Main Window Folder Menu

This section describes the options available in the Folder pull-down menu. To see the Folder pull-down menu options, click the Folder button, or type Meta-O. The following menu appears:

Figure: Folder Pull-down Menu

The Folder pull-down menu contains options for managing your mail folders. From the Folder pull-down menu, you can make a mail folder active, create new mail folders, open, close, and save changes to mail folders, and select or deselect mail folders.

Message folders are files that contain one or more mail messages. The system folder, called the In-Box, is the default mailbox. It is opened and displayed when you launch Ishmail. Incoming mail messages are stored in the In-Box until you delete them or move them to a different folder. Each Ishmail user has a unique In-Box.

Ishmail can work with three different types of folder formats, which together are the most commonly used among mail programs. You should be able to use existing mail folders created by most other mail programs. The supported folder formats are:

See Folder Preferences Option for more information about folder formats.

You can create other folders and use them for organizing messages. The folders can exist anywhere in the file system that you have read/write privileges, and you can assign to them any name you wish within the limits of your operating system's file naming conventions. The file system directory structure can be used to provide a hierarchy for collections of folders.

NOTE:
Security and access privileges for folders are the same as those provided for files in the UNIX file system. Ishmail does not provide any additional access controls or security.

Folder Menu Options

To choose an option in the Folder pull-down menu, either click on the option, type its associated mnemonic (the underscored letter in the option's name) or type its associated Ctrl-key sequence. Some Folder options have an additional cascading menu and/or dialog window. Folder options are:

New ...
Creates a new mail folder or a folder directory. Selecting the New ... option opens the Create New Folder window, in which you can enter the name of the new mail folder or folder directory and select the folder type or directory type. The Create New Folder window is a file selection window that is used by other similar Ishmail menu options.

Figure: Create New Folder Window

  • The Create New Folder window has radio buttons which let you choose one of the three possible formats for the folder. A UNIX-type folder is a file containing one or more mail messages. Use this folder type if you want the mail folder to be usable by other mail tools such as mailx or elm.

  • An MMDF-type folder is a file containing one or more mail messages. Use this folder type if you want the folder to be usable by other mail tools such as MMDF.

  • An MH-type folder is a directory containing files, each of which is a mail message. Use this folder type if you want the mail folder to be usable by other mail tools such as mh, xmh, or exmh.

Next, enter the new folder name in the New Folder Name text field. You can also click the Show list button to see the directory listing.

NOTE:
See Using the File Selection Window for information about how to use the file selection window.

You can also create a folder using either the Save -> To folder option or the Save -> To file option in the Message pull-down menu.

Open ->
This option launches the Select Folders Window, in which you specify the names of one or more folders you want to open. You can either type the names of the folders or click the Show List option to select from the list of folders. (See Using the File Selection Window.)

When you open multiple folders, an icon representing each folder is added to the Open Folders area. The first folder in the group automatically becomes the active folder.

NOTE:
Ishmail supports three types of folders: UNIX-type, MMDF-type, and mh-type. UNIX-type and MMDF-type folders are files which contain one or more mail messages. mh-type folders are directories which contain one or more files, each of which is a single mail message. If you are using mh-type folders, you will see their names in both the Directories list and the Folders list. You can open an mh-type folder from either list, but it is preferable to open from the Folders list.

TIPS:

  1. You can use a + (plus sign) or = (equal sign) at the beginning of the name to refer to you folder directory. For example: =folder is the same as $HOME/Mail/folder.

  2. If you type a relative path name, it is resolved relative to your home directory. For example: dir/folder is the same as $HOME/dir/folder.

  3. You can use wildcard characters and shell environment variables in the names, which are expanded by your login shell. For example: $HOME/Mail/ishmail* will open all folders with names beginning with ishmail in your $HOME/Mail directory.

  4. You can refer to multiple folders by typing a carriage return between names.

  5. If you are not using mh-style mail folders you may find it confusing to see folder directories in the both the Directories list and in the Folders list of the Select Folders dialog. Conversely, if you are using mh-style folders you may find it confusing to see non-directory files in the Folders list. You can control which types of names are shown in the Folders list by selecting options in the Folder Preferences dialog window. (See Folder Preferences Option for more information.)

Figure: Select Folders Window

The window also contains two radio buttons which offer the choice to Open and activate or Open only. If you choose Open only, icons representing the folders are added to the Open Folders area but the corresponding folder files are not opened. If you choose Open and activate the corresponding folder files are opened. The Open only option is provided to improve performance if you are adding icons for many folders, or for large folders, to the Open Folders area. You can subsequently activate any folder which has been opened.

