Note: this document was written for Pine 3.94. Currently, no updated edition for later versions of Pine is planned, since the document "Getting Started..." (also available from the URL ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/pine/docs/) largely fulfills the same role: Introducing new users to Pine. === Pine User's Guide This User's Guide is designed to help you understand what Pine can do for you. Pine Screens/Modes * Message Text (Viewing a Message) * Compose Message * Folder Index * Folder List * Address Book * Setup and Configuration _________________________________________________________________ Pine Commands * Commands for Message Handling + Export and Save + Take Address + Reply and Forward + Bounce (Remail) + View/Save Attachment + Flag as Important + Select Message + Apply and Zoom * Commands for Message Composition + Justify + Cut and Paste + Read-in File + Attach File + Postponing a Message + Spelling + Rich Headers * Other Commands + Whereis + Full Headers + Sorting a Folder + Expunge/Exclude + Next Interesting Message + Jump to a Message + Goto Folder _________________________________________________________________ Information Pages * Pine and Alternate Character Sets * Syntax for IMAP Folders and Collections Message Text Screen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 MESSAGE TEXT Folder: INBOX Message 15 of 20 ALL | | | | Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 10:03:26 -0800 | | From: Ross Armstrong | | To: Jasjit Singh | | Cc: isabelle@elsewhere.edu | | Subject: Scanning pencil drawings | | | | Hello, Jasjit, | | Next quarter, I'm planning on having students in my drawing class | | scan their work and email the graphics files as MIME-attachments to my | | TA Isabelle, who will then make them available through our department's | | WWW server. Do you have any tips for scanning pencil drawings? | | Thanks in advance! | | | | | | -Ross | | | |? Help M Main Menu P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply | |O OTHER CMDS V ViewAttch N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The message text screen shows you the text of the message along with its header. If a message has attachments, those will be listed (but not displayed) also. The top bar displays information about the currently open message, folder and collection. You see the name of the collection (if there is one) in angle brackets, then the name of the folder, then the message number and finally the position within the current message (in percent). If the message is marked for deletion "DEL" will appear in the upper right as well. As with every Pine screen, the bottom two lines show you the commands available. Message Text Commands Navigating the List of Messages: * Previous Message: P * Next Message: N * Jump to Specific Message: J * Next New Message: TAB Operations on the Current Message: * Print: Y * Reply: R * Forward: F * Bounce: B * Mark for Deletion: D * Undelete: U * Take into Address Book: T * Save into an Email Folder: S * Export as a Plain Text File: E * Flag: * * Pipe to UNIX Command (not available in PC-Pine): | (vertical bar) Navigating Within the Current Message: * Previous screen: - * Next Screen: SPACE * Where Is (Search for Word in Message or go to first/last line): W * View Attachment: V Global Pine Commands: These commands are active in this and most other Pine screens (except while composing a message); they are therefore only listed here: * Main Menu: M * Show Other Commands: O * Compose a New (or Continue a Postponed) Message: C * Show Folder Index: I * Show Folder List: L * Goto Folder: G * Help: ? * Quit Pine: Q Compose Message Screen -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 COMPOSE MESSAGE Folder: INBOX 20 Messages | | | | To : Ross Armstrong | | Cc : isabelle@elsewhere.edu | | Attchmnt: 1. /usr/users/jsingh/article.ps (843 KB) "My article" | | Subject : Re: Scanning pencil drawings | | ----- Message Text ----- | | Hi Ross, | | I'm actually in the middle of writing an article on that very subject | | for a magazine. I am sending you a PostScript file of a draft, | | attached to this email message as an attachment. Let me know if you | | have any questions about it! | | | | Jasjit Singh, Ph.D. - Dept. of Educational Technology | | Nowhere College, Notown, USA Tel.: (123) 669-4373 | | Internet Email: jsingh@edutech.nowhere.edu | | WWW homepage: http://www.edutech.nowhere.edu/~jsingh/ | | | | | |^G Get Help ^X Send ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text ^O Postpone| |^C Cancel ^J Justify ^_ Alt Edit ^V Next Pg ^U UnCut Text ^T To Spell| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compose Message Commands Moving the Cursor: On most systems your arrows keys will move the cursor around the screen as expected. In addition, these movement keys are always available in the composer: * Back Single Character: Ctrl-B * Forward Single Character: Ctrl-F * Up Single Line: Ctrl-P * Down Single Line: Ctrl-N * Beginning of Current Line: Ctrl-A * End of Current Line: Ctrl-E * Up One Screen: Ctrl-Y * Down One Screen: Ctrl-V * Next Word: Ctrl-SPACE Editing the Text: * Delete Current Character: Ctrl-D * Delete Previous Character: Ctrl-H * Set a Mark: Ctrl-^ * Cut Current Block or Line: Ctrl-K * Justify Paragraph: Ctrl-J * Paste Deleted Lines or Unjustify paragraph: Ctrl-U + The Ctrl-U key sequence is used for two different things in the midst of composing a message. Its normal meaning is "Paste". That is, it will paste in the line or lines that you last cut with the Ctrl-K. However, immediately following a paragraph justification (Ctrl-J), the Ctrl-U key temporarilly changes into "Unjustify". If the paragraph justification went bad (changed some tabs, justified many paragraphs into one, etc.) you'll see it right away and be able to unjustify. After a few keystrokes, Ctrl-U