The KMail Handbook
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# Chapter 3. Using KMail

# 3.1. The Mail Reader Window

The Mail Reader window is the window that appears when KMail is started. It is divided into three panes:

Folders pane (upper left pane)

  This pane contains a list of your message folders (other email programs call them mailboxes). If there is a number after the folder name this indicates that this folder contains unread mails. To select a folder, simply click on it. The messages contained in the folder will now appear in the Headers pane. The number of unread messages and the total number of messages in the selected folder is now displayed in the status bar. The folders can be displayed in both a short view, which takes up only a small portion of the left side of the screen, and a long view, which takes up the entire left side of the screen but is able to show more mailboxes. You can toggle between these two views under Appearance/Addressbook in the Configure dialog. Also see the Folders Section for more information about how to use folders.

Headers pane (upper right pane)

  This pane lists header information (message Status Flags, Sender, Subject, Date) for the messages in the currently selected folder. Clicking on a header will select that message and display it in the Message pane. You can also select a series of messages by clicking on one message, holding down the Shift key, and clicking on another message. The two messages you just clicked on will be selected, along with all the messages in between. By holding down the Ctrl key you can select any number of messages without those in between. You may sort the messages by clicking on the column that you wish to sort. If you click on the same column more then once, sort order will toggle between ascending/descending. If you click on the Subject column, you can toggle sorting between Subject ascending/descending and Status ascending/descending.

Message pane (lower pane)

  This pane displays the header and body of the currently selected message. Attachments appear at the bottom of the message. You can scroll through the message page by page using the Page Up and Page down keys, or line by line using the up arrow and down arrow keys. You can also use the following key shortcuts to skip through your messages without having to use the mouse:

  Keyboard Shortcut | Action
  --- | ---
  right arrow or N | Next message
  left arrow key or P | Previous message
  + | Next unread message
  - | Previous unread message
  Ctrl++ | Go to next folder with unread messages
  Ctrl+- | Go to the previous folder with unread messages

Messages can have one of several status flags, which can be changed from the Message->Set Status submenu. The status flags are described below:

Status | Symbol | Meaning
--- | --- | ---
New | Red dot | The message has been received for the first time, and is unread.
Unread | Green dot | The message has already been retrieved off the server at least once, but has not yet been read.
Read | Dash | The message has been read
Replied | Blue u-turn arrow | A reply has been composed to this message.
Queued | Envelope | The mesage has been queued in the outbox to be sent later.
Sent | Angled envelope | The message has been sent.

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