path: root/faq/en/sylpheed-faq.sgml

<!doctype linuxdoc system>
<article>
    <title>Sylpheed FAQ
    <author>Paul Kater (paul@nlpagan.net)
    and Jens Oberender (j.obi@troja.net)
    <abstract>
       Sylpheed FAQ (for version 0.5.2)
    </abstract>
<toc>
<p>
This FAQ consists of the following sections:
<sect>
Sylpheed FAQ - General information

<sect1>
Q01  Are there FAQ's in other languages?<p>
A.   Yes, at the bottom of this page there are links to
     several translations already, including french, italian
     and japanese.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q02  What is Sylpheed?<p>
A.   Sylpheed is an e-mail client (& news reader) based on
     GTK+, running on the X Window System, and aiming for
     <itemize>
     <item>Quick response
     <item>Graceful, and sophisticated interface
     <item>Easy configuration, intuitive operation
     <item>Abundant features
     </itemize>
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q03  Where can I get Sylpheed?<p>
A.   You can download it from <tt>http://sylpheed.good-day.net</tt>
     There are links to download the tarball sources, and
     also links to sites where you can download RPM's (for
     Redhat and Mandrake), DEB packages for Debian, and
     installations for Solaris and FreeBSD.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q04  Who writes Sylpheed?<p>
A.   Hiroyuki Yamamoto (<tt>hiro-y@kcn.ne.jp</tt>)
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q05  What does the name Sylpheed mean?<p>
A.   It means "light weight", like air. This comes from the
     name of the wind spirits, the Sylphs.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q06  How does Sylpheed store mails?<p>
A.   Mails are stored in the MH mailfile format as used by MH
     and EMH. Maildir and mbox format are not (yet)
     supported, although it is possible to import an mbox
     file into a Sylpheed mailbox.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q07  Why does the auto collection of mail not work?<p>
A.   Autocollection works since this version. If you need it
     or want it, you should upgrade.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q08  Does Sylpheed have mail filtering?<p>
A.   Yes. You can find it in Configuration -> common
     preferences -> filtering tab.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q09  Can Sylpheed handle IMAP mail?<p>
A.   Yes. As of version 0.4.99 IMAP is supported.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q10  Can Sylpheed handle local unix mailboxes?<p>
A.   Yes.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q11  Can Sylpheed handle IPv6?<p>
A.   Yes, IPv6 is fully supported in Sylpheed.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q12  Does Sylpheed support encryption like GPG?<p>
A.   Yes. GPG is implemented and works fine.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q13  How does Sylpheed check for MIME types?<p>
A.   Sylpheed uses the Mutt type of mime checking.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q14  Does Sylpheed allow me to write HTML styled messages?<p>
A.   No. A discussion has gone around over this topic, and
     the outcome was that HTML mail is not wanted. If you
     really need to send HTML, you can of course attach a
     webpage to an e-mail. Several patches have been made to
     facilitate better HTML handling in Sylpheed. You can
     find these patches at the Sylpheed Patch Page (see
     further down in the document).
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q15  Does Sylpheed have name completion in the address fields?<p>
A.   Yes. When you search for a name that starts with "<tt>don</tt>",
     type "<tt>don</tt>" (without the quotes) and press the TAB key.
     This will show you the correct name (when only one "don"
     exists in your addressbook. Otherwise a dropdown list
     appears, which allows you to select the name you want.
     E.g. Donald Duck, Don Johnson. But also e-mail addresses
     starting with "<tt>don</tt>" will appear in the list (like
     "<tt>don.giovanni@maffia.org</tt>").
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q16  Fine, but when I hit the TAB key I get an error message.<p>
A.   When you want to use name completion, make sure that
     there are names in your address book. If there are no
     names, even Sylpheed has a hard time completing
     something.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q17  Why is Sylpheed so fast?<p>
A.   That's what it is designed for!
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q18  Where can I get the current patches for Sylpheed?<p>
A.   The Sylpheed Patch homepage:
     <tt>http://www.teledix.net/sylpheed/</tt>
     (Also see section on Installation on how to install a
     patch)
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q19  How can I send in patches, report bugs, talk about Sylpheed with others?<p>
A.   To talk to others, you should join the Sylpheed mailing
     list at <tt>http://sylpheed.good-day.net</tt>. Note that there is
     a japanese and an english list, so pick the right one!
     If you have made a patch that you want the world to know
     of, please get in touch with the manager of the Sylpheed
     Patch homepage, at <tt>sylpheed@thewildbeast.co.uk</tt>
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q20  When I send mail, the Content-Type header says the mail is in US-ASCII, even when I specified ISO-8859-1?<p>
A.   If ISO-8859-1 characters (>= 0x80) are not used in the
     message body, Sylpheed will automatically set the
     charset value in the Content-Type header as US-ASCII.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q21  Why does it look like word wrap is not working?<p>
A.   Word wrapping is a bit peculiar perhaps. You can type
     lines as long as you like. By the time you send or queue
     a mail with long lines, Sylpheed will first wrap the
     lines to the line length you set up, and then the mail
     is queued. This is more convenient than you think. Once
     a line is wrapped (hard line breaks are inserted in the
     text) and you add something in a line there, the next
     line will move to a separate new line, leaving one or
     two words from the previous line "hanging there" alone.
     E.g.
<verb>
     This is a long line
     is wrapped.
</verb>
<p>
     Now you add one word in the first line:
<verb>
     This is a very long line
     that
     is wrapped
</verb>
<p>
     This would cause you a lot of manual reformatting to get
     a presentable mail again.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q22 Where can I find the latest FAQ on Sylpheed?<p>
A.   Go to <tt>http://nlpagan.net/sylpheedfaq.htm</tt> where the
     english FAQ is maintained. There you can also find
     links to the FAQ in other languages.
     <bf>New Address???</bf>
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q23  Can I import a mbox into Sylpheed's MH mailfolders?<p>
A.   Yes, just create/select the folder you want your
     mails in, and select "Import mbox file" in the File
     menu.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q24  Can I use procmail to sort my mails with the MH mail handling?<p>
A.   Yes. Check man procmail for details.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q25  When I upgrade Sylpheed, are there things I should be aware of?<p>
A.   Yes!<p>
     Upgrade to 0.4.50: you should reconfigure your newsgroup settings<p>
     Upgrade to 0.4.63: you should set the URL string colors from the Configuration menu.<p>
     Upgrade to 0.4.65: some menu items have been moved
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q26  How can I quickly update the views in Sylpheed?<p>
A.   Just press Alt-U or select "update" from the summary menu.
</sect1>
</sect>

