A User's Guide to Evolution
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# The Main Window: Evolution Basics

Start `Evolution` by selecting Main Panel Menu->Applications->Evolution 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 Figure 1. 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.

Figure 1. Evolution Main Window and Inbox

| The Way Evolution Looks
| 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.

# The Shortcut Bar

`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 the chapter called The Evolution Contact Manager.

Take a look at the `Evolution Shortcuts` again. The shortcut buttons in that category 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.

If you don't like the shortcut bar, you can use the menu bar, or keyboard shortcuts, also called hot keys. 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 Part II in A User's Guide to Evolution. If you're using the keyboard shortcuts you may also want to hide the shortcut bar by selecting View->Show Shortcut Bar.

| Shortcut Bar Tricks

To remove a shortcut from the shortcut bar, right-click on it and select Remove. To add one, select File->New->Evolution Bar Shortcut.

To change the way the shortcut bar looks, right-click in an empty space on the shortcut bar. From the menu that appears, you can select icon sizes.

You don't need the folder bar to move between folders. You can use File->Go to Folder... to move to a particular folder. It's faster, however, to click on the `Inbox` label just below the toolbar, to the right of the shortcut bar, and select a folder from there. The `Inbox` label will change to reflect your location in the folder tree.

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