New Message...

The New Message composer window can be invoked in four different ways:

• File → New → New Message...

• Message → New Message...

• Via the New icon on the main toolbar.

• Via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N.

To write your message, fill in the appropriate fields in the composer window. Use the View menu to select which header fields are displayed. Any selection you make will remain as the default when you open a new composer window. These items are available.

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

• The Dictionary drop down box lets you choose a dictionary for spell checking.

• Sent-Mail Folder lets you specify where a local copy of this message will be saved when you send it.

• Mail Transport lets you select an outgoing mail server.

• The traditional From:, To:, and Subject: fields. (The Reply To: field will appear only if you have specified an alternative Reply To address on the Advanced tab in the Settings → Configure KMail... → Accounts → Identities dialog.)

• Use Fixed Font toggles fixed width fonts on and off.

• Snippets displays the snippets window, where you may save frequently used bits of verbiage.

There are a variety of shortcuts to help you select recipients. The Select... button next to the To:, CC:, and BCC: fields opens a list from KAddressBook so you can select one or more people who should receive this message.

Alternatively, when you start typing an address in one of the To:/CC:/BCC: fields, a popup will appear that suggests similar recently used addresses and closely matching addresses from KAddressBook; if you do not like this automatic popup, you can disable it by clicking the right mouse button in the field where you're typing, then choosing a different Text Completion > mode. You can also use this context menu to fine-tune the order in which suggested completions appear (via Configure Completion...).

Whenever you want to add more than one recipient in one of the fields, use a comma to separate one address from the next one. You may have 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, click the Send icon 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 it for later editing. If you want to print your message, select Message → Print Preview to preview the message, and Message → Print to print it.

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

 

File → New → Message From Template → My Super Template

Composing a new message from a template is useful when you have created a masterpiece that you would like to use as a template for future new messages. Select Message → Save as Template; this will place your new template in the templates folder. You can revise the template at any time by selecting it from this folder. Double click on the template's name (or press the shortcut key, T) to open it in a composition window. You may also select the template via the File menu, as shown above.

 

Any

KMail will use a format which is understood by all recipients of the message. The preferred format for each recipient can be specified via KAddressBook.

Inline OpenPGP (deprecated)

This format is deprecated, but is supported for backward compatibility. 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 when necessary, i.e. if you send messages to people who use email clients that cannot handle the more advanced formats.

OpenPGP/MIME

This format is the successor to 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 encryption.

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. It relies on an x.509 certificate, not a PGP / GPG key.

S/MIME opaque

This format is a variant of the S/MIME format. Because it rolls the message, any attachments, and the digital signature into a single MIME object, it is cpu-intensive and should only be used if necessary.

Folder → Move All Messages to Trash

Move all the 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

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: create new filters; move them up or down the list; copy one of them; delete them; or 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 before the filter is applied to them. You can select whether all of the defined rules must match, or whether a single match is enough. See Search Patterns below for a detailed description of each search rule type.

You can click on  +  to get an additional (initially empty) rule if you want to define more complex patterns, and on  −  to remove the selected rule. Clear clears the pattern, i.e., it removes all but one rule from the screen and resets it.

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  +  to get a new, empty action (if you want to define more than one action), and on  −  to remove the selected action. Clear clears the list, i.e. it removes all but one action and resets that one.

Advanced Options

In this group you can define a few advanced options that allow you to fine tune 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, or to particular incoming email accounts.

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 processed when 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 single filter to a message or a set of messages. If you select this option, you may optionally select a keyboard shortcut and insert a special icon to invoke this filter from the toolbar.

Another way of applying filters is to use the 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 specifies the If this filter matches, stop processing here option.

Complete Message

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

Body of Message

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

Anywhere in Headers

Searches all the headers in the message.

All Recipients

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

Size in Bytes

Sets upper or lower bounds on the message's size.

Age in Days

Sets upper or lower bounds on the message's age.

Message Status

Sets restrictions on the status of the message (Important / Read / Unread / etc. see Message → Mark Message >).

Message Tag

Checks for tagged messages. See Message → Mark Message >.

Encrypted

Checks for encrypted messages.

Any other value (From, To, Date, etc.)

Searches the header field with that name.

Move Into Folder

This will move the message into another folder, and remove it from its current folder.

Copy Into Folder

This will copy the message to another folder, and leave the message in the current folder.

