if you selected MessageForwardInline...) to another email address. You
may select a custom forwarding template if such a template has been defined. If &kaddressbook; is installed, you may choose the
Forward To address from a pop-up window.Redirect ToThis will redirect the message as-is to another email address. If &kaddressbook; is installed, you may
choose the Redirect To address from a pop-up window.Confirm DeliveryWill return a message to the sender that
verifies successful delivery of their message, if the sender requested that.This action allows you to select who will get delivery receipts from
you. Though you can globally enable the sending of delivery
confirmations in the Configure &kmail;... dialog
(Security
page) we do not recommend that you send them to everyone, since this
makes tracking of spam messages very easy for the spammers.Execute Command (for advanced users only)This will execute a program, but will not modify the
message. Specify the full path to the program you want to
execute; &kmail; will then wait until the program returns.
If you do not want &kmail; to wait, append '&' to the command.
You can feed the segments of the message
into the program one by one: %0,
%1, &etc; stand for files representing
the message segments. For common messages, %0 is the
plain text message, %1 the first attachment and so
on. Additionally, the whole message is fed into the program's
stdin; and every occurrence of
%{foo} is replaced by the content of the foo
header. If you need to identify the message via its storage location in the
Akonadi database, you can use the %{itemid} or %{itemurl} placeholders to
achieve that.This currently only works if the message has
at least one attachment. No, not even
%0 will work in the general
case! You can enter arbitrarily-complex shell commands here,
since &kmail; uses a sub shell to execute the command line; therefore,
even this command will work (within its limits):
uudecode$(mktemp kmail-uudecoded.XXXXXX) &&
echo$'\a'Pipe ThroughThis will feed the message to a program: if the program returns
output, the entire message (including the headers) will be replaced
with this output; if the program does not return output or exits
with a return code other than 0 (indicating an error occurred), the message
will not change. Specify the full path to the program. The same
substitutions (%n,
%{foo} as with Execute
Command may be performed on the command line.Both the Anti-Spam Wizard and the Anti-Virus Wizard use the Pipe Through
action to check for spam / malware. The commonly available anti-spam and anti-virus programs
return the message, and insert an extra header record, if spam (or a virus) is detected.Be cautious with this action, as it can damage
your messages if the filter program returns garbage or extra
lines.Remove HeaderWill remove all header fields with the
given name from the message. This is useful mainly for removing bogus
Reply-To: headers.Add HeaderIf no such field is already present this will add a new header field
with the given name and value to the message; if there already is a
header field with that name, it is overwritten with the
given value; if there are already multiple headers with the given
name (⪚ Received: headers), an arbitrary one of them is
overwritten and the others are left unchanged -- this is a known
limitation. You may want to combine this filter with the
Remove Header filter above to make sure that
there are no other headers with that name in the message.Rewrite HeaderWill scan the given header field, modify its contents and write
it back. The search string is always interpreted as a case-sensitive
regular expression. The replacement string is inserted literally
except for occurrences of \n,
$n and ${nn}, where
n is a positive (single-digit, except for the
third form) number or 0. These constructs are
interpreted as back references to substrings captured with parentheses
in the search string.Analogous restrictions as in the
Add Header action apply here, too.Play SoundWill play the specified sound. A browse button lets you choose a pre-recorded sound (⪚ .wav) file.Add to Address BookIf &kaddressbook; is installed, this action will let you specify which header to scan
(From, To, CC, or BCC), what tag to assign, if any, and which named address book to store the
addresses in.Delete MessageDeletes the selected message(s). Use this option cautiously. Deleted messages cannot be recovered.Unset StatusThis is the inverse of Mark As, above. Instead of marking the selected
message as important, read, &etc;, this action will clear the specified flag.EncryptWill encrypt the selected message(s) with the specified public key. You may choose from any public
/ private key pairs saved on your key ring.DecryptWill decrypt the selected message(s). Use this action with caution. &kmail; will decrypt
messages automatically when you open them for viewing, so you probably don't really need to use this action.Filter ExamplesAs of yet &kmail; does not highlight or mark mails that
have an extra Priority: header.
