New Message...

The New Message composer window can be invoked the following ways:

• File → New → New Message...

• Message → New Message...

• The New icon on the main toolbar.

To write your message, fill in the appropriate fields in the composer window. Use the View menu to select which header fields are displayed. Some field options offer a Sticky checkbox, that if checked, your selection will remain as the default when you open a new composer window. The following list describes the various headers.

• The Identity drop down box allows you to select an identity to use.

• The Dictionary drop down box allows you to choose your dictionary of choice for use with spellchecking.

• The Sent-Mail folder allows you to change the location to save sent emails.

• The Mail transport allows you to select the outgoing mail server you would like to use.

• Your traditional From:, Reply To:, To:, and Subject: fields.

• The Use Fixed Font allows you to toggle fixed fonts on and off.

• The Snippets allows you to show the snippets window to store and use often used parts of text.

• The Translator allows you to translate your text within the composer window.

There are a variety of shortcuts to help you with writing your messages. The Select... 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 do not 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@example.com) even for local users, depending on your system configuration.

When you are finished with your message, you 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 is not finished yet, select Message → Save as Draft to save for later editing. If you would like to print your message, select Message → Print Preview to preview the message, and Message → Print to print it.

Message → Send Later allows you to schedule your emails to send at a specific date and time. Please see Send Later Agent for details.

File → New → Message From Template → My Super Template

Compose a new Message from Template is useful if you have created a masterpiece message that you would like to save as a template for use in future new messages. Select Message → Save as Template and this will place your new template in the templates: folder. You can revise the template at anytime by selecting it in this folder. The saved template will now be listed under this menu to use for new messages. Please see Compose New Message for further details on composing a message.

Any

KMail will use a format which is understood by all recipients of the message. The preferred format of the recipients can be specified in the KDE Address Book.

Inline OpenPGP (deprecated)

This format is outdated. If you use this format then only the message text will be signed and/or encrypted. Attachments will neither be signed nor encrypted. HTML messages cannot be signed with this format. You should only use this format if necessary, i.e. if you send messages to users of email clients that cannot handle the more advanced formats.

OpenPGP/MIME

This format is the successor of the inline OpenPGP format. If you use this format then the message text and all attachments will be signed and/or encrypted (at least by default). This is the recommended format if you use OpenPGP.

S/MIME

This format is an alternative format to OpenPGP/MIME. If you use this format then the message text and all attachments will be signed and/or encrypted (at least by default). This format is mostly used by corporations.

S/MIME opaque

This format is a variant of the S/MIME format. It should only be used if necessary.

Folder → Move All Messages to Trash

Moves all your messages in the selected folder to the trash folder.

Folder → Archive Folder

Create an archive of the folder. See Archive Folder for details.

Folder → Delete Folder

Remove a folder with all its messages and sub-folders.

Folder → Remove Duplicate Messages

This will search the currently selected folder for duplicates and delete them.

Available Filters

This group contains the list of filters and some action buttons to modify the filters, namely: to create new filters; to move them up or down the list; to delete them; or to rename them. If you select a filter from the list, its properties are shown in the right-hand half of the dialog.

Filter Criteria

In this group you can edit the pattern that messages must match for the filter to be applied to them. You can select here whether all of the defined rules must match or whether it suffices that any one of them matches. See Search Patterns below for a detailed description of each search rule type.

You can click on More to get an additional (initially empty) rule if you want to define more-complex patterns and on Fewer to remove the last rule. Clear clears the pattern, i.e. it removes all but two rules from screen and resets those two.

Invalid or empty rules are not evaluated.

Filter Actions

In this group you can edit the list of actions that are applied to all messages that match the defined filter criteria. See Filter Actions below for a detailed description of each action type.

You can click on More to get a new, empty action (if you want to define more than one action) and on Fewer to remove the last action. Clear clears the list, i.e. it removes all but one action and resets that one.

Invalid or empty actions are not executed.

Advanced Options

In this group you can define a few advanced options for filters that allow you to refine your filtering.

Using the first row of check boxes, you can toggle when the filter is applied: the Apply this filter to incoming messages option means that the filter is applied to messages when you receive them (i.e. on Check Mail). The filter can be applied to all messages, to all but online IMAP accounts and to a selection of incoming folders.

The Apply this filter to sent messages option means that the filter is applied to messages when you send them and the Apply this filter on manual filtering option controls whether to apply this filter when filtering is specifically selected (i.e. via Message → Apply Filters.)

If Apply this filter to sent messages is checked the filter will be triggered after the message is sent and it will only affect the local copy of the message. If the recipient's copy also needs to be modified, please use Apply this filter before sending messages.

The If this filter matches, stop processing here check box controls whether or not the filters after the current filter will be applied, if the current filter matches.

If the Add this filter to the Apply Filter menu check box is selected, this filter will be inserted in the Message → Apply Filter submenu. You can then apply this filter to a message. Another way of applying filters is to use Message → Apply Filters menu option, which applies all the filters - one after another until they are all used or one of the filters that matches has the If the filters matches, stop processing here.