reverts back to "Paste". It sounds confusing, but you probably won't have a problem with it once you try it. General Commands: * Where Is (Search for Word in Message or go to first/last line): Ctrl-W * Help: Ctrl-G * Use Alternate Editor (can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration; not available in PC-Pine): Ctrl-_ * Suspend (can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration; not available in PC-Pine): Ctrl-Z * Redraw Screen: Ctrl-L * Read File: Ctrl-R * Spell Check (not available in PC-Pine): Ctrl-T Message Action Commands: * Send: Ctrl-X * Postpone: Ctrl-O * Cancel: Ctrl-C. Note: even though Pine does not use Ctrl-S or Ctrl-Q (sometimes known as XOFF and XON), the system you are using may intercept those characters. If you accidentally hit a Ctrl-S and your keyboard mysteriously freezes up, try typing a Ctrl-Q and see if that puts things right. Control Keys in the Header When the cursor is in the header part of the message, some of the control commands have special meaning. You will see this difference reflected in the menu displayed at the bottom of your Pine compose screen. When in the header, the following keys have these meanings: * Ctrl-J: Attach file * Ctrl-R: Rich Header * Ctrl-T: To Address Book or Files The following commands are not active in the header: Whereis: Ctrl-W, Alternate Editor: Ctrl-_, and Set Mark: Ctrl-^. Folder Index Screen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 FOLDER INDEX Folder: RossAm Msg 2 of 2 NEW | | | |+ 1 Dec 19 Ross Armstrong (4,053) Scanning pencil drawings | |+ N 2 Dec 20 To: Ross Armstrong (1.163K) Re: Scanning pencil drawings | | | | ? Help M Main Menu P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply | | O OTHER CMDS V [ViewMsg] N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The folder index screen shows you an index of all the messages in the folder. The very top bar shows information about the folder: what the name of the folder is and how many messages it has. The example above shows a folder set up for correspondence with one specific person, to which received as well as sent messages are saved; you can set up your folders however they make it easier for you to organize your messages. By default, Pine puts messages you save from your INBOX into a folder called saved-messages, and saves a copy of messages you send into a folder called sent-mail. Each message gets one line on the index screen. That line contains: * Message Status: The following codes give you information about the current status of the message. + - The message was sent directly to you (not a cc: or email list). A - The message has been answered. D - The message is marked for deletion. N - The message is new and unread. X - The message is selected (for aggregate operations). * - The message has been flagged as important. * Message Number. * Date Received or Sent. * Sender (for received messages) or Recipient (for sent messages). * Message Size: The number in parentheses is the size of the message, plus any attachments, in bytes (characters). * Subject: As much of the subject as will fit on the screen. As with every Pine screen, the bottom two lines show you the commands available. Folder Index Commands Navigating the List of Messages: * Previous Message: P * Next Message: N * Previous Screen: - * Next Screen: SPACE * Jump directly to Message Number: J * Where Is [Search for Word in Index or go to first/last message]: W * Next Message: N * Next New Message: TAB Operations on the Current Message: * View message: V * Print: Y * Reply: R * Forward: F * Bounce [can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration]: B * Mark for Deletion: D * Undelete: U * Take into Address Book: T * Save into an Email Folder: S * Export as a Plain Text File: E * Flag [can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration]: * * Pipe to UNIX Command [can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration; not available in PC-Pine]: | (vertical bar) Other Folder Index Commands: * Sort the Index [by Subject, Date, Sender/Recipient, etc. ]: $ * Expunge the Folder [Remove Messages Marked for Deletion]: X * Toggle Headers Mode [can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration]: H * Working with subset of messages in current folder [these commands can be enabled/disabled in Setup/Configuration]: + Select [Current Message, All Messages, or by criteria: Text, Date, Status, Message number(s)]: ; + Apply [Command to Selected Messages]: A + Zoom [View only Selected Messages]: Z Folder List Screen Pine's Folder List screen is designed to give you easy access to all your email folders. When you first start Pine, you will only have a few folders, all on the same host. In that case, your folder list screen looks something like this: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 FOLDER LIST Folder: INBOX 0 Messages | | | | INBOX sent-mail saved-messages | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ? Help M Main Menu P PrevFldr - PrevPage D Delete R Rename | | O OTHER CMDS V [ViewFldr] N NextFldr Spc NextPage A Add | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eventually, that folder list may grow to the point where is makes sense to arrange folders into collections. For people who use multiple folders on multiple hosts for multiple purposes, the folder list might look a lot more complicated. For example, this is the folder list screen for a user who has multiple inboxes (through filtering by an external system; Pine itself does not perform any mail filtering), a local collection of folders to save messages from those inboxes into after reading, another local collection for mail to/from specific correspondents, and also a news collection on another host than the one Pine is running on. