AN INTRODUCTION TO (UNIX) PINE (INTERNET VERSION)
This document is an HTML version of the Introductory Pine Mailer
documentation. It was created for SNRE Faculty/Staff/Students who are
moving their electronic mail from our Mainframe (MTS) to the Pine
mailer. See the legal stuff at the end, or contact altitude@umich.edu
for more information.
_________________________________________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section I - Introduction and General Questions about Pine:
Section II - The MAIN MENU Screen
Section III - Retrieving Your Messages
Section IV - Reading Your Mail
Section V - Creating and Sending Messages (and Replies)
Section VI - Managing Your Mail: Folders
Section VII - Keeping an Addressbook
Section VIII - Personalizing your E-Mail: The .signature file
Section IX - Conclusions, A Test, and Legal Stuff
You can Download a PostScript version of this Document if you like.
_________________________________________________________________
Section I - Introduction and General Questions about Pine:
INTRODUCTION TO PINE
Pine is an easy to use, character based mail client. It has the
ability to perform full screen editing of messages, attachments (such
as Word or Excel files), and other advanced message system features
that were not possible using older electronic mail clients.
WHY SHOULD I USE PINE?
Pine is a mail client that follows the IMAP internet standard. IMAP
stands for Interactive Mail Access Protocol. Choosing an IMAP client
allows you to read your mail from many different places. This differs
from LAN based e-mail packages (like Lotus cc:Mail , or Microsoft Mail
), in which reading your mail remotely is more difficult. Pine can be
used from any number of locations as long as you have a connection to
a UNIX host where pine is enabled. This may be:
* remote modem connection from home or while on the road,
* an Internet connection through another university,
* several different computers within the a Building (one in your
office, and one in your lab).
HOW IS PINE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER ELECTRONIC MAIL CLIENTS?
Functionally, most mailers have similar capabilities (i.e. reading,
creating, sending, managing mail). Some of Pines features are:
Full Screen Capabilities:
Pine has the ability to use the whole terminal screen. This has
many effects, such as full screen editing of your message. If
your previous mail client was line based, such as the
University of Michigans MTS system, you will now be able to
take advantage of full screen capabilities. For example: you
can now make corrections on your message while you write it.
The ability to scroll up and down through a message while you
are reading it. If you get a 100 line message, it won't go
flying by on the screen anymore.
Tolerance for New Users:
One of Pine's strong points is that it will not perform any
major action without confirming with you first. It is very
difficult to mess something up really bad. There's almost
always a chance to turn back and look things over.
Online Help:
For every screen and menu, Pine has a help command. It will
give you general directions and instructions on every function
of Pine.
Sending attachments with your message:
Pine supports the ability to send binary files along with your
message. This will allow you to upload a Microsoft Word or
Excel document, and send it along with your message.
Name Recognition (Addressbooks):
Pine has the capability to store long internet mail names in an
Addressbook. This allows you to only have to remember short
nicknames for people you mail often. See section VII for more
about addressbooks.
Message Browsing:
The FOLDER INDEX screen (see Section III on FOLDER INDEX),
allows you to browse through your messages. This allows you to
skim over your messages and read the most important ones first.
Message Printing:
You can print your messages directly from within Pine to
network printers.
Saving Messages:
Pine allows you to save your messages into folders, just like
you save files on your hard drive. You can then open each
folder at a later time. This allows you to save mail to
different folders using different criteria.
HOW DO I START PINE?
This document is assuming that you have already made a connection to
the host which has Pine running on it. server. If you see a prompt
that looks like:
recycle%
just type pine . Remember, Unix is case sensitive, so PINE or Pine is
not the same as pine.
OK, I'M IN PINE...NOW WHAT???
Once you start pine, you will notice a few things about it. There are
a few different aspects of pine that are identical throughout the
program. Let's go over some of these conventions used in pine.
There are four informational lines on the screen that will have the
same format regardless of which screen you are in. The lines are:
Title Line (Line 1):
The first line of each screen (shown in Figure 1) shows you
exactly which menu you are in. The figure shows that we are in
the "MAIN MENU". For example, if you are browsing through your
messages, it will say: "FOLDER INDEX", and the same applies for
the other screens as well.