<message>

Searches the whole message (i.e. headers, body and attachments, if any);

<body>

Searches the body of the message (i.e. the whole message except the headers);

<any header>

Searches the headers of the message;

<recipients>

Searches the “To” and “CC” header fields of the message;

<size in bytes>

Sets upper or lower bounds on the message size;

<age in days>

Sets upper or lower bounds on the message age;

<status>

Sets restrictions on the status of the message;

Any other name

Searches the header field that is given by that name.

Move Into Folder

This will file the message into another folder, removing it from its current folder if necessary; you cannot, currently use IMAP folders as a target.

Copy Into Folder

This will copy the message to another folder.

Note

You currently cannot use IMAP folders as a target.

Set Identity To

This will set the identity that will be used if you reply to this message.

Mark As

This allows you to mark the message as read or important (flagged), but also as forwarded, replied, etc.

Send Fake MDN

This will send a faked message disposition notification (i.e. a read receipt) to the sender of the message.

Set Transport To

This will set the method of transport (e.g. SMTP) that will be used if you reply to the message.

Set Reply-To To

This will modify the Reply-To field of this message. This can be useful for mailing lists that automatically set a Reply-To which you do not like.

Forward To

This will forward the message inline (i.e. as if you selected Message → Forward → Inline...) to another email address. You can select the template to be used when forwarding with this filter with the drop down list.

Redirect To

This will redirect the message as-is to another email address.

Confirm Delivery

Will try to return a message to the sender that indicates successful delivery of their message, if the sender requested that.

This action allows you to select who will get delivery receipts from you. Though you can globally enable the sending of delivery confirmations in the Configure KMail... dialog (Security page) we recommended not to send them to everyone, since this makes tracking of spam messages, for example, very easy for the sender.

Execute Command

This will execute a program, but will not modify the message. Specify the full path to the program you want to execute; KMail will then block until the program returns. If you do not want KMail to block then append '&' to the command. You can feed the program with the parts of the mail: %0, %1, etc. stand for files representing the message parts; for common messages %0 is the text, %1 the first attachment and so on. Additionally, the whole message is fed into the program's stdin; and every occurrence of %{foo} is replaced by the content of the foo header. If you need to identify the message via its storage location in the Akonadi store, you can use the %{itemid} or %{itemurl} placeholders to achieve that.

Warning

This currently only works if the message has at least one attachment. No, not even %0 will work in the general case!

Tip

You can enter arbitrarily-complex shell commands here, since KMail uses a sub shell to execute the command line; therefore, even this command will work (within its limits): uudecode -o $(mktemp kmail-uudecoded.XXXXXX) && echo $'\a'

Pipe Through

This will feed the message to a program: if the program returns output, the entire message (including the headers) will be replaced with this output; if the program does not return output or exits with a return code other than 0 (indicating an error occurred), the message will not change. Specify the full path to the program. The same substitutions (%n, %{foo} as with execute command are performed on the command line.

Warning

Be cautious with this action, as it will easily mess up your messages if the filter program returns garbage or extra lines.

Remove Header

Will remove all header fields with the given name from the message. This is useful mainly for removing bogus “Reply-To:” headers.

Add Header

If no such field is already present this will add a new header field with the given name and value to the message; if there already is a header field with that name, it is overwritten with the given value; if there are already multiple headers with the given name (e.g. “Received:” headers), an arbitrary one of them is overwritten and the others are left unchanged -- this is a known limitation. You may want to combine this filter with the remove header filter above to make sure that there are no other headers with that name in the message.

Rewrite Header

Will scan the given header field, modify its contents and write it back. The search string is always interpreted as a case-sensitive regular expression. The replacement string is inserted literally except for occurrences of \n, $n and ${nn}, where n is a positive (single-digit, except for the third form) number or 0. These constructs are interpreted as back references to substrings captured with parentheses in the search string.

Analogous restrictions as in the add header action apply here, too.

Play Sound

Will play the specified sound.

Stop filter processing as early as possible:

If you know that a filter finally processes a certain class of messages, please make sure to check the option If this filter matches, stop processing here for the filter. This will avoid the evaluation of the filter rules of all subsequent filters. (See the advanced options in the Filter Dialog).

An example is filtering messages from mailing lists via List-Id header into separate folders. Having found out that a message came from list A means that you can avoid checking the next filter for messages from list B.

Consider the costs of the evaluation of filter rules:

The time required to evaluate a filter rule depends on the way the rule is constructed. In particular, scanning for a substring using the contains operation is faster than a pattern matching using the matches regular expr. operation.

Another dependency is on the amount of data which is used for the evaluation of a filter rule. If the rule is based on a message header, its evaluation should normally be much faster than the evaluation of a rule based on the complete message.

You should try to keep the filter rules as simple as possible.

Check the order of your filters:

All the different filter actions have a different complexity. The most expensive filter actions are Pipe Through and Execute Command, because both need external programs to be run. Placing filters containing these filter actions behind other filters that can reduce the number of times these complex actions are required is useful, if the filter logic does allow this.