If you want to flag all urgent messages as being
important, you can use a filter:Tagging urgent messages as importantOpen up the SettingsConfigure
Filters... dialog and click the
New icon below the Available Filters
list.In the Filter Criteria area, select Anywhere
in Headers and contains from the drop down boxes and type
Priority in the text field. Select the same criterion
in the next line and type urgent in the
text field of the second drop down box.So your filter will match all messages containing a
Priority: urgent header field.Skip down to the Filter Actions area.
Select Mark As from the first drop down box.
A new drop down box containing a list of marker flags is shown
to the right. Select Important from the
drop down box.Since you want this filter to not
prevent other filters' message rules from being applied,
carefully uncheck the
If this filter matches, stop processing here option on the Advanced tab.Click on OK, and you are done.Just remember to move the Priority: urgent
filter entry to the top of the Available Filters
list each time you add a new filter, so that your
flow-through filter is always applied first.If you are subscribed to the (general) &kde; List, you could create a
folder for the list (let's call it
KDE-General) and use a filter to
automatically transfer new messages from your inbox to your
KDE-General folder if they came from the
&kde; List. Here is how to create this filter:Filtering a mailing listCheck if MessageCreate
filterFilter on
Mailing-List... can identify the mailing
list (the name of the list should then appear in the menu item); in
this case, this works and you are presented with a filter that has
List-Id contains
<kde.kde.org> preset. Then select the
desired destination folder from the folder pull-down menu in the
Filter Action group and that is it.If that does not work, think of a unique way of identifying the
messages you want to filter. The (almost) unique property of &kde;
List messages is that they always contain
kde@kde.org in the
To: or CC: field. It is not
quite perfect, because this fails for cross-posted messages.Select SettingsConfigure
Filters....Press the button to create an empty
filter. It will appear as <unknown>.In the Filter Criteria area, select
All Recipients from the first drop down box,
contains from the second drop down box, and type
kde@kde.org in the text
field.Skip down to the Filter Actions section. Select Move Into
Folder from the first drop down box. Click on the folder icon and a window
containing a list of folders will appear. Select the folder that you
want the filtered messages to be transferred to. For this example, you would select
KDE-General.You may find that you need to use more powerful criteria to
properly filter your messages; for example, you may only want to
filter the &kde; List messages that are written by your friend Fred
Johnson <fj@anywhere.com>. This is where the rest of the
matching criteria section comes into play:Extending the filterOpen up the Configure Filters... window and select
the filter you just created.Since you want to filter all messages that have
kde@kde.org in the
To: or CC: field
and that are from Fred, check the
Match all of the following radio
button.Now, go to the second search rule and select the following from
the pull-down menus: From,
contains. Now, type
fj@anywhere.com in the text field.You now have a filter that identifies all &kde; List messages
that are from fj@anywhere.com.Filter OptimizationIt is important to realize that the order of the
filters has an impact on the speed of the filtering process. Here are
some ideas which can help you to improve filter performance.
Stop filter processing as soon as possible:If you know that a filter finally processes a certain class of
messages, please make sure to check the option If this filter
matches, stop processing here for the filter.
This will avoid the evaluation of the filter rules of all subsequent
filters. (See the advanced options in the
Filter Dialog).An example is filtering messages from mailing lists via List-Id
header into separate folders. Having found out that a message came from
list A means that you can avoid checking the next filter for messages
from list B.
Consider the costs of the evaluation of filter rules:The time required to evaluate a filter rule depends on the way
the rule is constructed. In particular, scanning for a
substring using the contains operation is faster
than a pattern matching using the matches regular
expr. operation.
Another dependency is on the amount of data which is used for the
evaluation of a filter rule. If the rule is based on a message header,
its evaluation should normally be much faster than the evaluation of
a rule based on the complete message.
Try to keep the filter rules as simple as possible.
Check the order of your filters:The various filter actions have different degrees of complexity.
The most expensive filter actions are Pipe Through
and Execute Command, because both need external
programs to be run. Placing filters containing these filter actions
behind other filters that can reduce the number of times these complex
actions are required is useful, if the filter logic allows
this.An example is filtering messages from a mailing list and detecting
spam messages. For the spam detection you will usually use an external
tool via a Pipe Through action. Filtering the messages
for the mailing list is done via the List-Id header. If you do not want to
check the messages from the mailing list for spam too, it is better to
use the filter for the mailing list messages before the filter for the
spam detection. This way you avoid the expensive and slow spam check for all
messages which were identified as mailing list messages.