Set Identity To

This will set the identity that will be used when 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.

Add Tag

This will add a tag to the message. You may choose from a list of all the tags that have been defined.

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 when you reply to the message. You may choose from a list of all your outgoing email accounts.

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 address you do not wish to use.

Forward To

This will forward the message inline (i.e. as if you selected Message → Forward → Inline...) to another email address. You may select a custom forwarding template if such a template has been defined. If KAddressBook is installed, you may choose the “Forward To” address from a pop-up window.

Redirect To

This will redirect the message as-is to another email address. If KAddressBook is installed, you may choose the “Redirect To” address from a pop-up window.

Confirm Delivery

Will return a message to the sender that verifies 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 do not recommend that you send them to everyone, since this makes tracking of spam messages very easy for the spammers.

Execute Command (for advanced users only)

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 wait until the program returns. If you do not want KMail to wait, append '&' to the command. You can feed the segments of the message into the program one by one: %0, %1, etc. stand for files representing the message segments. For common messages, %0 is the plain text message, %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 database, 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 may be performed on the command line.

Both the Anti-Spam Wizard and the Anti-Virus Wizard use the “Pipe Through” action to check for spam / malware. The commonly available anti-spam and anti-virus programs return the message, and insert an extra header record, if spam (or a virus) is detected.

Warning

Be cautious with this action, as it can damage 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. A browse button lets you choose a pre-recorded sound (e.g. .wav) file.

Add to Address Book

If KAddressBook is installed, this action will let you specify which header to scan (From, To, CC, or BCC), what tag to assign, if any, and which named address book to store the addresses in.

Delete Message

Deletes the selected message(s). Use this option cautiously. Deleted messages cannot be recovered.

Unset Status

This is the inverse of Mark As, above. Instead of marking the selected message as important, read, etc., this action will clear the specified flag.

Encrypt

Will encrypt the selected message(s) with the specified public key. You may choose from any public / private key pairs saved on your key ring.

Decrypt

Will decrypt the selected message(s). Use this action with caution. KMail will decrypt messages automatically when you open them for viewing, so you probably don't really need to use this action.

Stop filter processing as soon 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.

Try to keep the filter rules as simple as possible.

Check the order of your filters:

The various filter actions have different degrees of 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 allows 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 button to the right of Archive File.

Check the Delete folder and subfolders after completion button if you would like everything you archived deleted from the KMail database after the external archive has been saved. 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.

Tools → Import/Export KMail Data...

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

Tools → Export KMail Data...

If you used PIM Data Exporter to backup local email and / or settings, please use it again to restore data into KMail. See PIM Data Exporter for details.

Tools → Import from another Email Client...

This starts the import wizard and tries to automatically detect data from another email application. In case the mail data you want to import is not found, use the Manual Selection option.

File → Import Messages...

Starts the import wizard and lets you select the desired data manually.

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 the encrypted messages you send readable for you, too.

Store sent messages encrypted

When this box is checked, sent messages are stored encrypted, as they were sent. This is not recommended, as you will not be able to read the messages any longer if a necessary certificate expires. (Notice that GPG keys do not expire, as a general rule; this caution is primarily relevant for x.509 certificate users.)

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 the dialog only when it cannot find a key for a recipient or when there are conflicting or unset encryption preferences.

When saving as draft, always sign/encrypt as indicated

If this option is on, KMail will automatically encrypt (and / or sign) messages that you save in the drafts folder (when you specify signing / encryption).

Show sign/encrypt indicator in editor

If this option is on, KMail will display an indicator in the composition window to inform you that this message will be signed / encrypted whenever that is the case.

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?

All it can do is set up the filters for you; it will provide a standard setup. Manual modifications that have been applied to existing anti-spam filters are not recognized. Instead, such filters are overwritten by the wizard.

Bogofilter

Bogofilter is a Bayesian filter. Its spam detection ability relies on an initial training phase. On the other hand, it's a pretty fast tool. That's why it is recommended for people who want fast spam detection, and who aren't worried about putting some effort into the initial training, before the detection rate increases significantly.

SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin is a fairly 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 more 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 have already been scanned for spam. The result of that process is documented in a special header field in each message. It's possible to use the content of this header field to filter out spam. There is very little slowdown in the filtering when this tool is used, as the messages have already been processed by the external email server.

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?