An example is filtering messages from a mailing list and detecting spam messages. For the spam detection you will usually use an external tool via a Pipe Through action. Filtering the messages for the mailing list is done via the List-Id header. If you do not want to check the messages from the mailing list for spam too, it is better to use the filter for the mailing list messages before the filter for the spam detection. This way you avoid the expensive and slow spam check for all messages which were identified as mailing list messages.

Folder → Archive Folder...

This feature is also available through the context menu launched with a right mouse button, then select Archive Folder.... This will open a dialog that allows you to create a single archive of the currently selected folder.

The Folder: shows the currently selected folder, if you wish to change the folder to be archived click the folder icon. The Format: drop down menu allows you to choose a format (choices are: zip, tar, tar.bz2, and tar.gz). If you would like to change the default name or location, click the folder at the end of Archive File.

Check the Delete folder and subfolders after completion if you would like everything you archived deleted. By default all subfolders will be archived, uncheck Archive all subfolders if you only want to archive the parent folder.

Settings → Configure Automatic Archiving...

This is a powerful tool that can be used to assist in backing up your email. Please see Automatic Archiving for details.

Settings → Configure Folder Archive Agent...

This feature allows you to archive single emails to a specified folder.

Folder Archive can be enabled on a per account basis to allow you to archive individual emails through the right click menu.

Folder Archive is used to archive single emails to a specified folder. For instance, you need to archive all of those pesky bill receipts in one place. Folder Archive can easily accommodate those needs. Start by using Settings → Configure Folder Archive Agent... in KMail's reader window to open a dialog to set up the folder archive agent.

This dialog will have a tab for each of your configured accounts including Local Folders and you will need to configure all accounts that you wish to use this feature with. The first option allows you to enable/disable the folder archive agent. It is disabled by default, to enable check the Enable checkbox. You can set the location of your Archive folder by clicking the folder icon next to Folder: and selecting the folder you wish to use. For example, you could create a folder called “bill receipts” by clicking the New Subfolder... and typing bill receipts in the dialog. You may choose a folder location anywhere, e.g... a folder in your “Local Folders” or on your IMAP server.

You have several choices on how the emails will be archived:

Unique folder

Uses the selected folder sorted by date.

Folder by months

Creates new folders inside the selected folder by months.

Folder by years

Creates new folders inside the selected folder by years.

Now when you receive a bill receipt, right mouse button the email and select Archive from the menu. The email will be archived into your configured archive folder for easy viewing later on.

Tools → Export KMail Data...

This feature exports settings and local mail to a compressed file. Please see pimsettingexporter for details.

Tools → Export KMail Data...

If you used PIM Setting Exporter to backup local email and or settings, please use it again to import back into KMail. See PIM Setting Exporter for details.

Tools → Import Wizard...

This starts the import wizard and try to automatically detect data from another email application. In case the mail data you want to import is not found, use the manual import below.

File → Import Messages...

Start the import wizard and let you select your mail data manually for importing.

When encrypting emails, always also encrypt to the certificate of my own identity

If this option is off and you want to send an encrypted message to somebody, then you cannot read this message any longer after you have composed and encrypted it. Turn this option on to keep sent encrypted messages readable for you too.

Store sent messages encrypted

When this box is checked, sent messages are stored encrypted like they were sent. This is not recommended, as you will not be able to read the messages any longer if a necessary certificate expires.

Always show the encryption keys for approval

This will always open a dialog that lets you choose the keys used for each recipient when you are sending an encrypted message; if this option is off, KMail will show this dialog only when it cannot find a key for a recipient or when there are conflicting or unset encryption preferences.

Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible

If this option is on, KMail will automatically encrypt messages with the built-in OpenPGP support or the PGP/MIME-Plugin provided that, for every recipient, a trusted PGP key is found in your keyring and you did not tell KMail not to encrypt messages sent to certain recipients. If in doubt, KMail will ask whether the message should be encrypted or not.

What can the wizard do to help you?

It will give you some choices about how you want the spam filtering to be set up. Afterwards it will automatically create the appropriate filter rules.

What are the limitations of the wizard?

It can only initially set up the filters for you; and it will provide a standard setup. Manual modifications in existing filters are not considered. Instead, these filters are overwritten by the wizard.

Bogofilter

Bogofilter is a bayesian filter, that means its spam detection relies on an initial training phase. On the other hand, it's a pretty fast tool. That's why it is recommended to be used by people who primarily want to have fast spam detection, and who won't worry about the initial training before the detection rate increases significantly.

SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin is a pretty complex tool to use against spam. Although its behavior depends heavily on its configuration, it can detect spam quite well without any training. However, scanning a message takes a little longer compared to pure bayesian filters. Let's say it's not the tool of choice for people without some background information about SpamAssassin's capabilities.

Annoyance-Filter

Perhaps not so often used until distributions pick it up. It's clearly a tool for specialists.

GMX Spam Filter

If you get your mail via the GMX freemail provider, your messages are already scanned for spam. The result of that process is documented in a special header field of each message. It's possible to use the content of this header field to sort out spam. There is no slowdown in the filtering if only this tool is used, as the messages have already been processed.

