Start Evolution by selecting Evolution from the Applications of the Main Panel 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. 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 actual Inbox, where messages are listed and displayed. If you're running the program for the first time, you'll have just one message: a welcome from Helix Code.

Evolution Main Window

The appearance of both Evolution and GNOME is very easy to customize, so your screen might not look like this picture. You might configure Evolution to start with a different view, without the shortcut bar, or with the folder bar instead. 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 category buttons. The category buttons are Evolution Shortcuts and Internet Directories. When you click on them, they'll slide up and down to give you access to different sorts of shortcuts. When you first start Evolution, you are looking at the Evolution Shortcuts category. If you click Internet Directories, it will slide up and you'll see buttons for the Bigfoot and Netcenter directories, as well as any others you or your system administrator might have added. Internet directories behave a lot like the local contact manager, which is covered in . Take a look at the Evolution Shortcuts again. They are: Inbox: The Inbox will show you all of your email. 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. 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. Notes: The note pad is your catch-all tool: use it to take messages from phone conversations, keep small things organized, write haiku, or whatever you like. This feature is not yet implemented, but will be soon. See for more information. If you prefer to use a keyboard shortcut, or hot key, you can use those instead. They're shown next to their equivalent menu items in the menu bar. You can also set your own hot keys for functions that don't have any; this is covered in . If you're using the keyboard shortcuts you may also want to hide the shortcut bar by selecting the Show Shortcut Bar toggle in the View menu. To remove a shortcut from the shortcut bar, right-click on it and select Remove. To change the way the shortcut bar looks, right-click in an empoy space on the shortcut bar. From the menu that appears, you can select icon sizes. The folder view 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 folders at the base. The first one is VFolders, for virtual folders (discussed in . The next one is External Directories, for contact directories stored on a network. The most important one is probably Local, which you can use to access all the data that's stored on your computer. If you click on the plus sign plus sign next to the Local folder, you'll see the contents: Calendar, for appointments and event listings. Contacts, for address cards. Directories, for Internet contact directories. Inbox, for incoming mail. Outbox, which is for drafts of messages and mail that's already been sent. To create a new folder, select File New Folder. You'll be asked where you want to put it, and what kind of folder it should be. You can choose from three types: Mail, for storing mail, Calendar for storing calendars, and Contacts for storing contacts. You can always place a folder inside other folders, regardless of folder type. However, calendars, contacts, and mail can't go into the same folder. Calendars have to go in calendar folders, mail in mail folders, and contacts in contact folders. Any time new information arrives in a folder, that folder label is displayed as bold text. To delete a folder, right-click it and select Delete from the menu that pops up. To change the order of folders, or put one inside another, use drag-and-drop. To move individual messages, appointments, and address cards between folders, you can do the same thing: drag them where you want them, and they'll go. The menu bar's contents will always provide all the possible actions for any 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. You can probably guess that the Help Menu is where to go for help, and that the View menu controls the way that Evolution looks. Other menu items are a little less obvious, and change a little more, so we'll cover them later on as we discuss the things you can do with Evolution. Once you've familiarized yourself with the main window you can start doing things with it. We'll start with your email inbox: you've got a letter waiting for you already.