All it can do is set up the filters for you; it will provide a standard setup. Manual modifications that have been applied to existing anti-virus filters are not recognized. Instead, such filters are overwritten by the wizard.

With empty fields

All fields of the new identity will be cleared, or preset with standard values.

Use System Settings values

Uses the values from your default identity.

Duplicate existing identity

Copies all fields from an existing identity. You may 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 mandatory, you should enter your name 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 also belong to this identity (as opposed to representing a different identity). You may define multiple aliases. To add another alias. enter an email address in the Email aliases: field, then click the + Add button

Example 4.2. Email aliases

Primary address: first.last@example.org

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

OpenPGP signing key:

Here you may select an OpenPGP key for signing messages written with this identity in effect. For brevity, only the short key id of selected keys is shown. Hovering over the item will display more information in a tooltip. To select an existing key, use the drop down list. If you wish to create a new public / private key pair, select Generate a new key pair.

OpenPGP encryption key:

Here you may select an OpenPGP key for encrypting messages 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.

S/MIME signing certificate:

Here you may select an x.509 certificate used to sign messages written with this identity in effect. KMail cannot generate x.509 certificates. They are issued by certificate authorities. If you have added such a certificate to your key ring, KMail can import and use it.

S/MIME encryption certificate:

Here you may select an x.509 certificate for encrypting 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 the default cryptographic message format to use with this identity. You may either select one of the four formats supported by KMail, or leave the option at the recommended default setting of Any; this will choose the right format for each recipient you specify, and may create multiple copies of the message, some signed and/or encrypted with an x.509 certificate, and the others signed and/or encrypted with an OpenPGP key.

Automatically sign messages:

Checking this box causes KMail to affix your digital signature to messages composed by this identity unless this option is manually overridden in the Composer window.

Automatically encrypt messages:

Checking this box causes KMail to encrypt messages composed by this identity whenever such encryption is possible (unless overridden in the Composer window).

Reply-To address:

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

This field is 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 replies.

Note

Some mailing lists overwrite this header field with their post address (to ensure that replies go to the list instead of to individuals). So the reliability of this field is limited, and it should be used with caution.

CC addresses:

Optionally enter one or more addresses, separated by commas, to which carbon copies of your messages should be sent. When you compose a message with this identity, the CC field will be filled with these addresses.

BCC addresses:

Optionally enter addresses, separated by commas, to which blind copies of your messages should be sent. When you compose a message with this identity, the BCC field will be filled with these addresses. If you want to send a BCC to the same address for every identity you define, see the Headers tab of the Composer subset (create a custom BCC header).

Dictionary:

Select the default dictionary for the current identity.

Sent-mail folder:

Select the folder in which messages should be saved after sending them from 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. Then they can access sent 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 in which drafts should be saved 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. That way they can easily continue to work on their drafts from a different location.

Templates folder:

Select the folder in which templates should be saved when using this identity. Please see Compose from templates for more information about templates.

Outgoing Account:

Specify an alternative SMTP / sendmail® / Microsoft® Exchange server to be used when sending messages from 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.

Attach my vCard to message

Choose this option if you want to attach a vCard file to each message sent from this identity. A short dialog will ensue.

With empty fields

This option opens a dialog just like the KAddressBook Adding Contact Data dialog. Enter your name, email address, etc., then click OK to create a new vCard.

From existing vCard

This option opens a browse directories dialog which allows you to to select a .vcf file. (Hint: Use KAddressBook to export a vCard file that can be used here.)

Duplicate existing vCard

This option opens a drop down list of all the other identities already defined, so you may select the vCard associated with one of them.

 

Autocorrection language:

Use the drop down list to select the language associated with the optional autocorrection tool when using this identity.

Default domain:

This field is filled with the value from the hostnames file (in /etc) by default. The Composer will append this domain name to any purely local email address you specify. This feature is primarily useful in a sendmail® environment.

Example 4.3. Default domain

Default domain set to kde.org; "To:" address set to foo.

Composer sends the message to foo@kde.org.

Original Message > / Current Message >

These commands extract information from the message you're replying to, or forwarding, and insert that information into the composition window.

Process with External Programs >

These commands will pipe the message to which you are responding through an external program, then insert the output into KMail's composition window.

Miscellaneous >

These commands perform functions like choosing the dictionary the spell checker should use, or inserting the contents of a text file into the composition window.

