# Advanced Configuration

Perhaps your mail server has changed names. Perhaps you've grown tired of a certain layout for your appointments. Whatever the reason, you want to change your Evolution settings. This chapter will tell you how to do just that.

You can reach the Evolution settings window by choosing Tools Settings, no matter where you are in Evolution. On the left half of the settings window is a column, similar to the Evolution shortcut bar, which lets you choose which portion of Evolution to customize. The right half of the window is where you'll make your actual changes.

## Changing Mail Settings

Changing Mail Settings

There are eight items you can customize. From top to bottom, they are:

Mail Accounts

- Here, add or change information about your email accounts: the servers to which you connect, the way you download mail, your password authentication mode, and so forth. This is the most complex item in the list, and is covered in config-prefs-mail-identity.

Folder Settings

- Here, you can choose the default folders for various components of Evolution, the folders that will be cached locally when you go to offline mode, and the folders that Evolution will use when it is searching for autocompletion information as you address a mail.

Mail Preferences

- These are overall mail reading preferences: display settings, notification options, security, and so forth. Settings that vary per-account are in the Mail Accounts tool, described in config-prefs-mail-identity, but most of the mail settings are here.

Composer Preferences

- Settings for the way that you use the mail composer: shortcuts, signatures, spelling, and so forth. One fun feature here is the ability to substitute graphical smiley-faces for "emoticons" such as :) that many people use in email. This tool is covered in config-prefs-mail-composer.

Calendar and Tasks

- Here, you can set the way the calendar behaves, including your time zone and the length of your work-week.

Exchange Delegation

- This item will only appear if you have Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange installed. It will allow you to choose who has access to your Exchange account. This feature is covered in exchange-delegate.

Directory Servers

- This item allows you to enter account information for connecting to remote directory (LDAP) servers.

Out of Office

- This item will only appear if you have Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange installed. It allows you to create and remove automatic "vacation" messages. For information about how to use this feature, read exchange-out-of-office.

## Working with Mail Accounts

Ximian Evolution allows you to maintain multiple accounts, or identities. This is useful want to keep personal and professional email separate, or if you wear several hats at work. When you are writing an email message, you can which account to use by selecting from the drop-down list next to the From entry in the message composer.

Clicking Send/Receive will refresh any IMAP, `mh`, or `mbox` listings and check and download mail from all POP servers. In other words, Send/Receive gets your mail, no matter how many sources you have, or what types they are. If you don't want to check mail for a given account, select it in the Mail Accounts tab and click the Disable button.

To add a new account, simply click Add to open the mail configuration assistant. To alter an existing identity, select it in the Preferences window, and then click Edit to open the account editor dialog.

The account editor dialog has six sections:

Identity

- Here, enter the name, email address, and other identifying information for the account. You may also choose a default signature to insert into messages sent from this account.

Receiving Mail

- Here, select the way you will be getting mail: you may download mail from a server (POP), read and keep it on the server (Microsoft Exchange or IMAP), or read it from files that already exist on your desktop computer. If you use a server, it may permit or require you to use a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection. To turn SSL connections on, just click the Use Secure Connection (SSL) button.

  ### Specifying Port Numbers

  Your system administrator may ask you to connect to a specific port on a mail server. To specify which port you use, just type a colon and the port number after the server name. For example, to connect to port 143 on the server smtp.omniport.com, you would enter as `smtp.omniport.com:143` as the server name.

Receiving Options

- Here, decide whether you'd like to check for mail automatically and how often, as well as other message retrieval options.

  If you chose POP:

- - Checking for new mail: If you would like Evolution to check for new mail automatically, check the box and select a frequency in minutes.

  - Leave messages on server: If you'd like to store copies of your mail on the server, check this option.

  - Disable support for all POP3 extensions: Some email servers refuse to work with the extended POP3 command set; select this item to have Evolution use a more limited set of interactions with the server. If your server periodically drops your connection, this option may help.

If you chose Microsoft Exchange:

- - Checking for new mail: If you would like Evolution to check for new mail automatically, check the box and select a frequency in minutes.

  - Global Catalog server name: enter the name of your Global Catalog server to create a folder for your organization's Global Address List.

  - Limit number of Responses: Select a maximum number of results for an address search. Lowering the maximum number the load on your system and on your network. Most servers will not send more than 1000 results, regardless of the value you select here.

  - Mailbox Name: Enter your mailbox name.

  - OWA Path: Enter the path used with Outlook Web Access on your server.

  - Public Folder Server: Enter the name of your public folder server, if it differs from your Exchange server.