What can the wizard do to help you?

It will give you some choices about how you want virus filtering to be set up. Afterwards it will automatically create the appropriate filter rules.

What are the limitations of the wizard?

It can only initially set up the filters for you; and it will provide a standard setup. Modifying existing filters is not yet possible.

With empty fields

All fields of the new identity are cleared or preset with standard values.

Use System Settings values

Uses the values from Account Details → Password & User Account in the System Settings category Common Appearance and Behavior.

Duplicate existing identity

Copies all fields from an existing identity. You can choose which identity to copy from by selecting the corresponding entry in the Existing identities drop down box.

Your name

Enter your full name here (sometimes also called display name). Although this field is not strictly mandatory, it is recommended to enter the correct value here.

Organization

Enter your organization here. This field is optional.

Email address

Enter your email address here, i.e. something like joe@example.com.

Example 4.1. Email address

So if your address is Joe User <joe@example.com>, you should enter Joe User into the Your name field and joe@example.com into the Email address field.

Email aliases

This field contains alias addresses that should also be considered as belonging to this identity (as opposed to representing a different identity).

Example 4.2. Email aliases

Primary address: first.last@example.org

Aliases: first@example.org and last@example.org

OpenPGP signing key

Here you can select the key to be used when OpenPGP-signing messages written with this identity in effect.

For brevity, only the short key id of selected keys is shown. Hovering with the mouse over the key list will show more information in a tooltip.

To clear the label press the Clear button. To change the selected key, press the Change... button. A dialog listing all configured secret OpenPGP keys will be shown allowing you to select the one to use. If you do not have key configured yet, click the Start Certificate Manager to open Kleopatra. See Kleopatra for information on using Kleopatra to create and manage openpgp keys and certificates. Listed below is a brief description of the chosen key/certificate uses.

OpenPGP encryption key

Here you can select the key to OpenPGP-encrypt messages to when this identity and When encrypting emails, always also encrypt to the certificate of my own identity are in effect. This key is also used for the Attach → Attach My Public Key function of the Composer.

S/MIME signing certificate

Here you can select the certificate to be used when S/MIME-signing messages written with this identity in effect.

S/MIME encryption certificate

Here you can select the certificate to S/MIME-encrypt messages when this identity and When encrypting emails, always also encrypt to the certificate of my own identity are in effect.

Preferred format

Here you can choose which cryptographic message format to use by default with this identity. You can either select any of the four formats supported by KMail or leave the option at the recommended default setting of Any, which will choose a suitable format based on the recipients of the message, or might even go so far as to create two copies of the message, one S/MIME signed and/or encrypted, the other OpenPGP signed and/or encrypted.

Reply-To address

Enter the address to which replies to your messages should be sent. Only fill out this field if it is different from your normal address (specified using the Name and Email Address on the General tab), since replies default to the sender's address anyway.

This field is only useful if you want replies to your mail to go somewhere else than your regular email address, e.g. if you are using this identity to send messages from an email address that cannot receive messages.

Note

Note that some mailing lists overwrite this header field with their post address to make sure that replies go to the list instead of individuals. So the usefulness of this field is very limited and it should only be used in rare cases.

BCC addresses

Optionally enter addresses separated by a comma to which blind copies of your messages should be sent to. When you compose a message with this identity, the BCC field is filled with these addresses. If you want to send a BCC regardless of this setting, you should look at the Headers tab of the Composer page.

Dictionary

Select the default dictionary for current identity.

Sent-mail folder

Select the folder into which messages should be filed after sending when using this identity. IMAP users should consider changing this to an IMAP folder, so their sent-mail is stored on a server instead of being stored in a local folder. This way they can access these messages from a different location.

Tip

You can exercise more fine-grained control over where to file sent messages by creating a corresponding message filter that is applied to outgoing messages.

Drafts folder

Select the folder into which drafts should be filed when using this identity. IMAP users should consider changing this to an IMAP folder, so their drafts are stored on a server instead of being stored in a local folder. This way they can easily continue to work on their drafts at a different location.

Templates folder

Select the folder into which templates should be filed when using this identity. Please see Compose from templates for more information on templates.

Outgoing Account

Select or enter an alternative SMTP server to be used when sending messages using this identity.

Note

You need to configure outgoing mail servers first, before you can choose them from the list. You can do this on the Sending tab of the Accounts page.

Send picture with every message

Check this box if you want KMail to add a so-called X-Face header to messages written with this identity. An X-Face is a small (48x48 pixels) black and white image that some mail clients are able to display.

External Source

Select File...

Use this to select an image file to create the picture from. The image should be of high contrast and nearly quadratic shape. A light background helps improve the result.

Set From Address Book

You can use a scaled-down version of the picture you have set in your address book entry.

Input Field Below

Use this field to enter an arbitrary X-Face string. Examples are available at http://ace.home.xs4all.nl/X-Faces/

Never Automatically

Queued messages will only be sent if you select File → Send queued messages.

On Manual Mail Checks

Queued messages will be sent after you have manually checked for new mail, e.g. with File → Check Mail. Of course, you can also manually send the queued messages with File → Send queued messages.

