account.xml (7961B)
1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 2 <section id="ch_account"> 3 <title>Account customisation</title> 4 5 <section id="account_basic"> 6 <title>Basic preferences</title> 7 <para> 8 The first tab of the account preferences, <quote>Basic</quote>, 9 contains, as its name indicates, basic account data. In this tab you can 10 specify your name, email address, organization and basic connection 11 information. The name of the account is just the name Claws Mail 12 will use when referring to this account, for example, in the account 13 switcher at the lower right-hand corner of the main window. The server 14 information lets you specify the receiving protocol to use (which is 15 not modifiable for existing accounts), the server(s) used to receive or 16 send your emails (usually <literal>pop.isp.com</literal> and <literal 17 >smtp.isp.com</literal>) and your login on the receiving server. 18 </para> 19 <para> 20 In the <quote>Receive</quote> tab you are able to change the default 21 behaviour of Claws Mail. For example, leaving messages on the server 22 for a while, preventing downloading of mails that are too large, or 23 specifying whether you want the filtering rules to apply to this 24 account's mails. The <quote>Receive size limit</quote> is used to limit 25 the time spent downloading large emails. Whenever you receive a mail 26 larger than this limit, it will be partially downloaded and you will 27 later have the choice to either download it entirely or delete it from 28 the server. This choice will be presented to you while viewing the 29 email. 30 </para> 31 <para> 32 The <quote>Send</quote> tab contains preferences for special headers 33 that you might want to add to your outgoing emails, like X-Face or Face 34 headers, and authentication information for sending emails. Most of the 35 time, your ISP allows its subscribers to send email via the SMTP server 36 without authenticating, but in some setups, you have to identify 37 yourself before sending. There are different possibilities for doing 38 that. The best one, when available, is SMTP AUTH. When not available, 39 you'll usually use POP-before-SMTP, which connects to the POP server, 40 (which is authenticated), disconnects, and sends the mail. 41 </para> 42 <para> 43 The <quote>Compose</quote> tab holds options for changing the behaviour 44 of the Composition window when used with the account. You can specify a 45 signature to insert automatically, and set default Cc, Bcc or Reply-To 46 addresses. 47 </para> 48 <para> 49 In the <quote>Privacy</quote> tab you can choose the default level of 50 paranoia for your account. You might want all outgoing emails to be 51 digitally signed and/or encrypted. Signing all outgoing emails, not only 52 important ones, will for example allow you to protect yourself from 53 faked mails sent on your behalf to coworkers. This can help solve 54 embarrassing situations. 55 </para> 56 <para> 57 The <quote>SSL</quote> tab is also security related, although this time 58 its settings apply to the transport of your emails and not their 59 content. Basically, using SSL encrypts the connection between you and 60 the server, which prevents people from snooping on your connection and 61 being able to read your mails and your password. SSL should be used if 62 it is available. 63 </para> 64 <para> 65 Finally, the <quote>Advanced</quote> tab allows you to specify ports and 66 domains if the defaults are not used. Normally you can leave these 67 empty. You can also specify folders for sent, queued, draft, and deleted 68 messages here. 69 </para> 70 </section> 71 72 <section id="account_types"> 73 <title>Account types</title> 74 <para> 75 We saw earlier that once an account is created, you can't change its 76 type (protocol) anymore. This is because preferences for these different 77 types are not quite the same, most of the POP3 related options are 78 irrelevant for IMAP, for example. 79 </para> 80 <section id="pop3"> 81 <title>POP3</title> 82 <para> 83 POP3 is one of the two most used protocols and is available at almost 84 every ISP on Earth. Its advantage is that it allows you to download 85 email to your computer, which means that accessing your mail will be 86 really fast once you have it on your hard disk. The disadvantage of POP3 87 is that it is more difficult to keep your mail synchronised on multiple 88 computers, (you'll have to keep the mail on the server for a few days), 89 and you won't be able to easily keep track of which mails you have read, 90 or which mails you have replied to, etc., when using another computer. 91 </para> 92 <para> 93 Mail received from a POP3 account will be stored in an MH mailbox in the 94 folder tree. 95 </para> 96 </section> 97 <section id="imap"> 98 <title>IMAP</title> 99 <para> 100 IMAP is the second most used protocol and its goal is to address the 101 shortcomings of POP3. When using IMAP your folder list and your emails 102 are all kept on a central server. This slows down navigation a little as 103 each mail is downloaded on demand, but when you use another computer, or 104 email client, your emails will be in the same state that you left them, 105 including their status (read, unread, replied, etc.). 106 </para> 107 <para> 108 When you create an IMAP account an IMAP mailbox is created for it in the 109 folder tree. 110 </para> 111 </section> 112 <section id="news"> 113 <title>News</title> 114 <para> 115 News (NNTP) is the protocol for sending and receiving USENET articles. 116 Messages are held on a central server and downloaded on demand. They 117 cannot be deleted by the user. 118 </para> 119 <para> 120 When you create a News account a News mailbox is created for it in the 121 folder tree. 122 </para> 123 </section> 124 <section id="local"> 125 <title>Local</title> 126 <para> 127 The <quote>Local mbox file</quote> type of account can be used if you 128 run an SMTP server on your computer and/or want to receive your logs 129 easily. 130 </para> 131 <para> 132 Mail received from a Local account is stored in an MH mailbox in the 133 folder tree. 134 </para> 135 </section> 136 <section id="smtp_only"> 137 <title>SMTP only</title> 138 <para> 139 The account type <quote>None, (SMTP only)</quote> is a special type of 140 account that won't retrieve any mail, but will allow you to create 141 different identities that can be used to send out emails with various 142 aliases, for example. 143 </para> 144 </section> 145 </section> 146 147 <section id="account_multiple"> 148 <title>Multiple accounts</title> 149 <para> 150 You can easily create multiple accounts in Claws Mail. For POP 151 accounts, you can choose to store all email from your different accounts 152 in the same folder(s), using the Receive tab preference. IMAP and News 153 accounts each get their own mailbox in the folder tree. 154 </para> 155 <para> 156 You can choose which accounts get checked for new mail when using the 157 <quote>Get All</quote> command (or "Get Mail" in the toolbar) by 158 checking the relevant box in the Receive tab of their preferences or 159 in the <quote>G</quote> column of your accounts list. 160 </para> 161 </section> 162 163 <section id="account_morefilt"> 164 <title>More filtering</title> 165 <para> 166 By default filtering rules are global, but they can also be assigned to 167 a specific account. When fetching mail, any rules that are assigned to 168 a specific account will only be applied to mails that are retrieved from 169 that account. 170 </para> 171 <para> 172 Mail from any account can be filtered into another account's folders, 173 for example, a mail received by POP3 could be filtered into an IMAP 174 account's folder, and vice-versa. This is either a useful feature or an 175 annoying one, depending on what you want to achieve. If you'd rather 176 avoid that, but still want to automatically sort your incoming mail, the 177 best thing to do is to disable Filtering on certain accounts, and use 178 Processing rules in the Inbox folders that you specified, as Processing 179 rules are automatically applied when entering a folder and can be 180 manually applied from a folder's context menu. 181 </para> 182 </section> 183 184 </section> 185