  - Apply Filters to new messages in Inbox on this server: check this box if you wish to apply filters to this account.

If you chose IMAP:

- - Checking for new mail: If you would like Evolution to check for new mail automatically, check the box and select a frequency in minutes.

  - If you want Evolution to check for new messages in all your IMAP folders, make sure the Check for new messages in all folders box is selected.

  - Show only subscribed folders: Check this box if you have more folders in your IMAP view than you want to read.

  - Override server-supplied namespace: If you like, enter a specific directory where your server stores mail for you. Typical values are "mail" and "Mail." For more information about how to use IMAP mail, see usage-mail-subscriptions.

  - Apply filters to new messages in INBOX on this server: If you'd like your filters to work on this account, check this box.

Sending Mail

- In this section, you will choose and configure a method for sending mail. You may choose SMTP, Microsoft Exchange (if you have purchased the Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange) or sendmail.

  If you choose Exchange or Sendmail, you're done with this tab. SMTP offers you a choice of hostname, connection security level, and authentication type, which you will recognize as similar to those for IMAP and POP servers in the Receiving Mail tab.

Defaults

- Here, you can decide where this account will store the messages that it has sent, and the messages that you save as drafts. If you wish to revert to the "factory" settings, click the Restore Defaults button.

  If you wish to send someone a copy of every message from this account, check the box labeled Always carbon-copy (Cc) to: or Always blind carbon-copy (Bcc) to:, and enter one or more addresses.

Security

- In this section, you will set the security options for this account. If you use encryption, enter your PGP key id (see encryption for more information) and select among the four options below to determine key and signature handling.

## Folder Settings

There are three sets of folder options. In the first, Default Folders, select which folders will be your usual mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks folders. When you save a contact or appointment attached to an email, it will be stored in your default contact or calendar folder.

The Offline Folders are the ones that will be cached when you activate the Go Offline feature.

Select one or more folders of contacts for your Autocompletion Folders. When you type a few letters into the message composer address fields, Evolution will look for matches in the folders you choose here.

## Mail Preferences

The Mail Options tool lets you choose how to display citations, how long to wait before marking a message as read, and other mail display settings. There are three categories of settings: General, HTML Mail, and Colors.

For information on individual email account settings, see config-prefs-mail-identity.

In the General tab, your options are:

Message Fonts

- Normally, Evolution will use the same fonts as other GNOME applications. To choose different fonts, uncheck the box Use the same fonts as other applications and select one font for standard typefaces and a second for monospace, or terminal, display.

Message Display

- These three settings handle the way messages appear to you.

  Mark Messages as Read...

- Normally, Evolution will mark a message as read as soon as it is displayed. If you prefer, you may set this to happen only after a delay, or disable it entirely and mark messages as read only when you choose to do so.

Default Character Encoding

- This setting allows you to select character interpretation sets so that Evolution can display different alphabets. If you are not sure, pick Unicode (UTF-8), which will work for a large number of languages and character sets.

Highlight Quotations

- Choose a color to highlight quotations from other messages.

Deleting Mail

- Here, choose whether to delete messages automatically when quitting Evolution, and whether you wish to explicitly confirm the final deletion of messages.

New Mail Notification

- Evolution can alert you to the arrival of new mail with a beep or by playing a sound file. Choose your alert noise, or select none, as you wish.

The options in the HTML Mail tab are:

Loading Image

- You can embed a image in an email and have it load only when the message arrives. However, spammers can use image loading patterns to confirm "live" addresses and invade your privacy. You may elect never to load images automatically, to load images only if the sender is in your contacts, or always load images.

  If you have chosen not to load images automatically, you can choose to see the images in one message at a time by selecting View Message Display Load Images.

Show animated images

- Turn animation on or off here.

Prompt when sending HTML messages to contacts that don't want them

- Some people do not like HTML mail, and you can set Evolution to warn you. This warning will appear only when you send HTML mail to people in your contacts who are listed as disliking HTML.

The Colors tab lets you select different color labels for individual messages. You can return to the default settings by clicking the Restore Defaults button.

## Composer Preferences

There are three tabs of settings you can change for the message composer. The General tab covers shortcuts and assorted behavior, and the other two control signatures and spell checking. In the General tab, you can set:

Default Behavior

- Choose how you will normally forward and reply messages, what character set they will use, whether they will be in HTML, and whether that HTML can contain smiley face images.

Alerts

- There are two optional alerts here:

  Prompt when sending messages with an empty subject line

- The composer will warn you if you try to send a message without a subject.