List of Command Keys (Last 2 lines):
The last two lines of the screen show what actions are
possible, and the Keyboard Commands to execute them. Pine will
show the Keyboard Command as highlighted text, and its
corresponding action just to the right of it in normal text.
There are two different forms of Key
Commands:
The first type is a one letter abbreviation of the action
itself. This form of Keyboard Command is found in all of
the menus EXCEPT for the "COMPOSE MESSAGE" screen.
The second type of Keyboard Command is found in the
COMPOSE MESSAGE screen. Since all the characters on the
keyboard are needed to type a message, Control Key
Commands are used. A Control Key Command is performed by
holding down the Control Key, and then hitting the
appropriate key simultaneously. (Note for Mac Plus users,
use the option key and the appropriate key
simultaneously).
Usually, the Keyboard Command is the first letter of the
corresponding action. For example:
o "C" is the Keyboard Command to Compose a message in the
MAIN MENU, and the FOLDER INDEX.
o "^C" (Control C) is the Keyboard Command to Cancel the
message in the "COMPOSE MESSAGE Screen.
Sometimes, two or more actions have the same first
letter. For example, "Previous Command", and "Print".
Therefore, there are Keyboard Commands that are not the
first letter of the corresponding action.
o "Y" is the Keyboard Command to Print a message. Think of
it as "PrYnt"
Return Key:
You Do Not have to hit the return key when issuing Key
Commands.
Information/Message/Error Line (Third Line from Bottom):
The third line from the bottom is an informative line. It will
print notification when new mail arrives, descriptive messages
when actions are completed, questions which require a short
response, and error messages if something is wrong.
Arrow Keys:
In addition to the way things appear on the screen, Pine also
has conventions in the way actions or commands are chosen. When
a menu appears, you will see a highlighted bar. This is the
"Selection Bar", and you can use the arrow keys to move the bar
over the part of the screen you want to select.
You can also use the arrow keys to correct mistakes, when
viewing, and editing a message.
Paging:
Whenever you can use the arrow keys, you can use the space bar
and the minus sign (-) to page backwards and forwards. These
commands are similar to the arrow keys, but will scroll the
text forward or back a full screen.
Mouse:
Since Pine is running on a "server" computer, you Can Not use
the mouse to make the cursor appear at different places on the
screen. However, you can past text into a message you are
composing. See section V, Composing Messages.
Re-Painting the Screen (Ctrl-L):
Since many people will be using pine from home using a modem,
pine has a "Re-Paint" command. When you type Ctrl-L, Pine will
clear your screen, and put print everything back on the screen
again . This command is used when your screen has extra,
unwanted characters due to line noise or system messages. In
the FOLDER INDEX Screen, Ctrl-L will not only re-paint your
screen, but it will look to see if you have any new mail as
well. See Section III - for more information.
Canceling Commands (Ctrl-C):
The command Ctrl-C is used to abort any actions that you have
started and do not want to finish. Examples are hitting Ctrl-X
before you really want to send your message, and aborting a
reply command. You will notice that whenever pine displays
(y/n/^C): you can either enter yes, no, or Ctrl-C to abort
completely.
Quitting:
From just about any screen within Pine, you can use the "Q" Key
command to quit pine.
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section II - The MAIN MENU Screen
OK. Now let's take a look at what happens when you first run pine.
When you first issue the command pine, you will be place into the Main
Menu. Here's what it looks like:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
|PINE 3.89 MAIN MENU Folder: INBOX 196 Messages
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| ? HELP - Get help using Pine
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| C COMPOSE MESSAGE - Compose and send a message
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| I FOLDER INDEX - View messages in current folder
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| L FOLDER LIST - Select a folder to view
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| A ADDRESS BOOK - Update address book
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| S SETUP - Configure or update Pine
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| Q QUIT - Exit the Pine program
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| Copyright 1989-1993. PINE is a trademark of the University of Washington.
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|? Help P PrevCmd R RelNotes
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|O OTHER CMDS L [ListFldrs] N NextCmd K KBLock
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+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 1: The MAIN MENU Screen
As you can see, there are a few different choices you have. You can
use the arrow keys to move your selection bar to the command you want
to perform, or you can enter the letter of the command you want. Here
is a brief explanation of the possible commands:
Help (?):
Selecting this command will bring up an on-line help screen.
