The Sending tab provides a list of ways to send messages. The first item in the list is the default way to send messages. Using the Add... button you can choose between two different ways of sending messages: sendmail and SMTP. sendmail® here means a local software installation - this has a reputation of being difficult to set up, so if you do not already have a working sendmail® configuration, choose SMTP and fill in the Name field with a descriptive name (e.g. My Mail Account) and the Host field with the name and domain of your mail server (e.g. smtp.provider.com). You will probably not need to change the Port setting (the default is 25).

If you do want to use sendmail® and you are using a dial-up connection, follow the instructions for setting up sendmail for a dial-up connection in the FAQ section.

The way of sending messages configured here will be used for your default identity and for all other identities that have no own way of sending messages. You can use different ways of sending messages for different identities by selecting the Special transport checkbox in the Advanced tab of the Identity section.

A description of the other options can be found in the Configuration chapter.

To set up an account so you can receive mail, press the Add... button in the Receiving tab. You will then be prompted for the type of account. Most users should select Pop3 or IMAP. If you want to use a local mailbox file, please see the FAQ about file locking.

You will then be presented with the Add Account window. First, fill in the Name field to name your account. You can choose any name you like. Login, Password, and Host should be filled in with the appropriate information from your ISP or system administrator. You should not need to change the Port setting (the default for POP3 is 110, the default for IMAP is 143).

To write your message, fill in the appropriate fields in the composer window. Use the View menu to select which header fields are displayed. The Identity field offers a Sticky option. If it is checked, the current identity will become the default identity when you open a new composer next time.

There are a variety of shortcuts to help you with writing your messages. The ellipsis buttons next to the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields will call up the address book so that you can select addresses from there.

When you start typing an address in the To:/Cc:/Bcc: fields, a popup will appear that offers matching addresses that have been used recently and matching addresses from your address book. If you don't like the automatic popup you can disable it by clicking with the right mouse button on the field and choosing a different completion mode.

Whenever you want to add more than one recipient in one of the fields, use a comma to separate each address from the next one. You may need to specify fully qualified addresses (i.e. user@domain.com) even for local users, depending on your system configuration.

When you are finished with your message, click the Send icon (the envelope) to send the message now, or click the Queue icon to put the message in the outbox. If your message isn't finished yet, select Message->Save in drafts folder. If you want to send an encrypted or digitally signed message, select the Sign Message resp. Encrypt Message icons in the toolbar.

You can attach files to your message by using one of the methods below:

Once a file is attached to your message, it appears in the attachments pane at the bottom of the composer window. You can use the right mouse button on each attachment to View, Save or Remove the attachment.

Use the Properties... item to open the Message Part Properties dialog. The first field contains the attachment's MIME-type. Just like the Name field, it should be automatically filled with an appropriate value. Sometimes the MIME-type value may be wrong. You can then type in any MIME-type or choose from the list of common MIME-types. You can also select an encoding method for your file from the list of encoding options (normally, the default value works fine). Check the Suggest automatic display option if you want to suggest to the recipient the automatic (inline) display of this part in the message preview, instead of the default icon view.

PGP/GnuPG keys may also be attached to your message by using the appropriate options in the Attach menu. PGP key attachments are handled like file attachments.

To check the spelling of your message, select Edit->Spelling.... KMail uses KSpell to check spelling, which is the KDE frontend to the ispell or aspell spelling checker. Note that you may first need to configure the spellchecker using Settings->Spellchecker....

There are two methods for creating a filter: The quick method is to use Message->Create Filter. This will call the filter dialog and present you with a new filter which has the first rule of the search pattern and the first action (as move to folder) preset. In most cases, all you have to do is select the folder where the message should be moved to. But you can, of course, edit the filter as you like.

The interesting thing about this method is that creating a filter on mailing lists will try really hard to find a criterion that uniquely identifies messages from that list. If it succeeds, the guessed name of the list is presented in the Message->Create Filter->Filter on Mailing-List... menu entry.

The second method is to manually construct a filter from scratch by calling the filter dialog through Settings->Configure Filters.... The filter dialog is described in detail in the following subsection.

This dialog allows you to manage and edit your list of filters.

You reach it either via Message->Create Filter or Settings->Configure Filters....