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.

Obtain picture from:

This drop down list gives you two ways to select an image.

External Source (the default)

Select File...

Use this button to select an image file from which to create the picture. Use a high-contrast image that is square, or nearly square. A light background helps improve the result.

Set From Address Book

You may use this button to create a scaled-down version of the picture you have set in your own address book entry.

Input Field Below

Use this option to enter an arbitrary X-Face string. Examples are available at https://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 may also send the queued messages manually via File → Send queued messages.

On All Mail Checks

Queued messages will be sent after every check for new mail, i.e., after automatic mail checks, and also after manual mail checks. Of course, you may also send the queued messages manually via File → Send queued messages.

Default aggregation: (drop down list)

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 that arrived today. The groups are displayed by default in reverse chronological order, and labeled "Today", "Yesterday", then the preceding five days of the week, followed by mm/dd/yy.

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 that arrived today and all the threads that have been active today. Uses the same grouping as Activity by Date, Flat.

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 that arrived today. The groups are displayed by default in reverse chronological order: "Today", "Yesterday", the five preceding days of the week, "Last Week", "Two Weeks Ago", and then month by month.

Current Activity, Threaded

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

Flat Date View

This is a plain, old-fashioned list of messages sorted by date. No groups and no threading.

Senders/Receivers, Flat

This view groups the messages by senders or receivers (depending on the folder type). You may specify senders (or receivers) in the Folders → Folder Properties dialog ("View" tab, Show Column:). Messages are not threaded.

Standard Mailing List

This is a plain, old-fashioned mailing list view: no groups and heavy threading, ordered by the date each thread began.

Thread Starters

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

Configure... button

To create a custom aggregation theme, click the Configure... button. Select an existing aggregation similar to the one you want to create, then click 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 lets you configure several elements to customize your aggregation.

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

• Group expand policy: lets you set whether KMail will automatically expand grouped emails, or not.

• Threading: allows you to decide if KMail will include references and subject to determine perfect threading. You may also turn off threading altogether.

• Thread leader: lets you change the leader of the thread: most recent message, or the first one.

• Thread expand policy: allows you to change how KMail determines whether a thread should be expanded.

The Advanced tab lets you change the Fill view strategy: Choose "Favor speed" if you have a slow connection. "Interactivity" will show all of your current conversations first. "Batch" mode will not do any sorting.

Default Theme: (drop down list)

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... button

To create a custom message list theme, click the Configure... button. Select an existing theme similar to the one you want to create, then click 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 lets you configure visible columns and status items. To add a column, right click the column bar and select Add Column. Name the column, then select what the column will represent from the Header click sorts messages: drop down list. Visible by default is automatically checked. Uncheck it if you only want the column to be available on the context menu for the clickable sort bar. 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 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 via the right mouse button menu on the column bar.

The Advanced tab lets you show headers. You may also change the size of status icons.

Change text color:

Select this option to display tagged message list entries in a different color. A color palette will be presented when you choose this option. Select a preset color, or choose "Custom..." for more flexibility.

Change background color:

Choose this option to alter the background color of tagged message list entries.

Change font:

You may select either a bold or italic type face.

Message tag icon:

Click this button to open an icon selection dialog. The icon will be displayed on tagged message list entries.

Shortcut:

Use this button to create a keyboard shortcut for associating this tag with selected messages.

Enable toolbar button:

Select this option to add a new button to the KMail toolbar. Clicking the button will tag the currently selected message.

Automatically insert signature

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

Insert signature above quoted text

If checked, KMail will insert your signature at the top of the composer window, and not at the bottom.

Prepend separator to signature

If checked, KMail will insert "-- " (dash dash space) before your signature if your signature does not begin that way. (This separator line is a de facto internet standard.)

Remove the signature when replying

If checked, KMail will remove the signature from the original message when you compose a reply. Of course, if you have not selected the signature and the Only quote selected text ... option has been checked, KMail will omit the signature without referring to this setting.

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(s) to which you are actually replying. If this option is checked and you select nothing, KMail will quote the entire message.

Use smart quoting

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

Word wrap at column:

If checked, the word wrap option (Options → Wordwrap in the composer window) will be selected automatically. Use the spin box to set the maximum line length.