On All Mail Checks

Queued messages will be sent after all checks for new mail, i.e. after automatic mail checks as well as after manual mail checks. Of course, you can also manually send the queued messages with File → Send queued messages.

Default aggregation

Senders/Receivers, Flat

This view groups the messages by senders or receivers (depending on the folder type). Messages are not threaded.

Activity by Date, Flat

This view uses day-by-day groups. Messages are not threaded. So for example, in “Today” you will simply find all the messages arrived today.

Activity by Date, Threaded

This view uses day-by-day groups. Messages are threaded. So for example, in “Today” you will find all the messages arrived today and all the threads.

Current Activity, Flat

This view uses smart date range groups. Messages are not threaded. So for example, in “Today” you will simply find all the messages arrived today.

Current Activity, Threaded

This view uses smart date range groups. Messages are threaded. So for example, in “Today” you will find all the messages arrived today and all the threads that have been active today.

Thread Starters

This view groups the messages in threads and then groups the threads by the starting user.

Flat Date View

This is a plain and old list of messages sorted by date: no groups and no threading.

Standard Mailing List

This is a plain and old mailing list view: no groups and heavy threading.

Customize...

Customize Message Aggregation Modes

To create a custom aggregation theme, click the Configure... button. Select an existing aggregation similar to what you want to change it to and click the Clone Aggregation, if none are similar click the New Aggregation button. The General tab allows you to change the Name: and Description:. The Groups & Threading tab allows you to configure several elements to customize your aggregation.

• Grouping: Allows you to select from dates, sender/receiver or none. With the smart options KMail will group related emails together.

• Group expand policy: Allows you to set whether KMail will automatically expand grouped emails.

• Threading: Allows you to change if KMail will include references and subject in determining perfect threading. You can also turn off threading all together.

• Thread leader: Allows you to change the leader of the thread between most recent message or topmost.

• Thread expand policy: Allows you to change how KMail determines whether a thread should be expanded or no expanding at all.

The Advanced allows you to change the Fill view strategy: You would choose Favor speed if you have a slow connection. Interactivity will show all of your current conversations first. And Batch mode will not sort the view at all.

Default Theme

Classic

A simple, backward compatible, single row theme

Smart

A smart multi-line and multi-item theme

Smart with Clickable Status

A smart multi-line and multi-item theme with a clickable status column

Configure...

Customize Message List Theme

To create a custom message list theme, click the Configure... button. Select an existing theme similar to what you want to change it to and click the Clone Theme, if none are similar click the New Theme button. The General tab allows you to change the Name: and Description:.

The Appearance tab allows you to configure visible columns and status items. To add a column, right click the column bar and select Add Column. Name the column and select what the column will represent from the Header click sorts messages: drop down list. By default Visible by default is checked, uncheck it if you only want the column to be available on the right mouse button add or remove menu for the clickable sort bar. Then drag the appropriate label from the Content Items to the column view box under the column bar, e.g. if you chose to add a size column you would drag the Size label to underneath the Size column. Continue to do this until you have all the columns you desire. You can change the font and color of column items through the view area right mouse button menu. Move, delete and resize columns through the right mouse button menu of the column bar.

The Advanced tab allows you to change whether to show headers. You can also change the size of status icons.

Automatically insert signature

If checked, your signature as defined in the identity page is automatically included at the end of all messages you create (i.e. new messages, replies, etc.).

Use smart quoting

If checked, KMail will break long lines but will try to keep the correct quoting (e.g. the “> ” will always be at the start of the line).

Only quote selected text when replying

If checked, KMail will quote only the selected text in the message window, instead of the complete message, when replying. With this, it is possible to quickly generate replies that quote only the relevant paragraph to which you are actually replying, and omits the other paragraphs that are not relevant to the context.

Remove the signature when replying

If checked, KMail will remove the signature from the quoted text when replying to a message. This is useful since it reduces the amount of quoted text, which makes it easier to read the reply.

Automatically request message disposition notifications

If checked, Options → Request Disposition Notification will default to on. Check this option only if you know what you are doing. MDNs are considered a nuisance (or are simply ignored) by a lot of people. It is better to decide to request them on a message-by-message basis.

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).

Autosave interval

A backup copy of the text in the composer window can be created regularly. This option lets you specify the interval used to create the backup. You can disable autosaving by setting it to the value 0.

Autocorrect Options

Simple Autocorrection

This allows you to configure KMail to autocorrect various simple corrections. Check the box next to the autocorrect feature you would like to enable.

Custom Quotes

You can replace double or single quotes with typographical quotes by checking the appropriate box. You can also add non breaking space before specific punctuation marks in French text by selecting the option.

Advanced Autocorrection

You can enter custom automatic word replacement by checking this option. To enter a custom string to replace automatically enter the word to be replaced in the Find box, and the replacement word in the Replace box and click the Add button. To remove a custom word replacement string, highlight the string and click Remove.

Exceptions

This allows you to set exceptions where you would like KMail to ignore your autocorrect selections for end of sentence and two uppercase letters. Enter the exception and click Add button. To remove the exception, highlight the string and click Remove button.