<sect>
Sylpheed FAQ - Installation and Configuration

<sect1>
Q01  What does it take to compile Sylpheed?<p>
A.   Any POSIX compliant UNIX or similar OS eg. Linux,
     FreeBSD, Solaris
     GTK+ 1.2.6 or later
     A recent ANSI C compiler (gcc 2.7.2.3 should also
     work)
     Note: it is reported that Sun C will not compile
     Sylpheed.
     Optionally:
     <itemize>
     <item>Imlib or gdk-pixbuf (for built-in image view)
     <item>libcompface (for X-Face)
     <item>libjconv (for I18N)
     <item>GPGME (for GnuPG)
     <item>the equivalent of GTK+-devel and Xfree86-devel.
     </itemize>
     Otherwise ./configure will fail.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q02 How do I set up Sylpheed?<p>
A.   When you run Sylpheed for the first time, it will
     ask you where you want to store your mailboxes. The
     default is &lt;homedir&gt;/Mail. You can change this to
     anything you like as long as it is a valid directory
     name.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q03  How do I set up an account?<p>
A.   After loading Sylpheed for the first time, you can
     add an e-mail account by clicking the
     "Configuration" menu. Select the option "Create new
     account" and fill in the appropriate fields.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q04  How many accounts can I set up in Sylpheed?<p>
A.   The number is unlimited. The limit is reached when
     your computer stops responding.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q05 Why does Sylpheed not delete my mails when I press "delete"? I set a filter, and Sylpheed does not filter. I moved a mail to a different mailbox and it did not move.<p>
A.   You have to click the "execute" button.
     The other solution: in the configuration settings
     (common preferences -> interface tab) you have to
     check the "execute commands immediately" box.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q06  Can I set up special addresses/ports for my mailserver / newsserver?<p>
A.   Yes, you can. In the configuration per account you
     can specify the exact port addresses you want to
     use.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q07  Does Sylpheed have options for threading messages?<p>
A.   Yes. You can switch it on and off in the Summary
     Menu, just select "Thread View" or press Ctrl+T.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q08  Can I create multiple levels of subfolders to store mail?<p>
A.   Absolutely. This is no problem.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q09  Why isn't Sylpheed sending my mail out?<p>
A.   You need to create at least one account in order to
     send. (This is a wonderful gotcha on LAN installs
     with only a local mailbox feed).
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q10  How do I apply a patch after downloading it?<p>
A.   Copy patch to sylpheed directory
     Apply the patch:
<p>
     <tt>&percnt; patch -p0 &lt; some.patch</tt>
<p>
     Or, if it's gzipped:
<p>
     <tt>&percnt; gzip -dc some.patch.gz &verbar; patch -p0</tt>
<p>
     Run <tt>./autogen.sh</tt>, remove the generated <tt>/config.cache</tt>
     file (unless you want to install in prefix
     <tt>/usr/local</tt>).
     Run <tt>./configure</tt> with the appropriate options and
     then <tt>make</tt>.
     (Text as found on the Sylpheed patches page.)
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q11  How do I compile in support for compface pictures?<p>
A.   You have to have a package called ?libcompface?
     installed, so this is available for compiling into
     Sylpheed.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q12  How do I make my own compface image?<p>
A.   The faces package contains a program called xbm2ikon script,
     which converts a 48x48 xbm to the format suitable for
     compface.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q13 How can I tell my browser/newsclient/other program to use Sylpheed as e-mail program?<p>
A.  In the settings part of the program, write
       <tt>sylpheed --compose</tt>
</sect1>
</sect>