Remember that in pine, there's always on-line help whenever you
need it. Just look at the bottom two lines of the screen to
find which command key invokes help.
Compose Message (C):
This command will send you straight into the COMPOSE MESSAGE
Screen. This screen is where you create your outgoing messages.
See Section V - Creating Messages for more information.
Folder Index (I):
This command will allow you to browse through your messages.
See Section III - Retrieving Your Messages for more
information.
Folder List (F):
This will open the FOLDER LIST screen. You can then view
messages that you have saved to different folders.
Address Book (A):
This opens you Addressbook. See Section VI - Keeping an Address
Book for more information.
Setup (S):
This sets up various user-configurable options (Printer,
Updates, Keyboard Lock).
Quit (Q):
This will quit pine.
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section III - Retrieving Your Messages
The FOLDER INDEX Screen To retrieve messages, type "I" (for "FOLDER
INDEX"). When you first start pine, the current folder will be your
new mail folder (more commonly called your "INBOX"). Here's what the
FOLDER INDEX screen looks like:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| PINE 3.89 FOLDER INDEX Folder: INBOX Message 10 of 14
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|+ 1 Mar 16 Adobe PostScript F (3,779) How to use the PostScript File Serv
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|+ 2 Apr 6 umnet-admin@umich. (2,033) Network addresses for E-SNRE
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|+ 3 Apr 23 Todd Hollmann (1,799) IP numbers
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|+ 4 Apr 27 umnet-admin@umich. (1,312) Network addresses for P-SNRE
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|+ 5 Jun 4 To: altitude@umich (1,481) novell numbers
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|+ 6 Jun 7 'Matthew Lewis Mor (5,784) OCR Info (fwd)
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|+ 7 Jun 20 Matthew Messana (3,542) You asked for it... :)
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|+ 8 Aug 9 xpress@msw.metrone (5,126) Online Express(sm) Listing Informat
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| 9 Aug 19 Brian Erwin (5,558) O'Reilly Internet info service
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| 10 Sep 13 Roy Hockett (1,380) SNRE zone rename
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|+ 11 Sep 20 Alex.Tang@um.cc.um (3,795)
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| 12 Nov 20 pine-info@cac.washi (4,155) New version of Pine: 3.89
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| D 13 Dec 2 Christie Bernabe (789) Hello From New York
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| A 14 Jan 1 Root@recycle.snre.u (789) Happy New Year!!!!
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| N 15 Jan 11 Test.Mail.User.Rep (2,967) Congratulations!!!
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|[New mail! From Test.Mail.User.Reply@recycle2.snre.umich.edu as regards Cong]
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|? Help M Main Menu P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply
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|O OTHER CMDS V [ViewMsg] N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward
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+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 2: The FOLDER INDEX Screen
You can use the arrow keys to move up and down the list, and then
press enter to view the message. The FOLDER INDEX screen has a few
more items than other screens, so we'll go over each in turn. You
should already be familiar with the first line of the screen (The
"Title Line"), and the last three lines of the screen (The
notification line, and the Keyboard Commands). The rest of the lines
are devoted to showing pertinent information about each message. Each
line of text is a one line summary of actual message. From left to
right, The layout of each message is as follows:
Personal Marker:
The "+" sign in the first column indicates the message was
directed specifically to you. In this case, the messages marked
with a "+" were addressed directly to "altitude@umich.edu";. The
other messages (the ones that do not have the "+" marker) could
have been sent to class message groups, or other message groups
which this user is a part of (e.g., SNRE.Staff.List@umich.edu).
Message Number:
This is just the number of the message. Although this can be
configured, most people will have their messages numbered
increasingly in the order in which they were received.
Message Status Flag:
There are three different message status flags. Each indicates
the present status of a message.
N New Message:
This flag indicates that you have not seen this message.
A Answered:
This flag appears after you have used the "R" command to
reply to a message. (See next section on Reply command)
D Deleted Message:
This flag appears when you have deleted a message either
by explicitly deleting it, or by saving the message to
another folder (See next section on Deleting and Saving
messages).
These flags will automatically be updated as you read and send your
mail.
Date:
This indicates when the message was sent
From:
This tells who the message is from
Size:
How large the message is
Subject:
What the subject of the message is.