General

Some general options for auto image resizing are as follows: If you need your images to keep the ratio of length and width intact e.g. Photographs, select Keep ratio. The default behavior is for KMail to prompt and ask if you want to resize before resizing, if you want it to resize without asking, unselect Ask before resizing. KMail will save the file in JPG, if you would rather have them save in PNG format, select it from the Write to format drop down box.

Image

Say you have a relative that can only receive image files of a certain size due to their email providers limits, you can use the Reduce image to maximum dimension: option to select a size to reduce the image to and enter their email into the filters on the Recipients tab. The recipients tab is discussed in further detail at the end of this section. If you need a custom size, choose the last option Custom from the width and height drop down boxes, and enter the number in the text box. You can also enlarge images by selecting Enlarge image to minimum dimension. The last option allows you to skip images of a certain filesize (this will verify image size by width x height only).

Filename

Source filter

If you would like the resizing to be done based on the name of the file, you would select the appropriate filter here. e.g. You need to send your boss multiple images daily, and your boss requires them to be the same size. You could name all of your work images work1, work2 etc. then select Include all files whose names contains one of the patterns and enter work into the Pattern: text box. You can also exclude files in the same way by selecting Exclude all files whose names contains one of the patterns. The default behavior is no filtering.

Image Format

Select Resize all images with one of these formats to set a specific format to resize the image to.

• When this option is enabled you must select the Select Format... button and select a format from the dialog.

Resize filename

Select Rename resized images with the following pattern if you would like your resized images to be renamed with a specific pattern. Enter the pattern into the text box. You can use:

%t set current time

%d set current date

%n original filename

%e original extension

%x new extension

Recipients

This tab is where you would specify recipients that need to have resized images. e.g. grandma@myfamily.net; boss@mywork.com. You need to decide if you need multiple or only one, and enter the email(s) into the text box using the “;” as a separator when you have multiple. You can also specify if you do not want certain recipient(s) images to be resized. The default is no filtering.

Use external editor instead of composer

This selection allows you to use a different editor. Please note that the composer window will still open, and the external editor will open on top of the composer window. When you are 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, you have to use e.g. gvim -f %f for gvim.

Prefer HTML to plain text

By default KMail will show HTML messages in plain text. If you prefer to view messages with HTML formatting and layout automatically, select this option. However, we recommend leaving this option off, as security problems with HTML might show up.

You can still easily view messages in HTML format per email by clicking the plain message/html message toggle bar on the left hand side of the message window. Please see Message Window to enable this feature.

Allow messages to load external references from the Internet

If checked, KMail can load external images, stylesheets 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 when you have looked at their message, your location, and alot of other information that gets logged on web servers. Note that this option has no effect on Java™, JavaScript and Plugins as these are not supported in KMail at all, which is a good thing, as most viruses propagate through these.

Informs if message reading is a suspected email scam

With the popularity of email, unfortunately comes the popularity of email scams. Email scams can include emails made to appear as though they come from legitimate companies, but they really link to malicious web sites requesting your personal information. This can lead to identity theft and worse. By default KMail analyzes messages for common scams, and will inform you if the email is a suspected scam. It is highly advised to keep this feature enabled. If you wish to disable this great feature, uncheck Informs if message reading is a suspected email scam.

If you have legitimate emails being flagged, e.g. from trusted friends, you can add their email to the Whitelist: by clicking the Add... and enter the email into the dialog that pops up. Please note that at this time, only individual emails are supported.

Encrypted messages

By default, KMail will automatically attempt to decrypt encrypted messages when you view them. If you prefer to do it manually, unselect this option.

Certificate & Key Bundle Attachments

If you would like to have KMail to Automatically import keys and certificate from incoming messages for decryption, select this option.

Message Disposition Notifications

MDNs are a generalization of what is commonly called a “read receipt”. The message author requests a disposition notification to be sent and the receiver's mail program generates a reply from which the author can learn what happened to his message. Common disposition types include “displayed” (i.e. read), “deleted” and “dispatched” (e.g. forwarded).

The following options (listed as Send policy) are available to control when KMail sends MDNs:

Ignore (recommended)

Ignores any request for disposition notifications. No MDN will ever be sent automatically.

Ask

Answers requests only after asking the user for permission. This way, you can send MDNs for selected messages while denying or ignoring them for others.

Deny

Always sends a “denied” notification. This is only slightly better than always sending MDNs. The author will still know that the messages has been acted upon, he just cannot tell whether it was deleted or read etc.

Always send

Always sends the requested disposition notification. That means that the author of the message gets to know when the message was acted upon and, in addition, what happened to it (displayed, deleted, etc.). This option is strongly discouraged, but since it makes sense where privacy is not a concern, e.g. in customer relationship management, it has been made available.

If you are unsure, experiment a while with Ask and if you find KMails questions annoying, switch to Ignore.

The following options (listed as Quote original message) are available to control how much of the original message KMail sends back in MDNs.