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 FOLDER LIST Folder: IN.RossA 2 Messages | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Incoming Message Folders | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | INBOX IN.RossA BATECH-L FWD-from-old-acct | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Folder-collection ** Default for Saves ** (Local)| |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | [ Select Here to See Expanded List ] | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Folder-collection (Local)| |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | [ Select Here to See Expanded List ] | | | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| |News-collection (Remote)| |-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | [ Select Here to See Expanded List ] | | | | ? Help M Main Menu P PrevFldr - PrevPage D Delete R Rename | | O OTHER CMDS V [ViewFldr] N NextFldr Spc NextPage A Add | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The top line offers information about the currently selected collection and folder. The bottom lines display commands available. Folder List Commands Navigating the Folder List Screen: * Previous Folder: P * Next Folder: N * Previous Screen: - * Next Screen: SPACE * Where Is [Search for folder name or go to first/last folder across all collections]: W Operations on the Newly Selected Folder: * View: V * Delete: D * Rename: R Folder List Commands: * Show Index of the Currently Active Folder: I * Print Folder Listing: Y * Add New Folder: A Newsgroup-collection Specific Commands: * Subscribe: A * Unsubscribe: D Search for a Word in a Folder Name The WhereIs command searches through the folder names in the currently active collection and all other collections which are expanded. View Folder and Folder Index If you got to the Folder List screen by using the "L" command, then you have a few different options for manipulating your folders and selecting a folder. The two options "View Folder" and "Folder Index" are similar in function (they both get you to a FOLDER INDEX screen) but operate on different folders. "Folder Index" is something of an escape option -- Pine keeps the same current folder as it had before you saw this folder list and simply displays that current folder. "View Folder" is more of an "open and view" function -- it makes the currently highlighted folder to the current folder, closes the previous folder and then displays the index of the new current folder. Folder List: Three Modes There are three different ways in which you can get to the folder list. The standard method is to just press L -- the Folder List command. You can also arrive at your folder listing when going to a folder: G, Ctrl-T, or when saving a message to a folder: S, Ctrl-T. When you get to folder list in one of these alternate ways, all the folder manipulation commands are inoperative -- all you can do is navigate to a folder and select it for the task at hand. The "Save" and "Goto" functions both provide a means to exit this screen: press E. Address Book Screen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 ADDRESS BOOK Folder: INBOX Message 5 of 20 NEW | | | | Ross Armstrong, Ross ross@elsewhere.edu | | help-desk Nowhere U. Help Desk help@nowhere.edu | | | | Panel 1996 Conference Panel DISTRIBUTION LIST: | | abc@somewhere.edu | | Ross | | niako@xyz.co.jp | | heinz@math.uni-irgendwo.de | | | | | | ? Help E Exit P PrevEntry - PrevPage D Delete C ComposeTo| | O OTHER CMDS V [View/Edit] N NextEntry Spc NextPage A AddNew W WhereIst | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The addressbook screen shows you all the currently existing addressbook entries -- both simple entries and list entries. If your system has a global address book, then you will be able to see it, but you won't be able to change its entries. The address book screen columns reflect the three parts of an address book entry -- a short nickname (the part you type in), a real name (the part Pine shows on the message), and address. A simple entry has only one address. A distribution list has two or more entries and is always marked "DISTRIBUTION LIST" on the screen. Address Book Commands Navigating the Address Book: * Previous Entry: P * Next Entry: N * Previous Screen: - * Next Page: SPACE * Where Is [Search for word in address book, or go to first/last address]: W Address Book Operations: * View/Edit Entry: V + Shows two additional fields not visible when all addresses in address book are displayed: Fcc, for designating a folder to which messages sent to that entry will be saved; and Comment, for annotating the entry. * Delete Entry: D * Add new Entry: A Compose From Address Book When you are looking at the address book and press C to compose a message, Pine not only brings up the composer, but also inserts the current address book entry as the recipient of the message. Address Book from Compose The normal way to get to the address book is to press A for address book from Pine's main menu. You may, however, browse the address book by pressing the to-addressbook (Ctrl-T) combination with the cursor in the To:, Cc: or Bcc: fields of a message you are composing. In this situation, the only commands available are those which help you select an entry for the particular message. You cannot add to or modify the address book in this mode. Deleting and distribution lists When the cursor is positioned on the name of a distribution list, pressing D tells Pine to remove the entire list. If the cursor is positioned ona single address within the list, then D only removes that address from the list. Lists in the Address Book Pine allows you to create distribution list entries in the address book. These list entries usually contain two or more addresses, which can be either complete email addresses, or nicknames defined elsewhere in the Address Book. In the example at the top of this page, the