The Composer Window

The composer window is used to write new messages; it can be invoked via Message->New Message... menu or from the New Message icon on the main window.

Composing a Message

To write your message, fill in the appropriate fields in the composer window. Use the View menu to select which header fields are displayed. The Identity field offers a Sticky option; if it is checked, the current identity will become the default identity when you open a new composer next time.

There are a variety of shortcuts to help you with writing your messages. The ... buttons next to the To:, CC:, and BCC: fields will call up the address book so that you can select addresses from there.

When you start typing an address in the To:/CC:/BCC: fields, a popup will appear that offers matching addresses that have been used recently and matching addresses from your address book; if you do not like the automatic popup you can disable it by clicking with the right mouse button on the field and choosing a different completion mode.

Whenever you want to add more than one recipient in one of the fields, use a comma to separate each address from the next one. You may need to specify fully qualified addresses (i.e. user@domain.com) even for local users, depending on your system configuration.

When you are finished with your message, click the Send icon (the envelope) to send the message now, or click the Queue icon to put the message in the outbox. If your message is not finished yet, select Message->Save in Drafts Folder.

Signing and Encrypting Messages

If you want to send an encrypted or digitally signed message, select the Sign Message or Encrypt Message icons in the toolbar. Moreover you can select the format that should be used to sign and/or encrypt the message. Depending on the installed encryption programs you can choose between:

Any

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

Inline OpenPGP (deprecated)

This format is outdated.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

PGP/MIME

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

S/MIME

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

S/MIME opaque

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

Creating HTML Messages

Note that HTML messages are often regarded as an annoyance. Therefore you should avoid sending HTML messages if possible. Especially you should never send HTML messages to a mailing list unless HTML messages are explicitely allowed.

In order to be able to create HTML messages you first have to enable the markup tools. To do this enable Formatting (HTML) in the Options menu. A toolbar with several tools to format the message will appear. Via the drop down box you can select between standard text and six different types of lists (three bulleted lists with different symbols and three numbered lists with different numbering). Moreover, you can select the font family, the font size, the font style (bold, italic, underlined) and the text color. Last but not least, you can select the alignment of the text (left aligned, centered, right aligned).

Creating tables and embedding images is currently not possible.

Adding Attachments

You can attach files to your message by using one of the methods below:

  • Click the Attach File (paper clip) icon and select the file you wish to attach;

  • Drag a file from the desktop or another folder into the composer window;

  • Drag a message from KMail's message list into the composer window -- that message will then be attached;

  • Select one of the options in the Attach menu.

Once a file is attached to your message, it appears in the attachments pane at the bottom of the composer window. You can use the right mouse button on each attachment to View, Save or Remove the attachment.

Use the Properties item to open the Message Part Properties dialog. The first field contains the attachment's MIME type. Just like the Name field, it should be automatically filled with an appropriate value. Sometimes the MIME type value may be wrong. You can then type in any MIME type or choose from the list of common MIME types. You can also select an encoding method for your file from the list of encoding options (normally, the default value works fine). Check the Suggest automatic display option if you want to suggest to the recipient the automatic (inline) display of this attachment. Whether this works or not depends on the recipient's email client and on his settings.

You can also attach public keys to the message by using the appropriate options in the Attach menu. PGP key attachments are handled like file attachments.

Checking the Spelling of your Message

KMail will automatically check the spelling of your message (in HTML mode this currently does not work) and display unknown words using red color. If there are too many unknown words KMail will disable its checking. To select the language used for checking, select View->Dictionary. You can disable automatic spellchecking in the Options menu.

To check the spelling of your message using a dialog, select Tools->Spelling.... KMail uses KSpell to check spelling, which is the KDE frontend to the ispell or aspell spelling checker. Note that you may first need to configure the spellchecker using Settings->Spellchecker....