The dialog is divided into four main sections:

The most common use of filters is to filter on the sender of messages. This can be done by choosing From. A good bet for a mailing list would be <recipients>. But there are other criteria a filter can search for:

The most common use of filters is to sort incoming messages to certain folders. This can be done by choosing move to folder. Here's a list of all possible actions:

If I am subscribed to the (general) KDE List, I could create a folder for the list (I'll call it KDE-General) and use a filter to automatically transfer new messages from my inbox to my KDE-General folder if they are from the KDE List. Here is how to create this filter:

You may find that you need to use more powerful criteria to properly filter your messages. For example, you may only want to filter the KDE List messages that are written by your friend Fred Johnson <fj@anywhere.com>. This is where the rest of the matching criteria section comes into play:

You now have a filter that transfers all KDE List messages that are from fj@anywhere.com.

Adding filter rules work similar as for message filters. On the left hand side you can manage the existing filters. Use the New button to add a filter. On the right hand side you can configure under which conditions the current filter should match. Using Filter Action you specify what will happen to a message that is matched by this rule. The available options are:

The option Always show matched 'Download Later' messages in confirmation dialog will cause the confirmation dialog to show up during mailbox check if at least one message was tagged for Download Later - even if all messages exceeding the threshold size were matched by a rule. This option is useful in the case you have messages matched by a rule and tagged for Download Later, but you don't get any message exceeding the size limit for a very long time. Without this option, the confirmation dialog would never show up and you would never have a chance to get the queued message by changing the action manually.

This dialog shows up whenever you have POP filtering switched on and messages were found on the server that exceed the threshold size you defined for the POP account. Now you have the chance to decide what you want to do with that message. The options are download (green), download later (yellow with eggwatch) and delete from server (red ‘x’). Be cautious with the delete option, since once you deleted a mail from the server, there is no way to undelete it again.

In the Filtered Messages section you can check the box if you got messages that were automatically tagged for a certain action (download, download later, delete) by a filter rule. The checkbox is only enabled if you got some messages that were matched by a filter rule. Once you check it, a list similar to the one for the not automatically tagged messages will show up and you can change the action for every single message.

Please note that if there is a message exceeding the size limit, but all messages are matched by a filter rule the dialog will not show up. One exception occurs if you have checked Always show matched 'Download Later' messages in the Global Options section of the POP filter configuration dialog. Then the dialog will also show up if you only have matched messages, but at least one got tagged for download later.

KMail expects that your PGP binary is called pgp. In case of GnuPG, it expects the binary to be called gpg. If that's not the case for you, just make a symlink.

If you haven't done so, you have to generate a key pair (secret and public key) for your identity. You must do this at the command line: use pgp -kg resp. gpg --gen-key. KMail has no internal support for pgp's key generation at this time. The identity (normally your name followed by your email address within brackets, such as John Doe <john@example.com>) and your passphrase are important for the co-operation between KMail and pgp.

Enter your PGP user identity in the corresponding field of the Identity settings. Then select the OpenPGP tab on the Security settings page. There you'll find the following options:

In the Composer section you can also check the Automatically sign messages using OpenPGP option. This means that all your messages will be signed before being sent. (So you don't have to set the signing option for each message manually.)

Now you are able to sign outgoing messages. To let people send you encrypted messages and to let them verify your signature you must send them your public key or upload your public key to a public PGP key server so that they can fetch your key from there. To send encrypted messages to other people or to verify their signed messages you will need their public keys. You can store your public key(s) on a public PGP key server such as http://www.cam.ac.uk.pgp.net/pgpnet/.

You compose your message as usual in the composer window of KMail. Before you send the message, check the Sign Message icon the toolbar of the composer window. Then, you can send the message. The identity you are using the write the current message needs to be connected to an OpenPGP Key in the Identity section of the Configure dialog. To sign the message, KMail needs to know your PGP passphrase. If you didn't select Keep passphrase in memory in the Security section, KMail will ask you for it. On the other hand, if you have already given the phrase to KMail, it will sign the message without any further prompt.

To send an encrypted message to somebody of whom you have a public key, you simply create the message in the composer window. Before you send the message, check the Encrypt Message button in the toolbar of the composer window. Note that you don't have to check the button if Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible is selected in KMail's configuration. Then send the message.