There are many operations that you can perform on your
messages. Here is a listing of a few.
View (V):
You can view the message by either typing "V" or by hitting
"Enter" when you have selected the message you want to see. See
the next section about using the MESSAGE TEXT Screen.
Delete (D):
You can delete the current message with the "D" key command.
This will mark the message as deleted, but will not delete it
until you quit pine, or you Expunge using the "X" command. If
you change your mind, and don't want to delete the message, you
can use the "U" key command for UNDELETE. Be aware, if you do
quit pine and/or "expunge" your messages, they are gone for
good. You can't get them back.
Save (S):
This will save a copy of the message into the folder of your
choice. If you don't specify which folder, it will save it to
"saved-messages". The feature of specifying folders allows you
to save messages according to any criteria you wish (From a
certain user, about a certain subject, any thing else you
wish.). You will notice that the message will be marked for
deletion. Don't worry, a copy of your message has been saved
already.
Reply (R):
This command allows you to reply to the original author. It's
useful when discussing topics via E-Mail. Pine will ask you if
you want to include the original message in return. Since the
new system doesn't have History Messages, it is a good idea to
return the relevant portions of the text. Even using the editor
to intersperse your text through the original message. As
general E-Mail etiquette, delete any non-relevant portions of
the text.
Forward (F):
You can forward the message to another person or persons using
the "F" command. Use this if you feel that the message should
be looked at by someone else. Pine will ask if you want to
include the original message.
Export (E):
Exporting a messages is only subtly different from the save
command. It saves the file into a different directory than your
mail directory. Use this command if you want to use the message
outside of pine.
Print (Y):
You no longer have to print your message by selecting the text
and printing the selected text. The Print command will print
your whole message to a printer.
Help (?):
There are more commands that you can use, at the FOLDER INDEX
Screen, type "?" to see the Help Screen.
***NOTE:
Pine will check to see if you have new mail every 2 and a half
minutes. If you want to check to see if you have new mail right
NOW, get into the FOLDER INDEX, and type Control-L (^L). This
will refresh your screen and also check for new mail.
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section IV - Reading Your Mail
I WANT IT ALL! -- THE MESSAGE TEXT SCREEN.
Well, This is the real meat of an E-Mail client. The VIEW TEXT SCREEN
is where you read your messages. When you view a message, it will look
like:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| PINE 3.89 MESSAGE TEXT Folder: INBOX Message 15 of 15 35%
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|Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 00:48:29 EST
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|From: Test.Mail.User.Reply@recycle2.snre.umich.edu
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|Subject: Congratulations!!!
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|Congratulations!!! If you are reading this message with pine, then you have
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|successfuly Created a test message to the test user with the subject:
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|-->This is a Test Message Created in PINE <--,
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|and it has replied to you.
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|? Help M Main Menu P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply
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|O OTHER CMDS V ViewAttch N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward
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+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 3: The MESSAGE TEXT Screen
There are many actions that you can perform on your messages. Most
likely, you will use the following keys:
Space Bar:
The space bar will scroll the text of the message one screen at
a time.
Up and Down Arrow Keys:
The arrow keys allow scrolling of the text one line at a time.
The following key commands are the same as in the FOLDER INDEX screen.
Space Bar and Minus sign:
If the text is more than one full screen, you can use the space
bar to page down one whole screen, and the minus sign (-) to
page up one full screen of text.
"R": Reply to the message.
See Section V, part 2 for more information about replying to a
message.
"F":
Forward the message.
"S":
Save the message.
"Y":
Print the message.
For more information on these commands, Section III - Retrieving Your
Messages. Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section V - Creating and Sending Messages (and Replies)
SENDING A MESSAGE: -- THE COMPOSE MESSAGE SCREEN.
When you compose an outgoing message, you will see the following
screen:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| PINE 3.89 COMPOSE MESSAGE Folder: INBOX 15 Messages
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|To : Mail Test Account <mailtest@recycle.snre.umich.edu > |
|Cc :
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|Attchmnt:
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|Subject : Hello Mr. Test User
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|----- Message Text -----
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|Hello There.
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|This is a test message
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|Have a nice day.