Open (Recent)
This option provides a quick way to access folder names. Slide the mouse cursor to the right to see a list of the most recently used folder names. See Application Preferences Option to change the number of names that are kept in the list. The default is 10.

Open (List)
Slide the mouse cursor to the right to see a list of all the folder names in your folder directory (typically $HOME/Mail). See Application Preferences Option to specify your folder directory.

WARNING:
If you have many folders in you folder directory, there will be a pause (up to several seconds) as the list of names is built. This "quick access" option may not be very quick if you have a large number of folders.

TIP:
You can tear off the folder name list by clicking the dotted line at the top of the menu. This leaves the list displayed even after you click a name in the list.

Activate ->
Selectively activates folders which you opened using the Open only option in the Select Folders Window dialog. The Open only option is provided to improve performance when you are opening many folders or large folder.

Selecting the Activate -> option causes a cascading menu to be displayed from which you can choose one of two selection options:

In-Box
Makes the In-Box the active folder.

Selected
Makes a selected inactive folder the active folder.

Save ->
Saves any changes you've made to one or more folders.

When you Save changes, Ishmail makes permanent any changes you have made to the status of messages (for example, reading a new message, so that its status changes from New to Read), and any alterations you have made to the active folder (such as deleting or undeleting messages).

Selecting the Save -> option causes a cascading menu to be displayed from which you can choose one of three selection options:

Current folder
Save changes to the folder currently displayed in the Folder Contents area.

Selected folders
Save changes to folders you have selected (highlighted) in the Open Folders area.

All folders
Save changes to all folders in the Open Folders area. Only those folders which have been changed are saved.

Reread ->
This option causes Ishmail to discard its internal cache of information about the folder and re-read the folder file.

Ishmail keeps a cache of information about folders in order to improve performance when accessing a folder. However, this information can become out of date if changes to the folder are made by another mail program. Typically, Ishmail will detect that the information is out of date and rebuild the cache automatically. This option assures you that the cached information is correct by telling Ishmail to rebuild the cache explicitly.

Selecting the Reread -> option causes a cascading menu to be displayed from which you can choose one of three selection options:

Current folder
Rebuild the cache for the folder currently displayed in the Folder Contents area.

Selected folders
Rebuild the cache for the folders you have selected (highlighted) in the Open Folders area.

All
Rebuilt the cache for all folders in the Open Folders area.

NOTE:
Ishmail saves cached information about folders in files, so that it can open the folder more quickly the next time you start the program or open the folder. These files are kept in the same directory as the corresponding folder. The name of the file is the folder name with a . (period) prefix and a -toc suffix. For example: The folder sample will have a cache file called .sample-toc. You can delete these files if you wish. The effect will be that Ishmail must rebuild the cache the next time the folder is opened.

Close ->
Closes one or more mail folders. Selecting the Close -> option causes a cascading menu to be displayed from which you can choose one of three selection options:

Current folder
Closes the currently active folder, causing its icon to be removed from the Open Folders viewing area. The In-Box then becomes the active folder and its contents are displayed in the Folder Contents viewing area.

If any changes you have made to the current folder are outstanding, a confirmation dialog window asks if you wish to save the changes before closing the folder.

Selected
Closes one or more selected folders, causing their icons to be removed from the Open Folders viewing area. If a selected folder is currently active, the In-Box then becomes the active folder by default, and its contents are displayed in the Folder Contents viewing area.

If any changes you have made to the selected folder(s) are outstanding, a dialog window asks if you wish to save the changes before closing the folder.

You cannot close the In-Box except by exiting from the program.

All
Close all the folders in the Open Folders area.

You cannot close the In-Box except by exiting from the program.

Delete ->
Delete one or more mail folders, and also remove the corresponding folder cache file.

Selecting the Delete -> option causes a cascading menu to be displayed from which you can choose one of three selection options:

Current folder
Close and delete the folder currently displayed in the Folder Contents area.

Selected folders
Delete the folders you have selected (highlighted) in the Open Folders area.

All folders
Delete all folders in the Open Folders area.

Select All
Selects all open folders (except the In-Box).

Deselect All
Reverses the selection of all selected folders.

Preceding Section: Main Window File Menu
Following Section: Using the File Selection Window
Parent Section: Ishmail Main Window
Contents of Ishmail User's Guide