path: root/help/C/usage-mail-org.sgml

<chapter id="usage-mail-organize">
    <title>Organizing and Managing your Email</title>
    <para>
      Even if you only get a few email messages a day, you probably
      want to sort and organize them.  When you get a hundred a day
      and you want to refer to a message you received six weeks ago,
      you <emphasis>need</emphasis> to sort and organize them.
      Fortunately, <application>Evolution</application> has the tools
      to help you do it.
    </para>

    <sect1 id="usage-mail-organize-columns">
      <title>Sorting Mail with Column Headers</title>
      <para>
         By default, the message list has columns with the following
         headings: an envelope icon indicating whether you have read
         or replied to a message (closed for unread, open for read,
         and open with an arrow on it to indicate you've sent a
         reply), an exclamation point indicating priority, and the
         <guilabel>From</guilabel>, <guilabel>Subject</guilabel>, and
         <guilabel>Date</guilabel> fields. You can change their order
         and remove them by dragging and dropping them.  You can add
         new ones with the <guimenuitem>Field Chooser</guimenuitem>
         item in the right click menu for the column headings.
      </para>
      <para>
    Right-click on one of the column headers to get a list of
    options:
    <variablelist>
      
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guimenuitem>Sort Ascending</guimenuitem></term>
        <listitem><para>
        Sorts the messages top to bottom.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guimenuitem>Sort Descending</guimenuitem></term>
        <listitem><para>
        Sorts the messages bottom to top.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guimenuitem>Group By this Field</guimenuitem></term>
        <listitem><para>
        Groups messages instead of sorting them. (FIXME: Explain further) 
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guimenuitem>Remove this
        Column</guimenuitem></term> <listitem><para> Remove
        this column from the display. You can also remove
        columns by dragging the header off the list and
        letting it drop.  </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guimenuitem>Field
        Chooser</guimenuitem></term> <listitem><para> A list
        of column headers; just drag and drop them into
        place between two existing headers. A red arrow will
        appear to show you where you're about to put the
        column.  </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
      </para>
    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="usage-mail-organize-folders">
      <title>Getting Organized with Folders</title>
      <para>
    <application>Evolution</application> keeps mail, as well as
    address cards and calendars, in folders.  You start out with a
    few, like <guilabel>Inbox</guilabel>,
    <guilabel>Outbox</guilabel>, and <guilabel>Drafts</guilabel>,
    but you can create as many as you like.  Create new folders by
    selecting <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu> and then
    <guimenuitem>Folder</guimenuitem> from the
    <guimenu>File</guimenu> menu.
    <application>Evolution</application> will as you for the name
    and the type of the folder, and will provide you with a folder
    tree so you can pick where it goes.
      </para>
      <para>
        When you click <guibutton>OK</guibutton>, your new folder will
    appear in the <interface>folder view</interface>.  You can
    then put messages in it by dragging and dropping them, or by
    using the <guibutton>Move</guibutton> button in the
    toolbar. If you want to move several messages at once, click
    on the ones you want to move while holding down the
    <keycap>CTRL</keycap> key, or use <keycap>Shift</keycap> to
    select a range of messages.  If you create a filter with the
    <interface>filter assistant</interface>, you can have mail
    moved to your folder automatically.
      </para>
  </sect1>    

  <sect1 id="usage-mail-organize-search">
      <title>Searching for Messages</title>
      <para>
    Most mail clients can search through your messages for you,
    but <application>Evolution</application> does it faster. You
    can search through just the message subjects, just the message
    body, or both body and subject.
      </para>
      <para>
    To start searching, enter a word or phrase in the text area
    right below the toolbar, and choose a search type:
    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Body or subject contains:</guilabel></term>
      <listitem>
          <para>
            This will search message subjects and the messages
            themselves for the word or phrase you've entered in
            the search field.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term> <guilabel>Body contains:</guilabel> </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This will search only in message text, not the subject
            lines.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Subject contains:</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This will show you messages where the search text is
            in the subject line.  It will not search in the
            message body.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Body does not contain:</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This finds every email message that does not have the
            search text in the message body.  It will still show
            messages that have the search text in the subject
            line, if it is not also in the body.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Subject does not contain:</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This finds every mail whose subject does not contain
            the search text.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>

        When you've entered your search phrase, press
        <keycap>Enter</keycap>.  <application>Evolution</application>
        will show your search results in the message list.
      </para>

      <para>
         If you think you'll want to return to a search again, you can
         save it as a virtual folder by selecting <guilabel>Store
         Search as Virtual Folder</guilabel>.
      </para>

      <para>
         When you're done with the search, go back to seeing all your
         messages by choosing <guimenuitem>Show All</guimenuitem> from
         the <guilabel>Search</guilabel> drop-down box. If you're
         sneaky, just enter a blank search: since every message has at
         least one space in it, you'll see every message in the
         folder.
      </para>