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|^G Get Help ^C Cancel ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text ^O Postpone
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|^X Send ^J Justify ^W Where is ^V Next Pg ^U UnCut Text^T To Spell
|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 4: The COMPOSE MESSAGE Screen
The compose message screen consists of a few different fields:
To: Your cursor will appear at the first position of the "To:"
Field. Enter the person you want to send the mail to. With the
new system, there are few new conventions for sending mail. :
If the person you are sending the message to has an account on
the same computer, you can enter their login name. Pine will
look through the system and try to find the person's real name.
If the person has been entered into your addressbook, you can
just type in their nickname. See Section VI - Keeping an
Addressbook for more information.
For people outside of your local university or organization,
you will need their full Internet address.
If you want to specify more than one person to send the message
to, separate the names with commas (i.e. To: andyb@umich.edu,
altitude@umich.edu). If you have an addressbook, you can enter
the person's nickname here too. See Section VI - Keeping an
Addressbook for more information.
Cc: The Cc: field is the "Carbon Copy" field. Enter any people you
want to send the message to, who aren't the direct recipient
(i.e. sending a message to the Dean, and Cc'ing it to the
assistant dean.). Use the same type of comma separated list as
in the To: field for multiple recipients.
Attchmnt:
The Attachments field is where you would specify whatever
documents you want to include with your message. Since this is
UNIX pine, you will have to first get the file from your
computer to the Unix machine.
Subject:
The Subject field is just like the MTS Subject field. Enter a
short one line subject about your message.
-- Message Text ---:
Enter the text of your message here.
There are a few different commands that you will want to be familiar
with in the message text screen:
Arrow Keys:
You can use the arrow keys just like you would in a regular
text editor (i.e. Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect).
Control-E (^E, in Pine notation):
This will move your cursor to the end of the line.
Control-A (^A):
This will move your cursor to the beginning of the line.
Control-K (^K):
Kills the line of text that your cursor is resting on. This is
similar to cutting part of your text directly to the clipboard.
The text be retrieved using ^U.
Control-^ (Control-Shift-6):
Start marking the text. You can then use the arrow keys to move
around the text and then use ^K to kill the block of text This
is similar to using the mouse to select a certain part of text
in Microsoft Word. NOTE, this doesn't work on all platforms.
Control-U (^U):
Unkills the last line of text you killed, or the text that you
have marked. This is similar to the "Paste" command within
Microsoft Word.
Control-X (^X):
Sends the message when you are done.
Control-C (^C):
Cancels the current message.
Control-O (^O):
Postpones the message until a later time. The next time you
compose a message, it will ask you if you want to resume the
postponed message. If you don't, fear not, you can keep writing
more messages. You can NOT, however, postpone more than one
message.
Control-G (^G):
The "Get HELP" command. Pine will give you help on sending
messages..
REPLYING TO A MESSAGE. IS THAT DIFFERENT?
Many times, you will want to respond to a piece of mail that someone
has sent to you. Pine has a Reply command, which allows you to reply
to the author of the message (and anyone else too). You can invoke the
Reply command from either the FOLDER INDEX Screen, or the VIEW TEXT
Screen. When you reply to a message, one or two questions will appear
in the Information Line of your screen depending on the circumstances
of the message. The first is:
Include original message in Reply? (y/n/^C) [n]:
Pine is asking if you want to include the original message in the
reply. The letter n that appears inside the brackets "[n]" is the
default command. If you just hit the Return Key, you will select what
is inside the brackets. Pine does not have MTS History Messages, so
usually it's a good idea to include the text.
If you choose to include the text, your COMPOSE MESSAGE REPLY Screen
will have the original author's name on the "To:" line, and the
original text will have a ">" in the first character of each line.
This is to indicate that the text is a reply. For Example:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| PINE 3.89 COMPOSE MESSAGE REPLY Folder: INBOX 15 Messages
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|To : John Doe <Johnd@adx.adelphi.edu > |
|Cc :
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||Attchmnt:
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|Subject : Re: Hi There
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|----- Message Text -----
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|On Thu, 3 Feb 1994, John Doe wrote:
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|>Hi. How are you. Things are OK. A little slow, but not too bad. How |
|>are things in Michigan? It's REALLY COLD here! I want to move to |
|>Hawaii....wanna come with me? We can sell Surfboards. :) |
|>John. |
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|Hiya John. Things are good here. I'm working a lot. Yes, It's been
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|really cold here too. Hawaii sounds great, when do we leave? :)
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|...alex...