Filter LogIf you want to verify that your filters work as intended, you can
open a viewer for the filter log via ToolsFilter Log Viewer....
In the viewer you can configure logging of the filter
process. You can control the level of detail recorded, clear the log, limit the size of the log,
and save the log as a file. The log can provide valuable information when
you want to improve your filter rules.
Backing up &kmail;This section describes various backup solutions within &kmail;.ArchivingFolderArchive Folder...This feature is also available through the context menu launched with a &RMB;, then select Archive Folder.... This will
open a dialog that allows you to create a single archive of the currently selected folder.The Folder: shows the currently selected folder, if you wish to change the folder to be archived click the folder icon.
The Format: drop down menu allows you to choose a format (choices are: zip, tar, tar.bz2, and tar.gz).
If you would like to change the default name or location, click the folder button to the right of Archive File.Check the Delete folder and subfolders after completion button if you would like everything you archived deleted from
the &kmail; database after the external archive has been saved.
By default all subfolders will be archived. Uncheck Archive all subfolders if you only want to archive the parent folder.SettingsConfigure Automatic Archiving...This is a powerful tool that can be used to assist in backing up your email. Please see Automatic Archiving for details.ExportingToolsImport/Export &kmail; Data...This feature exports settings and local mail to a compressed file. Please see pim data exporter for details.Restore and Import in &kmail;This section describes restoring backups and importing data into &kmail;.Restoring backed up email and settingsToolsExport &kmail; Data...If you used PIM Data Exporter to backup local email and / or settings, please use it again to restore data
into &kmail;. See PIM Data Exporter for details.Importing options in &kmail;
&kmail; has an import wizard to make the transition from another email application easier.
ToolsImport from another Email Client...This starts the import wizard and tries to automatically detect data from another email application.
In case the mail data you want to import is not found, use the Manual Selection option.File Import Messages...Starts the import wizard and lets you select the desired data manually.
Please read the Import Wizard documentation for details.
Using Multiple AccountsMultiple accounts are used to check for messages from more than one email address
and/or mail server. Select Settings Configure &kmail;... and click on the
Accounts page to add or change your account settings. See the
Getting started section for more
information on the settings in the Accounts page.To check for messages from a particular account, use the
File Check Mail
In submenu to select the account to check
for mail. You can also press and hold the &LMB; on the Check
Mail icon (on the toolbar) for a few seconds to get a list of accounts.Signing and Encrypting Messages with GnuPGThis is a short introduction on how to set up &kmail;'s
GnuPG (&GNU; Privacy Guard) support;
it gives some hints on the use of
GnuPG too. It is written for people who are beginners in
this area; if you are familiar with the use of GnuPG, you can
skip most of the steps.Please
also check out the &FAQ; item about
GnuPG.Attachments will not be signed/encrypted if you are using
inline OpenPGP. To sign/encrypt attachments, you have to install GnuPG and
some necessary libraries.
Then, you can decide for each attachment whether it should be signed/encrypted or not.