distribution list named 1996 Conference Panel contains - in addition to three "fully qualified" email addresses -- the nickname Ross, which is defined in the first entry of that Address Book. You can use an address book list entry to manage a small distribution list. When sending out a message, you just enter the nickname of the list in the To:, Cc: or Bcc: fields, and Pine fills in all the addresses on the list. Setup and Configuration Screens Pine's Setup and Configuration Screens, accessed via SETUP from the main menu, allow you to customize the behavior of Pine. Setup Tasks * Newpassword: N lets Unix Pine users change their password on the system. You will have to type in the old password and confirm the new one. Note that this is actually a Unix-account management (rather than a Pine-specific) function, which means you are changing the password you will have to use from now on to log into your Unix account here. * Signature: S calls up Pine's built-in Signature Editor, which allows you to create or change the text that will appear as your "signature" at the end of each message you compose. Typical email "signatures" are no more than three to five lines long and contain contact information for the message's writer - such as full name, email address, telephone, fax, URL of personal or organization's World Wide Web page, mailing address, and so on. * Update: U is a feature designed for PC-Pine users; however, it is also functional in the Unix version of Pine. It connects you to the PC-Pine update server which holds a copy of the current version of PC-Pine. With the update feature, you can check to make sure your version of PC-Pine is the most current and (if it is not) download the new version. * Printer: P Here, Unix Pine users can select how Pine will try to print any screens you select for printing, such as an email message, a folder index, or your address book. Note that "successful" printing from Pine may depend not only on Pine itself, but also on whatever network or communications software you use to access the account on which you are running Pine, and of course the printer and its physical connection. * Config: C The SETUP CONFIGURATION menu allows you to set a wide range of options of how you want Pine to "behave"; it also lets you set up folder collections, and identify the host computers from which Pine should retrieve email messages and news articles. Change the options that require a value after the = sign only if you are sure that you understand what they do (check the context-sensitive help). Wrong specification of smtp-server (needed only for PC-Pine) and nntp-server may render Pine unable to access your messages/newsgroup articles, and a misconfigured user-domain value may result in your messages being sent out with an invalid return address, so that your correspondents will not be able to reply to your messages and get their response sent back to you. If you have any doubts about what specifications should be entered here, contact your local computing support group; on Unix accounts, the crucial configuration options have almost certainly already been set up for you the way they need to be. The top of the menu, which is several screens long, looks something like this: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | PINE 3.94 SETUP CONFIGURATION Folder: INBOX 20 Messages | | | | personal-name = Jasjit Singh | | user-domain = edutech.nowhere.edu | | smtp-server = | | nntp-server = news.nowhere.edu | | inbox-path = | | folder-collections = Saved-Email mail/[] | | Correspondents corresp/[] | | news-collections = | | incoming-archive-folders = | | pruned-folders = | | default-fcc = | | default-saved-msg-folder = | | postponed-folder = | | read-message-folder = | | signature-file = | | global-address-book = | | address-book = | | feature-list = | | Set Feature Name | | --- ---------------------- | | [ ] allow-talk | | [X] assume-slow-link | | [ ] auto-move-read-msgs | | | | ? Help E Exit Config P Prev - PrevPage A Add Value Y prYnt | | C [Change Val] N Next Spc NextPage D Delete Val W WhereIs | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some changes made in the SETUP CONFIGURATION menu will only take effect after closing and then restarting Pine. For the options that are followed by an = sign, you use the functions Change Val, Add Value and Delete Value to enter a specification; for the options preceded by angular brackets, you use the X key to toggle them on or off [Set/Unset]; and for the options that let you choose one out of two or more settings, you use the * key to select a setting. For any of the configuration options, context-sensitive help is always accessible through the ? key. Please note: Some of the setup/configuration functions may be disabled on your system by its administrator(s). Commands for Message Handling Most message handling (as opposed to composing) is performed in the MESSAGE TEXT and FOLDER INDEX screens, so that is where most of the following commands are active. Export and Save Commands Export: E and Save: S are the two alternatives Pine gives you to keep a copy of the message you are reading. If you want to keep the message within Pine's folder collection(s), use "save"; if you want to use the message in another program, use "export". Pine uses a special format for its mail folders -- never edit a Pine folder by hand or with any program other than Pine, unless you know exactly what you are doing; it is also advisable to make a "backup copy" of any Pine folder you manipulate outside of Pine first. When you save a message, it is put into an existing folder or into a new folder in one of your existing folder collections. The message stays in email format and can be read by Pine again. The exact behavior of the save command can be configured with the save-will-quote-leading-froms, save-will-not-delete, and