Reply or forward using the same visual format as the original message (plain text or HTML)

If checked, KMail will always enable the rich text editing toolbar if the message to which you are responding contains an HTML MIME header. If this option is not selected, the composer retains the toolbar state from the previous session.

Improve plain text version of HTML message

If checked, KMail will append footnotes to the plain text version of every message composed in HTML. These plain text footnotes will be clickable links pointing to any resources coded as anchor tags (aka links) in the HTML version of the message.

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 request them only when necessary.

Use addresses indexed from emails for autocompletion

If checked, KMail will include the addresses from all your saved messages in the list of autocompletion targets (e.g., when you start typing in the To: input field). These will appear as "Contacts found in your data". If you switch this off, only the matching KAddressBook entries and "Recent Addresses" will appear in the list. Use the spin box to limit the number of items displayed in the list.

Use recent addresses for autocompletion

If checked, KMail will include the addresses that have been used recently in the list of autocompletion targets (e.g., when you start typing in the CC: input field). These will appear as "Recent Addresses". If you switch this off, only the matching KAddressBook entries and "Contacts found in your data" will appear in the list. Use the spin box to limit the number of items considered "Recent".

Configure Completion ... button

Click on this button to open the autocompletion configuration dialog. You may adjust the order in which items appear, add or remove "Recent" addresses, and create a blacklist of addresses that should never appear as autocompletion targets. Notice that this dialog may also be invoked from a context menu by clicking the right mouse button in, say, the "To:" field of the composer.

Autosave interval

A backup copy of the text in the composer window is by default created regularly. This option lets you specify how often a backup copy is created. You can disable autosaving by selecting "No autosave".

Autocorrect Options

Simple Autocorrection

This allows you to configure KMail to automatically correct various common typographical errors. Check the boxes next to the autocorrection features you want.

Custom Quotes

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

Advanced Autocorrection

You can customize automatic word replacement by selecting this option. To enter a custom string that will be replaced automatically, enter the word to be replaced in the Find box and enter the replacement word in the Replace box, then click the Add button. To remove a custom word from the list, highlight that entry and click Remove.

Exceptions

This dialog lets you create exceptions where you can tell KMail to ignore some periods (end of sentence) and two uppercase letters (e.g., KMail). Enter the exception and click the Add button. To remove the exception, highlight the string and click Remove.

General

There are three options under "General". If you want to preserve the aspect ratio of all images, select Keep ratio. KMail by default asks you if you want to resize before resizing. If you want the program to resize images without asking, unselect Ask before resizing. KMail will by default send the resized image in JPG format. If you would rather have such images sent in PNG format, select that from the Fallback to format: drop down box.

Image

Suppose you have a relative who can only receive image files of a certain size because of their email provider's limits. You can use the Reduce image to maximum dimension: option to select a size to shrink the image to, and enter their email into the filters on the Recipients tab. (The Recipients tab is discussed in further detail below.) If you need a custom size, choose the last option Custom from the width and height drop down boxes, and enter a number of pixels in the text box. You may also enlarge images by selecting Enlarge image to minimum dimension. The last option allows you to skip resizing images that are smaller than the specified file size.

Filename

Source filter

If you would like the resizing to be done based on the name of the file, select the appropriate filter here. Suppose you need to send your boss multiple images daily, and your boss requires all of them to be the same size. You could name 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 click the Select Format... button, then 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 may use:

%t set current time

%d set current date

%n original filename

%e original extension

%x new extension

Recipients

This tab is where you specify recipients who need to receive resized images. You must decide if you need multiple entries or only one, and enter the email(s) into the text box using the “;” as a separator when there are multiple items. You may also specify certain recipients for whom images ought not be resized. The default is no filtering.

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 by clicking the plain message/HTML message toggle bar on the left hand side of the preview pane.

Allow messages to load external references from the Internet

If checked, KMail can load external images, style sheets, etc. from the Internet when you view an HTML message. We strongly recommend that you leave this option off (although it has no effect until you enable HTML).

By adding external references to their messages, people sending spam can detect when you have looked at their message, your location, and a lot of other information that may get logged on web servers. Note that this option has no effect on Java™ or JavaScript, as these are not supported in KMail at all.

Informs if message reading is a suspected email scam

As email has become more popular, email scams have proliferated. Email scams may include emails made to appear as if they come from legitimate companies, even though they really link to malicious web sites requesting your personal information. This may lead to identity theft, and worse. By default KMail analyzes messages for common scams, and will inform you if a message is a suspected scam. We recommend that you keep this feature enabled. If you wish to disable these warnings, uncheck Informs if message reading is a suspected email scam.