To set up and use GnuPG support in &kmail; it is
necessary to have GnuPG installed and configured
properly. Of course, we cannot give you a full introduction to
GnuPG here. We will only mention the steps you must perform
to get GnuPG going. For details you should look at
The &GNU; Privacy Handbook.It is certainly a good idea to study the GnuPG documentation as well as an
introduction to public key cryptography. That way you can learn a lot about
the basic concepts, which will help you understand what is going on. Also,
many security related issues you should know about are discussed there.Preconditions&kmail; expects that your GnuPG binary is called
gpg. If this is not the case for you,
just make a symlink.If you have not yet done so, you must generate a key pair (secret and public
keys) for your identity. You may do this using &kgpg; or &kleopatra; or at the command line:
gpg. Or you
can ask &kmail; to create a new key pair when you create
a new email account. The identity (normally your name followed by your email address
within brackets, such as John Doe
<john@example.com>) and your passphrase are important for the
co-operation between &kmail; and GnuPG.GnuPG-Related Settings in &kmail;Select the Composing tab on
the Security settings page. There you will find the
following options:When encrypting emails, always also encrypt to the certificate of my own identityIf this option is off and you want to send an encrypted message to somebody,
then you cannot read this message any longer after you have composed and
encrypted it. Turn this option on to keep the encrypted messages you send readable for
you, too.Store sent messages encryptedWhen this box is checked, sent messages are stored encrypted, as they were
sent. This is not recommended, as you will not be able to read the messages
any longer if a necessary certificate expires. (Notice that GPG keys do
not expire, as a general rule; this caution is primarily relevant for x.509 certificate users.)Always show the encryption keys for approvalThis will always open a dialog that lets you choose the keys used for
each recipient when you are sending an encrypted message. If this
option is off, &kmail; will show the dialog only when it cannot
find a key for a recipient or when there are conflicting or unset encryption
preferences.When saving as draft, always sign/encrypt as indicatedIf this option is on, &kmail; will automatically encrypt (and / or sign) messages
that you save in the drafts folder (when you specify signing / encryption).Show sign/encrypt indicator in editorIf this option is on, &kmail; will display an indicator in the composition window
to inform you that this message will be signed / encrypted whenever that is the case.Now that you have set up the encryption tool, you must tell &kmail; which
OpenPGP key you want to use for signing and encrypting messages.
To do this go to the Identities configuration
and set the key that should be used via the Cryptography tab in the
identity configuration dialog.Now you can sign outgoing messages. To let people send you
encrypted messages, and to let them verify your signature, you
must send them your public key, or upload your public key to a public
GnuPG key server (so people can fetch your key from the server).
To send encrypted messages to other people, or to verify their signed
messages, you will need their public keys. You can search for public keys on a
public GnuPG key server. Or you can ask your friends
to send you one or more of their public keys.Sign your MessagesCompose your message as usual in the composer
window. Before you send the message, check the Sign
icon on the toolbar of the composer window, or select Options Sign Message. Then, you can send
the message. The identity you are using to write the current message needs to
be connected to an OpenPGP Key in the Identity
section of the Configure dialog.
To sign the message, &kmail; needs to know your GnuPG
passphrase. You may be asked to supply it, or,
if you have previously given the phrase to &kmail;, the
message will be signed automatically.Encrypt your MessagesTo send an encrypted message to somebody whose
public key is on your gpg key ring, simply create the message in the composer window.
Before you send the message, check the Encrypt
button in the toolbar of the composer window (or select Options Encrypt Message).
Then send the message.
If you checked the Encrypt button and &kmail;
cannot find a matching key for a recipient, it will allow you to modify
your key ring before trying again.
If &kmail; finds more than one trusted key for a recipient, it will
display a list containing all matching keys for this recipient. In either
case you can select the key(s) which should be used for encrypting
this message for the recipient in question.If you are using a key for the first time, if there are conflicting
Encryption Preferences, or if Always
show the encryption keys for approval is selected in the
Security section of &kmail;'s configuration dialog,
the Encryption Key Approval dialog will appear.
You can select different keys for the recipients and can
set the Encryption Preference for each recipient.
The option, Encrypt whenever encryption is
possible (on the Cryptography tab of the
SettingsConfigure &kmail;... dialog), will automatically encrypt your message if there is a
trusted key for each recipient.As mentioned above, you will not be able to read your own encrypted sent
messages if you do not check When encrypting emails, always also encrypt
to the certificate of my own identity in the
settings' Security page.Send your Public KeyPrepare a message to the person to whom you want to send your public key.
Then choose, in the composer window's menu,
AttachAttach Public
Key. This will attach your public key – the one you are
currently using – to the message.Remember that it is not perfectly safe to just sign the message to ensure
that the receiver gets the correct key. There can (possibly) be a "man-in-the-middle"
attack: somebody could intercept your message, change the attached key, and then sign the message with that other
key. The recipient should verify the attached key by checking the
key's fingerprint against the one he received in a secure way from you.