      <para>
        If you'd like to perform a more complex search, open the
        advanced search dialog by selecting
        <guilabel>Advanced...</guilabel> from the
        <guilabel>Search</guilabel> drop-down menu.  Then, create your
        search criteria (each with the same options you saw in the
        regular search bar), and decide whether you want to find
        messages that match all of them, or messages that match even
        one. Then, click <guibutton>Search</guibutton> to go and find
        those messages.
     </para>

     <para>
        You'll see a similar approach to sorting messages when you
        create filters and virtual folders in the next few sections.
     </para>

    </sect1>

    <sect1 id="usage-mail-organize-filters">
      <title>Create Rules to Automatically Organize Mail</title>
      <para>
    Filters work very much like the mail room in a large company.
    Their purpose is to bundle, sort, and distribute mail to the
    various folders.  
        In addition, you can have multiple filters performing multiple
        actions that may effect the same message in several ways.  For
        example, your filters could put copies of one message into
        multiple folders, or keep a copy and send one to another
        person as well, and it can do that in under a second. Which is
        to say, it's faster and more flexible than an actual person
        with a pile of envelopes.
      </para>
      <para>
        Most often, you'll want to have
        <application>Evolution</application> put mail into different
        folders, but you can have it do almost anything you like.
        People who get lots of mail, or who often need to refer to old
        messages, find filters especially helpful, but they can greatly benefit
        anybody who gets more than a few messages a day.  To
        create a filter, open the <interface>filter
        assistant</interface> by selecting
    <menuchoice>
      <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> 
          <guimenuitem>Mail Filters</guimenuitem>
        </menuchoice>.
      </para>
            
       <figure id="usage-mail-filters-fig-assist">
     <title>The Filter Assistant</title>
     <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>The Filter Assistant</screeninfo>
      <graphic fileref="fig/filter-assist-fig" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
    </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>

      <para>
        The <interface>filter assistant</interface> window contains a
        list of your current filters, sorted by the order in which
        they are used.  From the drop-down box at the top of the
        window, choose <guilabel>Incoming</guilabel> to display
        filters for incoming mail, and <guilabel>Outgoing</guilabel>
        for those which sort only outgoing mail.
      </para>
      <para>
         The <interface>filter assistant</interface> also has a set of
         buttons:
        <itemizedlist>

           <listitem><para>
            <guibutton>Add</guibutton> &mdash; Create a new filter.
           </para></listitem>

           <listitem><para>
            <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> &mdash; Edit an existing filter.
           </para></listitem>

           <listitem><para>
            <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> &mdash; Delete the selected filter.
           </para></listitem>

           <listitem><para> <guibutton>Up</guibutton> &mdash; Move the
            selected filter up in the list so it gets applied first.
           </para></listitem>

           <listitem><para>
            <guibutton>Down</guibutton> &mdash;  Move the selected filter down 
             in the list, so it comes into play later.
           </para></listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        If you don't have any filters set up, the only one of those
        buttons you can click is <guibutton>Add</guibutton>, which
        will open a dialog to let you add a filter rule.  If you do
        have filters, you can either add a new filter rule, or select
        one from your list and click <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>.
      </para>
      <para>
        The filter rule editor, shown in <xref
        linkend="usage-mail-filters-fig-new">, is where you'll
        actually create your filtering rule.

       <figure id="usage-mail-filters-fig-new">
     <title>Creating a new Filter</title>
     <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>Creating a new Filter</screeninfo>
      <graphic fileref="fig/filter-new-fig" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
    </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>
      </para>
      <para>
        Enter a name for your filter in the <guilabel>Rule
        Name</guilabel> field, and then begin choosing the criteria
        you'd like to use as you sort your mail.  Choose how many
        criteria you'd like by pressing <guibutton>Add
        Criterion</guibutton> and <guibutton>Remove
        Criterion</guibutton>.  If you have multiple criteria, you
        should then decide whether to have the filter do its job only
        <guilabel>if all criteria are met</guilabel>, or <guilabel>if
        any criteria are met</guilabel>.
     </para>

     <para>
        For each filter criterion, you must first select 
        which of the following parts of the message you want the filter to 
    examine:
        <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Sender</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                The sender's address.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Recipients</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
               The recipients of the message.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Subject</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                The subject line of the message.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>


      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Specific Header</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
              The filter can look at any header you
          want, even obscure or custom ones. Enter the header name
          in the first text box, and put your search text in the
          second one.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Message Body</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                Search in the actual text of the message.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Expression</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
             <para>
               For programmers only: match a message according to an
               expression you write in the Scheme language, used to
               define filters in Evolution.
         </para>
           </listitem>
      </varlistentry>


