Checking for New Mail

Now that you've had a look around the Inbox, it's time to check for new mail. Click Send/Receive in the toolbar to check your mail. If you haven't entered any mail settings yet, the setup assistant will ask you for the information it needs to check your email.

The assistant will give you several dialog boxes where you configure:



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Figure 2. Mail Setup Assistant

To check your email, press the Check Mail button. If this is your first time checking mail, or you haven't asked Evolution to store your password, you'll be prompted for the password. Enter your password and your email will be downloaded.

Note Can't Check Mail?
 

If you get an error message instead of mail, you probably need to check your network settings. To learn how to do that, have a look at the Section called Mail Options in the chapter called Advanced Configuration, or ask your system administrator.

Tip Sharing Mailboxes with Other Mail Programs
 

If you want to use Evolution and another email client, such as Mutt, at the same time, here's how:

  1. Download your mail in the other application as you would normally.

  2. In Evolution, select Tools-> Settings, go to the Mail Accounts configuration tool, and pick the account you'd like to use to share mail. You may want to create a new account just for this source of mail.

  3. Under the Receiving Mail tab, select the type of mail file that your other mail application uses, and then enter the full path to that location. A typical choice would be mbox files, with the path /home/username/Mail/.

  4. Click the OK button.



Working with Attachments and HTML Mail

If someone sends you an attachment, a file attached to an email, Evolution will display the file at the bottom of the message to which it's attached. Text, including HTML formatting and embedded images, will appear as part of the message, rather than at the end of the message as an attachment.

Saving or Opening Attachments

If you get an attachment with an email message, Ximian Evolution can help you save it or open it with the appropriate applications.

To save an attachment to disk:

  1. Click the downward pointing arrow on the attachment icon and select Save to Disk.

  2. Choose a location and name for the file.

  3. Click OK.



To Open an Attachment in a Program:

  1. Open the mail message with the attachment you want to read.

  2. Click the arrow next the attachment icon.

  3. Select the program you'd like to use. It will start up and open the document.


Inline Images in HTML Mail

When someone sends you HTML mail that includes an image in the body of the message (for example, the welcome message in your Inbox when you first start Ximian Evolution) Evolution will display the image inside the message. You can create messages like this by using the Insert->Image tool in the message composer.

If the image isn't included in the message, but is, instead, a link to an image, Evolution can download the image from the Internet for you. However, Evolution will not display the image unless you ask it to. This is because remotely hosted images can be slow to load and display, and can even be used by spammers to track who reads their email. Having images not load automatically helps protect your privacy.

If you want the images to load for one message, select View->Message Display->Load Images. If you want Ximian Evolution to load remotely hosted images more often, select Tools->Settings and go to the mail settings tool. There, click the HTML Mail tab and select one of the items there: Never load images off the net, Load images if sender is in addressbook, or Always load images off the net.

Note Loading Images from the Net through an HTTP Proxy
 

If you use an HTTP proxy (as in many large organizations), Evolution must be able to find it through the gnome-vfs subsystem before it can load images from the Internet. This is also the case if you wish to access weather and news information through the Summary tool.

If you are using GNOME 1.4, you will need to configure this in the Nautilus Preferences dialog. However, in GNOME 2.0 and later, you can use the GNOME Control Center. Select System->Settings from your menu panel or from the GNOME menu, and then click the Network Proxies button in the System Settings category. Select the Use an HTTP network proxy check box and then enter information about your proxy. If you are not sure, check with your ISP or system administrator.