<sect>
Sylpheed FAQ - Interface

<sect1>
Q01  How do I make Sylpheed display my language?<p>
A.   You have to set some environment variables such as
     <tt>LANG,LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES</tt> to your local language.
     Usually <tt>LANG</tt> (or <tt>LC_ALL</tt>) is sufficient.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q02  I don't like the default font. Can I change that?<p>
A.   Yes. In Configuration->common preferences under the
     "Display" tab.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q03  There are too many columns in the message list!!<p>
A.   In Configuration->common preferences under the
     "Display" tab you can press the button "Set display
     item of summary". That pops up a screen with all the
     options you can show or leave out of the message
     list.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q04  Can I use a different editor to write my mails?<p>
A.   You can. In Configuration->common preferences under
     the "Other" tab you can define your editor of choice.
     Remember, if you want to use a command line editor
     like vi or emacs, to write the name of the shell
     (term, term, rxvt) with the -e parameter in front of
     the editor. E.g.: <tt>rxvt -e vi &percnt;s</tt>
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q05  How to change the font size in the Sylpheed interface?<p>
A.   You can set the GTK+ font by <tt>~/.gtkrc</tt>, or
     <tt>~/.gtkrc.mine</tt>,
     (which is included by <tt>~/.gtkrc</tt>).
     For example:
     <tt>style "default"
     {
     font =

"-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
"
     }
     widget_class "*"        style "default"</tt>
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q06  Sylpheed saves my outgoing mail (in Outbox). Can I make it stop doing that?<p>
A.   In Configuration->common preferences there's a
     checkbox "Save sent message to outbox". Uncheck it,
     and it's solved.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q07  How can I change the key-bindings (hot-keys) in Sylpheed?<p>
A.   That is very simple. Suppose you want to assign a
     shortcut key to a function, e.g. sending all mail
     out should start when you press Ctrl-Y. Click the
      Message' menu and move the mouse over "Send all
     messages". Now you press Ctrl-Y. Immediately the menu
     text is updated and the function is in place. Please
     note that a previous function that Ctrl-Y was
     assigned to, will no longer have a shortcut key. If
     you want to remove the key binding, do the same
     thing, but press the "delete" key on the menu-item.
     Then the key binding is removed.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q08  Can I close windows without the mouse?<p>
A.   Of course!! Not all windows, but by pressing ESCape,
     you can close the addressbook, the window of viewing
     a mail-source (message->view source), the window of
     viewing the headers, and several others. Just give
     it a try and you will find all of them.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q09  Can I change the way the date is displayed in the message summary?<p>
A.   As of 0.4.65 you can. The options are:
     &percnt;y = year in numbers     &percnt;m = month in number
     &percnt;d = day in numbers      &percnt;c = date/time for locale
     &percnt;A = full weekday name   &percnt;a = short month name
     &percnt;B = full month name     &percnt;b = short month name
     &percnt;H = hours in 24-clock   &percnt;I = hours in 12-clock
     For more information go to the configuration menu,
     select Common preferences / Display and move the
     mouse cursor over the input box for the date display
     format.
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q10  Why can?t I see the compface pictures?<p>
A.   You need to enable displaying of the header pane in the
     general preferences
</sect1>

<sect1>
Q11  I still can?t see the pictures. Why not?<p>
A.   You may not have compiled in Compface support. See Qxx
     in the Installation/Configuration section.
</sect1>
</article>