save-will-advance feature settings. When you use export, the file is placed in your home directory or current working directory (see the use-current-dir configuration setting). The Export command reacts to the full header mode toggle. If the full header mode is on, then all the header and delivery lines are included with the text of the message in your exported copy of the message. Take Address Command With the Take Address: T command, you can extract email addresses from an incoming message and save them in your address book. This is an easy wayto keep up an address book and avoid having to remember the email addresses of the people who write to you. If the message is just to you individually, then you will only need to provide a nickname. If the message is more complicated (with more than one recipient or an email list involved), then you will see an address selection screen which lets you choose the address you want to save into your address book, or add several of them to a personal address list. Reply and Forward Commands Replying: R and Forwarding: F are your two options for following up on the message you are reading. You would use reply if you want to get email back to the author of the message and/or the other people who have already seen it. You use forward if you want somebody new to see the message. In the normal case, the only thing that you must supply when forwarding a message is the name/email address of the new recipient. Pine will include the text of the forwarded message. Pine will also include any attachments to the message if you have requested them. There is space above the forwarded text for you to include any comments. When replying, you usually have to answer some questions. If the message is to multiple people and/or specified with a Reply-to: header, then you will have to decide who should get the reply. You also need to decide whether or not to include the previous message in your reply. Some of this is configurable. Specifically, see the include-header-in-reply and include-text-in-reply configuration features. Both the Reply and Forward commands react to the full header mode toggle. If the full header mode is on, then all the header and delivery lines are included with the text of the message in your reply/forward. Bounce Command The bounce: B command allows you to re-send a message, as if you were never in the loop. It is analogous to crossing out your address on a postal letter, writing a different address on the envelope, and putting it into the mailbox. Bounce is used primarily to redirect email which was sent to you in error. Also, some owners of email lists use the bounce command to handle list traffic. The presence or absence of the Bounce command is determined by the "enable-bounce-cmd" feature-list option in your Pine configuration. Note that Bounce may be administratively disabled by your system manager; if it doesn't work, please check with your local help desk before reporting a bug. View/Save Attachment Command The View/Save Attachment: V command allows you to handle MIME attachments on a message you have received. Pine shows you a list of the message attachments--you just choose the attachment you want. You may either view or save the selected attachment. Because many attachments require external programs for display, there is some system configuration that has to happen before you can actually display attachments from "within" Pine, meaning without saving the attachment to a file and loading that file into the appropriate software. Hopefully much of that will have been done already by your system administrator. MIME configuration is handled with the "mailcap" configuration file. (See the section MIME: Reading a Message in the Technical Notes for more information.) Flag Command Flag: * is the command which allows users to manipulate the status flags which appear on the left side of the FOLDER INDEX screen. The most common use of this is to mark a message as important. This is something of a note to yourself to get back to that message--it has no effect on the way in which Pine will treat the message. You can also use the flag command to set (or unset) the flags which indicate that a message is new, deleted, or answered. Selecting Messages for Aggregate Operations Aggregate operations give you the ability to process a group of messages at once. Acting on multiple messages requires two steps: 1. selecting a set of messages and then 2. applying a command to that set. The first part is handled by the select: ; command. Select allows you to select messages based on their status (read, answered, etc.), contents (including fielded selections on header lines) or date. You also get certain quick options to select a specific message or range of messages, to select the current message or to select all messages. After you have an initial selection, the select command changes. It gives you selection "alteration" options: unselect all, unselect current, broaden (implements a logical OR), and narrow (implements a logical AND). You are allowed to use select as many times as you need to get the selected set right. Also, the WhereIs: W command has a feature (Ctrl-X) to select all the messages which match the WhereIs search. WhereIs searches through just the text which appears on the FOLDER INDEX. The availability of the aggregate operations commands is determined by the "enable-aggregate-command-set" feature-list option in your Pine configuration. Note that aggregate commands may be administratively disabled by your system manager; if they don't work, please check with your local help desk before reporting a bug. Apply and Zoom Commands Apply: A is the second step of most aggregate operations. Apply becomes active any time there is a defined set of selected messages. When you select the Apply command, Pine displays