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 as a plain text file.

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.

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 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 suggest 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.

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 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.

6.1.6. Settings Menu

Settings->Show Toolbar

If enabled, the Toolbar is visible (the Toolbar is the one with the icons 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 command.

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. Now if you 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...

Open a window for you to report a bug. Please note that bug reports are only useful if you tell us exactly how to reproduce the bug. Also look at bugs.kde.org to see if the bug has been reported already.

Help->About KMail

Displays information about Kmail (version, authors).

Help->About KDE

Displays information about KDE.