The K Desktop Environment

Chapter 6. Menus and Keyboard Shortcuts

Each menu item is discussed below. When there is a keyboard shorcut that performs a menu item function, it is listed after the menu item.

6.1. The Main Mail Reader window

6.1.1. File Menu

File->New Mail Client...

Creates a new Mail Reader window.

File->Save As... (Ctrl+S)

Saves the currently displayed message to a text file, including all the headers and attachments.

File->Print... (Ctrl+P)

Prints the currently displayed message.

File->Compact all folders

Will compact all folders, i.e. it will really move and delete the messages on disk according to how you have moved and deleted them in KMail.

File->Check Mail (Ctrl+L)

Checks for new mail in all your accounts, except those that have Exclude from "Check Mail" enabled.

File->Check Mail in...

Submenu that lets you check for new mail from a particular account.

File->Send Queued

Sends the messages that are in your outbox.

File->Address Book...

Opens up the Address Book.

File->Close (Ctrl+W)

Closes the current Mail Reader window or exits KMail if there's only this one window.

6.1.2. Edit Menu

Edit->Undo (Ctrl+Z)

Revoke you last move or delete action. Note that you cannot undo a deletion in the trash.

Edit->Copy text (Ctrl+C)

Copies selected text to the clipboard.

Edit->Delete (D)

Moves the selected messages in the trash folder. If the selected messages are already in the trash folder, they will really be deleted.

Edit->Search messages... (S)

Opens up a search window that lets you search for messages with certain characteristics, e.g. a certain subject. Start the search by entering some values and press Search. Click on one of the resulting messages and it will appear in the Message pane.

Edit->Find in message... (Ctrl+F)

Lets you search for a string in the current message.

Edit->Select all messages (K)

Selects all messages in the current folder.

6.1.3. View Menu

View->Brief View->Fancy Headers View->Standard Headers View->Long Headers View->All Headers Headers

Changes the number of headers that are displayed and the formatting of the headers in the Message pane.

View->Iconic Attachments View->Smart Attachments View->Inlined Attachments

Changes the way that attachments appear in the Message pane.

6.1.4. Folder Menu

Folder->Create...

Opens the Create Folder dialog which lets you create a new folder. You can make this new folder a sub folder if you choose a parent folder using the File under selection. If you're going to use this folder for a mailing list you may want to add the mailing list address in the Associated Mailing List tab. You can then use the Message->Reply list... menu item. It will open a reply with the mailing list address in the To: field (i.e. it will ignore the Reply-To of the message). You can also click the middle mousebutton in the Folders pane to post to a mailing list that is associated with that folder.

Folder->Modify...

Opens up the Modify Folder dialog which lets you change the settings for the selected folder.

Folder->Compact

Compacts the folder file to reduce its disk space usage. Use this command if your mailboxes seem to be much larger than they ought to be.

Folder->Empty

Moves all of the messages in the selected folder into the trash folder. If the selected folder is the trash folder, the messages are permanently deleted.

Folder->Remove

Removes the selected folder.

Folder->Prefer HTML to plain text

This will show HTML messages using HTML rendering. For security reasons, we recommend to only activate this for trusted messages.

Folder->Thread messages

Shows the messages in the Header pane in a tree-like list, with replies showing up directly under the message they reply to.

6.1.5. Message Menu

Message->New Message... (Ctrl+N)

Opens the Composer window so you can write a new mail.

Message->Next (N)

Selects the next message in the Headers pane. The keyboard shortcut Right Arrow also performs this action.

Message->Next Unread (+)

Selects the next unread message in the Headers pane.

Message->Previous (P)

Selects the previous message in the Headers pane.

Message->Previous Unread (-)

Selects the previous unread message in the Headers pane.

Message->Reply... (R)

Opens up the Composer window with the contents of the selected message's Reply-To field in the To: field.

Message->Reply All... (A)

Opens up the Composer window and copies the contents of the selected message's Reply-To: and To: fields into the To: field, and the Cc: field into the Cc: field of the Composer window.

Message->Reply List... (L)

Opens up the Composer with the To: field set to the mailing list address. Of course this will only work if you configured the current folder to be associated with a mailing list. Otherwise the To: field will be empty.

Message->Forward... (F)

Forwards the message to a new recipient. The message's text will be copied into the body of the new message with a text marking the forwarded part. Attachments will be forwarded, too.

Message->Redirect (E)

Works like forward, except that the message stays the same (even the From field). The user who redirected the message is added in special header fields (Redirect-From, Redirect-Date, Redirect-To, etc.).

Message->Bounce...

Sends the message back to the sender with a notice that it cannot be delivered. This is nearly exactly the message you get from a mail relay if the user does not exist. Some people use this option to "reply" to spam.

Message->Send Again...

Sends the message again.

Message->Set Encoding

Lets you choose the character encoding to be used in the Message Pane.

Message->Edit... (T)

Edits the selected message if it is editable. Only messages in the outbox and drafts folder can be edited.

Message->Set Status

Allows you to change the status of the selected message to one of the below:

  • New

  • Unread

  • Read

  • Replied

  • Queued

  • Sent

Message->Move to

Moves all of the selected messages to a certain folder.

Message->Copy to

Copies all of the the selected messages to a certain folder.

Message->Apply Filters (Ctrl+J)

Applies your filters to the selected messages.

Message->View Source...

Shows the message and its complete headers in plain text format in a new window. This can be useful to find out the origin of a mail. You should know that it's easy to fake the From: header of a mail, but the receiver can still find out which mail servers have been used by looking at the Received: lines in the header.

6.1.6. Settings Menu

Settings->Show Toolbar

If enabled, the Toolbar is visible (the Toolbar is the one with the icon to compose a new message etc.).

Settings->Show Statusbar

If enabled, the Statusbar is visible (the Statusbar is the small one on the bottom which shows useful short messages and link targets).

Settings->Configure Key Bindings...

Opens a window that lets you configure the keyboard shortcuts for many menu commands.

Settings->Configure Toolbars...

Opens a window that lets you choose which icons are visible in the toolbar.

Settings->Configuration...

Opens the Configure window.

Settings->Filter Rules...

Opens the Filter Rules window.

6.1.7. Help Menu

Help->Contents (F1)

Invokes the KDE help system with the KMail help pages displayed.

Help->What's This? (Shift+F1)

Selecting this option changes the cursor to an arrow with a question mark. If you now click on any component of the control panel pane, you get short context sensitive help about that item (sorry, not implemented yet).

Help->Report Bug...

Opens a window for you to report a bug. You have to be connected to the Internet to send the bug report.

Help->About KMail

Displays information about KMail (version, authors, license agreement).

Help->About KDE

Displays information about KDE.