Prompt when sending messages with only Bcc recipients defined

- The composer will warn you if you try to send a message that has only Bcc recipients. This is important because some mail servers will fail to honor blind carbon copy if you do not have at least one recipient that is visible to all readers.

The signature editor allows you to create several different signatures in plain text or in HTML, and to specify which of them will be added to emails you create in the message composer. If you prefer to use an alternate signature or none at all, you can select it from the mail composer itself.

In the spell-checking tool, you can set spelling options, including the language or languages you will use. Note that you must install the gnome-spell package, available through Red Carpet, for spell-checking to be available in Evolution. Alternate dictionaries are also available through Red Carpet and are detected automatically if you have installed them.

You can check the spelling of messages by selecting Edit Spell Check Document. Alternately, in the Evolution main window select Tools Settings, click on the Composer preferences icon, then select the Spell Checking tab and check the Check spelling while I type box, and choose a color for your misspelled words.

## Calendar and Tasks Settings

The calendar configuration tool has two tabs General and Display, and is illustrated in config-prefs-cal-fig.

### Calendar Preferences Dialog

Calendar Configuration

The General tab lets you set the following:

Time zone

- The city you're located in, to judge your time zone.

Time format

- You may choose between twelve-hour (AM/PM) and twenty-four hour time formats here by clicking the appropriate radio button.

Work Week

- In the day and week views, Evolution displays all the hours in the range you select here, even if there are no appointments for those times. You can still schedule an appointment outside of these hours, and if you do, the display will be extended to show it.

Week Starts

- You can set weeks to start on Sunday or on Monday.

Day Begins

- Set the beginning of a normal workday. If you work odd hours, or want to make sure that your early-morning appointments are displayed, you may find this option useful.

Day Ends

- Set the end of a normal workday. If you work odd hours, or want to make sure that your evening appointments are displayed, you may find this option useful.

Alerts

- If you'd like to be warned before you delete any appointment, or to have a reminder automatically appear for each event, select the check boxes here.

The Display tab lets you choose how your appointments and tasks will appear in your calendar.

The display properties you can set are:

Time divisions

- Sets the time increments shown as fine lines on the daily view in the calendar.

Show appointment end times in week and month views

- If there is space, Evolution will show the end times in the week and month views for each appointment.

Compress weekends in month view

- If checked, your weekends will be shown in one box, instead of one for each day in the month view.

Show week numbers in date navigator

- This will show the week numbers next to the respective weeks in the calendar.

Tasks due today

- Select the color for tasks due today.

Overdue tasks

- Choose the color for overdue tasks.

Hide Completed Tasks

- Check this box to have completed tasks hidden after a period of time measured in days, hours, or minutes. If you leave the box unchecked, completed tasks will remain in your task list, marked as complete.

## Directory Servers

Contacts settings are limited to the usage and configuration of directory servers (LDAP and Exchange). To learn how to set autocompletion options, see config-prefs-folders. Other contacts controls are available in the contacts tool.

To add a new group of contacts, either local or remote, do the following:

1. Go to the contacts tool by clicking the Contacts button.

2. Right-click on the shortcut bar's list of contact groups, and select New Contact Group.

3. Select a name and location for the contact group. The name is for display only.

4. Click Forward. If the contact group is stored locally, then you don't have to provide any more information. Click OK and you are done.

5. If you are creating an LDAP server, enter the server information as requested by the assistant:

   Server name

6. Internet address of the contact server you'll be using.

Login Method

- Specify whether your login is anonymous, using an email address, or a "distinguished name." If the login is not anonymous, enter the email address or distinguished name (DN) required by the server.

Port

- The internet port Evolution connects to in order to access the LDAP database. This is normally 389.

Use SSL/TLS

- SSL and TLS are security mechanisms. If you select Always, Evolution will not connect unless secure connections are available. The default value is Whenever Possible, which uses secure connections if they are available, but does not cause failure if they are not.

Search base

- The search base is the starting point for a directory search. Contact your network administrator for information about the correct settings.

Search scope

- The search scope is the breadth of a given search. The following options are available:

  One

- Searches the Search Base and one entry below it.

Sub

- Searches the Search Base and all entries below it.

Timeout (minutes)

- This is the maximum time Evolution will attempt to download data from the server before giving up.

Download Limit

- Set the maximum number of results for a given search. Most servers refuse to send more than 500, but you can set the number lower if you want to shorten downloads for very broad searches.

Display name

- This is the name you will use to label this folder, and may be any name you choose.

- Click Apply.

Editing a directory server account means changing that same information, although it is displayed in a slightly different order.