the set of commands, such as Print, Forward, Save, and others. Pine never conducts an implicit apply operation. The only way to have a command operate on the selected set is to use the apply command first. Otherwise, commands operate on the current message even if you have just selected a message set. Another action you might want to take on a set of selected messages is to zoom in on them. Like Apply, Zoom only becomes active when messages have been selected. Zoom: Z is a toggle command which allows you to zoom-in (and only to see the selected messages) and zoom-out (to see all messages in the folder. The setting for auto-zoom-after-select and auto-unzoom-after-apply in the Pine configuration allow you to modify Pine's behavior when messages are selected. Neither apply nor zoom modify the definition of the selected set; in other words, after you Apply a command to or Zoom your selected messages, the selection still remains in effect . Message Composition Commands These commands are active in and/or releated to Pine's COMPOSE MESSAGE screen. Justify Command Pressing Ctrl-J forces Pine to reformat the text in the paragraph the cursor is on. A paragraph is separated by one blank line. This is useful when you have been editing a paragraph and the lines become greatly uneven in length. Justifying when your cursor is on a formatted table or listing can have unwanted results -- if that happens, just press Ctrl-U immediately to unjustify the text you just justified. Mark, Cut and Paste Commands The mark feature (Ctrl-^) allows you to mark any segment of text, cut it out (Ctrl-K), move the cursor, and paste it (Ctrl-U) in the new location. You can paste the previously cut text more than once, allowing you to use this feature to copy a block of text into several locations of your message; however, you cannot cut text out of one message your are composing and then paste it into the next one with these commands. If you press Ctrl-K without having marked anything, Pine will delete a single line. If you delete a group of lines together, Pine keeps them in the same buffer, so Ctrl-U will restore them as a block. In Pine's internal help, the "set mark" key is shown as ^^ (two carets). The first "^" means you should hold down the "Control" key on your keyboard. The second "^" means "type the character ^". Read File Command With Read File: ^R, Pine allows you to insert text files prepared previously outside of Pine into a message you are composing. This allows you, for example, to create a long message you are planning to send with Pine in your favorite word processor, save/export it as a "plain text" or "ASCII text " file and then retrieve that file into Pine's message composer. Note: the file you retrieve into Pine must be in plain text format, not in the native format of your word processor. If you want to send someone else a file that is not plain text, attach it to your message rather than reading it into the message text area. You will be prompted for the name of a file to be inserted into the message. The file name is relative to your home directory or must be a full path name on your system. The file will be inserted where the cursor is located. The file to be read must be on the same system as Pine. If you use Pine on a Unix machine but have files on a PC or Macintosh, the files must be transferred to the Unix system running Pine before they can be read. Please ask your local consultants about the correct way to transfer a file to your Pine system as the method will vary from site to site. You cannot use any wildcards in specifying the file to be included. At the File to insert from home directory: prompt, you can type in the filename directly or use Pine's file browser: ^T to select one from the listing of files in your directory. Attach File Command The attach file command: Ctrl-J (with the cursor located in the header area of the message composition screen) is the primary means of attaching an external file as a MIME attachment. The attachment will be encoded to ensure safe delivery at the receiving end, which means that you can attach any type of file: spreadsheet, CAD drawing, desktop-published document, clipart graphic, and so on. However, the recipient of your message needs to have email software capable (more and more are) of handling MIME attachments. The file to be attached must be on the same system as Pine. If you use Pine on a Unix machine but have files on a PC or Macintosh, the files must be transferred to the Unix system running Pine before they can be attached to the message being composed. Please ask your local consultants about the correct way to transfer a file to your Pine system as the method will vary from site to site. You cannot use any wildcards in specifying the file to be included. You can type in the filename directly or use Pine's file browser to select one from the listing of files in your directory. Postpone Message Command Pine's postpone feature allows you to postpone your composition of a message, so that you can resume working on it at a later time. Pine confirms the postponement with: [Composition postponed. Select Compose to resume.] Pine will postpone a message for the duration of the current session and even throughout subsequent Pine sessions. You may postpone as many messages as you like. (Pine stores all the messages you postpone in a folder called "postponed-msgs.") Spell Check Command (Note: there is no spell checker for the 32-bit version of PC-Pine as of 27 Sep. 1996. For the 16-bit version, see the section on spell-checking in Customization and Configuration in the Pine Questions and Answers.) Pressing Ctrl-T calls up the standard spell checker, or an alternate program you specified in the speller variable in your configuration. The standard Unix spell checker reads in all the new lines of text (those which