      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Date Sent</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para> Filter messages according to the date on
        which they were sent: First, choose the conditions you
        want a message to meet &mdash; <guilabel>before</guilabel>
        a given time, <guilabel>after</guilabel> it, and so forth.
        Then, choose the time. The filter will compare the
        message's time-stamp to the system clock when the filter
        is run, or to a specific time and date you choose from a
        calendar.  You can even have it look for messages within a
        range of time relative to the filter &mdash perhaps you're
        looking for messages less than two days old.
          </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Date Recieved</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                This works the same way as the <guilabel>Date Sent</guilabel> 
                option, except that it compares the time you got the message 
                with the dates you specify.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Priority</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
               Emails have a standard priority range from -3 (least
               important) to 3 (most important). You can have filters set the
               priority of messages you recieve, and then have other filters 
               applied only to those messages which have a certain priority.
            </para></listitem>
           </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Regex Match</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
              <para>
                If you know your way around a <glossterm
            linkend="regular-expression">regex</glossterm>, or
            regular expression, put your knowledge to use here.
           </para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Source</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
               <para>
               Filter messages according the server you got them from.
               You can enter a URL or choose one from the drop-down
               list.  This ability is only relevant if you use more
               than one mail source.
             </para>
            </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
      </para>

      <para>
        Now, tell it what to do with those messages.  If you want more
        actions, click <guibutton>Add Action</guibutton>; if you want
        fewer, click <guibutton>Remove Action</guibutton>.  And choose
        again:

        <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Copy to Folder</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
               If you select this item, <application>Evolution</application>
               will put the messages into a folder you specify.  Click the 
               <guibutton>&lt;click here to select a folder&gt;</guibutton> button
               to select a folder. 
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Move to Folder</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
               If you select this item, <application>Evolution</application>
               will put the messages into a folder you specify.  Click the 
               <guibutton>&lt;click here to select a folder&gt;</guibutton> button
               to select a folder. 
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Forward to Address</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                Select this, enter an address, and the addressee will
                get a copy of the message.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Delete</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                Marks the message for deletion.  You can still get the message
                back, at least until you <guimenuitem>Expunge</guimenuitem> your
                mail yourself.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Stop Processing</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
              Select this if you want to tell all other filters to ignore 
              this message, because whatever you've done with it so far
              is plenty.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Assign Color</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para>
                Select this item, and <application>Evolution</application>
                will mark the message with whatever color you please.
            </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Assign Score</guilabel></term>
        <listitem><para> If you know that all mail with
        "important" somewhere in the message body line is
        important, you can give it a high priority score. In a subsequent filter you can 
            then arrange your messages by their priority score.
      </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>
      </para>
      <para>
        You're done.  Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to use this
        filter, or <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> to close the window
        without saving any changes.
      </para>



   <!-- FIXME: This needs to be in there.  But the feature is temporarily
         disabled and I don't know how it will be reimplemented.

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
           <para>
         <guilabel>When mail arrives:</guilabel> Select
         this option to have messages filtered as they
         arrive.
           </para>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
           <para>
         <guilabel>When mail is sent:</guilabel> Select
         this option to filter your outgoing mail.  You
         can use this feature to keep your
         <interface>Outbox</interface> as organized as
         your <interface>Inbox</interface>.
         </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
      </para>

    -->

    <note>
      <title>Notable Filter Features</title>
      <para>
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem><para>
          Incoming email that your filters don't move goes into the Inbox; 
          outgoing mail that they don't move ends up in the Sent folder.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
      </para>
    </note>
    
    <sect2 id="usage-mail-organize-filters-mailing-lists">
      <title>Filtering by Mailing List</title>
      <para>
      You can tell <application>Evolution</application> to filter by
    mailing list.  This means that <application>Evolution</application>
    will look at the mailing list address, and find out automatically
    what list this is.  If you are subscribed to mailing lists, you
    should use the <guibutton>Filter by List</guibutton> instead of by
    sender.
    <example>
        <title>Filter by List</title>
      <para>
        Kevin subscribes to bananas@ximian.com.  However, there is also
        a bananas@ximian.org address.  If he used a regular
        <guibutton>Filter by Sender</guibutton>, he would need to specify
        one for each address.  However, <guibutton>Filter by
          List</guibutton> will recognize that both of them are the same
        list.
      </para>
    </example>
      </para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
      