If legitimate emails are being flagged, (e.g., from trusted friends), you can add their email addresses to the Whitelist: by clicking the Add... button and entering an address into the dialog that pops up. Please note that at this time, only complete email addresses can be whitelisted.

Check URL with Phishing Google System

Select this option to force KMail to consult Google's database of suspected phishing web sites when URLs are embedded in a message, and to warn you whenever a match is found.

Scan emails for tracking URLs

By default, KMail will automatically check URLs embedded in HTML messages, and warn you if any of them appear to be trying to track you.

Attempt decryption of encrypted messages when viewing

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

Automatically import keys and certificate

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 does not affect that. It is also unrelated to GPG's auto-key-retrieve feature, where GPG will try to import unknown keys from a key server.

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 email 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” (i.e., 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 MDNs 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 message has been acted upon; he just cannot tell whether it was deleted or read, etc.

Always send

Always sends the requested disposition notification. This 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. Then, if you find KMail's 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 with MDNs.

Nothing

No parts of the message other than the mandatory message-id and the original recipient are included in the MDN reply. This preserves enough information for the sender to uniquely identify the message 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 (and not just the headers) with 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 this option set to the default value (nothing).

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 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 a choice: either to send them when requested (option unchecked), or never (option checked).

If unsure, leave this option checked (the default value).

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 any more.

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 may 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 encryption 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 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.

GnuPG Settings ...

Click on this button to open an extensive dialog which configures the interactions between KMail and GPG, the Gnu Privacy Guard program. GPG is too complex to document here. For details you should refer to The GNU Privacy Handbook. Unless you're an encryption expert, you probably ought to accept the default settings here.

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

Apart from the main warnings described above, there are many warning and informational messages, each containing an option not to show them again. If you would like to re-enable these messages after suppressing them, you can achieve that by pressing this button. ^[4]

Validate certificates using CRLs

If checked, S/MIME certificates are validated using Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs). This is the default configuration option.

Validate certificates online (OCSP)

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

OCSP responder URL:

Enter the address of the server for online validation of certificates. This URL usually starts with https://.

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, such 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 the location of your HTTP Proxy here, which will be used for all HTTP requests relating to S/MIME. The syntax is “host:port”, for example, 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.

Exclude important messages from expiry

Enable this option if important messages should never be deleted automatically.

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.

When entering a folder

This option controls what happens when you open a folder.

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

• If Jump to Last Selected Message is selected, KMail will select the message that had been selected when the folder was most recently open.

• If Jump to Newest Message is selected, KMail will select the newest message.

• If Jump to Oldest Message is selected, KMail will select the oldest message.

Mark selected message as read after...

When you select a new or unread message, KMail will change the message's status to read after this many seconds. If you disable this option, messages will retain their new or unread status until you adjust it manually (via the Folder menu).

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 when 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 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.

Allow deleting messages without confirmation

KMail's default behavior is to ask for confirmation when deleting a message. Select this option if you wish to skip that verification step. (Note that the Delete function is not accessible from KMail's menus. But you can add a Delete button to the toolbar via the Settings → Configure Toolbars ... dialog.)

Mangle From:/To: headers in replies to invitations

Enable this option to make Microsoft® Outlook understand your reply to an invitation.

Send invitations in the mail body

Invitations are usually sent as attachments to a message. When this option is enabled, invitations are sent in the body of the message. This is necessary when sending 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 format that Microsoft® Exchange can decipher. The invitation will be sent as an attachment named ical.ics.

Delete invitation emails after the reply to them has been sent

When this option is checked, invitations that have been replied to will be moved to the Trash folder as soon as the reply has been sent.

Print only selected text

Enable this option to allow printing of only the selected portion of a message. The default value disables this feature, so the entire message is printed by default.

Respect expand/collapse quote marks settings

This option is intended to interact with the Show expand/collapse quote marks feature of the Appearance/General tab, but it is not currently functioning correctly. In other words, there's a bug.

Print background color and images

Like the preceding option, there is a bug here, so KMail always prints images, no matter how this option flag is set.

Always show encryption/signature details

Enable this option to make KMail print encryption details for encrypted and/or digitally signed messages.