do not begin with the ">") and passes them through the spell checker. The spell checker does not provide alternative spellings nor does it remember correct words from session to session. When you first use the standard Unix spell checker, it may appear that it is randomly jumping all around your message - actually, the spell checker processes your message one word at a time, in alphabetical order. Other spell checkers such as ispell for Unix operate differently and offer more features, such as creating a personal "dictionary" of words. Rich Headers Command Normally, Pine just shows you four header fields to fill out -- To:, Cc:, Attchmnt:, and Subject:. There are others -- Bcc:, Fcc:, Lcc:, Newsgroups: and possibly custom headers you have defined in your personal configuration -- which are also available but not usually shown. When you press Ctrl-R in the message header, you can see and edit these hidden fields. Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. Addresses listed in this field receive a copy of the message, but are not visible to any of its recipients, including even those who received the blind carbon copy. (If you enter addresses both in the To: and the Bcc: fields, this can cause confusion among the Bcc recipients, who may think they accidentally received a message intended for someone else -- the addresses they see in the To: field -- and then forward it to them, so use this feature with discretion.) New in Pine version 3.92 is the Lcc (List Carbon Copy) field, which combines the functions of the To: and Bcc: fields. It allows you to select a list of addresses from your addressbook and shows the name of the list -- but not the individual addresses in the list -- in the message's To: field, while delivering a copy of the message to each address on the list. Fcc stands for folder carbon copy. This is the field to specify the name of the folder which should hold a copy of the outgoing message. The default-fcc field in Pine's configuration specifies the default folder to save outgoing messages into, but you can override that default on for any message you compose by changing the Fcc field in its header. In addition, Pine gives you the ability to specify an Fcc: appropriate for each entry in your addressbook -- a very useful feature if you organize your folder by correspondents. The Newsgrps field allows you to select one or more Usenet newsgroups to which you want to post your message. For this to work, you have to have access to a news server, which can be specified in the nntp-server field of Pine's configuration screen; most institutions or Internet Service Providers operate their own news server and will have preconfigured Pine to access it, so you usually won't have to change this entry -- ask your local systems support staff if in doubt. Other Commands _________________________________________________________________ Whereis Command The WhereIs command: W is available in many of Pine's screens. It searches through the contents of whatever is on (but not "behind") the screen you are looking at -- the current message, the current folder index, the address book, etc. WhereIs also lets you quickly jump to the first (Ctrl-Y) or last (Ctrl-V) of the items on the screen you are searching -- the first/last message in the FOLDER INDEX, the first/last address in your ADDRESS BOOK, the first/last line in your COMPOSE MESSAGE screen, and so on. Full Headers Toggle Command Every email message comes with some header lines that you normally don't see. These include lines added by the Internet mail transport system to record the route your message took, for diagnostic purposes. These are normally of no import and simply add clutter, so Pine suppresses them from MESSAGE TEXT display. There is, however, a way to reveal them. The Header Mode: H command is a toggle which controls Pine's handling of these header lines. Normally, full headers is "off" and you only see a few lines about recipient(s) and sender(s) of a message. When you press H to turn full headers on, Pine will show you the normal header lines as well as delivery headers, comment headers and MIME headers. Several different Pine commands honor the header mode -- it affects how messages are displayed, how they appear in forward and reply email, how they are saved and how they are exported. The presence or absence of the Header Mode command is determined by the "enable-full-header-cmd" option in your Pine configuration. Also, it may be administratively disabled by your system manager; if it doesn't work, please check with your local help desk before reporting a bug. Sort Command In Pine's generic configuration, messages are presented in the order in which they arrive. This default can be changed your Pine configuration in the sort-key section. You can also re-sort the folder on demand with the sort: $ command. Sorting a folder does not actually rearrange the sequence of message in the folder they are saved in -- it just re-arranges how the messages are presented to you. This means that Pine has to do the work of sorting every time you change sort order. Sometimes, especially with PC-Pine or with large folders, this could take a while. Expunge/Exclude Command Expunge/Exclude: X is the command Pine uses to actually remove all messages marked for deletion (marked with a "D" in the left margin of the folder index. With your email messages, expunge literally deletes the messages. With newsgroups or shared mailboxes, where you don't have permission to actually remove the messages, Pine only removes the messages from your view of the folder, but they are not erased. Pine asks you whether you want to expunge messages marked deleted when you leave a folder or exit Pine. The expunge-without-confirm option in your Pine configuration allows you to choose whether or not this takes place with prompting