Alternatively, just ask him to use the key he received to compose and send an encrypted
message back to you. If your secret key decrypts that message, he has a copy of your public key. See
the GnuPG documentation for further details.You received an encrypted MessageAll you have to do is to select the message in &kmail;. You may be
prompted for your passphrase. Then, &kmail; will decrypt the message and
show you the plain text if the message was encrypted with your public
key. If not, you will not be able to read it. By default, &kmail; stores messages
encrypted, so nobody can read these messages without knowing your passphrase, or, at a minimum, your login password.Receiving a Public KeyYou can receive a public key as an attachment, or via http, ftp, or a floppy.
Before you use this key to encrypt a message to the owner of the
key, you should verify the key (check its fingerprint or look for
trusted signatures); then, you can add this key to your public keyring
by typing gpgfilename at the command line.
If the key is not certified with another signature that you have already trusted,
you cannot use it to encrypt messages unless you sign (certify) the key with your own key.
The Anti-Spam WizardBasics&kmail; does not have a built-in spam detection solution: the developers believe
using external, but specialized, tools is the better approach. &kmail; uses these tools
through its flexible filter architecture. The Anti-Spam Wizard helps you with the
initial filter setup.
What can the wizard do to help you?It will give you some choices about how you want the spam filtering to be set up.
Afterwards it will automatically create the appropriate filter rules.
What are the limitations of the wizard?All it can do is set up the filters for you; it will provide a
standard setup. Manual modifications that have been applied to existing anti-spam filters are not recognized.
Instead, such filters are overwritten by the wizard.
You can activate the wizard via ToolsAnti-Spam Wizard.... If this choice is not
available, click SettingsConfigure
&kmail;...Plugins and
check the box next to Antispam. You will be prompted to
restart &kmail;; when you do, the wizard will appear on the Tools menu.The wizard scans for known anti-spam tools on your computer.
It is also possible to use the results of spam checks made by your service provider,
by evaluating header information which has been added to the messages.
You can let the wizard prepare &kmail; to use one or more of these in parallel.
However, note that anti-spam tool operations are unusually time consuming.
&kmail; can appear to be frozen during the scan of messages for spam, so
you may encounter problems with the responsiveness of &kmail;. Please consider
deleting the filter rules created by the wizard if the filtering becomes
too slow for you. (This has been a problem with older hardware. It probably won't afflict more modern machines.)Here are some observations about a few anti-spam tools.BogofilterBogofilter is a Bayesian filter. Its spam detection ability
relies on an initial training phase. On the other hand, it's a pretty
fast tool. That's why it is recommended for people who
want fast spam detection, and who aren't worried
about putting some effort into the initial training, before the detection rate
increases significantly.
SpamAssassinSpamAssassin is a fairly complex tool to use against spam.
Although its behavior depends heavily on its configuration,
it can detect spam quite well without any training. However,
scanning a message takes a little longer compared to pure Bayesian
filters. Let's say it's not the tool of choice for people without
some background information about SpamAssassin's capabilities.
Annoyance FilterPerhaps not so often used until more distributions pick it up.
It's clearly a tool for specialists.
GMX Spam FilterIf you get your mail via the GMX freemail provider,
your messages have already been scanned for spam. The result of that process is
documented in a special header field in each message. It's possible to
use the content of this header field to filter out spam. There is very little
slowdown in the filtering when this tool is used, as the messages
have already been processed by the external email server.
Advanced&kmail; can use several
external tools to detect spam messages; it will try to automatically find
out which tools are installed on your system, and will display all of these
in a list. The list is ordered by the average speed of the filtering
process of the tools. You can mark the tools which you want
&kmail; to utilize to detect spam. If you want more choices, you
can simply close the wizard, install a new tool, then restart the wizard.
If you have marked at least one tool, &kmail; is able to provide filters
which allow the classification of the messages as spam or not spam. It will
also provide actions to let you manually classify messages. These actions will
be available in the MessageApply
Filter > menu item, and also via a pair of icons on the toolbar.
If any of the tools you selected support Bayesian filtering (&ie; a method
to detect spam based on statistical analysis of the messages) then these
messages are not only marked but additionally piped through the tools to
help them learn, thereby improving their detection rate.
