IntroductionWhat is Evolution, and What Can It Do for Me?
Information is useless unless it's organized and accessible;
it's hardly even worth the name if you can't look at it and be
informed.
Evolution's goal is to make the
tasks of storing, organizing, and retrieving your personal
information easier, so you can work and communicate with
others. That is, it's a highly evolved groupware program, an integral
part of the Internet-connected desktop. On the inside, it's a
powerful database; on the outside, it's a tool to help you get
your work done.
Because it's part of the GNOME project,
Evolution is Free Software. The
program and its source code are released under the terms of
the GNU General
Public License (GPL), and the
documentation falls under the Free Documentation
License (FDL). For more information about
the GPL and the FDL, visit the Free Software Foundation's
website at http://www.fsf.org.
This is a preview releaseEvolution is not complete, and
still has a lot of flaws. Please help improve it by
letting us know about them. You should do this on the
Ximian GNOME bug report page at bugzilla.ximian.com. There
are detailed bug reporting instructions in .
Evolution can help you work in a
group by handling email, address and other contact
information, and one or more calendars. It can do that on one
or several computers, connected directly or over a network,
for one person or for large groups.
The Evolution project has four
central goals:
The application must be both powerful and easy
to use. In other words, it needs a familiar
and intuitive interface that users can customize to their
liking, and users should have access to shortcuts for
complex tasks.
Evolution must meet and
exceed the standards set by other groupware products.
It must include support for major network protocols so that it can
integrate seamlessly with existing hardware and network
environments.
The project must support open standards and be open to
expansion, so that it can become a development platform
as well as an application. From the simplest scripting
to the most complex network and component programming,
Evolution must offer
developers an environment for cutting-edge application
development.
Data must be safe: Evolution
must not lose mail, corrupt mailbox files or other
data, execute arbitrary scripts,
or delete files from your hard disk.
Evolution is designed to make most
daily tasks faster. For example, it takes only one or two
clicks to enter an appointment or an address card sent to you
by email, or to send email to a contact or appointment.
Evolution makes displays faster and
more efficient, so searches are faster and memory usage is
lower. People who get lots of mail will appreciate advanced
features like
Virtual Folders, which let you save searches as though
they were ordinary mail folders.
About This Book
This version of the Evolution
User's Guide is a draft. Please send
comments on the guide to aaron@ximian.com. The
first person to send me some good constructive criticism wins
a free Ximian t-shirt. Include preferred shirt size and postal
address. If you would like to work on the guide please contact
me or see the GNOME Documentation project web
site.
This book is divided into two parts, with several
appendices. The first part is a guided
tour— it will explain how to use
Evolution. If you are new to
Evolution or to groupware in
general, this section is for you. The second section, covering
configuration, is targeted at
more advanced users, but anyone who wants to change the way
Evolution looks or acts can benefit
from reading it. In addition, there is a comprehensive menu reference which describes nearly
every capability that Evolution has
to offer.
Typographical conventions
Some kinds of words are marked off with special typography:
ApplicationsCommands typed at the command lineLabels for interface items Menu selections look like this:
MenuSubmenuMenu ItemButtons you can
clickAnything you type
inText
output from a computerWords
that are defined in the .Evolution Interface IntroductionEvolution follows a consistent UI. This means
that in each component, you will find many UI characteristics the same as
others components.
Evolution's InterfaceInboxMenubar
The Menubar gives you access to nearly all the
features that can be found in Evolution.
Toolbar
The Toolbar gives you fast and easy access to the
most used features in each component.
Shortcut Bar
The Shortcut Bar lets you go to your favorite
components with a click of a button. You can even add your favorite
folders to the Shortcut Bar.
Status Bar
Periodically, Evolution will need to quietly
display a message, or tell you the progress of something. This most
often happens when you're checking or sending email. These progress
queues are shown here, in the Status Bar.
Search Bar
The Search Bar lets you search through your email
with precision so you can easily find what you're looking for.
Quick Reference for Common Tasks
You might want to copy this section and tape it to the wall
next to your computer: it's a very short summary of most of
the things you'll want to do with
Evolution. Read if
you would like a complete list of keyboard shortcuts for menu commands.
Opening or Creating AnythingCreate a new folderFileNewFolder or
CtrlShift FCreate a new Shortcut in the Evolution BarFileNewEvolution Bar Shortcut or
CtrlShiftSCreate a new email message:
Use
FileNewMail
Message or
CtrlShift MCreate a new AppointmentFileNewAppointment or
CtrlShiftAEnter a new ContactFileNewContact or
CtrlShiftCCreate a new TaskFileNewTask or
CtrlShiftTMail Tasks
Here are the most frequent email tasks, and shortcuts for
navigating your mailbox with the keyboard instead of the
mouse:
Check Mail
Click Get Mail in the
toolbar. There is no keyboard shortcut for this task,
but you can ask Evolution
to check for new mail periodically in the
Mail Settings dialog.
Reply to a Message
To reply to the sender of the message only:
click Reply in the
toolbar, or press
CtrlR
To reply to the sender and all the other visible
recipients of the message, click Reply to
All or select the message and press
ShiftCtrlRForward a Message
Select the message or messages you want to forward,
and click Forward in the
toolbar, or press
CtrlJOpen a Message in a New Window
Double-click the message you want to view, or select
it and press
CtrlOCreate Filters and Virtual Folders
You can create filters and Virtual Folders based on
specific message attributes from the message's
right-click menu. Alternately, select a message, and
then choose SettingsMail Filters
or SettingsVirtual Folder Editor. Filters are discussed in , and Virtual
Folders in .
CalendarContact Manager