you for confirmation. Next Interesting Message Command When you press the TAB key, Pine advances to the next "interesting" message. When you are using Pine to read email, that message is the next new or important message in the folder (a new message is one you have not read before; an important message is one you have flagged as important). When reading news folders, Pine cannot tell which messages you have read and which you have not, so the next "interesting" message is the next one which you have not yet deleted. Jump to Message Command This is Pine's way of allowing you to go straight to a specific message. Just press J and then enter the message number. Pine can also be configured such that typing in any number automatically jumps you to that message (see enable-jump-shortcut in your Pine configuration). Goto Folder Command Goto: G lets you bypass Pine's folder selection screens and go directly to another folder. You can select any folder: one in your current collection, one in a different collection or one in a collection you've never even used before. Pine will help you as much as it can to narrow in on the folder you want. However, if the folder is outside of your defined collections, you are going to have to key in the exact folder location with the right syntax. See the later section on IMAP folder syntax for more details on this. Pine and Alternate Character Sets Pine attempts to stay out of the way so that it won't prevent you from viewing mail in any character set. It will simply send the message to your display device. If the device is capable of displaying the message as it was written it will do so. If not, the display may be partially or totally incorrect. If the message is marked as being in a character set other than "US-ASCII" and it is a character set that is different from the set you have indicated with the "character-set" variable in your Pine configuration, a warning message will be printed to your screen at the beginning of the message display. In all cases Pine requires that the display device can handle the character set. For example, most X-terminals will display the ISO-8859-1 character set if the right font is selected. VT220's and higher also display ISO-8859-1. Displays for other characters sets are less common. Syntax for IMAP Folders and Collections Pine users have the option of using folders which are stored on a computer other than the one on which Pine is running. Pine accesses remote folders via IMAP (the Internet Message Access Protocol), or in the case of news, via NNTP (the Network News Transport Protocol). Syntax for Folders To be able to access remote folders in Pine, the remote host must be running the appropriate server software (imapd or nntpd) and you must correctly specify the name of the folder to Pine, including the domain name of the remote machine. For example, "{monet.art.nowhere.edu}INBOX" is a remote folder specification, as is "{monet.art}~/mail/september-1994". As you can tell, the name of the computer is in {} brackets followed immediately by the name of the folder. If, as in these examples, there is no remote access protocol specified, then IMAP is assumed. There are certain symbols which have special meanings in folder names: * A "*" in front of the folder specification means that the folder is a bulletin board -- shared access and no write privileges. Examples: *comp.mail.pine, *{wharhol.art.nowhere.edu}job-board * A folder name beginning with "#mh/" is an mh format folder. Examples: #mh/mail/sep-1994, {wharhol.art.nowhere.edu}#mh/mail/sep-1994 There are certain flags within remote folder names: * An "/anonymous" flag means anonymous IMAP access. Example: {wharhol.art.nowhere.edu/anonymous}job-board * A "/user=" flag permits you to specify the username for the desired account on the mail server. Example: {mailhost.myISP.com/user=jsingh}INBOX will cause Pine to attempt a login as user "jsingh" on server "mailhost.myISP.com" when this entry is used. The user will be prompted for a password. * A "/nntp" flag means NNTP protocol access. It cannot be used with the /anonymous flag. Example: *{news.nowhere.edu/nntp}comp.mail.pine Note that "INBOX" has special meaning in both local and remote folder specifications. The name INBOX refers to your "principal incoming message folder" and will be mapped to the actual file name used for your INBOX on any given host. Therefore, a name like "{xxx.art.nowhere.edu}INBOX" refers to whatever file is used to store incoming mail for you on that particular host. Syntax for Collections Folder collections are "places" to store folders. They roughly correspond to a filesystem "directory". Collections may be local or remote, but they must correspond to a pre-existing filesystem directory, i.e. Pine will not create any directory other than the original default. A valid local collection is just the specification of a directory on the local system followed by square brackets. For example, "ART-101\[]" may be valid on a PC and "exhibit/[]" may be valid on Unix. Pine also allows you to access a collection on a remote computer (provided it supports IMAP and you have the right to store folders on it.) To specify a remote folder collection, you need to give the name of the IMAP mail server, the name of the collection on that server, and the square brackets. For instance, "{wharhol.art.nowhere.edu}art-101/[]" is a remote collection. As you can tell, the name of the computer is in {} brackets followed immediately by the name of the collection. Collection syntax: {optional-imap-hostname}optional-directory-path[] For more information (not Pine-specific) on IMAP, visit The IMAP Connection at the URL: http://www.imap.org/ _________________________________________________________________ End of Pine User's Guide _________________________________________________________________