GNUMail.app User's Guide

by Martin Brecher <martin@mb-itconsulting.com>


Contents

Using the Address Book
Overview
Adding addresses
Adding groups
Deleting addresses/groups
Modifying addresses/groups
Moving addresses between groups
The 'to', 'cc' and 'bcc' buttons
Using the Import function


Using the Address Book [top of page]

Overview [top of page]

The first thing you might want to set up now may be your email contacts. As most mail clients GNUMail.app includes an Address Book which quite simple and thus easy to use but fully functional. It allows you to sort your contacts into different groups to keep order.

Reaching the Address Book using the menu
(Click image for full size view)
Because an address book is an often used function, there are several ways to access it. First, you can reach it using the menu: it's located in the 'Compose' menu.
The Address Book button Also you can reach it directly from within the mailbox windows or - where it's needed most - from the Compose window using the button labeled 'Addresses'. Additionally, it has assigned 'A' as hotkey, so use ALT + A to quickly open the Adddress Book.

The address book window mainly consists of two areas. On the top you can see a two paned browser which on the left side lists all groups. Selecting a group in this lists will display the contents of the selected group in the right column. The second area features several buttons and a text field. For example this area lets you add, modify, or remove addresses or groups.

The Address Book
(Click image for a full size view)

Adding addresses [top of page]

Adding addresses to the database is really easy:

  1. select the group you want the address to in the right pane of the browser.
  2. in the text field enter the Name of the contact followed by the email address in brackets: e.g. Name Surname <name.surname@server.com>.
  3. click the "Add Address" button to add the address to the selected group.
Adding an address

You can also directly add addresses that are contained in a message's headers (e.g. the sender of the message) to the General Group using the Message menu. This function is described in the Reading Mail chapter.

Adding groups [top of page]

Adding new groups is done the same way:

  1. select an item in the left pane to switch to group editing mode (buttons will now say "Add Group" etc instead of "Add Address").
  2. enter the name of the new group in the text field.
  3. click the "Add Group" button to finish the addition.

Deleting addresses/groups [top of page]

Removing addresses or groups is as simple as adding new ones... well, it's even easier: Just select the address or the group you want remove from the list and click the "Delete Address" resp. the "Delete Group" button.

Modifying addresses/groups [top of page]

You can easily modify entries (either groups or contacts) by selecting them in the browser; after editing them in the text field just click the "Modify" button.

Moving addresses between groups [top of page]

Selecting a contact in the browser and then selecting a target group in the 'Move to:' popup menu will move the address to the selected group.

The 'to', 'cc' and 'bcc' buttons [top of page]

The three buttons can be used when composing a message. Pressing the 'to' button will add the selected address as receiver of the message, the 'cc' and 'bcc' button will add the selected address as a receiver of a carbon copy or a blind carbon copy respectively.

Using the Import function [top of page]

As GNUMail.app is the GNUstep counter part to Mail.app on the NeXTstep/OPENSTEP systems it allows you to import your old Mail.app address book. Just click the "Import" button to bring up an Open Dialog in which you can select the old address book file to import.
NOTE: currently GNUMail.app cannot import address books of Apple's new Mail.app that is part of Mac OS X!



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