On the second page, you will be able to select some additional
actions to be performed in &kmail; with regard to spam messages: if you
want messages detected as spam to be moved into a certain folder, select
the appropriate folder and mark the Move known spam to:
option; if messages detected as spam should additionally be marked as read,
then mark the Mark detected spam messages as read option.
Selecting at least one of the available tools will allow
the wizard to finish the filter setup. The wizard will not take any
modifications in existing filters, formerly created by it, into
consideration, but will either append new filters or replace existing filters.
In any case you may want to inspect the result of this process in the
Filter Dialog.
The wizard will also create toolbar buttons for marking messages as spam or
as ham. Keep in mind that classifying messages as spam will also move those
messages to the folder you have specified for spam messages, when you
select the spam option.
Some More Details for ExpertsThe wizard uses information stored in a special configuration file named
kmail.antispamrc (stored in the global or local &kde;
config directory). It will first check the global config file and then the local
config file. If the local config file contains an entry with a higher (newer)
version number, the configuration data from the local file (for that
tool) is used, so both administrators and users can update the
wizard's configuration.
The local detection of spam messages is achieved by creating
pipe through actions per-tool within a
special filter. Another filter contains rules to check for detected spam
messages and actions to mark them and (optionally, depending on the choice
in the wizard) to move them into a folder. Both filters are configured to
be applied to incoming messages and for manual filtering.
Two filters are needed for the classification of ham and spam. They
contain actions to mark the messages appropriately. As mentioned above, the
filter for classification as spam can have another supplementary action to
move the messages into a predefined folder. If the selected tools support
Bayesian filtering, the wizard will create additional filter actions to pass
the messages to the tools (via Execute Command actions)
in the appropriate learning mode.
If you want to fine-tune the filtering process, you might be interested in the
chapter about Filter Optimization.The Anti-Virus WizardBasics&kmail; does not have a built-in virus detection solution: the developers believe
using external, but specialized, tools is the better approach. &kmail; uses these tools
through its flexible filter architecture. The Anti-Virus Wizard helps you with the
initial filter setup.
What can the wizard do to help you?It will give you some choices about how you want virus filtering to be set up.
Afterwards it will automatically create the appropriate filter rules.
What are the limitations of the wizard?All it can do is set up the filters for you; it will provide a
standard setup. Manual modifications that have been applied to existing anti-virus filters are not recognized.
Instead, such filters are overwritten by the wizard.
You can activate the wizard via ToolsAnti-Virus Wizard.... If this choice is not
available, click SettingsConfigure
&kmail;...Plugins and
check the box next to Antivirus. You will be prompted to
restart &kmail;; when you do, the wizard will appear on the Tools menu.AdvancedThe Anti-Virus Wizard basically works the same way as the
Anti-Spam Wizard does.
&kmail; can use several
external tools to detect messages containing viruses. It will determine
which of these tools are installed on your system, and will show you the
results from the search. You can mark the tools which you want
&kmail; to use for virus detection. If you want more choices, you
can simply close the wizard, install a new tool, then restart the wizard.
If you have chosen at least one tool you will be able to select actions
for &kmail; to perform on messages containing viruses. To let &kmail; detect
messages containing viruses, you should mark the Check messages using the
anti-virus tools option. If you want messages infected by a
virus to be moved into a certain folder, select the appropriate folder and
mark the Move detected viral messages to the selected folder
option. If such messages should also be marked as read,
select the Additionally, mark detected viral messages as read option.
Selecting at least one of these options will allow
the wizard to finish the filter setup. The wizard will not take any existing
filter rules into account, but will append new rules. In any case you
may want to inspect the result of this process in the
Filter Dialog.
DetailsThe wizard uses information stored in a special configuration file named
kmail.antivirusrc (stored in the global or local &kde;
config directory). If the local config file contains an entry with a higher (newer)
version number, the configuration data from the local file (for that
tool) is used, so both administrators and users can update the
wizard's configuration.
The detection of messages containing viruses is achieved by creating
pipe through actions per-tool within a
special filter. Another filter contains rules to check for infected
messages, and actions to mark them and (optionally, depending on the choice
in the wizard) to move them into a folder. Both filters are configured to
be applied to incoming messages and for manual filtering.