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|Alex Tang --- ALTITUDE@UMICH.EDU...USERW00Y@UMICHUM.BITNET
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|^G Get Help ^C Cancel ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text ^O Postpone
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|^X Send ^J Justify ^_ Alt Edit ^V Next Pg ^U UnCut Text ^T To Spell
|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 5: The COMPOSE MESSAGE REPLY Screen
It is a good idea (as well as general Network Etiquette) to only
include the relevant portions of the original text. In the above
example, you should remove the line "> John." because the person's
name is irrelevant to the reply and the first three lines alone are
sufficient to give John the context of your comments.
The second question will be appear if the original message was sent to
multiple recipients or a group.
Reply to all recipients? (y/n/^C) [n]:
Pine is asking if you want everyone who received the original message,
to receive your response as well. For example, if altitude@umich.edu
sent a message to SNRE.Faculty@umich.edu, and you wanted to respond
only to altitude, then you would not reply to all the recipients.
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section VI - Managing Your Mail (Folders)
WHY DO NEED TO MANAGE MY MAIL?
There are a few different reasons why managing your mail is important.
In the dark ages, when everyone read their mail on MTS, it was very
difficult to archive mail to read at a later date. The easiest way was
to print out the message to the nearest printer. With the new mail
system, this has changed. It is very easy to save mail to folders ( A
folder is a container of messages, just like a physical folder is a
container of papers). You can then save your messages into the folder.
This makes tracking a long message chain easier.
The second reason is that unlike some electronic mail clients, mail
you receive on the new system will not be deleted after a certain
amount of time..in fact, it will never go away until you tell it to.
So if you dont delete or save your messages, your mailbox will keep
filling up. This causes two problems:
First, you will find that after 100 or so messages, Pine will become
slower.
Second, your mailbox will get bigger and bigger. If your INBOX becomes
too large, bad things can happen (i.e. you could stop mail from
functioning. This tends to make other people angry, and then they
might come to your home at midnight and flog you in the streets...get
the picture?)
HOW DO I MANAGE MY MAIL?
Pine has two ways that it allows you to manage your mail. First is
that it automatically saves all of your outgoing mail into a folder
called sent-mail. You can use your sent-mail folder to check on
messages that youve sent to colleagues at a later date. On the first
of every month, this folder is renamed and you are asked if you want
to remove the old copy. This is so that you dont have to worry about
your old outgoing mail taking up too much space.
NOTE: Actually, the first time you start pine in a new month, your
sent-mail folder is renamed to: sent-mail-<month >- <year>. The
<month >and <year >are previous month and current year. You are then
asked if you want to delete this folder. For example, if you invoke
Pine on May 1, 1994, you will be asked if you want to move your
sent-mail folder to sent-mail-apr-1994. Then you will be asked if you
want to delete sent-mail-apr-1994.
The second way to manage your mail is to save your mail into different
folders. Folders allow you to separate your messages by subject,
person, topic, or anything else that you can think of.
There is one special folder in the list: Your INBOX. This is a special
folder because it represents your new mail. You are not permitted to
delete or rename your INBOX.
HOW DO I MANAGE MY FOLDERS?
You can create, delete, move, view, and perform other actions on your
folders. This discussion will only cover viewing, switching, creating
and deleting folders.
When you are in the MAIN MENU, or the FOLDER INDEX screen, you can
view a list of your folders. The following is the FOLDER LIST screen:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| PINE 3.89 FOLDER LIST Folder: INBOX 15 Messages
|
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|INBOX sent-mail 4help Class-work
|
|UM-SNRE Work sent-mail-mar-1994
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| [Folder "Class-work" created]
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|? Help M Main Menu P PrevFldr - PrevPage D Delete R Rename
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|O OTHER CMDS V [ViewFldr] N NextFldr Spc NextPage A Add
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|
|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 6: Folder List Screen
As you can see, this screen lists all of the folders that you own.
