path: root/doc/userguide/email.docbook

<chapter id="email">

<chapterinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author>
&Daniel.Naber;
</author>
<author>
&David.Rugge;
</author>
</authorgroup>
</chapterinfo>

<!-- Stolen and modified by Phil from the KMail manual -->
<!-- TODO: Screenies! -->
<title>Getting Started with Email</title>

<indexterm><primary>Email</primary><secondary>getting
started</secondary></indexterm>

<indexterm><primary>&kmail;</primary></indexterm>

<para>&kde; features a powerful and easy-to-use email client called
&kmail;, which allows you to send, receive, and organize your email
quickly and efficiently. Let us look at how to set it up. If you have
any problems with this procedure, refer to the full &kmail; manual.</para>

<sect1 id="email-information-needed">
<title>Information you will need before you start</title>

<para>Many email settings can vary greatly depending on the setup of
your system, your ISP's configuration, or your local network
setup. You will need to find out some information before you can start
setting up your email:
<variablelist>

<varlistentry>
<term>Your email address</term>
<listitem><para>This should be provided by your ISP or system administrator.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>Your username and password for your email account</term>
<listitem><para>The username is often the same as the part before the
<quote>@</quote> symbol in your email address, but not always: check
with your <acronym>ISP</acronym>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>


<term>
<indexterm><primary>Email</primary><secondary>SMTP
server</secondary></indexterm>
Your outgoing email (<acronym>SMTP</acronym>) server name and
details</term>
<listitem><para>Again, your ISP should have provided
you with this information. If not, you can try the form <systemitem
class="systemname">smtp.<replaceable>your-isp-name</replaceable>.com</systemitem>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term>
<indexterm><primary>Email</primary><secondary>IMAP
server</secondary></indexterm>

<indexterm><primary>Email</primary><secondary>POP3
server</secondary></indexterm>

Your incoming email (<acronym>IMAP</acronym> or
<acronym>POP</acronym>) server name and details</term>
<listitem><para>If you do not have this information to hand, you can
try <systemitem
class="systemname">imap.<replaceable>your-isp-name</replaceable>.com</systemitem>
for <acronym>IMAP</acronym> or <systemitem
class="systemname">pop.<replaceable>your-isp-name</replaceable>.com</systemitem>
if you use <acronym>POP3</acronym>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>

<para>Once you have that information, you are ready to start setting
up &kmail;. Open &kmail; from the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu (you can
find it in the <guisubmenu>Internet</guisubmenu> submenu, or use one
of the methods described in <xref linkend="programs-launching"/>.) Once
&kmail; has opened, select the menu entry
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure KMail...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>. The next sections describe how to use the dialog that
appears to set up &kmail;.</para>
</sect1>


<sect1 id="email-setting-your-identity">
<title>Setting your Identity</title>

<para>
The settings in the <guilabel>Identities</guilabel> page are fairly
straightforward. Select the <guilabel>default</guilabel> identity and
click <guibutton>Modify...</guibutton>.  Fill in the <guilabel>Your
name</guilabel> field with your full name (&eg; <userinput>John
Doe</userinput>) and, optionally, the
<guilabel>Organization</guilabel> field with the appropriate
information.
</para>
<para>
Next, fill in the <guilabel>Email address</guilabel> field with
your email address (&eg; <userinput>john@example.net</userinput>).
</para>

<para>That is all for this dialog unless you want to use the more
advanced features (cryptography, a signature, &etc;). You can find
more information about these features in the full &kmail;
manual. Click on the <guibutton>OK</guibutton> button to close this
dialog, and move on to the next configuration page...</para>

</sect1>
 
<sect1 id="email-setting-up-your-account">
<title>Setting up your Account</title>

<para>Click on the <guilabel>Network</guilabel> icon to move to the
network configuration page. It contains the settings that
tell &kmail; how to send and receive your email messages. You will see
two tabs on the right-hand side: <guilabel>Sending</guilabel> and
<guilabel>Receiving</guilabel>. You need to set up both, so let us look
at them each in turn:</para>