If KMail can't find a matching key for a recipient or if it finds more than one key for a recipient, it will display a list containing all available trusted keys in the Encryption Key Selection dialog. Using the Remember choice checkbox you can save your selection for future messages.

If you are using a key for the first time or if Always show the encryption keys for approval is selected in the Security section of KMail's configuration dialog, the Encryption Key Approval dialog will appear. Here you can select a different key for the recipients and you can also set the Encryption Preference for each recipient. The default option, Encrypt whenever encryption is possible, will automatically encrypt your message if there's a trusted key for each recipient.

As mentioned above, you won't be able to read your own encrypted sent messages if you don't check Always encrypt to self in the setting's Security page. However, note that your own key is not listed in the Encryption Key Approval dialog even if that option is set.

Prepare a message to the person you want to send your public key to. Then choose in the composer window's menu Attach->Attach My Public Key. This will attach the public key you defined for the current identity to the message. Now you can send the message.

Remember that it's not safe at all if you sign the message to make sure that the receiver will get the correct key. There can be a man-in-the-middle attack, as somebody can change the key and sign the message with that other key. That's why the recipient should verify the attached key by checking the key's fingerprint against the one he got in a secure way from you. Have a look at the PGP documentation for further details.

All you have to do is to select the message in KMail. You will be prompted for your passphrase. Then KMail will try to decrypt the message and show you the plain text if the message had been encrypted with your public key. (If not, then you won't be able to read it.) KMail stores the messages encrypted, so nobody can read these messages without knowing your passphrase.

You can receive a public key as an attachment or via http, ftp or a floppy. Before you can use this key to encrypt a message to the owner of the key, you should verify the key (check its fingerprint or look for trusted signatures). Then you can add this key to your public keyring by typing pgp -ka filename at the command line if you are using PGP or by typing gpg --import filename at the command line if you are using GnuPG. If the key is not certified with a trusted signature you can't use it to encrypt messages unless you have signed the key with your key (use pgp -ks identity of the key resp. gpg --sign-key identity of the key).

The Sending tab allows you to define new outgoing mail servers and set some common options.

For basic information, see Setting up your Account: Sending.

When you click Add... or Modify... the Add transport resp. Modify transport dialog will open. For sending via sendmail you can specify a name and the location of the sendmail program. For SMTP you can specify Name, Host, and Port of the server. Server requires authentication will enable the Login and Password fields and the Authentication method buttons on the Security tab. If you are not sure about the security settings you can make KMail test for the best settings by using Check what the server supports.

Confirm before send will pop up a confirmation box every time you send a message.

Send mail in Outbox on check will send all messages from the outbox when you check for new messages.

Default send method lets you define what happens when a message is sent. If Send now is selected, the message is sent to the mail server immediately, while if Send later is selected, the message is queued in the outbox to be sent later with the File->Send Queued command or automatically when you check your mail, depending on the setting of Send mail in Outbox on check above.

Message property lets you select how your message will be encoded when it is sent. Allow 8-bit means that KMail will send your message in 8 bit ASCII, which means that all special characters such as accented letters will be sent as-is. If MIME Compliant (Quoted Printable) is selected, special characters will be encoded using standard MIME encodings, which may be more portable to other mailing systems than 8-bit ASCII. You normally do not need to change the default.

For basic information, see Setting up your Account: Receiving.

With New Mail notification you can set how KMail will notify you if new messages have arrived. Of course this only makes sense if Enable interval mail checking is activated for at least one account:

This section allows you to change the type, size and character set of the display fonts. Message body sets the font for the reader pane, Composer sets the font for writing messages in the composer window. There's a separate entry for Message List - Date Field so you can choose a monospaced font for the date field for better readability.

This section allows you to change the color of the text. Recycle colors on deep quoting means that even text that's quoted more than three times will appear in color. Note that the Quoted text colors only work in the message reader, not in the composer.

Show long folder list lets you toggle the long folder list on and off. The long folder list shows folders all the way down the left side of the KMail main window, which lets you see more folders than in the short view, but it takes away some space for viewing the text of the messages. Show color bar activates a bar at the left side of the reader pane that gives you information about the encryption and digital signature about the message. With Display message sizes selected there will be another column in the header pane that shows the messages' size. Thread list of message headers will put all the messages in the header pane in a kind of tree list, so that the replies to a message are directly below that message.