Nothing

No parts of the message other than the mandatory message-id and the original recipient is included in the MDN reply. This preserves enough information for the sender to find the message in his sent messages for which this MDN was generated.

Full message

Attaches the complete message to the disposition notification. Usually, this is overkill. It does not add any valuable information that cannot be deduced from the message headers alone, but people sometimes insist on this, since it is much easier for humans to correlate the content of the message than just the headers to what they sent earlier.

Only headers

Attaches only the headers to the disposition notification. This is usually enough to enable both humans (by subject) and computers (by message-id) to easily correlate MDN and original message.

If unsure, leave the option at the default.

Do not send MDNs in response to encrypted messages

This option suppresses the sending of MDNs if the message is encrypted (partially or in whole). This thwarts attempts to use KMail's MDN feature as an oracle to deduce whether you were able to decrypt the message or not.

Strictly speaking, this option is not needed, since KMail sends MDNs regardless of whether the message could be successfully decrypted or not (the disposition notification request resides in the unencrypted part of the message), but it gives the security-conscious user the choice to either send them always if requested (option unchecked), or never (option checked).

If unsure, leave the option checked.

Automatically import keys and certificates

If checked, KMail automatically imports any attachments containing OpenPGP keys into your local keyring, and any attachments containing S/MIME keys into your local key box.

Note

Verifying S/MIME signatures always involves importing the contained certificates. This option thus does not affect this. It is also unrelated to GPG's auto-key-retrieve feature, where GPG will try to import unknown keys from a key server.

Automatically sign messages

If checked, the Options → Sign Message option in the composer will default to on.

However, you can still switch it on and off on a per-message basis.

When encrypting emails, always also encrypt to the certificate of my own identity

If checked, any message that is encrypted to the recipients will additionally be encrypted to yourself.

Warning

If you uncheck this option, you may not be able to decrypt the messages written by yourself and encrypted to other people anymore.

Store sent messages encrypted^[3]

If checked, messages are stored in your sent-mail folder just as you sent them (i.e. if they were encrypted, they are also stored that way).

If unchecked, messages will always be stored unencrypted in your sent-mail folder, even if they are sent encrypted.

Always show the encryption keys for approval

If checked, every time you encrypt a message, a dialog will appear that presents you with the encryption keys that will be used for each recipient. You can then review the choice of keys, change them, and approve or cancel the encryption operation. We recommend to keep this option checked, since it makes the encryption process more transparent.

Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible

Also called “opportunistic encryption”. If checked, KMail will try to match recipients to (OpenPGP or S/MIME) keys even when you did not specifically request encryption. If usable keys are found for all recipients, KMail will ask whether or not you want to encrypt the message.

It is highly recommended to turn this on, as it makes encrypting messages really easy to use.

Never sign/encrypt when saving as draft

If checked, KMail will not attempt to sign and/or encrypt messages that are merely saved to the drafts folder. This is more convenient, and does not result in a gross loss of security, provided the drafts folder is safe. IMAP users might want this option turned off, if their drafts folder is on the server.

Warn when trying to send unsigned messages

If checked, KMail will show a warning if for whatever reason a message would be sent without being digitally signed.

Warn when trying to send unencrypted messages

If checked, KMail will show a warning if for whatever reason a message would be sent without being encrypted.

Note

While it is common to sign all outgoing messages, encrypting them is not. So unless your company has a policy of never sending any unencrypted messages, it might be a good idea to keep this option switched off and rely on opportunistic encryption to alert you if you could send encrypted messages, but did not request it.

Warn if receiver's email address is not in certificate

If checked, KMail will emit a warning if an S/MIME certificate or OpenPGP key will be used for a recipient whose email address is not listed in the email addresses stored in the certificate.

Situations in which this warning will trigger include when configuring your per-identity OpenPGP keys or S/MIME certificates, when encrypting, and when verifying signatures, if the signature was made with a certificate that does not include the email address of the sender.

Warn if certificates/keys expire soon

If checked, KMail will warn when an S/MIME certificate or OpenPGP key is used which will expire soon.

The period in which to warn before key/certificate expiration can then be configured separately for signing and encryption keys, as well as (in the case of S/MIME), for end-user certificates, intermediate CA certificates and root certificates.

Re-Enable All "Don't Ask Again" Warnings

Apart from the main warnings described above, there are more warning and information messages, which contain an option to not show them again. If you would like to re-enable them after choosing not to show them again, you can achieve this by pressing this button.^[4]

Validate certificates using CRLs

If checked, S/MIME certificates are validated using Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs).

Validate certificates online (OCSP)

If this option is selected, S/MIME certificates are validated using the Online Certificates Status Protocol (OCSP).

Fill in the URL of the OCSP responder in the field reserved at this effect.

OCSP responder URL

Enter the address of the server for online validation of certificates. The URL is usually starting with http://.

OCSP responder signature

Select or change and enter the S/MIME key to use.

Ignore service URL of certificates

Check this option to skip online validation using the OCSP. This Option requires dirmngr >= 0.9.0.

Do not check certificate policies

By default, GnuPG uses the file ~/.gnupg/policies.txt to check if a certificate policy is allowed. If this option is selected, policies are not checked.