<sect2 id="sending-mail">
<title>Sending Messages</title>

<indexterm><primary>Email</primary><secondary>sending</secondary></indexterm>

<para>The <guilabel>Sending</guilabel> tab provides a list of
ways to send messages. The first item in the list is the default
way to send messages. Using the <guibutton>Add...</guibutton>
button you can choose between two different ways of sending messages:
<guilabel>SMTP</guilabel> and
<guilabel>Sendmail</guilabel>. &Sendmail; here
means a local software installation &mdash; this has a
reputation of being difficult to set up, so if you do not already have a
working &Sendmail; configuration, choose
<guilabel>SMTP</guilabel> and fill in the <guilabel>Name</guilabel>
field with a descriptive name 
(&eg; <userinput>My Mail Account</userinput>)
and the <guilabel>Host</guilabel>
field with the name and domain of your mail server 
(&eg; <userinput>smtp.provider.com</userinput>). You will probably
not need to change the <guilabel>Port</guilabel> setting (the default is
<userinput>25</userinput>).</para>

<para>A description of the other options can be found
in the full &kmail; manual. Click on <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to
close this dialog, and then click on the
<guilabel>Receiving</guilabel> tab.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="receiving-mail">
<title>Receiving Messages</title>

<para>To set up an account so you can receive mail, press the
<guibutton>Add...</guibutton> button in the
<guilabel>Receiving</guilabel> tab. You will then be prompted for the
type of your email account; most users should select
<guilabel>POP3</guilabel> or <guilabel>IMAP</guilabel>. If you wish to
use a different system, consult the &kmail; manual.</para>

<para>You will then be presented with
the <guilabel>Add account</guilabel> window. First, fill in the
<guilabel>Name</guilabel> field to name your account. You can choose any name
you like.  <guilabel>Login</guilabel>, <guilabel>Password</guilabel>, and
<guilabel>Host</guilabel> should be filled in with the information you
gathered earlier. You should not usually need to change the <guilabel>Port</guilabel> setting.</para>

<para>You are now ready to send and receive mail. For
<acronym>IMAP</acronym>, just open your folders in the
folder tree in &kmail;'s main window. &kmail; then connects to your
server and displays the messages it finds. For POP3 use
<menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Check
Mail</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="email-testing-your-setup">
<title>Testing your Setup</title>

<indexterm><primary>Email</primary><secondary>testing</secondary></indexterm>

<para>First, you should send yourself a message to test your
configuration. To send a message, either hit <keycombo
action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>N</keycap></keycombo>, select the
<guiicon>New Message</guiicon> icon  or select
the <menuchoice><guimenu>Message</guimenu><guimenuitem>New
Message...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item.  The
composer window will appear. Fill in the
<guilabel>To:</guilabel> field with your email address and type
something in the <guilabel>Subject</guilabel> field. Send the message by
selecting <menuchoice><guimenu>Message</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Send</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>.</para>

<para>To check your email, select
<menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Check
Mail</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. In the lower-right corner of the main
window, a progress bar will indicate how many messages are being
downloaded. If you receive the message you just sent, then
congratulations!  If, however, you receive any error messages while
testing your setup, make sure that your network connection is working
and recheck your settings at
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure
&kmail;...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>

<!-- Add links to "further reading" here -->
<itemizedlist>
<title>Related Information</title>

<listitem><para>The &kmail; Handbook has full descriptions of advanced
email settings and so on. You can read it in the &khelpcenter; or by
entering <userinput>help:/kmail</userinput> in &konqueror;'s
<guilabel>Location</guilabel> bar.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem><para>The &kmail; website at <ulink
url="http://kmail.kde.org">http://kmail.kde.org</ulink> contains
latest news, tips and tricks, and plenty more.</para>
</listitem>

</itemizedlist>



</sect1>

</chapter>

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