There are a few functions that you can perform at this screen:
Add (A):
This function allows you to Add a new folder. You do not need
to explicitly create a folder in order to save to it. You can
create a folder from either the FOLDER INDEX or VIEW MESSAGE
screens as well. When you choose the Save option, and specify a
folder name, Pine will check to see if the folder exists. If
the folder does not exist, Pine will ask if you want to create
a new folder with the name you gave.
Delete (D):
This function deletes a folder and all of the messages in it.
Be careful when using this function. When you delete a folder,
it, and all the messages within it will be gone forever. Note,
you can not delete the special folder INBOX
Rename (R):
You can rename your folders. Note, you can not rename the
special folder INBOX.
View Folder (V):
When you select a folder with a your selection bar, the View
function will move you directly into the FOLDER INDEX screen.
Note, This is the default command, so you can also press the
return key to view a folder.
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section VII - Keeping an Address Book
WHAT IS AN ADDRESSBOOK?
Sometimes it's very confusing to keep track of long Internet mail
names. Pine has an addressbook, which is a list of people or groups
and their associated E-Mail names. The Pine Addressbook is very
similar to a real addressbook, but has added functionality. It not
only lets you reference people and their E-Mail names, but allows you
to enter a "nickname" on the "To:" or "Cc:" lines in the COMPOSE
MESSAGE screen. When you enter a nickname, Pine will look in your
addressbook automatically, and find their full name and it also allows
you to automatically place someone's full E-Mail name in place of a
short nickname. Here's what the Addressbook Screen looks like:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| PINE 3.89 ADDRESS BOOK Folder: INBOX(READONLY) Message 172 of 174
|
|
|
|Andy Beaver, Andy andyb@umich.edu
|
|Christie Bernabe, Christie Alumni_clb@willet.wesl
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|HELP Online Consulting Help Online.Consulting.Help
|
|Effie Dimitrakopoulos, Effie effied@midd.cc.middleb
|
|Suwalee Ingkanart, Suwalee si2636f90@auvax1.adelp
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|bobbi Low, Bobbi bobbi.low@um.cc.umich.
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|SNRE.Fac SNRE Faculty SNRE.FACULTY@um.cc.umi
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|SNRE.ALL Most of SNRE DISTRIBUTION LIST:
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| SNRE.FACULTY@um.cc.umi
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| SNRE.STAFF.LIST@um.cc.
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| SNRE.PHD@um.cc.umich.e
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| SNRE.Consultants@umich
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|? Help M MainMenu P PrevField - PrevPage D Delete S CreateList
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|O OTHER CMDS E [Edit] N NextField Spc NextPage A Add Z AddToList
|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
FIGURE 7: The ADDRESSBOOK Screen
Some of the key commands and their actions are explained below.
Add (A):
This command adds a new person to your addressbook. Pine will
ask you three questions about the new user.
+ The person's full name (Last, First)
+ A "nickname" for this person. You can use anything that you
like for this person. This is what you will type at the "To:"
or "Cc:" lines when composing a message. If you type a
nickname, pine will search through your Addressbook and try
to find the appropriate person. If it can not find them, it
will append a "@umich.edu"; to the end of the name.
+ The full electronic mail address of the person. After you
enter it here, you don't have to remember it anymore.
Create List (S):
You can create personal lists of names so you don't have to
type in many different E-Mail names or nicknames. These lists
can be a group of people in the same project, or just a group
of friends. Note: these lists are private. If you want to
create a public mailing list, see your system administrator
Delete (D):
If you select a person or distribution list, you can delete
them from your addressbook with the "D" command.
Arrow Keys/Space Bar/Minus Sign:
As always, you can use the arrow keys to move your selection
bar to different locations on the screen. The space bar will
scroll a full page, and the minus sign (-) will scroll back a
page.
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section VIII - Personalization of Your Mail: A .signature file
WHAT IS A .SIGNATURE FILE, AND WHY SHOULD USE ONE?
In this day and age, electronic mail has invaded our lives almost as
much as US Postal Mail, or the Telephone. However, unlike the
telephone where moods can be projected with the tone of ones voice,
and where formal US Postal mail often is often written on Letterhead,
electronic mail can often seem impersonal and vague to the recipient.
One way to automatically transfer information about you or your
organization is to create a .signature file.
