Sending Mail
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Figure: xmh message composition window
Let's get started by sending a message to yourself (you can send
it to someone else, as well, but you'll need the message, too).
Here are the steps:
-
Go to the command menu bar and pull down the Message menu.
Select the Compose Message command.
A new window such as the one in the Figure above
will open.
(The Figure Composition window with finished message
shows the filled-in draft.)
If you've used the GNU Emacs editor before, the commands in this
window are a subset of those familiar commands. In this window, a text
caret (^) shows where the text you type will be placed.
When you first open the composition window, the caret will usually
be to the right of the To: field in the header -- ready for
you to type the address where you want to send the message.
If the caret (^) isn't there, move it there.
An easy way to move the text caret is by pointing with the mouse
and clicking the first mouse button.
You can also move it by pressing the arrow keys, if your keyboard has them.
The GNU Emacs-like commands
CTRL-F,
CTRL-B,
CTRL-P,
and
CTRL-N
work too.
For a complete list, see the Table
xmh Text Editing Commands: Moving.
Type your username (login name) after the To:.
This will address the message to you.
If you want to add someone else to the end of the To:
field, type a comma (,) and the other person's username.
The Section Addressing Email has more information.
People listed on the cc: field will get a "courtesy"
(or "carbon") copy of your message.
By convention, the message is especially meant for the people in
the To: field, and people in the cc: field
are getting the message "for information."
In this exercise, please leave cc: empty.
-
Press the "next-line" command,
CTRL-N,
twice to go to the right-hand side of the Subject: field.
If you need to move to the end of the line, use
CTRL-E
or the arrow keys.
Type a subject for the message.
The people who receive your message can get a quick idea about its
contents from the subject, so it's a good idea to spend a moment to think
of a descriptive one.
For now, type anything you feel like.
-
Before you go on, be sure that you didn't leave any empty lines in
the header.
(By empty, I don't mean a field with just a label, like Cc:.
I mean a completely empty line, with no text on it -- these confuse MH.)
If you did, move the cursor back to it (CTRL-P
goes to the previous line) and delete it by pressing the
DELETE
key until the cursor moves back to the end of the previous line.
-
After you type the Subject:, use the next-line command twice (type
CTRL-N
twice) to move to the start of the message body.
Notice that the cursor won't move past the end of a line
where you haven't typed anything.
(In other words, you can't create spaces at the end of a line
just by moving the cursor there.
If you want to move past the end of a line, use the space bar.)
Now you can type your message.
To move backward and forward along a line, use
CTRL-B
and
CTRL-F
(or the arrow keys).
As you type, when the cursor gets to the right-hand side of a line,
it'll "word wrap" -- move automatically to the start of the next line.
To leave a blank line (at the end of a paragraph), press
RETURN
(or
ENTER).
Your window should look approximately like
the Figure below.
Figure: Composition window with finished message
-
If you're happy with the message, you can send it by pointing to
the Send button at the bottom of the window and clicking
the first mouse button.
When the message has been sent, the Send button will turn gray.
Use the Close Window button to get back to the
master xmh window.
Or, if you're not happy with the message, just click the
Close Window button without first clicking Send.
After xmh asks for confirmation, as in
the Figure below,
you'll be back at the master xmh window without saving or sending.
Figure: Closing composition window without saving or sending
Practice sending yourself another few messages.
Make one fairly long -- 30 lines or so.
You might type a few lines -- then use your mouse to copy the lines
and paste them in again a few times.
There's more about cutting and pasting in Section Copy and Paste.
NOTE:
If you make your composition wider than 80 characters (in the font
you're using), the lines in the message you send can be too wide.
Resize your window to 80 characters or less (The Figure
Master xmh window before using grips to change sizes
shows an easy way to check the width:
Type a series of numbers from 1 to 0 eight times for 80 columns).
Then use the
META-Q command to rewrap your paragraphs.
The Section Line Wrapping covers xmh line wrapping.
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