Never consult a CRLs

If this option is checked, Certificate Revocation Lists are never used to validate S/MIME certificates.

Fetch missing issuer certificates

Check this option if you want the missing issuer certificates to be fetched when necessary. This applies to both validation methods, CRLs and OCSP.

Do not perform any HTTP requests

Entirely disables the use of HTTP for S/MIME.

Ignore HTTP CRL Distribution Point of certificates

When looking for the location of a CRL, the “to-be-tested” certificate usually contains what are known as CRL Distribution Point (DP) entries, which are URLs describing the way to access the URL. The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries using the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.

Use system HTTP proxy

If this option is selected, the value of the HTTP proxy shown on the right (which comes from the environment variable http_proxy) will be used for any HTTP request.

Use this proxy for HTTP requests

Enter here the location of your HTTP Proxy, which will be used for all HTTP requests relating to S/MIME The syntax is “host:port”, for instance myproxy.nowhere.com:3128.

Do not perform any LDAP requests

Entirely disables the use of LDAP for S/MIME.

Ignore LDAP CRL Distribution Point of certificates

When looking for the location of a CRL, the “to-be-tested” certificate usually contains what are known as CRL Distribution Point (DP) entries, which are URLs describing the way to access the URL. The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries using the LDAP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.

Primary host for LDAP requests

Entering a LDAP server here will make all LDAP requests go to that server first. More precisely, this setting overrides any specified host and port part in a LDAP URL and will also be used if host and port have been omitted from the URL. Other LDAP servers will be used only if the connection to the proxy failed. The syntax is HOST or HOST:PORT. If PORT is omitted, “port 389” (standard LDAP port) is used.

Ask for confirmation before moving all messages to trash

Enable this option if you want to be asked for confirmation whenever you use Folder → Move All to Trash.

Exclude important messages from expiry

Enable this option if important messages should never be deleted during message expiration, i.e. during automatic deletion of old messages.

When trying to find unread messages

This option controls what happens if you press one of the shortcuts to go to the next or previous unread message (e.g. Space). If you ask KMail to go to the next unread message although there is no unread message below the currently selected message then the following happens:

• If Do not Loop is selected then nothing will happen.

• If Loop in Current Folder is selected then KMail will search from the beginning of the current folder for an unread message. If none is found then nothing happens.

• If Loop in All Folders is selected then KMail will first search in the current folder for another unread message. If none is found then KMail will search the next folder containing unread messages.

Correspondingly, if you ask KMail to go to the previous unread message.

When entering a folder

This option controls what happens if you open a folder.

• If Jump to First Unread Message is selected then KMail will select the first message it finds that is marked as unread.

• If Jump to Last Selected Message is selected then KMail will select the message that was selected when the folder was open the last time.

• If Jump to Newest Message is selected then KMail will select the newest message by date.

• If Jump to Oldest Message is selected then KMail will select the oldest message by date.

Mark selected message as read after...

When you select a new or unread message, KMail will change the message's status to read after the number of seconds entered here. If you disable this option, messages will keep their new or unread status.

Ask for action after dragging messages to another folder

When you drag a message to a different folder, a small popup will ask you if you want to move or copy the message. If you disable this option, the message will be moved immediately, without a popup.

Open this folder on startup

Here you can set the folder that should be selected by default if you start KMail. If you use only IMAP folders then you might want to set this to your IMAP inbox folder. If you do that, you can collapse the local folders in the folder list, and then they will stay collapsed when KMail starts.

Empty the local trash folder on program exit

The trash folder is cleared of messages when you quit KMail if this option is selected.

Mangle From:/To: headers in replies to invitations

Enable this option to make Microsoft® Outlook understand your answers to invitations replies.

Send invitations in the mail body

Invitations are usually sent as attachments to a mail. When this option is enabled, invitation are sent in the text of the mail, which is necessary to send invitations and replies to Microsoft® Outlook.

Exchange compatible invitations naming

Microsoft® Outlook, when used in combination with a Microsoft® Exchange server, has a problem understanding standards-compliant groupware e-mail. Enable this option to send groupware invitations in a way that Microsoft® Exchange understands. The invitation will be sent as an attachment with name ical.ics.

Outlook compatible invitation reply comments

When the user provides comments when responding to invitations, send the comment in a way that Microsoft® Outlook understands. If this option is not enabled, the response comments will not be seen in Outlook.

Show invitation update differences in the Outlook style

When viewing updated invitations, this option enables the differences between the previous and current invitations to be displayed in a way very much like Microsoft® Outlook. This is the default. The user can turn this option off if they want to see the invitation update differences shown in the “classic” KMail style.

Automatic invitation sending

When this is checked, you will not see the mail composer window. Instead, all invitation mails are sent automatically. If you want to see the mail before sending it, you can uncheck this option. However, be aware that the text in the composer window is in iCalendar syntax, and you should not try modifying it by hand.

Delete invitation emails after the reply to them has been sent

When this is checked, received invitation emails that have been replied to will be moved to the Trash folder, once the reply has been successfully sent.