    <sect1 id="usage-mail-organize-vFolders">
      <title>Getting Really Organized with Virtual Folders</title>
      <para>
    If filters aren't flexible enough for you, or you find
    yourself performing the same search again and again, consider
    a virtual folder. Virtual folders, or vFolders, are an
    advanced way of viewing your email messages within
    <application>Evolution</application>.  If you get a lot of
    mail or often forget where you put messages, virtual folders can help
    you stay on top of things.
      </para>
      <para>
    A virtual folder is really a hybrid of all the other organizational
    tools: it looks like a folder, it acts like a search, and you
    set it up like a filter.  In other words, while a conventional
    folder actually contains messages, a virtual folder is a view of
    messages that may be in several different folders.  The
    messages it contains are determined on the fly using a set of
    criteria you choose in advance.
      </para>

      <para>
    As messages that meet the virtual folder criteria arrive or are
    deleted, <application>Evolution</application> will
    automatically place them in and remove them from the
    virtual folder contents list.  When you delete a message, it gets
    erased from the folder in which it actually exists, as well as
    any virtual folders which display it.
      </para>

      <para>
    Imagine a business trying to keep track of mail from hundreds
    of vendors and clients, or a university with overlapping and
    changing groups of faculty, staff, administrators and
    students.  The more mail you need to organize, the less you
    can afford the sort of confusion that stems from an
    organizational system that's not flexible enough.  Virtual folders
    make for better organization because they can accept
    overlapping groups in a way that regular folders and filing
    systems can't.
      </para>

      <example id="usage-mail-organize-vFolders-ex">
    <title>Using Folders, Searches, and Virtual Folders</title>
    <para>
       To organize my mail box, I set up a virtual folder for
       emails from my friend and co-worker Anna.  I have another
       one for messages that have "ximian.com" in the address and
       "Evolution" in the subject line, so I can keep a record of
       what people from work send me about
       <application>Evolution</application>.  If Anna sends me a
       message about anything other than Evolution, it only shows
       up in the "Anna" folder. When Anna sends me mail about the
       user interface for <application>Evolution</application>, I
       can see that message both in the "Anna" virtual folder and
       in the "Internal Evolution Discussion" virtual folder.
    </para>
      </example>

    <!--  (INSERT SCREENSHOT HERE: virtual folders in action) -->

      <para>
     To create a virtual folder, select <menuchoice>
     <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Virtual Folder
     Editor</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>.  This will bring up a
     dialog box that looks suspiciously like the filter window
     (for more information on filters, see <xref
     linkend="usage-mail-organize-filters">), and which
     presents you with a list of virtual folders you have previously
     created. If you have created any virtual folders, they are listed
     here, and you can select, edit or remove them if you wish.
     If you have not created any, there will be only one available
     option: click <guibutton>Add</guibutton> to add a new
     Virtual Folder.
      </para>
      <para>
     You can enter a name for your virtual folder in the
     <guilabel>Name</guilabel>.  Then, tell
     <application>Evolution</application> what messages to look
     for.  This process is exactly like filter creation: decide
     between <guilabel>Match all parts</guilabel> and
     <guilabel>Match any part</guilabel>, then choose what part of
     the message to look in, what sort of matching to perform, and
     specify exactly what it is that you want to find, be it a
     line of text, a score, a regular expression, or a particular date or
     range of dates.
       </para>
       <para>
         The second part, however, is slightly different.  In the
         section of the window labelled <guilabel>Virtual Folder Sources
         </guilabel> is a list of folders in which
         <application>Evolution</application> will search for the
         contents of your vFolder.  Click <guibutton>Add</guibutton>
         to add a folder, or <guibutton>Remove</guibutton> to remove
         one.  That way, you can have your vFolder search in
         newsgroups, or just in one of your mailboxes, or just in a
         select few folders you've already screened with filters.
       </para>
       <para>
        The vFolder creation window is shown in <xref
    linkend="usage-mail-vfolder-fig-createrule">

       <figure id="usage-mail-vfolder-fig-createrule">
     <title>Selecting a vFolder Rule</title>
     <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>Creating a vFolder Rule</screeninfo>
      <graphic fileref="fig/vfolder-createrule-fig" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
    </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>
      </para>
    </sect1>
<!--
    <sect1 id="usage-mail-subscriptions">
      <title>Subscription Management</title>
      <para>
         <application>Evolution</application> lets you handle your
         IMAP and newsgroup subscriptions with the same tool: the
         subscriptions manager.  To start using it, choose
         <menuchoice> <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Manage
         Subscriptions</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>.
      </para>
      <para>
         If you have configured any IMAP (mail) or NNTP (news)
         servers, you will see them listed in the left half of the
         subscription management window.  Click on a server to select
         it, and you will see the folders or newsgroups available to
         you.  You can then select individual folders and subscribe to
         them, or remove yourself from the subscription list.
      </para>
      <para>
        Once you have subscribed to a folder or newsgroup, your system
        will check for new messages whenever you press the
        <guibutton>Get Mail</guibutton> button.
    </para>
  </sect1>
-->
</chapter>