With Message header threading options you can select under which conditions threads should appear open by default (i.e. not collapsed). You can still open/close threads using the +/- buttons if you don't disable that here.

With Display of Date you can choose between several date formats. The Localized Format is the one you can specify in KControl.

This section offers several default settings.

Automatically append signature lets you toggle whether to automatically include your signature as defined in the identity page.

Use smart quoting will break long lines but will try to keep the correct quoting (e.g. the ‘> ’ will always be at the start of the line).

Automatically sign messages using OpenPGP lets you toggle whether to automatically sign your messages by default. Of course you can still deselect the icon in the composer window for each message if necessary.

Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible will encrypt every message you send, unless there's no trusted key for the recipient or you turned off using the recipient's key in the Encryption Preference setting of the Encryption Key Approval dialog.

Word wrap at column lets you turn word wrapping on and off in the composer window and lets you set the column at which words will be wrapped (you probably should not need to change the default value, which is 78).

If you don't like the Composer you can use a different editor. Note that the composer window will still open and the external editor will open as soon as you type just one character in the body of the message. If you're done, save the text and exit the editor. The text will now appear in the composer window, where you can send it. Note that your editor may not return immediately, e.g. you have to use gvim -f %f for gvim.

The Phrases tab lets you define the automatically generated lines that are added to message replies, forwarded messages, and the character that's added in front of quoted text. There are special %-denoted characters that will insert certain values. These are also shown at the top of the Phrases section: %D to insert the date, %S to insert the subject, %F to insert the sender, %% to insert a percent sign, %_ to insert a space, and %L to insert a line break. You can add reply phrases in languages other than your default KDE language using the Language button. This will only work for languages whose i18n package you have installed.

This section contains a list of prefixes for ‘Reply’ and ‘Forward’. If you receive messages that use prefixes different to the standard ones, you can add them here so KMail will recognize them. This way KMail can ignore them for sorting messages and when setting the subject of a reply, and optionally replace them with ‘Re:’.

Here you can manage the default charsets used for your own messages. Every message you send will be checked if it's written in one of the listed charsets, starting at the top of the list. If it is, this charset will be used. If it isn't, a dialog will show up and tell you that you manually have to choose a charset using Options->Set Encoding.

If you select Keep original charset when replying or forwarding, the original message's charset will be kept, unless there are now characters that cannot be represented using that charset.

Check the Use custom Message-Id suffix checkbox if you want KMail to generate Message-Id's with a custom suffix. Enter the desired suffix in the Custom Message-Id suffix field. Please make sure that the suffix that you specify is world-wide unique. The best thing is to use the name of a domain which you are the owner of. If you don't check Use custom Message-Id suffix then KMail will automatically generate the complete Message-Id. If you don't know what this is all about don't check this option.

The Define custom mime header fields list sets the headers that KMail will use for its outgoing messages. You can both invent new fields and overwrite existing ones. This feature is only useful for advanced users.

Prefer HTML to plain text will show HTML messages with their HTML formatting and layout. We strongly recommend to leave this option off, as security problems with HTML might show up. When this option is off, you can still read HTML messages, but only as plain text.

With Allow mails to load external references from the net turned on, KMail can load external images, style sheets etc. from the Internet when you look at an HTML message. We strongly recommend to leave this option off (although it has no effect if you only view plain text messages). By adding external references to their messages, people sending spam can detect that and when you have looked at their message. Note that this option has no effect on Java™, JavaScript and Plugins - these are disabled anyway and cannot be enabled at all.

Automatically send receive and read confirmations will automatically send a confirmation (in form of a new message) to the sender of a message if he requested that. If you leave this option off, no confirmation will be sent. We recommend to leave this option off. If you want to send confirmations to certain people you can do so by using the confirm delivery filter action.

For the OpenPGP tab please see the OpenPGP section.

On program exit, perform the following tasks:

This menu lets you toggle the display of the header fields and other options in this composer window.

Options available are:

Currently visible items have a checkmark shown next to their name in the menu.

This menu lets you select attachment options.

The entries in this menu have the same meaning as the entries in the Mailreader's help menu.