Start Evolution by selecting Evolution from your Programs menu, or by typing evolution at the command line. The first time you run the program, it will create a directory called evolution in your home directory, where it will keep all your Evolution-related files. At this point, it will also offer to import old messages from other mail clients, such as Netscape mail. After Evolution starts up, you will see the main window, with the Inbox open. It should look a lot like the picture in . On the left of the main window is the shortcut bar, with several buttons in it. Just underneath the title bar is a series of menus in the menu bar, and below that, the tool bar with buttons for different functions. The largest part of the main window is taken up by the content view, where your messages are displayed. Above that is the message list view, where a summary of your email is displayed. If you're running the program for the first time, you'll have one message: a welcome from Ximian. Evolution's most important job is to give you access to your information and help you use it quickly. One way it does that is through the shortcut bar, the column on the left hand side of the main window. The large buttons with names like Inbox and Contacts are the shortcuts, and you can select different groups of shortcuts by clicking the rectangular group buttons. Take a look at the Shortcut Bar The shortcut buttons in that category are: My Evolution Start your day here. My Evolution gives you a quick summary of new or important messages, daily appointments and urgent tasks. You can customize its appearance and content, and use it to access Evolution services. Inbox Click the Inbox button to start reading your mail. Your Inbox is also where you can access Evolution's tools to filter, sort, organize, and search your mail. Calendar The Calendar can store your appointments and To do lists for you. Connected to a network, you can use it to keep a group of people on schedule and up to date. Tasks A full-size view of your calendar's task pad. Contacts The Contact Manager holds your addresses, phone numbers, and contact information. Like calendar information, contact data can be synchronized with hand-held devices and shared over a network. The folder bar is a more comprehensive way to view the information you've stored with Evolution. It displays all your appointments, address cards, and email in a tree that's a lot like a file tree— it starts small at the top, and branches downwards. On most computers, there will be three or four folders at the base. First is the Local folder, which holds all the Evolution data that's stored on your computer. After that are Other Contacts, LDAP contact directories stored on a network, followed by any IMAP mail folders you may have available to you over your network. Lastly, there are Virtual Folders, discussed in , A typical Local folder contains the following folders: My Evolution, a quick summary to help you do your tasks. Calendar, for appointments and event listings. Contacts, for address cards. Drafts, for messages you started and didn't finish. Inbox, for incoming mail. Outbox, for messages you have written but not yet sent. This will be empty unless you use Evolution while offline. Sent, for sent mail. Trash, a virtual folder view of all the messages you have marked for deletion but not yet expunged. Note that once you have expunged a message, it is permanently deleted. You don't need the folder bar or the shortcut bar to move around the main window. You can use Tab to switch from one part of the window to another. When you hide the folder bar, there is a menu on the left side of the window just below the toolbar to move about the folder tree, even with the folder and shortcut bars hidden. If you get any serious amount of mail, you'll want more folders than just your Inbox. To create a new folder: Select File New Folder Shift Ctrl E . Select the name of the folder in the Folder Name field. Select the folder type. The available options are. Calendar Contacts Mail Mail Storage My Evolution Tasks vTrash Select the folder for the new folder to go in. Evolution can also manage subfolders, subfolders are folders inside of folders. This works well if you want to try to separate your home folders from your work folders, or if you like to keep very organized. Calendars must go in calendar folders, mail in mail folders, and contacts in contact folders. Right-clicking will bring up a menu for just about anything in GNOME, and Evolution is no exception. If you right-click on a folder, you'll have a menu with the following options: View, to view the folder. Open in New Window, to see it in a new Evolution window. Move, to move the folder to another location. Copy, to duplicate the folder. Delete, to delete the folder and all its contents. Rename, to change its name. Create New Folder, to create another folder in the same location. Add to Shortcut Bar, to add the folder to your shortcut bar. Properties, to view or change the folder properties. You can also rearrange folders and messages by dragging and dropping them. Any time new information arrives in a mail folder, that folder label is displayed in bold text, along with the number of new messages in that folder inside of paranthesis. The menu bar's contents will always provide all the possible actions for any given view of your data. That means that, depending on the context, menu bar items will change. If you're looking at your Inbox, most of the menu items will relate to mail; some will relate to other components of Evolution and some, especially those in the File Menu will relate to the application as a whole. The contents of the menu bar are described in . File Anything even related to a file or to the operations of the application generally falls under this menu: creating things, saving them to disk, printing them, and quitting the program itself. Edit The Edit menu holds useful tools that help you edit text and move it around. View This menu lets you decide how Evolution should look. Some of the features control the appearance of Evolution as a whole, and others the way a particular kind of information appears. Actions Holds actions which maybe applied to a message. Normally, if there is only one target for the action — for example, replying to a message — you can find it in the Actions menu. Tools Tools for configuring, changing, and setting up preferences go here. For mail, that means things like Mail Configuration and the Virtual Folder Editor. For the Calendar and the Contact Manager, it's color, network, and layout configuration. Help Select among these items to open the Help Browser and read the Evolution manual. Once you've familiarized yourself with the main window you can start doing things with it. We'll start with your executive summary.