A .signature file appears at the end of your message. It is completely
free form, so there isnt a set pattern or template that people use to
create one. Often people put their full name, E-Mail address,
organization, phone number, fax number, and sometimes a quote or
disclaimer.
The only suggestion about .signature files is their length. It is
considered general network etiquette to keep your signature files to
four lines or less.
To create a signature file, use your favorite editor and create a file
called .signature in your home directory. .Remember to save the file
into your home directory, if you save it somewhere else, it will not
appear in your messages.
Now, every time you create a message, the text from your .signature
file will appear at the bottom of your message.
Here are some examples of .signature files:
Alex Tang --- ALTITUDE@UMICH.EDU...USERW00Y@UMICHUM.BITNET
-----------+ UM-SNRE: Student, Computer Consultant III, & SysAdmin
PGP on req.| ITD/CSS Consultant, Short Asian with long hair :)
or via fing| WWW -> http://www.snre.umich.edu/users/altitude/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian W. Spolarich "If life is a dream, then
UM ITD/US Consulting and Support Services we should be friends. After
briansp@umich.edu all, we are dreaming each
finger briansp@css.itd.umich.edu for PGP key. other."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|\ | |\/| David L. Miller dlm@cac.washington.edu (206) 685-6240
|/ |_ | | Software Engineer, Pine Development Team (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing, JE-20
4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA
Click here to return to the Table of Contents
_________________________________________________________________
Section IX - Conclusions, A Test, and Legal Stuff.
READY, SET, GO! LET'S TRY IT OUT!
OK, Let's test all this stuff out. We'll run through a test message to
see if we get the proper results.
1. If you are not already in pine, run it by typing "pine" at the
command line.
2. Enter the Compose message screen by typing "C".
3. For the "To:" field, enter "mailtest@imap.snre.umich.edu";. You
will notice that pine knows who people are, and will substitute
their names. This only applies for users of recycle, and people in
your addressbook.
4. You can enter anything else you would like for the subject and
Message text field.
5. When you are done, type "^X" (Control-X) to send the message.
There. You've just sent your first pine mail message. You should be
getting a response very shortly. If you feel impatient, you could type
^L from the FOLDER INDEX screen, and pine will check for your new mail
right away. You may now read your message.
Well...That's about it for Pine. There are more features that haven't
been discussed in this documentation. Use the online help to find out
more, or ask one of your friendly neighborhood system administrators.
IN CONCLUSION: SOME GENERAL NOTES AND COMMENTS
The original form of this document was created for the University of
Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment. The reason that
I wrote it was to aid SNREs faculty, staff, and students in the
transition from our mainframe based electronic mail system (MTS), to a
UNIX/IMAP/Pine system.
It was envisioned to be a short introduction to Pine and it's most
common uses. From speaking with SNRE faculty and staff, I found that
people wanted documentation that would be clear enough for someone who
has little to no experience with computers to follow, yet explain what
was going on as well. It was first intended to be one sheet of paper,
printed on both sides. As I quickly learned, Pine is a very robust
program. It has many more capabilities than this documentation has
explained. The once two page document quickly became 4, then 6 then 9
Still, the documentation is far from a comprehensive guide to all of
Pine's features.
Pine has many more capabilities than this document has listed. Most of
the one page summaries have left out a lot of the features of pine.
Pine has the ability to be configured in many ways. If you have any
questions about how Pine works, or would like to see Pine do something
that hasn't been mentioned in this document, please let the your
system administratorknow. There probably is a way to do it.
This piece of documentation was written by me (Alex Tang,
altitude@umich.edu). It is Copyright University of Michigan, School of
Natural Resources and the Regents of the University of Michigan, 1994.
You may copy, forward, read, and enjoy this documentation. You can
modify it too, as long as you keep the author's name and the Univerity
of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment's name on it.
It may not be used for commercial purposes.
Please feel free to send me email (altitude@umich.edu), if you have
other questions about this document.
The Pine E-Mail client program is copyright 1989-1993 University of
Washington. Pine is a trademark of theUniversity of Washington.
cc:Mail is copyright 1992 Lotus Corporation.
Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Word, Word, and Excel are copyright
Microsoft Corporation.
WordPerfect is copyright WordPerfect Corporation
_________________________________________________________________
Last Updated: 5-11-94. Alex Tang,
altitude@umich.edu